Tracy and her family, Chris, Ethan and Em made us feel very welcome while staying at their house. Em really loved having me there and I slept in a warm bed every night while having great conversations with young Em.

We visited 9 different classes while there. Most of these classes have only been blogging since the beginning of the year yet they are looking fantastic with commenting guidelines, widgets and great looking blogrolls. The students have been writing interesting posts and receiving lots of comments from overseas. Check out their blogs – Bliss, Fraher, Goucher, Hamman,  and Martinez  While in Mrs Fraher’s class, the students showed us a video they had made telling us the story of the Superstition Mountains and they also showed us how to use sign language with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Miss W and I did our normal chat about our trip and the blog as well as giving gifts to Tracy that she can share with the classes she visits as part of her role in the district.

While we weren’t visiting schools, we were helping Tracy learn how to navigate without having to rely on her GPS unit. She did a great job getting us to the Ghost Town where Ethan and Em became photographers using our camera. Check out the animoto of their images. We even celebrated Em’s birthday while we were there.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the casita and Tracy’s hospitality, so we headed off to follow the Apache Trail through the mountains to Roosevelt Dam and then through Globe back to  a motel on the far west side of Phoenix. Now we had been warned by Chris, Tracy’s husband, about the narrow, windy and gravelled road we would be travelling on for quite a bit of the trail.

WOW!! And they followed this trail with early cars and wagons! Sheer drop on one side and huge cliffs on the other. Only room for one car at a time – don’t know what would have happened if we met a car around the Fish Creek Hill.

When we finally arrived at the dam, we met a couple who decided using an ATV was the best way to drive on the trail. Until the dam was built, there was no reliable water into Phoenix, only dry seasons and flash flooding at other times.

A very interesting vistor’s centre at the dam end of the trail told the story of the dam and the local inhabitants during the past couple of hundred years.

It took us an hour to drive from Apache Junction area where Tracy lived to our hotel in North Western Phoenix at Sun City.

Have you ever visited a ghost town? What did you enjoy doing there?

What is the most dangerous road you have been on? Describe it.