April 5 - Travel to Flagstaff and April 6 - Day Trip to Sedona

We packed up this morning and left Santa Fe pretty early. Our goal was to get to Holbrook, AZ so that we could see the Petrified Forest and then travel to the Grand Canyon from there. We took I-40 through Albuquerque, NM and then on through Winslow, AZ. We were just riding along enjoying the scenery and making note of different things when suddenly, I started to think of the words to a song that included Winslow, AZ. I am one of these people who knows the words to tons of songs - especially the ones from the 60's and 70's. Well, I kept at it and finally it
came to me that the song was "Take It Easy" by the Eagles. I told Mike what was going on in my mind and he said he thought he had and Eagles CD with us. I found it and put it in and guess what song was first on the CD - yep it was "Take It Easy" and the words say - I was standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ ..... Well, now that I have been to Winslow, AZ, I am not shocked that someone was standing on the corner. There would not be much else to do. Winslow is not much of a town. Oh well, so much for trivia.

Somewhere along the way to Holbrook, I got out the atlas and told Mike that we really should go to Flagstaff instead. We decided that since the day was young, we would stop at the Petrified Forest and then proceed to Flagstaff. The Petrified Forest is really two different areas - The Painted Desert and The Petrified Forest. Our trip took us first to the Painted Desert where we got our first glimpse of what the gorges out here in the west look like. The colors of the layers of rock is beautiful. The drive then took us to where we started to see pieces of petrified wood. We had stopped at the information office on the way in and had seen samples of this petrified wood. However, it was something else to see these big trees that had fallen and broken into chunks and turned into crystallized hardened wood. The minerals that changed the cell structure of the wood caused it to have different colors. In one section of the park, the petrified wood would have a lot of green and red where in other places the wood was white. It was really something to see. I have pictures to post that will hopefully show you what it looks like.

After we left the petrified forest, we made our way over to Flagstaff and found a very nice campground. Mike was beat by the time we arrived because he drove all day in a very strong wind. Between the wind and the traffic on the interstate, it wore him out. So, we got set up and called it a night.

On Sunday, we got out and took a day trip to Sedona. We were told by several people that we needed to see Sedona. Somewhere just outside of Flagstaff, we missed the turn to go to Sedona and were down the road a ways before we realized that we were on the interstate headed for Phoenix. I got out the atlas and found a cutoff that we could take that would bring us into Sedona from the south. Well, this mistake was a blessing in disguise. The road we took brought us into Oak Creek Village (we think that is the name). It was so beautiful there. We got our first sight of the big red towers of rocks. Mike said that I must of said- "Oh My Gosh" a hundred times or more. We were both blown away with the scenery and the pretty town. We though we were in Sedona and we were taking in all the sights. We got out and took pictures (I will post them) and drove all around just enjoying the town. It was not till I got to looking for a quilt shop that we found out we were not in Sedona. We programmed the quilt shop address into our GPS (Marge) and she told us we were six or seven miles from the quilt shop. At first, we though Marge was having a breakdown. I don't know why we doubt her. She is always right. It was from following her directions that we found Sedona.

Sedona is a beautiful place too. It is very much a tourist town. Mike and I agreed that it reminded us of a western version of Gatlinburg, TN. There were small shops with all kinds of things for sell. There are tons of art studios and places selling Indian art and pottery. People were everywhere. Marge got me to the quilt shop and it was a very nice one. I made a couple of purchases. You did not think I would leave without buying something, did you! I got to talking to one of the ladies who lives in Sedona and she said that the price of real estate has gone out of site there because people are moving there from CA. It certainly is a beautiful place to live. I can see why people would want to live there. Mike and I said that we would enjoy coming back there and maybe staying a month or so next year.

Our drive back to Flagstaff was along the route we had planned to take into Sedona. It took us up along Cottonwood Creek where there were lots of rental places and a place called "Slick Rock". There were people the river. I don't know if they were actually sliding on the rock, but if they were, it sure must have been cold. The drive then proceeded up a tall mountain. At the top, there was a pull off place where a lot of native Americans had set up stands to sell Indian art and jewelry. We stopped for a bit and got some pretty pictures from the top of the mountain.

We finally got back to the campground in Flagstaff in the early evening. We got things organized so that we could take off on Monday for the Grand Canyon.

I'll end this now and will write another blog on our adventure at the Grand Canyon.