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After yesterday's spectacular visit to the Grand Canyon we took it easy and only drove three hundred miles. Ahhh. Flagstaff, Arizona is a hotel town and most of them were empty last night. It was slow enough that I talked a clerk at the Embassy Suites into giving us an Executive Suite for a really cheap price. It was worlds removed from the silly Super 8 that we stayed at the night before. The best part (aside from his and hers televisions) was the checkout time wasn't until 1:00 p.m. We used every minute.
We drove south from Flagstaff through Phoenix and Tucson before ending up at Benson, Arizona. Benson is only twenty-five miles from Tombstone, Arizona, the site of the Gunfight at OK Corral. I don't know what we intend to do in Tombstone but it's got to be better than Dodge City, Kansas for Wild West history.
The most exciting part of today's journey was the drive through Sedona, Arizona. Sedona lies about twenty or thirty miles south of Flagstaff. It is becoming the "hot spot" for rich and famous former Californians. The appealing aspect of Sedona is its red hills. This may sound strange but Sedona is a cross between West Virginia and Monument Valley, Utah. Sedona has the huge red stone mesas and buttes but is littered with green trees. Sedona has water. The northern descent into the town winds through rocks and streams that contain lots of pine trees, aspens, and other trees that I won't try to identify. But the tree leaves have turned multiple colors and the area looks like West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia in the fall - except that the rocks are red sandstone. Sedona has more color than any place we've seen thus far.
Sedona is undergoing a building boom. The large number of art galleries indicates the wealth of its residents. Many of the new houses are being built on the hills, Los Angeles style. Lots of small hotels, cafes, boutiques, and galleries line the streets. Trendy, but nice.
It's also nice to be out of the mountainous regions of the West. The elevation of the interstate between Flagstaff and Phoenix varies constantly but the land levels out south and west of Phoenix. Some mountains still exist but seem to be mostly individual hills on the plains. An Indian reservation lies several miles southwest of Phoenix and the constant sight of businesses and houses ends abruptly leaving wide-open spaces. Phoenix is a large city. Note the city picture on the web site. The picture reflects only half of the tall buildings. The other side of the interstate had just as many high rises.
We ended up at a Days Inn in Benson, Arizona. We finished our night off with a swim in the heated outdoor swimming pool and a soak in the outdoor hot tub. I think we'll spend another night here after seeing Tombstone tomorrow.
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