Drive to Sedona, AZ

I decided to break up my Sedona post into two parts. This will be the first part, which is just about getting here. I'll post about Sedona and the surrounding areas later this week.

The drive from Angel Fire to Albuquerque was nice. Back through some mountain roads that followed along the Rio Grande River. Actually quite beautiful.

We only stayed one night at Route 66 RV Park located about 20 minutes west of Albuquerque. Nice park. Nothing special but it served it's purpose. It would be unfair for me to post anything about Albuquerque since we didn't spend any time there. I've been to Albuquerque when I was still working and there wasn't anything that I wanted to see again.

Our plan was to drive from there to Gallup, NM, spend one night and then drive to Sedona, AZ the next day. We left in the morning and the wind was blowing. Nothing crazy but enough to be aware of. By the time we got to Gallup the wind was blowing about 30 mph and it was pouring rain. It didn't make sense to stop, so we made the decision to break one of our rules and just drive through to Sedona. The total drive was about 350 miles.

Based on the weather report, it looked like we could drive through the rain in about an hour. But during that time, Melissa was pretty nervous. I40 is a major commercial route so we were sharing the highway with plenty of semi-trucks who were driving in the same conditions. Melissa finally decided to go in the bedroom and just chill on the bed with the dogs.

Well...the rain let up after an hour or so, but the wind did not. Just before we got to Flagstaff, Melissa comes back to the front of the RV to say that she totally trusts me but wants to know if we're safe to be driving in this wind. I assured her that we were good, but I did acknowledge that we were pushing the upper limits. There was no way I could take either hand off the wheel to check a weather report, but I said "I know this. These wind gusts have to be more than 30 mph". So Melissa checks the weather report. Wind gusts were 49 mph! I'll say it was more like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride than It's A Small World.

Eventually we made it to Verde Ranch RV Resort in Sedona but my arms were sore. I stepped out of the RV and realized that poor Betty and Lou were a mess. A picture won't do it justice but here's Lou.

You couldn't even see out the windows. Many of you know me well enough to know that I couldn't spend one night with everything that dirty. So I spent several hours (until sundown) washing Betty while Melissa took Lou to the car wash after I cleaned the front window.

Side note: Melissa managed to get her nails done while she was out. 😎😉

We slept well that night! Great resort and the skies and surrounding topography are beautiful. We've definitely been exploring the area. More details in my next post.

Happy Easter! Hope you enjoyed the weekend.