The motor home is in the driveway; the bike is in the garage. “Will the time until we go back pass as quickly as the time we were there?” Jim asks.

After six days on the road, through cold weather, some rain and very high winds, we arrived back in Peterborough wondering if we would be able to get into our driveway. We’d been kept informed about the terrible winter the area had experienced, and there were still piles of snow when we hit town. Thankfully they were all on the lawns and not in the driveway. Our backyard pool is still a floating ice rink, but today the temperatures are rising. The wind is also howling again, as much as it was when we were “camped” in the parking lot of Sandusky Mall on our last night of our adventure. At least now we are on firm ground and not rocking with the gusts!

As promised, today I begin to fill you in on our last couple of weeks in Arizona.

Two Views of Sedona

During the week of March Break (in Canada) we were thrilled to have Jim’s daughter visit us, but with bicycles and the motorcycle being our only means of transportation, we thought our time would be spent mainly within the resort. However, we gratefully accepted the generous offer of our great neighbour to lend us her car so Karen could accompany us on the completion of a couple more things on our Bucket List. One of these was a drive towards Sedona to see the cliff dwellings in Verde Valley, the most obvious structure being Montezuma’s Castle, part of a larger community. We saw remnants of another eight to ten pueblo rooms. Because of the bountiful resources small farming communities developed in the area between the years 600 to 1100 and the natural formations of the rocky hills lent themselves well to the creation of safe shelter.

From Verde Valley we continued on to Sedona and the brilliant red rocks that seemed to be formed into castles and temples and a very large bell.

Cathedral Rock is the most impressive and is a popular hiking destination.

We decided to climb it.

I admit that, about a quarter of the way up when we reached a very smoothly rounded mass with not much to hold onto, I called it quits, while Jim and Karen carried on up another quarter of the way.

My camera was dangling around my neck, and rather than risk bashing it on rock, I took advantage of my lofty-enough position to capture the surroundings.

It was starting to get dark and our stomachs were telling us it was time to eat by the time we all returned to the car, so we retraced our path along the highway until we found a quaint little BBQ place to replenish ourselves for the drive back to Mesa.

When we left Mesa Regal on March 30^th for our journey home, we took the detour off I-17 to complete the drive through Sedona.

On the far side of town the wide road became a beautiful tree lined, but narrow road often edged by salmon coloured cliffs that appeared all too close to the side of the motor home!

To add to the adventure, a small tree branch brushed the side of our vehicle and soon the awning began to rattle. As soon as we came to a pull-off Jim got out to check it. The wind was so strong that it grabbed the door nearly out of Jim’s hand as he attempted to exit the RV. He discovered that the blow from the tree had dislodged the awning lock and part of the canvas had come unrolled and was flapping in the wind. There was no way that we could battle the winds to get the awning down, but with some effort, Jim managed to get it rolled back up and locked into place using the long armed hook. We then wrapped Velcro straps around the arms to make sure they didn’t come loose again. We carried on as the road became more twisty with several switch-backs, until we were back onto I-17 and then I-40, heading towards Flagstaff. It would have been an exciting trip on the motorcycle. It was a little scary in a large vehicle, but well worth it.