Sedona at Sunset ... Without the Sun

Damn

We missed Chiricahua National Monument yesterday, only to arrive in Tombstone to find that we've gained another hour. Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings time. We could have stopped after all.

We get to our hotel in Tombstone only to find the room dirty. The sheets are piled on top of the beds and the bathroom floor is filthy. They give us another room. It's the same. We're so used to it by now, it doesn't even phase us. The girl at the front desk says she'll change the sheets while we go to dinner (the Crystal Palace Saloon -- not exciting).

Mom misses the hotel from yesterday in Deming, New Mexico. She thought she died and went to hotel heaven -- from the fluffy pillow top mattress, satin brocade comforter, to the silky sheets and a fan in the bathroom. She felt like Shirley Temple in The Little Princess. Ironically, this is the cheapest place we've stayed at about $42.


Double Damn

We stayed in Tombstone a wee bit longer than planned, so we don't get back on the road until about high noon. That's cowboy speak for 12:00 pm. We go through another border patrol with an officer that's the spitting image of Matt Damon, but cute. He asks if we're all United States citizens. I tell him we have one illegal alien in the back and point to Grandma. He isn't amused.

We lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Tucson. Grandma says she wishes they had more fun doing this when she and Grandpa were a young couple with my Mom and uncle. With Grandpa, it was his way ... or the highway. I ask her if she thinks I'm like that. Her answer is "sometimes." My giving Mom a hard time about the three or four phone calls a day to her boyfriend, or wanting to go trinket shopping Tombstone instead of the Bird Cage Theatre with us. Anyway, it's food for thought.

We roll into the Phoenix area just after the the last tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West in Scottsdale launches.


Damn ... Damn ... Damn

We turn 3,000 miles just after Phoenix. It's just a few hours later as we roll into Sedona and the Red Rocks region. My excitement of seeing sunset in Sedona is pretty much squashed with the overcast cloudy sky.

Are you kidding me?

To add insult to injury -- apparently we didn't think about it being a holiday weekend, the last big holiday of summer. Do you think there's a hotel to be had? No. We drive out to an overlook by the airport to watch what we can see of the sunset over the gorgeous red mountains.

Ever notice how people just don't seem to think about anything but themselves? There are more than 25 people taking pictures and watching the sunset when this woman walks out in front of everyone taking pictures. She just stands there getting the pics she wants without thinking about the fact that she's now in everyone else's pictures. When she comes back to hand the camera to someone to take a picture of her and her husband, I see the perfect opportunity to stand in front of her camera.

I'm so vindictive.

We drive on.


I will say this -- I LOVE Sedona. The smell of the Ponderosa pines is intoxicating, and the fire in the rocks stunning. There are so many quaint little shops and restaurants that I can't wait to come back. I could see myself living here easily.

We have dinner at an Olive Garden. When I look over at Grandma, I realize she might need a booster chair. She's so small I think she might actually be shrinking on this trip. Our server, David, is a total cutie (which I say for the benefit of my boyfriend -- it's my way to find out if he is really paying attention to the blog posts!) David has three sisters and says he totally understands familial discord. So much so he gives me my chocolate fix without charging me. I heart David.

We arrive and check in to a hotel in Williams, Arizona. It's closer to the Grand Canyon -- our first stop tomorrow. Then it's on to Vegas, baby.