In this weeks blog, we see our Arizona road trip come to an end as we prepare to make the long journey home, but not before discovering iconic Sedona...amazing landscapes, stunning trails and not forgetting amazing BBQ and beers!
Time changes confusion
You know that you are having a good break away from it all when you go an entire day without actually realising that the country has changed their clocks forward as part of day light saving.
We were happily spending our day in the Zion National Park and only realised the change when we started our transfer drive and the car clock was out of sync. As we drove back to Arizona, we were confused as google maps was throwing out some pretty strange ETA’s. It was only with a bit of research did we finally realise that Arizona is the only State out of the 50 States of America not to adopt daylight saving measures. How strange is that? Obviously Americans are used to operating within different time zones, you only have to see the TV schedules for evidence of that, but to have a State sitting outside that system seems completely alien to us. It would be akin to our beloved County of Yorkshire refusing to adopt daylight saving and running an hour behind the rest of the country through the summer months…now there’s an idea for God’s own County!
Stunning Sedona & heading home
As we came into our last week of our road trip, everywhere seemed to get noticeably busier than in previous weeks. We knew that this would be the case as we were aware from our planning that it was coming into Spring Break…mainly due to the increase in hotel costs.
Now call us naive (again!), but we expected spring break to consist of loads of drunken University students running wild like on the movies…thankfully no such thing. Spring break actually consisted of loads of families with young children suddenly appearing everywhere we went. We had almost forgot what it was like to travel with children around- it certainly makes for a more entertaining journey. We have witnessed numerous family bust ups and exhausted parents losing their s**t with their kids. Oh happy days…family holidays...we remember them well!
We dropped into Sedona for our last few days of the trip and knew that we had a weather window that would only last a couple of days before the rain came. We hiked really hard, after a good few days of hard hiking in Zion it was hard work on tired legs. We both agree that we have pushed ourselves pretty close to our limits over the last month, and our legs were starting to tell us so.
Arizona is so diverse in its geography, and Sedona offers us something new again- incredible red rock monoliths springing out from the lush forested plains below. The red rocks were so smooth and layered in structure they were just crying out to be climbed. We had a blast, finding our inner child and climbing and exploring places just because they were there! Jackie took me to some of the high and exposed places where I was entirely uncomfortable and it was just great. Sedona has quite a reputation for being a spiritual Mecca, which we didn’t quite get, but we did have some lovely moments sitting on the high rocks in the sun, soaking up the peace and quiet, looking out over the amazing views and cracking a cold beer to celebrate the moment.
The trails were really well marked, but as we mentioned previously, everywhere was so busy with the spring break crowd. There was no shuttle bus service like in the National Parks which consequently caused lengthy traffic jams and terrible parking issues. It was quite a shock to us coming after so many weeks of traffic free roads. Sedona is so very popular, and rightly so for its beauty, but it comes at a cost and the infrastructure struggles to cope with the number of visitors. We had a fab time in Sedona, but it was very different to everywhere else on our adventures.
Ending with a BBQ bang
As predicted, on our last full day of the trip, the rains came and we were pretty much confined to the hotel. The God’s were with us however, as just across the street was the most amazing, down to earth and cheap BBQ restaurant…that had a daily happy hour! Never ones to turn down the opportunity for genuine low and slow smoked BBQ, or for cheap beers, we indulged ourselves each night sampling the various meaty (and boozy) treats. It was our sort of place, relaxed and friendly where I think that they looked on at us Brits as aliens from another planet. The staff looked after us really well, even though they had to explain every intricacy of each dish- who knew there were different options for beef brisket depending on the fat-i-ness required?
Our Journey home- planes, trains and automobiles!
It is fair to say that the journey home was long and eventful. We set off from Page AZ at 9am on Thursday and got back to our kids house in Manchester at 9pm on Friday night. On the way we dealt with British Airways flight delays, getting stranded on the Heathrow tarmac for an hour waiting for a gate for the plane to dock at, rebooking our rail connections before the national strike and navigating the London Tube in Friday rush hour.
Surprisingly we woke up quite fresh on Saturday morning in Manchester and are raring to go for a busy week of kickstarting the house renovations in earnest. We wouldn’t have it any other way!
Have an amazing week,
Richard & Jackie
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