Sedona

by Richard Swim · Published 2014-04-25 · Updated 2021-01-27

April 22, 2014

Early departure this morning to beat the traffic out of the metromess and meet up with Leonard and Liz for the Sedona Deux that he was hosting. Deb and I caught up with the crew in Seymour. The side-wind through the Panhandle and through Clovis was vicious. The weather warmed up eventually in New Mexico and we were treated to a dynamic afternoon of weather as we approached Santa Rosa. Leonard and I were talking over FRS trying to time our ride where we would not hit the heavy rains of the storm. I also noticed that the storm was starting to collapse in front of us, and advised him to slow way down to avoid the resulting outflow that we could see kicking up all sorts of dust and debris outside of the rain shaft. We checked into our motel on Route 66 and had a chili relleno dinner at a traditional motor lodge across the street.

Follow along with at least the photo link below for the next several days of our journey through the West. I hope to update the blog periodically as well.

April 23, 2014

Today’s journey was superslab across New Mexico and Arizona with another vicious sampling of sidewinds. The temperature did not rise much all day while we were on the interstate. We had a great lunch in Gallup. As soon as we headed south to Sedona, everything changed with bright sunshine, light winds and wonderful scenery through the twisty canyon roads leading into the lower lands. The afternoon light illuminating the red rocks of Sedona was magical. Dinner at the Creekside Cafe was delicious, sitting on the balcony with a marvelous backyard of scenery behind us.

April 24, 2014

We crawled out of bed this morning and made our way down to the Secret Garden for and excellent breakfast. Debbie stayed in town to explore and shop around, and I followed along with the ride for a bit. I joined up with Debbie later and we rode up to the Mesa Airport Grill to take a look.

On the way down, we stopped at the Mesa Vortex and I climbed the hill to see the view. As we learned later from our waiter Jonathan, the energy from the vortex is dormant currently, thank goodness, so my camera gear still functioned ; – ). We socialized on the high patio of the motel and worked our way down the hill later for a tasty dinner. A very enjoyable day.

April 25, 2014

Deb and I decided to get a jump on the bad weather coming into Sedona on Saturday. Santa Fe looked sunny and relatively warm. Plus, Deb kept asking me why we were not going through there being so close. There was a contingent of the group that headed out towards Silver City. Leonard and Liz stayed another day to enjoy Sedona and then were to make their way to California. Herman and Patti were to head back towards home Saturday. We headed south into the hilly area southeast of Sedona and enjoyed the winding roads in the chilly but sunny morning. I had planned to stay south in the two-lanes for most of the ride, but decided to get back up to the slab to make faster time to Santa Fe. We checked into the Inn of the Governors and promptly made our way down to the watering hole to sample some Santa Fe label Silver Coin tequila margaritas. The music around the square was fun to listen to.

April 26, 2014

We had a leisurely morning waking up and wandering around the square after a very tasty breakfast at the inn. We wound up looking and deciding to buy a reclaimed wood dining room that will be filled with turquoise and delivered to us back home in a few weeks. This turned out to be a pricey stop in New Mexico… It will be nice in our house and quite a conversation piece. The door came from somewhere in Colorado and is likely to be 100 years old. Reluctantly, we packed up our gear and rode through the 50 mph sidewinds back to Texas for a stay in Lubbock on our way home. Somehow Deb always has some kind of bad weather when she goes with me for a long ride. She’s a trooper though.