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Tucked into what one could mistakenly think is Tuscany, Italy, among towering and now leafless Arizona sycamore trees, is a shopping center like none other. Crowded with people this fine 75 degree Saturday in Sedona, we too mingle with the others and gawk and photograph our way through woven alleyways spilling into numerous courtyards filled with colorful tile, magnificent artwork, and fountains.
People stroll and take their time, marveling at the boutique shops or sit sipping wine and dining al fresco at the numerous restaurants. Some of the shops are Hansel and Gretel quaint, like Red Rock Candle & Gift and others feel like an open air marketplace in Europe with wares like exotic rugs on display. We ourselves all eat at the Oak Creek Brewery and Grill and enjoy a fine meal. Musicians are set up scattered throughout playing soft background music, selling CDs of new age jazz.
Being a fountain connoisseur, my heart is happy as I encounter a new temptation in every plaza or courtyard. They are relaxing and beautiful. Gosh, I get to thinking, I could live here it is so enchanting.
For those who enjoy artwork, there are myriad galleries and all sorts of patio artwork on display. It’s a not-to-be-missed experience if one is visiting Sedona.
It’s Friday and we’re off and away by 10 a.m. headed down the interstate towards Marc and Bobbie’s Sedona boondock to meet up with them. A long five plus hours later, after a lunch stop, navigating the traffic through Phoenix, and a couple of kitty breaks (truck travel makes the cats nervous and they need to use the litter box more than normal) we spot the Johnson’s A frame chalet high on a scrub hill looking like a beacon. We are just about set up in our own adjacent scrub spot between Pinion pines when Mark returns from picking up Bobbie from art class in Sedona and we all do the meet and greet. It is a real pleasure to finally meet someone you already feel you know and consider friends and over the course of the next couple days we find those feelings fully justified. The evening is spent getting to know one another sitting outdoors enjoying the balmy temperatures until coming darkness causes them to fall and our appetite bell to go off for dinner.
The one thing that could majorly cause a problem on this trip has happened; somehow Marc’s C-pap mask has gone missing from his machine so he gets very little sleep and wakes with a terrible sore throat Saturday morning. He leaves on a wild goose chase trying to find a medical supply shop open in either Cottonwood or Sedona, only to be thwarted. It is a major setback that has him thinking of cutting the trip short and returning home. He realizes just how much I have counted on this opportunity to get out of Yuma and takes pity on me and will try to make it through, but he will spend the rest of the nights obtaining only a couple hours of sleep per night.
We decide to ride along in Mark’s truck for a down and dirty tour of Oak Park Village and Sedona. It’s a very busy area, with tourists so packed in on shopping frenzies that there is not even room to pull over to take pictures. After finding all trailhead parking lots jammed full and hordes of trekkers headed for the red rock vistas, we give up any thought we had of hiking and head instead for a lunch at the very scenic Tlaquepaque shopping center, styled after an old Italian Tuscany village. We meet another fulltimer, Wanderin Lloyd, and all enjoy a very tasty lunch at Oak Creek Brewery. That evening we host Mark and Bobbie to some of Marc’s smoked pulled pork as we huddle together in our rig due to the high winds. It’s another satisfying, leisurely day.
Tlaquepaque is such a singular experience; I will cover it in its own entry following this post.
It just worked out that I had a vacant Tuesday
on April 3rd so I cancelled the two clients I have Monday the 2nd so we can get out of town for awhile. I am more than ready! We are planning on
leaving in the camper Friday after my only client, headed towards Sedona for
some boondocking with pen pal Mark & Bobbie Johnson. Mark writes a
heartfelt blog; wandering to out of the way places to provide his readers with
very “artful” photographs: http://boxcanyonblog.blogspot.com/
We’ve been pen pals for years, but have never
met. It so happens he and his wife are in Sedona for an art class so we will
finally have the chance to do a meet and greet and spend a little time with
them—a couple days to be exact. Mark already has a primo boondocking spot where
we’ll join them near to the village of Oak Creek. Mark has also graciously
offered to take us out to lunch as we peruse the byways of downtown Sedona and
Oak Creek Canyon and in reciprocal fashion, we will provide dinner Saturday
night with some of Marc’s incredible smoked pulled pork. How is it going to be
calling both guys “Mark” you ask? Ha; I don’t know.
From Sedona, Marc and I will leave early Sunday morning headed onward to Prescott and at least a night or two of camping in the pine treed forest at over 5000 feet elevation. Oh, to see an actual forest again! We return Tuesday the 3rd so expect some blog updates that following week as I have time to process pictures and prose.
What this refers to of course, is that we have been registering the vehicles in Arizona this week. Between the registration and purchasing of so many insurance policies all at once I figure we will be in debt for the next year! And what a month we choose, right? April—tax time too!
I had always heard horror stories about how expensive Arizona was to register and insure a vehicle but don’t listen. It’s bunk. Well, it is if you own older vehicles like us. Overall, the rates were comparable or less than Oregon’s, which has a flat rate on licensing excepting for the Freightliner, which was considered commercial, at around $700/year. We were happy to find that onerous rate drop in half here. Another advantage that Arizona offers is the option of buying a five year registration with a substantial discount over the yearly cost. Oregon has a two year plate, period.
It was an expensive week but we’re overall happy campers with the state’s fee schedule as Arizona residents.
Hooyah; Marc rolled into the yard at about noon on Saturday and was a very good sight to see. One of my clients, the one I see daily four times a week in the mornings, wasn’t feeling well all week so I ended up spending lots more time with her than normal, including working Saturday morning which put me at six days for my work week. So it’s just a lazy, slow Sunday around here with clearing skies after our brief overnight sprinkle/wind storm.
I did manage to get time to attend probably what is to be the last of the season neighborhood block party on Friday evening, featuring a St. Paddy’s day theme and lots of good food, compliments of Montana Stan and Patty. It’s always a festival at their parties although the karaoke died down around 9:30 I think; I wouldn’t know because I was fast asleep by then.
I have a chock-full work schedule during the next month that Marc will have off excepting for one period of time at the end of the month when we hope we can get away in the trailer—maybe to San Diego for a few days. Marc’s honey-do list is long, topped by installing a new heat pump air conditioning system into the park model. The vehicles need some maintenance and repair and we’re shopping for local insurance in our quest to become Arizona residents.
Busy, but mundane.
By the time he leaves it will be time to drain the spa and cover it up from the unrelenting summer sun. He will head back to Concord, CA for the next project which starts April 22.
I know, I know, the pages have become nearly silent once again. That’s because the trajectory of our lives has done a 180 since Marc has become quasi-employed. The good news is that it’s great to have a normal paycheck, even if it is sporadic. With this employer, Marc is doing restaurant remodels in three week increments, usually followed by two-three weeks off. Of course, the “off” offers no pay even though he is technically on salary. The salary however works well the other way, for the company, when they can work Marc ten-twelve hours on his graveyard shifts with no overtime pay. Once in awhile though, like what he will face come later in March, the projects will fall back to back with no breaks—thus, no time home and only one night a week off. This is a pretty grueling schedule for an old guy and makes for a lonely existence for me. Don’t get me wrong: faced with the “new normal” of life in America-the-third-world-country, we are thankful to have the job.
So Marc just landed in Santa Clara, CA in his galvanized ghetto directly from Mesa, AZ and most of the new projects will take place in CA until June. Hum--that’s at least a long three months for me to think of things I can do in Yuma’s ever-increasing heat (besides work) to occupy myself. Nothing much is coming to mind. Cats and finances tie me down from doing any of my own wandering out of town so I guess I’ll just sit here, grow older and travel vicariously on my computer. So don’t worry if the blog goes silent; it’s really not a very exciting life I lead at the moment.
While I drool over my pen pal Mark’s latest blog and video, where he and wife Bobby are hiking to the top of Mt. Wrightson—somewhere in southern Arizona where I have not yet trod, (Box Canyon blog) I have just finished up my first day without Marc. He is off to do another restaurant remodel, starting in Mesa for a couple weeks, and then being sent directly to the Bay Area for at least one, possibly two more remodels. With no way to tell when we’ll see each other, I’ve tried to stay busy with cleaning and grocery shopping to take my mind off things. Since Marc doesn’t want me running around in the desert by myself, my world becomes pretty small when he leaves. No more neat camp-outs for awhile.
Fortunately, I have a busy week coming up. Helping Hands is throwing its second seasonal big yard sale and I will have my long time friend coming to stay to help out and visit. We’ll both volunteer Wednesday and she by herself also Thursday, since I still have to work most of the week on all my scheduled cleans.
Yuma is hopping lately; full to the gills with snowbirds and starting to bloom with wildflowers. We’ve enjoyed over 80 degrees the past few days but now it looks like a storm system in California is going to cool things down just a bit. That’s a good thing; mid 80’s in mid-February is just too soon!
