Arizona

On Tuesday, September 20th, we crossed the border!  The Arizona border.

We passed the Vermilion Cliffs and passed through Marble Canyon.

We crossed over (again) the Colorado River.

We bypassed The Grand Canyon as we had already been there.  It did not look that far away but mileage and time kept us driving to Sedona.

The Grand Canyon is right over there, I 
promise!

We traveled along the historic Route 66 for a short distance.

There was road work along the way, I was glad because the road on the side of the cliff was closed.  The red-light was right around one of the bends, thank goodness we were not the car right around the bend.

 

We had some awesome views coming down 89A.

Next stop Sedona!

Our hotel was the Star Motel. Everything is remote and no one is at the front desk. There are not a lot of amenities but the location and price is pretty good.  Room is clean and pretty spacious. 

Dinner was at the Cowboy Club.  🤠 I thought they were a little pricey but the food was good.

Bison 🦬 Chili
Ground bison 🦬, corn, black &
kidney beans, poblanos, green
chile cheddar, & cornbread
crumbles with chives

Elk Chops
Two 4 oz North American elk 
chops, sauteed asparagus, sweet
potato mash, blueberry-lavender 
demi glaze

It was cloudy so we didn't really get a sunset but we did get a rainbow.  We sat outside and enjoyed our view for a little while before calling it a night.

Woke up to rain this morning!  Ughhh, our trip to Sedona did not go as planned. It rained the entire day.  I wanted to do Devil's Bridge, Cathedral Rock, or Bell Rock.  We did put on our raincoats, walked the main drag and poked around in all the little shops.

Next stop Surprise 😮 🤪! Our drive to Surprise started out overcast ☁️, but soon brightened.  We took the scenic way and traveled 89A through Jerome. It looked like a really cool town. Wish we would have stopped.  The first building we see is The Ghost Inn. I told Rob we could stay there.

We were staying with our friends, Kelvin and Mary. Rob met Kelvin when he was recalled to active duty in 2002 and stationed at the Office of Naval Intelligence. The four of us have been great friends ever since.  Kelvin and Mary had a little get together (actually Mary did). We met their friends: John & Linda, Chuck & PK, Jan, & Larry (Mary's brother). We had previously met John and Linda at Herrington Harbour when Kelvin and Mary came to visit in 2017.  It was such a nice gathering.

We got some pool time in.  It was nice to relax but Rob did help Kelvin with a little yard work.  Kelvin had extended his yard and Rob helped dig holes 🕳  for some new shrubs.

We also got to spend some time with Charlie, Buffy, and Morgan.

Rob and Buffy

Buffy wanted to play Forge of
Empires

Charlie and Buffy

Our last full day in Surprise and we did all our errands.  Our first stop was for much needed pedicures. My feet 🦶 dislike hiking.

We did some shopping for some last minute items and our last stop was to get our baby all cleaned before leaving her in Arizona for who knows how long. Kelvin was kind to offer to let us keep our 4Runner at his house and drive it occassionally and their neighbor, Jan was generous to let us keep it in her garage. So lucky to have friends like that in our lives!

The four of us, Kelvin, Rob, Mary, and Sharon all went to dinner at Vogue Bistro. We shared a Flatbread appetizer with arugula and fig. The guys added Lobster 🦞 to their entrees. The food was delicious 😋 and the company was even better.

Flatbread

Salmon

Chicken Cordon Bleu & Lobster Tail

Lasagna & Lobster Tail

We have visited 19 National Parks plus recreation areas and monuments, driven over 30,000 miles and walked an average of 284,000 steps per month, and spent more money 💰 🤑 than we wanted. Now as this part of our adventure comes to an end here is a list, in no particular order, of suggestions, lessons learned and general statements.

1  Book hotel sooner versus later especially weekends and holidays.

2  Don't over research, you'll drive yourself crazy.

3  See the country, it's beautiful.

4  Stay longer than a night when possible, you see and do so much more with additional        time.

5  Traveling by vehicle and staying in hotels was way more expensive then we thought.  We also began our adventure when gas prices were on the rise, the highest being in California, and more people were traveling after Covid.

6  Be patient, staffing shortages are happening everywhere.

7  Be flexible when possible.

8  I miss having a home base.

9  Having a firestick was a life saver for us.

10 Generally people are extremely nice, especially locals.

11  We found Airbnb to be expensive now with all the fees, unless you are staying longer         term.

12 We determined our driving time is no more than 5 hours, anything longer is too long.

The hardest part of traveling is we miss our kids, family, and friends.  

We left Arizona in style 😎, Fernando picked us up and took us to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Thank you Kelvin and Mary for the generous ride and your hospitality!!

We boarded our first class flight!

Planes ✈, Trains, Automobiles 🚘! (And a cruise ship 🚢 )

Hawaii here we come, stay tuned! 

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware" - Martin Buber