Day 6 – Wednesday

All Aboard!

In haze, we heard the strumming of a guitar followed by a rich male voice singing the words, “Here comes the Sun”. Ahh, it was Richie Havens and Tom’s alarm clock informing us that it was 3:55 a.m. and time to rise and witness the Super Flower Blood Moon! We rolled out of bed and headed outside to the Highlands Ridge parking lot to be part of the astronomical event. Reaching the bottom stair, we were both surprised to see another 10 to 15 people dressed in all different types of sleepwear staring into space.

We both immediately joined in and raised our heads upwards, only to find…

While we were sleeping, the cloud cover that obscured last night’s sunset had moved in blanketing the sky of the Verde Valley. Oh well, we met our timeshare neighbors and learned what their favorite sleeping attire was on vacation. We climbed back up the steps to our condo and did not reset the alarm.

The second wake up of the morning came a few hours later. Today is Verde Canyon Railroad ride! Back on day one as we checked in, we said we would listen to the timeshare spiel for two tickets on the sightseeing train and a free week. Our day had come! I know it sounds silly to be excited about riding on train to nowhere, but Tom was excited. He had fond memories of train riding as a child and will always opt for that mode of transportation if it is feasible. Eating breakfast quickly, Tom was in a hurry and so it was out the door headed to Clarskdale long before we needed to be there.

Ok, all fans of the band The Monkees please sing it loud… Take last train to Clark… Stop! The song is: Last Train to Clarksville not Clarkdale, but hey it was fun to turn back a few pages in time to 1966 and sing out loud. If you have not had enough, here is a link Last Train to Clarksville so you can keep singing. I know I could not get it out of my head while on the train and in fact, they played it along the way on the train which did not help.

Arriving at the Verde Valley Railroad station ninety minutes early gave us plenty of time to meander in town as well as visit the Copper Museum. Copper was such an important commodity in the valley and like Jerome, the depression hit Clarksdale hard.

The Arizona Copper Art Museum was full of beautiful works of art, from practical everyday items to things we never knew had their origins in copper. Room after room of just amazing things of beauty. This room was filled with a collection of pots and pans that any chef would love to have. There was copper everywhere.

Something we found interesting was that the “Mother Copy”, later called the “Master Copy”, of vinyl LP often was made of copper. The copper as a musical media came to an end in 90s, as did LPs with the introduction of digital music.

Of course, no copper museum would be without a collection of old fashion stills. These devices have fueled the working world for many moons and many more to come. The amount of copper and the workmanship in the devices was impressive.

We could have spent longer in this art museum, but it was time to head to the station. We have a train to catch!

Arriving at the station a solid 20 minutes before departure, the parking lot was packed. We had no idea that we would have so many traveling companions. The station was a buzz with travelers on this train to nowhere. We had to exchange our RCI voucher for our tickets and with them in hand, we jumped into the lunch line. One can buy a lunch for their ride, but after reviewing the menu of lunch items, we decided that the charcuterie with our ticket would suffice. We walked the length of the train looking for our car, which ended up being passenger car number two the Santa Fe Bell.

At last, the announcement Tom had been waiting for… “All Aboard”. We climbed on our assigned car and found our seats. Our ride today would start at milepost 38 in Clarksdale and travel to milepost 18 in Perkinsville. The cars were very comfortable and the windows were clean! As we departed the station, our car attendant gave us a brief overview of the trip, delivered our charcuterie, and took drink orders.

The cars are set up with tables for two on the right and tables for parties of four on the left. We got seated at a four top. The couple they paired us with was… I will just leave it at that… moving on. Now with a bottle of rosé for our ride, we settled in for our four-hour tour.

The journey to Perkinsville is approximately twenty miles and takes a little less than two hours. The train follows the Verde River weaving through beautiful rock formations and provides views of wildlife as you slowly chug westward.

It even goes through a 700-foot tunnel where the clearance is less than four inches from the walls. The tunnel was carved out by a small crew of Swedish miners using dynamite and picks and shovels in a very short time.

A nice feature of the train is that between every two passenger cars is an open-air car for better viewing and photos. Albeit it is loud, it is by far the best place to experience the journey.

Arriving in Perkinsville, the train comes to a stop. The engine decouples from the train and then recouples at the other end for the return. The turn-around takes about 30 minutes to complete so the attendants fill the time with stories and hand out ice cream sandwiches. 

Perkinsville was a filming site for the famous movie “How the West was Won”. The town was renamed to Gold City and in the film a train pulls into the station where Debbie Reynolds steps off to awaiting party. Behind the scenes story was when she stepped off the train the first time, she came down hard and broke her ankle. Being the actress, she was with no medical support in the middle of nowhere she drank a bottle whiskey belonging to a member of the crew, and the filming continued. We must go back and watch the movie to see how well she is hiding the pain of her ankle and the effects of Jack Daniels.

How the West was Won Scene

Perkinsville Trains Station Today

And so it is… The last will be first and the first will be last on the Verde Canyon Railroad. We were now one of the last cars on our journey home. Same tracks just a different perspective.

We settled into the seats of the Santa Fe Bell and began chatting with a nice couple from Richmond. We sipped on our rosé and watched the countryside go by. The one recommendation I would give anyone who would like to ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad would be to get a seat on the right side (even number seats) train. That is the side that offers the best views – both ways 😊. There is no doubt many would pass on this adventure because it may be judged as too touristy. It is very touristy, but it really was a great day on the train. The reality of it all is, if you are in Verde Valley, you probably are a tourist.

The train adventure completed, we were headed back to Cornville when we saw a small industrial building before entering Cottonwood. Tumbleweed Winery and Tasting Room was across the front of the building and our 4 Runner, almost on its own took a right turn into the parking lot. Afternoon wine tastings were becoming a recurring pattern.

Honestly, our expectations were low, but very quickly the quality of the wine changed our minds. Primarily featuring Spanish and Italian indigenous grapes, Tumbleweed’s wines were first rate. The tasting area was outside and for the most part we were their only customers. We tasted a wide array of their wines, both red and white, and all were well made. One of Tom’s favorite grapes is Graciano, which is usually a blending grape in Rioja. Graciano is deep purple grape that has amazing aromas and has a long finish that allows blackberries and cedar to linger. We truly enjoyed our tasting here and we now had in our possession our second Arizona wine that would be transported to Virginia.

Back at Highland Ridge, we fired up the grill and enjoyed a wonderful dinner followed by a long relaxing evening in the hot tub. Life does not get much better than this.