Prescott and Sedona

Wednesday March14th

It always seems to be cold in the morning, especially if we forget to close the windows or the roof vents, but it only gets down to about 55, so it’s not like we’re freezing to death. Cathey was communicating with Dorrie in Prescott via Jeanne in Cascade, WI, so we knew that she wouldn’t be home until the afternoon.

We started out about 1100 but I forgot to fillup with gas before we left and had to stop in Cordes Junction and had to pay $4.20/gal for regular gas – that hurt.

We got to Dorrie’s house about 1pm and had a nice visit with her and her little poodle, Molly. When we left Dorrie, we drove into Prescott to see what there was to see. I though Prescott was a lot bigger than I thought it was but I think that’s true of almost every place I have been in Arizona. We stopped at a place called the Gurley Street Grill and had a nice lunch. (Gurley Street is of historical importance in Prescott, but we didn’t get any details on that.) The highlight here was the labeling on the restrooms; the Ladies’ was labeled “Gurleys” and the Mens’ was labeled “Gurley Men.” I assume the California Govinator was the inspiration for the Mens’ label.

About 3:30 we headed for Sedona. Between Prescott and Sedona there is some pretty mountainous territory and the highway took us above the snow line; the summit was 7023 ft.. But even up there is wasn’t cold today – 58 degrees. Once we got over the summit we started seeing some pretty amazing scenery in the distance of red rocks and jagged peaks. About half way down the mountain on the Sedona side we came across the old Mining town of Jerome. I think it is a re-populated ghost town but it is built on the mountain side so the highway through town is extremely narrow and the houses are right up to the road. The highway does several hairpin turns through town and then goes down the mountain the rest of the way and into the town of Cottonwood.

By the time we got to Sedona the sun was getting pretty low in the sky which lit up the rock features around Sedona in an amazing show of color and grandeur. That’s the second time we have been to Sedona and have not stayed long enough to explore. I guess we will have to come back again!

It was about 20 miles from Sedona back to I-17 and then about 65 miles back to our RV Park, so we had a couple of hours of night time driving, but nothing too scary.