VACATION – Day Trip Day to Sedona and Jerome, Arizona

(this post is about Wednesday, March 30, 2011)

 

We woke up about 6 am in our stealth camping spot by the locked gate at the campgrounds south of Flagstaff.  Nobody bothered us during the night, and there weren’t any tickets on the front windshield either.  So I guess it was another free night of camping?

Now today, we plan to take a long day trip in the Tracker to Sedona and Jerome.  Hauling along the dogs in the back seat of the Tracker is one option, but where do we leave the rig that is safe?   Soooooo here was our plan.  We called (the night before) to Black Bart’s RV park and Steak House located right in Flagstaff!

http://www.blackbartssteakhouse.com/

They gave us a discount for any or all of the camping clubs we belonged to, or AARP or whatever, he didn’t know which one to apply, so he just gave us a rate of $26 instead of $30 for a full hookup site.   They said we could come early as we wanted, park in any pull through site, and then daytrip as planned.  So we did!

We pulled in and got the doggers settled in the back of the rig with the tv on loud, the AC set and ready to take over if it got hot, and I stuck a turkey breast in the crock pot on low.  Once in a while it’s fun to have electricity to run those kind of things.  We chatted with our neighbor, a single guy full-timer, who said he would keep an eye on our rig and dogs while we were gone.

Off we went to find our way into Sedona…. my oh my what a route!!!!  Again, I took about six gazillion pictures, and can only post about 4 or 5 before I start to bore you guys.  

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Sedona is know for it’s RED ROCKS…whew!   And RED they were -----    we wound our way down Alt. 89 into the town, after tight 10mph hairpin turns and switchbacks through the valley.  A few smaller Class C rigs were braving the route, but large trucks and motorhomes over 40 feet are not allowed or recommended. This class A was braving the route, towing a car too.  I don’t think we would do that!

The road looks wide here in this pic, but it got very very narrow and tight turns too.

We wound our way into the town, full of art galleries, tourist stops and wonderful scenery.  Every where you looked in town, you could see the huge massive red rocks towering overhead from the edges of the town’s limits.  We drove around and stopped to fuel up the Tracker.  Steveio spotted a boutique looking place that was second hand consignments.  So of course, we HAD to take a look…..

We found this teak wood folding chair, and it was only $15!   I know teak chairs are very expensive, so we snapped it up.  We can keep it folded up and stowed in the closet or under the couch in the motorhome with our other wooden chair (wooden folding town hall style chair)    Now we have TWO chairs for company in our rig for dinner, instead of the one town hall chair and using our coffee table as a bench seat.

  

After we got home, I looked it up, and this chair sells for over $200, and was on sale for $169.  wheee!

 

We left Sedona and headed further south, down through Cottonwood.  The scenery was lovely but not as steep or challenging as going into Sedona.  We scouted out another thrift shop, this time it was a Hospice group.  The had a rented store front in a strip mall, and were looking to raise funds to build a hospice center in their town.  So all proceeds were going to a good cause.  We meandered around and I found a WHOLE bag of wool and cotton yarns!   Some were large cones, of a special favorite cotton  boucle I like to use when weaving dishtowels, and then some big skeins of handspun wool.. .some smaller balls of handspun wool, all looking like they had been dyed with natural herbs and plants.  Some odds and ends too in the bag of commercial wools.  And… the bag was FOUR DOLLARS!     Here is my “stash enhancement purchase”

 

From there, we decided to drive on to Jerome… a tiny mining community way high up in the hills.  We knew that motorhomes were verbotten on these roads, so it was now or never to get there in the Tracker.  UP UP UP  we drove as we wound our way zigging and zagging up the sides of red rock mountains. 

Again, a couple gazillion pictures, but I will force myself to only put in a few….

 

 

We walked around downtown Jerome for a while, and windowshopped a bit. 

One place was a store of all kaleidoscopes, called Nellie Bly….   http://nellieblyscopes.com/home.html

They had one set up out on the street for you to look at a barrel of planted flowers.. how cool is that? So I aimed my camera lens right into the end of the scope to snap a few shots! 

 

 

 

Then we decided it was time for lunch… so we went into a little bistro called The Grapes Restaurant & Bar at 111 Main Street.  

http://www.sedona.biz/grapes-jerome0108.htm 

They are also on Facebook too. The Grapes Facebook Page

 

We were seated immediately and ordered drinks….  Steve ordered a microbrewry beer and I indulged in:

  

(I give you:  “KarenInTheBar” )

I ordered a French Dip Sandwich and salad… Steve had a Rueben and kettle chips (shame on him!)

 

After our lunch, we strolled the streets and admired all the Harley’s that were parked along the main drag.  It was a wonderful day in the 80’s and the bikes were out in big packs, cruising along Alt. 89 on the curvy mountain roads.   We went north of town, up up up on even twistier turns and climbed up to an overlook.

 

 

 

 

At the top of the highest point, there was a pull off for a scenic lookout.  Some vendors were up there selling jewelry laid out on tarps on the sidewalk.  We said No, Thank You and walked on by…

 

We headed back down through Jerome, and wound our way among the streets again, then down to the valley floor.  We went this time through Camp Verde and up the interstate (yuck) but the doggers were waiting to be let out, as was our turkey in the crock pot dinner.   So off we went back to the RV park for the night.  This is only our fifth night in an RV park in over 5 weeks.  So not too bad of an average? 

I was thinking a bit … about how each place we have gone to see, and each place we stayed a night,  few nights, or a few weeks… they all feel like HOME in many ways to us.  Each place can become HOME,  but we can always leave and find new places to call HOME too.  Ahhhh life in an RV!

We caught up laundry in the park laundromat, and Steve asked permission to wash the rig and Tracker.   So we are all spiffyed up and even the doggers got a good bath--- removing all the red dust embedded in their coats!

  They don’t look too happy about it, do they?

 

 

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