Thanksgiving in Sedona, AZ

I jinxed myself. Remember how I gloated about not going to any‘” fancy places” like Vegas or L.A.? Well, it turns out that Sedona, AZ is pretty stinkin fancy. Psychic, jewelry, art and masseuse shops are on every block. There are even boutiques for pets! All the buildings are designed to match -- adobe style. Landscapes allow no stone out of place. We were lucky to find a motel room for under $80 a night. Yeah, so we opted for the motel. I thought we were going to camp until the night promised 20 degrees, and gray clouds sprinkled snow. Call me a wuss.

But hey, now I get to write to you! That’s something to be thankful for!

Let me tell you a little about Sedona so far. The rock structures are really quite amazing. Here are a couple examples.

And tomorrow, we hope to ride our bikes around those rocks. Let it not surprise you, however, that I want to climb those bundles of earth. Most look pretty impossible with their vertical juts. But I am an idealist. I have no climbing gear, and Aaron shakes his head when I look up at them with starry eyes and a drool string, but I don’t care. Heck. I don’t even know if I’m legally allowed to climb them. I’ll eye them up and see if I find a feasible one.

Before I have too much news for you, I want to catch you up on some of the quirks I’ve forgotten to tell you along this journey thus far. Here’s a random list.

I get to smell roses. Roses! Other flower species too, of course, but that’s the point. Flowers galore are still blooming in WA, OR, CA and AZ... did you know I’m 80 miles away from Mexico? I guess it stays just warm enough down here for me to smell the roses. Ahh, I’ll sniff one for you.

The wildlife is different in the places I’ve been. Notably, some of my favorites are the elk and the quails. I don’t see those guys in da Harbor. Man, quails are so squeezin cute with their little plumes bobbing around on their heads. And elk, well, elk are delicious.

I did a cartwheel on the Golden Gate Bridge. Tee hee!

The geography changes so rapidly when we’ve been driving across the country. I haven’t been keeping track of just how much elevation we change in a day, but it can be thousands of feet. One moment we’re in the mountains, then we quickly descend into the desert plains. This is definitely a drive to stay awake for!

We have been so far south, that at one point, the only radio stations we could catch were in Spanish. All of them. How cool! Here we were in America, and we couldn’t get an English-speaking station! I’ll never refuse a little culture.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Joey in Glendo, Matt and Sara in Spokane, Katie and Ben in Portland, Rich and Nancy in Nevada City and Pat, Gary and Mike in San Jose. All these fine folks graciously let Aaron, Duce and I crash their pads during our stay. We would like to thank them for making this trip feel a little more like home.

Lastly, hello to all my friends in the Keweenaw! I miss you and think of you often! Keep the snow on the ground til we get there!

Okay... Feliz Thanksgiving!