Day 24- Sedona & Phoenix, AZ

I woke up Monday morning and decided to give my old friend Lou a call. He lives in Phoenix and I don't think I've seen him since about 1993. He invited us over around 6pm to his house. So, Michael and I checked out of the hotel at our usual 11am, got an oil change, got a free car wash (with the oil change) and then it started raining- really hard. So, I thought it was best to have lunch in Flagstaff and then drive south.

We pulled into this shopping center and tried the different restaurants- no luck. Then we ran into an Italian place. I don't usually like going to Italians restaurants, because I'm really picky. My Dad is the world's best Italian cook and nothing compares to his cooking. So, I'm usually not very happy.

They agree to make some grilled chicken for Michael and I get the pesto. HOLY COW was it great. The waiter even let me test it beforehand to make sure I liked it. I practically licked the sample container clean. It was so nice to sit down and have a pasta dish and enjoy our last hour in Flagstaff.

Michael and I ran to the car because it was still raining. But, this time half the parking lot was filled with about 12 inches of water. Thank GOD I parked my car where it was. I laughed so car and smiled to the gods above. Again, thankful for the SUV and 4 wheel drive. We got out of Flagstaff in one piece.

I decided to take the "backroad" through Sedona towards Phoenix. Remember my past experiences with "backroads". Well, I guess I never learn, but it is the quickest and prettiest way to Sedona.

We hit this HUGE mountain (again) and it was alittle scary. Again, THANK GOD it wasn't raining at this point or I probably would have pulled over. Not that there was a place to pull over. But, we went up thousands of feet and came down thousands of feet.

Slowly I started seeing red rocks. It was REALLY beautiful. Again, I was driving so I couldn't fully enjoy the view- but we did stop a few times to take pictures. The town itself, Sedona is nice, but very exclusive- not my scene at all. But the national park around it was beautiful. The road followed along a river/stream and it had really nice views.

There was also SO much construction in the town of Sedona, that I could honestly say it looked pretty crappy. But, I'm sure it's nice when the roads aren't ripped up and all you hear is jackhammers.

As we traveled south the landscape started to change- big surprise- it's Arizona! The red rocks and mountains turned to white and grey. I started seeing tall cactus. It was very beautiful too, but in a different way.

We got to one part, about an hour north of Phoenix and the sky started to get really dark. Not the whole sky, just patches. So, it would rain for 5 minutes and then stop. One point we went up this mountain and the rain was SO bad I was really scared. The wind was blowing the car sideways and I could barely see out of the window. We got passed that area and then there was a car accident. I saw a child about 2 years old in his car seat getting into an ambulance. He had blood all over his face. This can really be a dangerous area. The rain and wind come out of no where- people aren't used to it- and to top it all off- the speed limits are like 70-75. Going up that one mountain I just put my hazzards on and went 30. I would have stopped with all the bad weather, but I wanted to get to Phoenix before 5pm.

The hotel we were staying at is called the "Clarenton" and it's on clarenton ave. The hotel didn't come up on my GPS, so I put in "clareton ave". Well, when the voice said "you have reached your destination" we were standing in front of a corn field. Michael and I busted out laughing. "I don't think so". We got to the hotel around 5:30 and rushed to get ready to meet our friends.

The hotel was AWESOME. The desk clerk got out and loaded up the cart. Then he brought all my bags up to the room. That's the first time on the trip someone did that. The room was about $60, so it wasn't a high class hotel. But, it was very COOL. It's an old building totally redone. It looks like a scene from a 50's movies. I'll post the pictures soon. It was so nice I didn't want to leave and almost stayed an extra day.

Anyway, we visited with my friend Lou and his family. Michael had a great time playing with the kids and swimming in the pool. It was nice to see a friendly face after driving from TN to AZ without knowing one person. We got back to the hotel late and fell asleep to our large, flat screen TV.









Sorry I haven't been updating the blog everyday. It's been really hard while in CA. We've been pretty busy.



Thursday we went to the beach, Friday we went to the waterpark and Saturday we're going to Knott's Berry Farm Amusement Park. Michael having a great time in this area and hanging out with his father.

I'll have more to post soon.