Fernanda & Karl - Road Trip, Day 15 -- Website by Now Interactive Solutions

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Vermont
03/26/10

Brú na Bóinne
08/08/09

Galway
08/04/09

Northern Ireland
07/30/09

Donegal
07/24/09

Dublin, etc.
07/18/09

Brasil 2009
04/10/09

Weihnachten, 2008
12/24/08

Syncsort Xmas Party 2008
12/15/08

Family visits: Karl's parents, uncle, and cousin
11/22/08

Vania's Visit
11/15/08

Marden's visit
11/08/08

Autumn hiking, Ramapo, NJ
10/18/08

Oktoberfest 2008, Hackensack
10/04/08

Labor Day Pool Party
08/31/08

Philharmonic in the Park (yet again)
06/24/08

Fernanda's Parents Come to Visit
06/02/08

Memorial Day Weekend in CT with Missy
05/26/08

Fernanda's Birthday Party, 2008
05/17/08

Katja comes to visit!
04/20/08

Spring 2008
04/12/08

Nikhil's Karaoke Birthday Bar Party
04/05/08

Cross-country Skiing in New England
02/09/08

Karl's Birthday Party 2008
01/26/08

Xmas 2007
12/24/07

Syncsort Xmas 2007
12/08/07

Oktoberfest in our Apartment
10/06/07

Crash!
09/15/07

Nebraska, Iowa
09/13/07

Wyoming, Nebraska, Blow-out
09/12/07

[...]
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Saturday, September 1, 2007

Road Trip, Day 15

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Arizona

Today was not a good day for me. Starting at 5 am people started noisily leaving the lodge; in particular the zoo animals next door kept leaving and coming back to leave again, and when you finally thought they'd left, they'd come back and do it again, so that by the fifth time I got up and opened the door and shushed them. By this point it was too late, my sleep had been ruined. The final touch came a little later with some guy proclaiming, "Ausgebung!", till your brain finally realizes he means "housekeeping", and if you don't put up the "Do Not Disturb" sign he may well walk into your room. Give it up, this place was obviously not meant for sleep.

So I was cranky and sluggish. We wasted about an hour in the quest for ice leaving the lodge, because the one machine just down the hall from our room, which had been depleted by all the noisy early risers, turns out to be the only one in the whole complex. So we coaxed a few more cubes out of it, before it completely gave up the ghost.

We tried driving by the super secret open wifi location, too, but there was no wifi for us. So, one last look down the canyon, and off we drove, direction Flagstaff.

It was in Flagstaff filling up the car that I noticed that I didn't have my keys in my pocket. Tired and sluggish I couldn't remember when I'd had them last. I searched in vain in and under the car seat. I searched my other pants. I called the lodge toll free booking number on a pay phone, waited on hold for over ten minutes before they finally got on to me to tell me they couldn't connect me to anyone, but here's the number. I put a dollar into the damn phone to call the lodge directly, but they hadn't found them. They told me I'd have to call back on Tuesday, since they only attend business hours, and we have a holiday coming up Monday.

I was totally dispirited and grumpy and cranky and frustrated and tired. I'd lost my house keys, office key, and the keys to all the little locks on my backpack.

Flagstaff was wasted on me. Even though it seemed hip and happening, I just couldn't get into it. Traffic along the stretch of Route 66 we'd need to take was congested. We stopped by the library to see if they had an open wifi (they didn't), then went to check out the Art in the Park fair going on in the park across the street. I wasn't into it. When we left Flagstaff, we discovered that the reason for all the traffic was some Bluegrass Festival they were having for the weekend.

We drove past a scenic lookout, and stopped in. It was Oak Creek Canyon, but after the Grand Canyon, it could just not compete... The road went down a series of switchbacks to get to the bottom. We passed Slide Rock State Park, but it was crowded to the brim, and there was no parking, and it was raining, so we didn't stop to swim. We got to Sedona, and did stop. Sedona seems to be a great place if you are in dire need of a tourist t-shirt, with every other store seeming to be a t-shirt shop. We wandered around the downtown shopping area a while. Sedona has very scenic surroundings, red rock buttes and rock formations, but the town is probably a little too trendy. We got our fill and pushed on.

Cottowood was unremarkable, but Jerome was very interesting. Again a series of switchbacks up a mountain, only the town was now built along these switchbacks. It was very reminiscent of some of the Amalfi Coast towns. The hotel was too rich for our blood though, so we pushed on to Prescott. This damn holiday weekend, motel prices are up and all the rooms are full. We took a place in Prescott, no wifi, though I can pick up the wifi from the motel across the street, but since I don't have a password, it only runs at 128 k. My mood has predisposed me not to think much of Prescott, a redneck biker backwater with their tired skanky women, and a side of itinerant Mexican workers. Our motel room, facing the street, is right above a tattoo parlor.

Prescott is actually rather touristy, with it's Whiskey Row of old time Western saloons. We went downtown, and actually found a very good Mexican place, Annalina's Authentic Mexican Food. It's in a high ceilinged old building, the food is excellent, the prices are very reasonable, the people very friendly. And I'm in a lousy mood!

Afterwards we drove up in front of the closed library, and I picked up a great open wifi, was uploading stuff great, when after a while it disappeared. Turns out it was NOT the library wifi, which needs a password, but something else, I don't know what. There where some 4 or 5 wifi connections available from there. I was able to continue uploading on a slower free version of the same commercial provider I can pick up from the motel room -- apparently they cover the main square of the town, too.

So, here I sit in the motel room with the sound of traffic, subwoofers and unmuffled motorcycles passing; here's hoping for a good night's sleep and less crankiness tomorrow. Which, by the way, is still totally in the air.

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Previous Entries

Our Trip to Ireland
08/09/09

Google Map of our Trip
09/17/07

Road Trip: The End
09/15/07

Road Trip, Day 27
09/13/07

Road Trip, Day 26
09/12/07

Road Trip, Day 25
09/11/07

Road Trip, Day 24
09/10/07

Road Trip, Day 23
09/09/07

Road Trip, Day 22
09/08/07