Last July at the Archie Block 70th B-Day party and family reunion my Aunt Belva suggested that we visit them in Florence (the prison capital of the USA), Arizona where they escape to from the Minnesota winter. Bad grammar and choice of words aside it sounded like an excellent plan! We timed it along with my brother Tom visiting the baseball spring training camps and daughter Deva's spring break. With that type of attendance my Mom felt it worthwhile to come in from Houston and Aunt Lillian hitched along (again) from San Diego thereby providing me with enough cookies for the entire trip.
My first trip started Thursday (3/17) at 3:30 A.M. when I drove to Fresno (the Sportsmobile capital of the world) to get another window and captains chair installed. I got there at 8 and left around 4:30 heading to Santa Cruz to pick up Deva. We left Santa Cruz the next morning around 8:00 and hit L.A. around 1:00 for a miserable 3.5 hour+ stop and go commute through L.A. And Orange county wasn't much better. Eleven hours later we made it to the driveway. Chalk up 980 miles for that back and forth. Saturday was a get ready to leave day. Sunday we drove to Florence AZ and found the comfortable but tacky Blue Mist Motel which happened to be across the street from one of the 9 prisons in town. The motel owner assured us that he had never heard of an escape in 16 odd years but if they did they certainly wouldn't be hanging around the Blue Mist Motel. But I was still calculating how many escaped felons the van would hold. Anyway we had a nice visit both that evening and the next morning with Belva and Tom. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from these times.
After filling up with $2.32 per gallon diesel! (San Diego $2.49 then, $2.73 now) we took off on the next leg which was the scenic route to Sedona.
Once in Sedona the majority of our time (other than eating) was spent
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Enjoying the Sedona red rock area and sight seeing. |
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Enjoying the Jacuzzi at night (me, Deva once). |
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Visiting the green Grand Canyon. |
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Going on a chilly morning hike (me). |
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Taking Mom (the trooper), Lillian (ooh's & ah's) and Tom (I don't believe you just did that) on an easy dirt road adventure (retail value $50 per person). |
Nothing eventful on the way home Thursday except the mass butterfly windshield kill. There were even a few cookies left! About 1500 miles total for the Arizona trip so an eight day total for me alone of 2500 miles. Deva slept the entire next day and she didn't even help drive?