Tripometer – 12,036 mi
Gas Gauge – 908.875 gal
Location – Distant Drums RV Resort, Camp Verde, AZ
Lodging – $28
Cans of OFF – 4
Our intention in coming to the Sedona, AZ area was to wind down from our crazy few weeks with Stratis and Dave. After finding the Distant Drums RV Park we’re both thinking we may have found our place to sit back and relax for a week and let Kelly get caught up on work after taking a week plus off. The scenery in this area is fantastic. Even in the heart of downtown Sedona, the mountains and mesas peeking out from behind traffic and shopping malls give the entire town a smaller and more comfortable feel. It’s no wonder that everything in this town is overpriced and chock full of tourists.
We drove into Sedona this morning to see what Sedona has to offer. We parked behind the community arts center at one end of town and proceeded to hike the entire shopping district. Kelly enjoyed the preponderance of jewelry and native craft stores. The selection of stores in town ranged from high end art stores with pieces targeted at the tremendously wealthy to junk shops filled with overpriced T-shirts for the not-so-wealthy. Ranger enjoyed all of the attention from passing shoppers. Towards the end of the day we shopped our way South out of Sedona, stopping at art stores and a tremendous variety of junk shops with everything from frontier antiques to 12 foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex statues made from steel. (Ranger decided he didn’t like the looks of the T-Rex and growled at it as we pulled in. After Ranger fiercely alerted us to the prehistoric prowler’s presence, he got up and sat on the other side of the truck – the “safe from a T-Rex” side of the vehicle apparently. Kelly decided that she needed to go pet the statue and stand for a picture. Ranger quietly glared as Kelly brazenly walked up and greeted the T Rex.)
The temperatures today are sufficiently high that we’re hesitant to leave Ranger in the car long enough to enjoy ourselves at the Octoberfest celebration this evening. In lieu of that we went to a local bistro in town for a nice meal. We were both repulsed at the restaurant’s description of their ‘traditional’ crab cake. Similar to our experience with the Arizona Cheesesteak offered to us in Page, AZ a few days ago, we were horrified by the Southwest’s take on the Maryland classic. Who puts gruyere cheese in a crab cake, Arizonans?
Special Note: We mentioned that the Distant Drums RV Park has groomed pads with a nice small pea gravel covering most of the camp site. It didn’t take us long to come to the decision that the risk of scorpions was sufficiently low here that we could let Ranger frolic outside the camper in the evenings. He’s ecstatic.