In October 2023 at a local charity auction for the purpose of raising funds for first responders in the county where I live, I wound up being the high bidder on the last item offered in the live auction. It was a week in a small rustic cottage in downtown Sedona Arizona. The catch was, it was for a summer week in 2024 to be mutually agreed upon with the owner. I didn’t expect to win it! I had bid on many other live auction items, helping to bid up the price for the eventual high bidder, thus raising the amount of money made for the charity. That was what I was hoping to do here too. I went in on the opening bid and to my surprise, no one else bid. I guess the summer heat of Arizona scared everyone. I had been to Sedona in the summer about 20 years ago when I took my father and my two youngest children on a six week cross country trip from Virginia to California and back in the VW Eurovan I featured in a post earlier this year. My oldest son was not on that trip. I offered the week at the Sedona place to him and his family. (His oldest daughter, Lainee shared her thoughts with you in her recent post on her trip to Atlanta.) My son took me up on the offer and started planning a road-trip to the Southwest. The photo above is one he took at The Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River . Like me, he likes to explore and has had the opportunity to spend time with family during the school summer break. Like me, he became a high school teacher after graduating from college. Like me, he doesn’t mind driving to get to interesting places to explore. He and I have traveled together on six-year-old adventures with his kids and I have posted photos from those trips in 2019 and 2021. He is also trying to get to all the National Parks and all the fifty states. I think he only lacks a couple of states after this trip and has been to most of the National Parks that you can drive to and many National Recreation Areas and Monuments. On the 2021 road trip, we hoped to make it to Antelope Canyon, which is on Navajo land, and the Horeshoe Bend of the Colorado River in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, but didn’t make it. Both are near Page, Arizona. I haven’t been to either. After seeing his photos, I now know I am missing out. I have seen a lot…but I haven’t seen it all. I’ll keep trying as long as I can.
On the trip they revisited the Gateway Arch in St.Louis which we visited on the 2021 trip, but this time they were able to share the experience with their mother. Additionally, they went to Guadalupe National Park, in Texas, Carlsbad Caverns (the grandkids call it the Bat Cave) and White Sands National Parks, in New Mexico, Saguaro, Petrified Forest and The Grand Canyon National Parks, in Arizona. I flew to San Diego to visit friends and rented a car and met them for a little hiking and sightseeing in Sedona. I will write about that in my next post.
To see a few photos taken by my son and his family click here. Maybe I will be able to get the grandchildren to write a little about what they experienced. Thanks for sharing the photos. If you have a password that enables you to look at private photos click here.