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High in the Black Hills near Sedona lies the town of Jerome, clinging to a hillside at 5,000 feet elevation. Once a booming mining town in the early 1900s, the focus now is tourism instead of copper.
After a winding drive on switchbacks, you arrive to streets lined with shops, restaurants and specialty stores of every description, including wineries. You can definitely make a day of seeing it all, and as a bonus, you get specatular views from every location. 
Art is everywhere --
even on the street! |
Once home to 10,000, Jerome's population today is less than 500.
A major draw is the
Jerome Grand Hotel, which had been transformed into a spook-tacular haunt for Halloween when we were there. |
Lunch at the hotel -- the view is free!
We had a wine tasting at Caduceus Cellars. Our "Wine Slinger" (that's his title) was Alan Bur Johnson, also a nationally-known artist with a studio in Jerome. We learned one of Johnson's pieces was chosen for Celebrity's new cruise ship, Edge, and he would be traveling to the Bahamas to install it. Obviously a man of many talents!
We bought this metallic salamander and named him 'Jerome'
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Lunch over, we head for the shops
Besides wine, Jerome also offers craft beers. We had to sample
those as well for the sake of research, right? 
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Our day ends with a awesome sunset, and with it, our adventures with Richard and Leslie come to an end as well. We've had an amazing time -- thank you, Redheads! After goodbyes, we set our nav to our next destination ... California!