Sunday, 30th December
Up at 8 am. Breakfast was not so crowded but everything kept running out and we had to request more. Left at 9:15 for the local museum which showed the local geology (originally an inland sea, dinosaurs, fossils) and Indian history and culture.
We had morning tea at our motel and then went to a meteor crater 35 min east. Along the way the scenery changed from pine forest to scrub to almost bare, flat plains. We saw a ghost town “Two Guns” on Devil’s Canyon which was stone buildings from a ‘very wild’ west town. There was another ghost town ‘ Twin Arrows’ which seemed to date from the 50s – just a service station and diner.
The crater was enormous and included a short movie history and astronomy of meteors and space.
Lunch (3pm) at Wendy’s which was a very slow ‘fast food’ – a 20 min wait in line – one register and 5-6 other staff doing not much. We then drove south to Sedona, down through a beautiful canyon. Bought some Indian souvenirs on the way.
Sedona was a spectacular tourist shopping town surrounded by red canyon walls in the sunset. We bought a few things. Since the 30s about 25 western movies have been made in this canyon. We saw some huge icicles on the way, also some animal tracks in the snow. We were amazed at the houses built on the near valley floor near the stream in the trees.
Arrived back at 7pm. We put 4 quarters in the motel pool table but nothing happened. It was so cold going from our room to the lounge, that I could barely breathe. The service desk had no quarters but refunded us a dollar and as we had no more, we couldn’t play.
Chris got a Daniel Boone racoon hat.