Arizona October Trip



Arizona Vacation – October 2011

Greg and I flew to Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday, October 8th. After getting our rental car, which was the exact same model and color as Greg’s company car, we drove to Carolina’s restaurant. Carolina’s is a Mexican restaurant and it’s where we met up with Mari, a good friend of Greg’s. I felt as though I knew Mari, even though I never meet her in real life until this day, mainly because we corresponded a lot through Facebook. Mari is a lovely person with a great sense of humor and excellent taste in Mexican food.


On our drive to Sedona, we passed through Mari’s hometown, named Surprise, Arizona. Mari said the reason for the town name is because the person who named it thought it would be a surprise if it amounted to anything. It’s a cute, quaint town with adorable street signs.

We took the scenic route to Sedona. I need to stop here and explain. See, when I told Greg I wanted us to go to Arizona, he said, “Go ahead and make the plans. Just tell me what to do when we get there.” He gave me carte blanche with plans and... I’m my father’s daughter. If you’ve read any of the other vacation trip journals, then you know what this means.

Within a few minutes of the drive, we saw a rock painted to look like a frog. I immediately thought of Dad, because he’s always saying, “I’m fine as frog’s hair.” Greg turned the car around to take pictures and into the mountains we continued.


Greg made the comment, “I thought we were going to see the Grand Canyon, all I’m seeing are mountains!” That’s the beauty of Arizona. We would have missed the cactus tree (the only trees that we saw) in Phoenix and the transition to switch back mountain roads in deep, rich forest terrain in Sedona if we had flown straight to the canyon.


We stopped at a Wickenburg, Arizona for a snack at the Cowboy Café. Not far from the café, we saw a Mexican wedding. There was a Mariachi band playing outside of the church while the bride and groom greeted the guests. It was a treat to watch the band play.


With plenty of driving left to go, we got back on track, taking lots of pictures along the way. I have to admit that Greg was very patient with me wanting to stop so many times to snap shots, including a cowboy cross along the road. I’ve seen crosses along the highway, but this one had a cowboy hat and a pumpkin for the Fall season.


Unfortunately, we also saw a dead skunk on the road. Please, drivers, whatever you do, don’t hit skunks. Believe me when I say that the skunk gets the last word/smell in and it lasts forever! In fact, Greg was having gaseous issues from the Mexican food and I told him, “If you need to fart, do it now, because the skunk’s smell is stronger!”

It took some time, but we finally did make it to Sedona… with an unbelievably beautiful sunset with the mountains draping the background. We could even tell where there was rain coming down from the lines in the sky. A sunset with rain and the mountains in the distance really is a sight!

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