Above Me and my amigo Bandana Jimbo at our rough camp area near Cathedral Rock Tuesday evening 13th March
Home for the night on Wednesday 13th. Notice BBQ to the right side of Hurricane. What a place to rest up.
Cathedral Rock as the sun is beginning to set. The view from our living room.
Bandana Jimbo enjoying the changing scenery on route from Apache Junction at 65 mph.
Tuesday 13th March 2012: After leaving our RV site at Apache Junction, we headed north bound for Sedona. "Why Sedona" I hear you ask. Well the guy in the ACE harware store in Apache Junction told us it was a cool place to visit and we should go so we needed no further encouragement. Well armed with this limited information, we saddled up and headed north towards cowboy country yet again. Before I forget ACE hardware stores are a bit like B&Q but not quite so large. When we went in (all 3 amigos) we were treated like old friends by the charming staff. All we were after was 4 self tapping screws to fix the RV door. To cut a long story short we had 4 staff members serving us. When we located the screws we needed, we were offered a load more options, a bit like asking an American waiter for eggs there must be a hundred ways to eat them. After making our final selection all 4 servers were keen to tell us where the best places were to eat and what to do on route to Sedona. (By now we had succumbed and agreed to go to Sedona) At the checkout, we were presented with our 4 screws beautifully wrapped and "ready to go". The grand total $1.07c. I just love the way trhey take service so seriously out here. So onwards and upwards we went towards Sedona. He wasn't wrong this place is amazing and we have learned that this has been the main location for filming all Western's since 1954 and the last one shot was in the late 1980's. On Arrival yesterday at the only RV park in town (with no reservation) we were told the park was full but they could take us tomorrow (Wednesday 13th) "Where can we camp locally?" I asked. No problem sir and I was directed to a remote location about 7 miles out of town. This was an unexpected, yet brilliant experience. Photographs will never do justice to the amazing scenery and atmosphere that this place created. The feeling of toal isolation out in the desert with total darkness and the stars brilliantly shining with no street lighting or light pollution was simply stunning. The sky was full of all the normal formations like the Plough and Orions belt, we were even treated to a few shooting stars to make our night. By 9pm (YES 9pm) we were all tucked up doing the goodnight Mary Ellen, Good night John Boy Good night Grandpa thing and by about 1.30 am I was awake again as some of you will have noticed from my face book postings. At around 3.00 am, I could hear wild dogs, presumably Coyotes barking and howling close by. I wondered at that point if they were sniffing out the remains of our BBQ, but in truth they were much further away. In the morning Ken was up first to capture sun rise over Cathedral Rock. I followed him about 10 mins later closely followed by James. It was a fantastic experience and one we will never forget. After breakfast in Hurricane we meandered into town, ust in time to catch the local tourist information office opening. We managed to book a hired car for tomorrow (Thursday 15th) and our plan is to get on the road early, heading for Grand Canyon for the full day. It should take us about 2 hours to get there which in this part of the world is like a 20 minute drive up the road. We will no doubt post more tomorrow and let you know how we got on.
Above the Apollo Test Capsule at Meteor Creator. This is where early Apollo astronauts undertook training before going into space.
The 3 Amigos at Meteor Creator. It's really just a very big hole in the ground. Being slightly sceptical, I wonder if the US Tourist board planned this many years ago and started excavating this hole in the desert. It did after all cost us $16 to get in.... (to look at a hole)
Above. Spot Ken and James with lots of other people, looking at the hole.
Above. How exciting can one masive hole be?
Above. Brace yourself..... Here is another picture of that big hole in the ground.
