Sedona and Family

Yesterday was the first day I missed writing in my blog since I started. It wasn't that I forgot, I simply ran out of time and energy.

On Friday we were supposed to go camping with the kids and some friends of ours at Fossil Creek north of Payson. The kids were looking forward to this for the past week because they had heard how pretty it was there and that it had waterfalls and swimming holes. Unfortunately things didn't work out the way we had planned and we were unable to do the overnight campout there. We began regrouping and thinking about what we wanted to do this weekend with the kids. After a bit of conversation Jody and I decided that it would be fun to go to Sedona and hike a bit and swim in Oak Creek.

Sometime Friday Porter called me and asked what we were doing for the weekend. We both explained to each other how our camping trips had been blown and that we needed to do something. I told him about our Sedona plans and asked if he wanted to join in. He said yes and the plan was hatched. We decided to take off as close to 9am as we could so we would have a full day of it.

Saturday morning at 9 Porter, Lana, Tatum and Dane showed up. We were all ready, short of a stop at the ATM for some cash. Surprisingly, by 9:30am we were headed north to Sedona. What should have been a lovely 2 hour drive became somewhat of a nightmare. It seemed that we were being thwarted at every turn. We decided to take the 101 north to avoid downtown Phoenix and cut a little time off the trip. Unfortunately there was road construction on the 101 just north of McDowell Road. So, we got stuck in a gnarled up traffic jam for 30 minutes between the 202/101 interchange and McDowell Road. After making through that mess, and rerouting back to the 202 to get to I-17 we were hit with yet another road closure on I-17. Fortunately we saw the notice soon enough that we were able to reroute, yet again, north on the 51 back to the northern section of the 101. aaagggghhhh!!!!!!! It was SO FRUSTRATING. FINALLY, we were off to the beautiful red rocks of Sedona. But, not everything was peaches and cream in driverville. We got to Oak Creek Village and hit yet another snarl of traffic. EVERY road leading into and out of Sedona is under construction. Two lanes are down to 1. Smooth roads are now rough because of temporary detours. Where there were stop lights, they now have confusing round abouts. It WAS A MESS!!! What should have taken us 2 hours to drive took over 3. The kids were upset, the adults were all on edge and what should have been a fun, lovely trip was turning into a disaster. I couldn't help feel somewhat responsible because Sedona was my idea.

Finally we got into Sedona and were on our way to Cathedral Rock. Cathedral Rock is a famous landmark in Sedona. It is on the South West part of town as if you were headed back to Jerome. Oak Creek runs right through there and has some great swimming holes. The main reason we wanted to go to that spot is that they have an interesting dry riverbed filled with stacked rock monuments. (I'll tell more about that later.) So, we stopped first to make sure we had the right directions to get there. I told Porter how to get there in case we got separated. Sure enough, we got separated. We got to the park, paid our fee and went in, thinking that Porter was probably already there as he took off just before us. But, after a sweep through, we saw that there was no sign of Porter and his car. I dropped the kids off and headed back up to our turn off point to see if I could find them. I finally got cell reception when back up at the top of the hill and was able to call Porter. He had been close, but didn't think our spot was so far down the canyon, so they had turned around and started looking elsewhere. We hooked up and got back to our spot after a short drive. More AAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!!!

We had packed a cooler with sandwiches, sodas, water, and lots of fresh fruit. We had a nice picnic at the park of the Red Rocks at the base of Cathedral Rock. After eating we cleaned up and began hiking into the water holes and rock formations. It is a really nice, simple hike that any walking kid can make. Along the path are large Cottonwood trees, and many other brushy type trees that I didn't recognize. They have grown tall and together at about 10 feet high creating a natural canopy. On the right hand side of the path was Oak Creek. Some points were rather small, then others were deep and wide. At one point on the path we came upon a dry river bed. There were millions of river rocks of varying sizes, shapes and colors. That in and of itself was interesting, but what really stand out are these rock monuments that people have built. There were probably close to 1,000 staked rock formations. Most had a large rock base, and then subsequently smaller rocks stacked on top of the other making a pyramid. It kind of reminded me of the ring stacking toy most infants play with. There were tiny rock formations and HUGE boulder formations. There were some that stacked with each rock at a 45 degree angle and others that used many smaller stones as wedges to keep the larger stones from falling. Of course we had to add to the collection. I think our total addition was only 5 or 6 monuments. We built many more, but we have to subtract for those that Dane destroyed. (No 2 year old boy could withstand the temptation of knocking down these great towers of stone.)

I went swimming in the water holes first. That wasn't exactly by design. I was walking across the creek when Porter threw me a stone he liked. I dropped it, but could see where it had landed on the bottom of the creek. I leaned down to pick it up and one of my feet slipped. I fell backwards into about 4 feet of water, shirt and all. The swimming was on. We all hung out in the water and watched the kids swing on rope swings into the water. We splashed and joked and had a great time. When we finished we headed up to Dairy Queen for a little treat. (I had NO treat of any sort...and it wasn't hard to turn down. I have to admit, I was proud of myself for being strong.)

We finished the day by eating at Oxaca Mexican Food Restaurant on Main Street in Sedona. The food was OK, but the company and conversation were great. It was so much fun hanging out with Porter, Lana, Tatum and Dane. The kids had a blast and we all forgot about how cranky and upset we were because of the arduous journey up. All we knew was that we had a lot of fun, loved our families and each other and couldn't wait to do something like this again.

Eric

P.S. I woke up on Saturday morning and went to the gym. This is the first time I can remember in a LONG time that I had 6 days of work outs in one week. I feel good and even stronger in my resolve to succeed on this journey.