Tuesday, March 11

This will probably be short - I'm exhausted and forgot to bring the memory card into the room with me to download pics - and I'm way too lazy to walk back out to the car :)

I woke up in my teepee this morning and decided to head back to the Petrified whatever its called National Park. I was only about 15 minutes away. That took up most of the morning, not only are there petrified trees to see, but the painted desert too. The whole park was a 28 mile drive.



Then I drove a mix of Route 66 and 40 - also decided to stop by the meteor crater near Winslow, AZ. I paid $15 to, well, look at a giant dent in the ground. It was semi-interesting at least, over 2 miles in diameter and 550 feet deep. Then drove some of Route 66 through Flagstaff, which is the last I would see of 66 for this trip most likely.

Then from Flagstaff, south to Sedona. If you haven't seen it - you have to add it to your list of things to see once in your lifetime. Just the drive there through the mountains is beautiful, then once you get to Sedona, its really awe-inspiring. I didn't stop and walk around the shops at all, but did stop at a place recommended by Joni called "Bell Rock" (I think, its late so forgive me if I'm wrong). This is also supposed to be a vortex too. So Rudy and I grabbed the camera and a bottle of water and headed out for our hike. We got about halfway up, when I decided we probably shouldn't go any further, unless I wanted to ruin a good pair of jeans sliding my way back down the rock. Rudy must be part mountain goat, he loved climbing and had no problem scrambling right up rocks that I didn't think any human could climb. Got some good pics up there, will have to post tomorrow. I think you could spend all day there climbing and hiking around and just taking in the scenery.


Then pretty much just sped through Phoenix, some place called "Gila something", then made it to Yuma, AZ. The Jeep is very happy to be back to lower elevations - it was having some problems with pick-up and shifting hard in the higher elevations - at least I'm going to blame it on the elevation. Which doesn't bode well for the return journey, but I'll hope for the best. I hoped to get to San Diego today, but going back to the Petrified park set me back a bit, but no biggie, we'll get there tomorrow. And I'm not sure what's going on in exciting Yuma, but it is not easy to find a hotel with a vacancy. Luckily we did, Rudy's already passed out, and I'm soon to be on my way there. Hope you all are having a good week!

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