After breakfast, we went to Changing Woman Espresso for our "on the road" lattes. It was really funny to watch the interaction of the two young girls who waited on us. They were probably in their late teens. One of the girls was making the lattes, and the other kept touching things on the espresso machine that she wasn't supposed to, I think just to irritate the other. I thought for sure they were sisters (kind of reminded me of how my sisters and I interacted in our youth!). It turns out that one was the aunt of the other (big family).
The drive to Sedona was going to take about four hours, and we didn't really have any stops planned for the day. But after we got onto I-40, we remembered that Petrified Forest National Park was right there. Dave and I had both been there before, but it's an interesting drive through the park. So, we hit the visitor center and gift shop, then drove through the park and took a few pictures. The Painted Desert is on the north side of the park, and the first loop took us through there. The picture below is from an area called "Teepees".
They are really serious about looting in the park. Before the park was formed, a lot of the petrified wood was removed. Today, as you enter the park, you have to declare any wood you have. When we were at the gift shop, I saw a package of rough petrified wood pieces with a notice on it "do not open until after you leave the park". You can see some of the wood from the road, but it's better to go on the trails. I think Dave got a good picture that shows the wood-like texture of the rocks.
Since the road was rather long, we decided to exit the park at the south entrance and take another route back to the freeway. We saw several park rangers searching a van as we exited. Not sure if it was exiting or entering the park, but they were looking for petrified wood.
We had lunch in Holbrook and continued to Sedona. While we were having lunch, I had a call from Scott at the B&B in Sedona to confirm our arrival time. He told us that we should be able to get to Sedona by around 4:30 PM. Off we go, through Flagstaff, and south onto Route 89A. Around Flagstaff, the terrain changed again to pine forests. We were making really good time, so we decided to stop off at one of the viewpoints to get a better look at Oak Canyon. Dave took a few pictures, and when we got to the end of the small trail, I could see the road winding down into Sedona. Oh yeah, I forgot about the winding canyon roads... that was going to slow us down a bit!
We made it to the "uptown" area of Sedona, where there are a lot of shops and galleries. Then, traffic came to a stop. We knew there was some construction going on but weren't sure if that was the reason for the slowness. As we inched forward, we watched traffic build up to several miles behind us. This was definitely going to make our arrival at Casa Sedona later than planned! But there was nothing we could do about it. There aren't many side roads in Sedona because of the canyons. All the traffic flows into 89A and 179 (going south), so we made the best of it. Finally, after about 35 minutes, we arrived at the main construction area at the junction of 179. What a mess! But it was a quick drive to the Casa after that.
When we arrived (I think it was around 5:15), the keys to our room had been taped to the door. We took them off, but saw that Scott was inside, so we went in. He seemed a little upset that we were late and hurried us into the area to show us where the happy hour hors d'oeuvres were. Then he showed us to our room, told us about breakfast, and suggested that we get something to eat before he put everything away. I guess it didn't help that we were making comments about the traffic and construction, I'm sure it's a nightmare for the businesses who depend on tourist trade in the summer. As we were eating some hors d'oeuvres, we decided we better be on time for breakfast the next day.
We hadn't really made any plans for Sedona, except to try to get to some of the vortexes there. I also wanted to explore the metaphysical aspect of Sedona with a past life reading, but we didn't know where to begin. So, we headed out to find a place to eat. Luckily, the construction was winding down, yet there were still detours. We decided to find a place nearer to our B&B instead of uptown. We went to the Red Planet Diner thinking it would be a fun, casual place. We were treated to some lightening shows outside during dinner, which was good because the food was mediocre, and mid-way through dinner our server disappeared. Oh well, we had to make it an early night anyway, because breakfast started promptly at 8:00 AM :-)
1 comment:
What a trip!! I finally made it thru all of your entries (we were on vacation during your trip and then it was Owen's birthday. The scenery was amazing and I enjoyed reading about your journey. I was touched by the little old Navajo woman (someone's grandmother) and of course, I felt for those stray dogs. Sounds like you had a great trip, and as Dee said, it's right up your alley!
I thought the part of the girls making the lattes was funny and I also remember us doing things like that to each other growing up!!
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