{"id":700,"date":"2009-07-22T09:55:15","date_gmt":"2009-07-22T13:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/?p=700"},"modified":"2009-07-22T09:55:15","modified_gmt":"2009-07-22T13:55:15","slug":"a-shift-in-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/2009\/07\/22\/a-shift-in-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"A Shift in Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

I screwed up in Sedona. It was\u00a0actually in Cottonwood AZ.\u00a0 Up until this point of our trip, we\u2019ve been happy with all our campsites, sightseeing and other accommodations.\u00a0 You never know what you are going to get when booking things online and we were reminded of that the hard way.\u00a0 After a very long driving day, we arrived in Cottonwood\u00a0with great anticipation of this beautiful area we heard about from friends and family who had visited recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Creek

Creek at Rancho Sedona RV Park<\/p><\/div>\n

Our campsite promised shady trees along the river bed, only miles from Sedona city center.\u00a0 I wish.\u00a0 When we pulled into Rio Verde RV Park in Cottonwood AZ, we kept driving through as if we made a wrong turn.\u00a0 The website didn\u2019t mention the broken down vehicles on the side of the road, the unlevel sights on top of each other and the disheveled office that was supposed to welcome you to the area.\u00a0 I swear I could smell the bathrooms from behind the closed windows of our RV.\u00a0 I immediately grabbed my Blackberry and tried to find an alternative.\u00a0 Dennis tried to see if Betty had other suggestions.\u00a0 We came across Rancho Sedona RV <\/a>park right in Sedona.\u00a0 After a quick call, we drove the 45 minutes north to get to what became our sanctuary.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say enough about Rancho Sedona and it\u2019s not just because of the Cottonwood experience.\u00a0 The staff was kind, helpful; the park was clean and shaded; the location was walking distance from Lucile Ball\u2019s former home which is now owned by the Doublemint Twins (you can still see Lucy’s life-sized plastic image waving from the balcony) and downtown Sedona.<\/p>\n

Happy to be amongst the clean, we decided not to unplug and drive for an entire day.\u00a0 A leisurely morning was followed by an afternoon walk to downtown for shopping and ice cream.\u00a0 A free shuttle<\/a> brought visitors to the shops nearby.\u00a0 Our driver recommended a store that specialized in goods made by the local Indian tribes.\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t resist, and left with our wallets a little lighter.\u00a0 The boys and I were attracted to a store armed with dumb humor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Greetings

Greetings Earthlings<\/p><\/div>\n

I loved the welcome mat in the window \u201cHi.\u00a0 I\u2019m Mat.\u201d\u00a0 We enjoyed chatting with the store manager who obviously was pleased with our juvenile funny bones.\u00a0 But when she brought out the heavy artillery, a remote fart machine, we were never going to leave.\u00a0 Poor Dennis, the victim again but he did have a good sense of humor about it.\u00a0 A couple more stops for refreshments, crystals and the local UFO, we headed back to camp to get ready for another awesome adventure \u2013 4X4 jeep in the dessert.<\/p>\n

Our campground host Joanie, a former concierge, arranged for our jeep tour to pick us up at the campsite saving us a trip back into town.\u00a0 There are many jeep, hummer and sightseeing tours to choose from, all of different prices, lengths and degrees of excitement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Homer

Homer and Marge Rocks<\/p><\/div>\n

Buy on price and your schedule.\u00a0 We chose the \u201cDay in the West\u201d<\/a> tour and were not disappointed for one minute.\u00a0 Our guide, Clyde, loved his job \u2013 taking innocent victims, I mean tourists, to experience the back hills of the desert. \u00a0\u00a0He could tell from the wide eyes of the twins, we were up for some fun and he delivered.\u00a0 He pointed out the traditional facts of Sedona such as it is only 5 square miles, some offbeat facts like it is the only McDonald\u2019s in the world with green arches due to the city requirements that everything must be within a pre-determined color palette.\u00a0 He showed us the \u201cMarge and Homer\u201d rock formations, identified with the help of some local favorite tequila.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is no possible way for me to adequately describe how awesome that night was for all of us.\u00a0 We laughed like school girls when I was bounced right out of my seat.\u00a0 Per request of the kids, Clyde delivered the bumpiest, happiest, fantastic night he could within the limits of keeping his job and not destroying his vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Happy

Happy to be alive!<\/p><\/div>\n

The trails were long and bumpy, roller coaster-ish at some points.\u00a0 Many of the climbs made us feel like we were on the hind\u00a0wheels only\u00a0but it was the downhill thrills that gratified us the most.\u00a0 There was one moment of concern when we landed so hard that the vibration from the rock below us split in two and it rumbled through the entire vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Roller

Roller coaster trail<\/p><\/div>\n

We searched for rattlesnakes but saw only bunny rabbits.\u00a0 He pointed out unique plant life and told us how the Indians\u2019 use these plants to survive in the wilderness.\u00a0 The sun was setting on our return to camp.\u00a0 The\u00a0rocks\u00a0took on some many shades of red as the sun disappeared in the distance.\u00a0\u00a0It was a wonderful ending to our already wonderful day.<\/p>\n

\"Sedona

Sedona sunset<\/p><\/div>\n

We decided to take it easy the rest of the night, since tomorrow’s dance card was full.\u00a0 We had a list a mile long of everything we wanted to do during our last day in the area.\u00a0 Slide Rock National Park was on the top of the list, then a little hiking at Cathedral Rock, topped off with lunch in Jerome, a ghost town about 35 minutes south.\u00a0 However, there was one more\u00a0thrill in store for us before the night’s end.\u00a0 A fellow camper was walking past our RV when we stopped and stared at the ground.\u00a0 Dennis and I were both intrigued so we asked what critter he spotted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Our

Our campsite visitor<\/p><\/div>\n

He threw us a look like “You’ve got to come see for yourself”.\u00a0 We were stopped dead in our tracks when our neighbor announced it was a very large tarantula spider walking in our direction.\u00a0 Den and I were fascinated while the kids refused to leave the RV to get a closer look.\u00a0\u00a0 My skin crawled for a while before falling into a deep sleep, resting for another busy day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

To see all our Sedona jeep tour photos<\/a> or downtown Sedona<\/a>\u00a0photos\u00a0visit Snapfish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I screwed up in Sedona. It was\u00a0actually in Cottonwood AZ.\u00a0 Up until this point of our trip, we\u2019ve been happy with all our campsites, sightseeing and other accommodations.\u00a0 You never know what you are going to get when booking things online and we were reminded of that the hard way.\u00a0 After a very long driving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[103,63,35],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}