2017 Day 8

First stop and most of the day was Sedona. We heard quite consistently over the past 7 days, "Go to Sedona!" They were right and if you haven't been there, put it on your bucket list. The pictures below don't do it justice. Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, the Chapel of the Holy Cross and the view from it were simply spectacular. The Chapel of the Holy Cross is a Catholic church built high up in a magnificent red rock formation and is breathtaking. Thousands of people visit there daily. Most arrive in awe and most leave spiritually filled. Many pray - you can see Barry praying for Kathy - the food server from our Phoenix restaurant two days ago.

We took way too long in the Sedona area - we stopped at every single pullout. Sedona is the name of the town north of Phoenix and is situated in simply one of the most scenic areas you will ever see. It was difficult to leave, but around 4:00 we headed north.

We stopped for the day in Williams - the town at the junction of I-40 and the highway heading north to the Grand Canyon. We had no idea what a great little tourist town it is. The main strip is a few blocks of the original Route 66 and is bristling with old west type activities, stores, and even gunfights. By the way, the temperature in northern Arizona this evening was 58. Two days ago at Casa Grande in central Arizona it was 117.

Our first of two good deeds today centered around Sunshine. During our one mile hike to see Cathedral Rock we met a lady hiking to see the same rock formations we were heading for. We exchanged just a few pleasantries and she headed off in front of us. We made it to the area where we obtained some good photos and then turned back toward the parking lot. We stopped for a while to cool off in a popular swimming hole in a beautiful creek running alongside the trail. Several minutes after resuming our hike back we noticed surroundings that were new to us. In other words we were lost. About that time, Sunshine - the lady we met earlier in the hike, was coming toward us. She was lost too, but she had a hikers' GPS, so we followed her to the right trail and to the parking lot. On the way there we explained our trip and we learned that she works at a homeless mission near the Alamo in San Antonio. We wanted to do some kind of good deed for her but she said that since she works in a homeless shelter that her good deed for us should suffice. We said OK, but then we saw her at a Subway later and bought her a lunch. So tough luck Sunshine - we still did a good deed for you after your giant deed for us.

The second good deed centered around our rental car. We will be returning it tomorrow night at the Las Vegas airport. When we picked it up a week ago it was loaded with stains on the front two seats. The rental company managers are aware of it but they may be surprised when they see that the stains have been removed due to our purchasing of upholstery cleaner followed by some tough rubbing.

That's it for our last full day. We will be heading in the Las Vegas direction tomorrow morning and will make sure we arrive early for our flight home tomorrow night. Arizona, Utah, and the west - we had an awesome time, but there's some people in the east pretty important to us.