WEDNESDAY, 8/22

WEDNESDAY, 8/22:

     Left Monument Valley around 9:15.  Once again, a little wistful leaving a place we enjoyed so much.  On to Sedona.  Took about 5 hours, with no trouble, even there was 1 fairly long grade up to 9,000 ft.   As we gained elevation towards Flagstaff, first the desert gave way to pinion pine/juniper scenery, then to higher elevation pines & firs . . . then back to the chaparral again as we lost elevation towards Sedona.  

      The RV park is about 10 miles south of Sedona, in the little community of Page Springs.  A narrow winding road to get to it.  A perfectly lovely park!  I think it’s billed as an RV “resort” – with a beautiful swimming pool, near-luxurious bathrooms, etc.  The sites were huge -even bigger than at Monument Valley.  Oak Creek runs at the edge of the park, so we can hear it from our campsite. And the water from it keeps everything here green – lots of nice trees, green grass, etc.  So far, all of the RV parks we chose sight unseen months ago have been winners!  And seems they keep getting better!  LoLo Mai is the park’s name – the Hopi equivalent for “Aloha” in Hawaiian (“Welcome”; “Beautiful”; etc.).  This land used to be Hopi land.  They sold it to the originally about 50 years ago.  This told us by the gal who showed us around and let us choose the site we wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

    It was pretty cloudy when we got here . . . I just read that mid-July thru mid-Sept is the “monsoon” season for this entire region we’ve been in for a few weeks now – one of only 2 times a  year that they get rain.  So that explains the many cloudy or partly cloudy days we’ve seen.  But more often than not, a thunderstorm or rainfall is followed almost immediately by clear blue skies, maybe threaded with high fluffy clouds  so, as I’ve said before, we’ve been blessed with good weather & clear skies almost always when we really wanted or needed it.

    We got out our Jonathan chairs & just relaxed. It’s extremely quiet here – there are only a handful, literally, of RV’s here, and none close by us.  It’s as if we have the place to ourselves. That seems very strange .  .  . is family RV time over?   Do adult-only RV’ers avoid tourist towns like Sedona?  Is there something wrong with this place that we don’t know about??  Maybe we’ll find answers before we leave.   But if it’s quiet in the people sense, the cicadas try to make up for it! Haven’t heard their chirping, or whatever it’s called, in a long time!  One of the true sounds of summer.

     Drove into town to eat dinner out.  A gorgeous drive into town!!  Our first views of the fabulous Red Rocks.  Breathtakingly beautiful –just as everyone says.  Couldn’t pay too close attention to the scenery, as we were trying to locate the restaurant we wanted to go to, and get oriented.   But still, the little we did see . . . oh my!

    Had been planning for weeks to eat at Elote Café, a place Terry Campbell from work recommended as “the best Mexican food ever.  You have to eat there, Caryn.” And a website on Best Places to Eat in every state listed it – said it’s small, in a nondescript building, and no reservations are taken, so you may have to wait up to an hour.  But we’d eaten a little lunch when we got here, so weren’t starving and were willing to wait.  So we got directions & headed there.  Immediately figured that something wasn’t right when we drove up and saw no cars.  Got out, & saw a posted sign that said they were on vacation til Sept something.  Rats!!!!   That's me crying my heart out in the photo below.

 

 

 

     So got out the Fodors book to look for something else.  Found another Mexican restaurant in “uptown” – the older, and central, part of Sedona.  The food was ho-hum, but we were seated on the open air balcony, with a great view of some of the Red Rock peaks, which were gorgeous.  Saw the sun go down on them (at only about 7:00, since Arizona isn’t on Daylight Savings Time).  Then pitch black by 7:30  - you wouldn’t even know there were mountains over there. 

     Returned “home” in the dark.  As I said, seemed a little eerie that we see only our RV sitting out by its lonely self.   Black as pitch outside, but no stars – I guess because of cloud cover.