That’s right. We don’t quantify distance by “As the Crow Flies” anymore… it’s now “How We Drive.” That means finding the longest distance between two points. So, when we booked our room in Sedona (approximately 1h30m away), we certainly couldn’t take a direct route.
The morning began with fueling up. (Fuel = Gas for the truck and Coffee/Tea for us.) and then heading up I-17 toward Flagstaff.
While stopped in Camp Verde for breakfast, a random discussion topic came up: My Blood.
At my recent doctor’s appointment I had blood drawn. This is the first time I’ve had blood drawn in about 2 years. 2 years ago was not a “fun” experience. First, I think the phlebotomist had just received her certification, I’ll tell you why. I have pretty much nonexistent veins, and this was before my tattoo made drawing blood from my left arm impossible. The girl spent nearly 5 minutes trying to find a vein and then, when she stuck me, it was like she’d missed the vein. After trying to find a different vein, she finally stuck me in the exact same spot. It definitely put a bad taste in my mouth.
Regardless of that, I’ve never been a bleeder. But this appointment, I had no problem giving five vials… And I blamed it on Earl. See, the thing is, I used to dehydrate myself on purpose… I don’t have a problem with public restrooms. I just don’t like being told what to do – even when it’s just by the call of nature. But Earl has decided that I needed to drink more water and took it upon himself to make it more than available. I pointed this out and his response was mildly predictable:
Earl: I’m sorry for wanting you to live!
Me: You don’t understand. I’m more appealing to vampires now!
Other silliness ensued, because… well, I’m still me.
We made it up to and through Flagstaff and suddenly there were signs advertising wattles. I didn’t know what a wattle was… I thought, maybe a small pig-like animal, maybe a device for holding a baby, maybe a service professional… and then there were all of these huge piles of sand and fire department vehicles and it came to me. I’d forgotten that there was a flash-flood advisory in effect. The sand was for sand bags… and a wattle is apparently a type of straw barrier.
Sunset crater is an extinct volcanic cone in northern Arizona. It looks like this:
Lava Floes
The Crater
In the same space as the crater, is the wupatki National Monuments (or ruins).
These puppies are over 900 years old.
After taking that little detour, we headed to the Grand Canyon’s south rim (this is, of course, the long way). I’d never before seen the “Watchtower,” this being only the second time I’d ever been to the “Big Hole” as Earl likes to call it, that isn’t surprising.
I was kind of excited about the giant tower that looked out over the canyon… until we found out that it was, in fact, built solely for the purposes of being a tourist attraction/gift shop. I prefer my buildings to have some history behind them (like the ruins).
On the way back toward Flag staff, the high desert gave way to the sprawling forest beneath snow bowl and along the edges of the road small purple flowers started to pop up. I think that purple flowers are in some way god’s gift to me. I love them. Also along the edge of the road, was this:
Earl calls it “Indian Toilet Paper,” I’ve always heard it called “Lamb’s Ears.” It’s called stachys byzantina and it’s actually the source of the purple I love so much.
Among the lamb’s ear, a strange structure popped up. It’s called the Chapel of the Holy Dove. This little wayside chapel on the 180 is one of the stranger types of architecture I’ve seen, but it’s really awesome.
We made our way through Oak Creek Canyon down to Sedona and Checked into the resort. Someplace we stuck out like a sore thumb. I liked to think that people just assumed we were rock stars who didn’t give a crap, and that’s how I played it.
The hotel may have ruined us. We arrived in the room, and stared at the spaciousness and laughed at it. We got a smoking deal. I won’t say more than that. I went onto the patio to look at the view of the red rock, but was stopped by the sight of a private hot tub. After I got over that shock, I looked at the view and saw this:
Overall it was a fun trip, but I missed my dog and we had laundry to do (ugh), so we returned – the long way – through Payson.
Now we’re home and the dog is passed out on the rug pretending to be dead.
I like to give blood at Red Cross drives, but just once I got the angry aunt/grandma type and she jabbed the needle into my vein, used it to lift up my skin, and then finally settled it down. It hurt So Damn Bad. Then the needle sucked up against the vein wall, but she was scary so I waited till she went on break to ask for help.
ReplyDeleteProps on the neat trip!
Oh man - my Captcha was Poryou.
I love the idea of taking a relatively short trip and making it long! However, a long roadtrip is not what I want right now. Which is probably for the best because that way I can leave more planning for next year's trip to be figured out next year.
ReplyDeleteHow lame that building didn't have a story! If I were them I would have made one up. I mean, when you go to those places, you just repeat what you were told, you don't verify it. It could have been rumored to be an old vampire coven!
Oh Katie! We were walking up to it and I - as i am wont to do - was making up fabulous ideas for it. It was the last Navajo stornghold against the invading Japanese and their kamakaze bombers. It had been built by the women, their children tightly bundled on their back, while the men were fortifying all routes out of the canyon... and then we get to the plaque saying it was just some silly artists work.
ReplyDelete