Goodbye to the Trusty Impala

Thursday 25 October 2018

A better night’s sleep for Larry, we ate the last of the Apple Jacks and on the road by 9am.  We took the scenic road to Flagstaff which took us past the only snow capped mountain we have seen on this holiday, the San Francisco ranges near Flagstaff.  Conscious of making time in order to get our plane this afternoon we drove straight through Flagstaff but thought it looked a very liveable town, very pretty and well kept with forests all around and the snowy peaks in the background. 

The road between Flagstaff and Sedona headed down, down, down through the Big Oak Canyon which was very pretty with rocky cliffs, fall trees in the canyon and a stream running through.  Not surprisingly there were a lot of campgrounds along this section of road and many people still camping.  The funny thing about camping in America is either people have massive fifth wheeler or Winnebagos or large(ish) caravans or they have tiny one or two person tents.  We have yet to see any five/six man tents like you do in Australian campgrounds.

Eventually the cliff sides turned more red and we broke out of Oak Canyon and into Sedona.  Very picturesque with the red rock formations around the town.  We stopped in the very touristy looking main street for a toilet break and to swap drivers and had a quick look in some the touristy shops.  Sedona is known for being an area of holistic healing etc so plenty of places to buy crystals etc.  Again, conscious of the time, we didn’t linger and headed on down south.

It was getting on for lunchtime so we munched on mini carrots which we had first been introduced to by a Canadian girl on the train from London to York last year.  You can’t really get them in Perth but you can in Tescos and also in American supermarkets and they are a great healthy snack for the car.  We arrived at Rock Spring Cafe about 1ish and stopped at the Cafe.  Tourist radio at the Grand Canyon had told us about the Rock Springs Cafe and its world famous pie so we just had to stop and sample it!  Rock Springs is also famous for being where the cowboy Tom Mix and the movie star Jean Harlow used to meet for bonking sessions and was also famous for the springs rushing with something other than water during the Prohibition.  Now it is famous for pie and, after sharing a toasted ham and cheese sandwich, we both indulged in a piece of pie.  Very yummy and almost up to all the hype!

Back on the interstate and the surrounding scenery by now had changed to scrubby desert decorated with classic Arizona cacti.  Really had the feel of the wild west.  Before we knew it the highway turned back into freeway and we were on the outskirts of Phoenix.  Filled the car up at the last available turnoff for gas and then headed into the city and took the GPS directions to the airport and the rental car return place.  Well that was an eye opener alright.  A steady stream of cars entering a three storey building – each level designated to various car rental companies.  We pulled up in a queue of about 30 cars being returned and that was just for Alamo/National.  An easy process and we were soon farewelling our trusty steed for the week, up a lift, onto a shuttle bus and a 10 minute drive to Terminal 4.

Through baggage drop off and security no problems (had the passports on me having learnt the lesson from Beth) and then we used Larry’s  Frequent Flyer Gold Card to gain entry to the American Airlines Admiral Club where we had gin and tonics and snacks until it was time to board our flight.  Absolutely packed plane and we were amazed at the size of the carry on luggage people brought on and then crammed into the overhead lockers.  It all fitted somehow (Lord knows how many extra tonnes it equated to) and a quick 50 minute flight to San Diego.

We decided to Uber it to our Air Bnb and that was all a straight forward process as well.  We had a lovely lady driver called Sheila and we chatted happily to her all the way to our accommodation.  By this time it was dark and neither we nor Sheila could see the street numbers on the houses.  I had a vague recollection of a two storey green house from the Air BnB page but there were a few of them along the section of street we got to.  We ended up having to get out and walk up and down the street to find it and Sheila insisted on staying with us until we found the right place.   Once we had, we could follow the directions to get ourselves in and immediately turned on the air conditioner and fans as San Diego is quite warm!

After dumping our stuff we immediately headed around the corner to a Jack in the Box for a quick bite to eat (by this time it was 7.30pm ish), then popped into a corner store for breakfast supplies before heading home and putting our feet up.  That was a long, exhausting and slightly stressful day so we will have a quieter one tomorrow.