Just Another Pretty Place

Cottonwood, Arizona

We drove up from Benson today and settled in a RV Park on the river in Cottonwood.

Cottonwood is just south of Sedona. There are three National monuments we want to see nearby. Tennis courts are to the north and there are hiking trails all over the place.

I took Mrs. Phred on a balloon ride here for her birthday a few years back.

The second time we came it was snowing and some black hairy pigs called Javelinas we running though our campground.

We'll probably spend a week our so here and then head due north to hike the Grand Canton again.

Mrs. Phred has misplaced her keys so we might need to hit the Toyota dealer south of here in Prescott.

These pictures are all from previous visits.

 
I always wondered why we called GMT "Zulu" time. I had just assumed that Zulu time was an American military snide slap at the English and that African Zulu territory was, like England, also on the prime meridian.

Turns out that my old 1938 edition of Bowditch's "American Practical Navigator" was first written in the late 1700s. It was acknowledged at the time to be the finest book on navigation ever written. Bowditch wrote it because British sea captains were getting all the credit for navigational advances and he felt that some American Captains were producing truly amazing breakthroughs.

Bowditch wanted a shorthand letter designator to refer to each local time zone. There are 25 zones since each half zone on the sides of the International Dateline became separate zones. Since there are 26 letters, Bowditch left out the letter "J" or, phonetically, jig. GMT time got the letter "Z" or Zulu. So GMT time is time zone Z.

Now you know.