Report on our VERY Long Road Trip

My good friend and writing mentor for many, many years, Willma Gore, was having her 90th birthday in Sedona AZ and I really, really wanted to go. There is no easy way to get there except drive. We've gone twice before but both times our son-in-law drive in his motor home. Oh we did follow along in our car the first time--but we spent one night elsewhere before making it to Sedona.

Hubby agreed, though he wasn't thrilled. We did a MapQuest and learned it would take 9 hours driving time. That didn't count restaurant and potty stops. We decided we'd leave at 4 a.m. to make sure we arrived before sundown, since hubby doesn't do well driving after dark.

Most of the trip is boring as you cross endless miles of desert. Spotting signs pointing to old Route 66, I yearned for the more interesting drive of earlier years. (Yes, we've done that one clear across country in days gone by.)

We reached Sedona about 3:30 and thanks to Mrs. Magellan (see my post about GPS's) we found our hotel, The View. Not snazzy, but clean with everything you need and yes, a beautiful view of Sedona's wonderful mountains. (If you've never been, go, the landscape is colorful, pink and green, and gorgeous. Definitely one of the most beautiful places in the world.)

We walked across the street around 5 to a Sushi place where I had the best California Roll ever. It wasn't at all like what you get in California--each one was a tad different though they all had real crab meat and caviar. Some had cucumber and others avocado. Wonderful. Hubby had salmon and said it was fantastic.

In the a.m. we walked across the street to a coffee shop that is popular with the locals. They served a wonderful breakfast sandwich, so good we went there the next day too.

That afternoon we headed over to the other side of Sedona as I had a speaking engagement at the Well Red Coyote bookstore. We ate dinner at Nick's, a dinner house popular with the locals, and had a delicious meal. We arrived early at the bookstore and visited with Kris and Joe Neri the owners. The attendance was poor, but I had a great time anyway. I always like talking to people about writing.

Unfortunately, by the time we left it was dark. The oncoming lights made it hard to see, and though the speed limit was 35 everyone drove 50 plus. Sedona has dozens of turn-abouts which complicated our drive back to the hotel. We were thankful to make it there safely.

On thing I forgot to report is that Sedona was having an unseasonably hot few days. I don't do well in hot. We spent a lot of time looking at the view from the window in the cool of our air conditioned hotel. We did walk to a shopping mall, but most of the stores weren't open yet.

To be continued on June 17.



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