VACAY Finally!

After EIGHT delays and postponements, I finally got to go on my first vacation in more than three years! Unfortunately, it broke down from 23 days to only 9 but hey, at least I got to go somewhere!! I actually had the camper all packed to go once but had to come home, unpack and wait a few more days until repairs could be made to the camper lights. Those cost $39 for parts and $240 for labor! (Ain’t that the way!)

I met my NC camping buddy Jeanne and her sister Joanne in Cottonwood, AZ (just south of Sedona). Jeanne moved here to AZ a year ago and this is the first time we’ve gotten to camp together again! We “boondocked” on national forest land about halfway between Cottonwood and Sedona and drove to Dead Horse Ranch State Park every day to attend the “doings” at an A-Frame Campers rally there.

Every morning the hot air balloons came sailing over our campsite from Sedona, and a couple of the days, they landed there! Pretty cool.

We volunteered to work the coffee tent at the rally from 8-10 a.m. on the coldest morning, 22 degrees! They’d pre-loaded the coffeemakers with water the night before and it was all frozen solid!

They held a doggy costume contest and offered a box full of loaner costumes. I found a unicorn costume that fit Roxie so she went as a very rare “Havanese Horn-Dog” and won second place! We got a really nice quilted mat that’s way too nice to put on the floor, a doggy bowl and a really cute stuffed bunny that I appropriated for my own bed. Roxie’s not much for toys anyway, I tell myself in justification for stealing her prize.

I thought I had everything all set here at home but while the heater kept things from freezing just fine, the refrigerator didn’t hold up. Something wonky about the electrical connection from the 12V battery to the fridge. So I had to throw away about $40 worth of organic meats, etc. That may be the only time I’m ever going to be thankful my freezer is so small!  The fridge also stopped this week again and I could not get it going so had to resort to powering it off the little Jackery solar generator again, thank goodness for that handy gadget! I believe it’s a problem with the cheapie solar charge controller so I’ve ordered a slightly more expensive Renogy one that I hope will be more reliable, and will solve the problem. If that’s not it, I’m stumped.

While in Sedona we tried to go rockhounding to two different sites nearby but had no luck finding either one. One led to a really treacherous tiny dirt track up a mountain, barely one lane wide and with hairpin turns so tight, we couldn’t make them in one go and had to back up and reposition in order to get around the turns!

I hiked the two mile Fay Canyon Trail in Sedona with Jeanne, and made it with no problem! That’s the farthest I’ve hiked in many years. My knees felt fine afterward but I did have some muscle aches the next few days. I wish I had someone to hike with here at home!

Another exciting thing we did was to visit Prescott and…..Costco! My first visit to a Costco, though I’ve been to Sams’ Club a few times. I ended up spending $155 on “great buys”! And don’t regret it a bit.  We wandered around cute downtown Prescott and managed to lose the car, so that was quite a bit of extra walking!

While on vacay I had pre-determined to blow my diet on pizza and ice cream. We got pizza from Pizzeria Bocce which is rated as one ot the top ten restaurants in AZ! I don’t know if it was the best pizza I’ve ever had (County Inn in Pine has that honor) but it was very good and it didn’t make me gain any weight. I totally blew the ice cream spurge and am still kicking myself about it. We went to Rocky Rd in Sedona and I got distracted by the one flavor of low sugar ice cream they offered…..chocolate chip. I got a tiny cup of that (for almost $5!!!) and it was a huge disappointment. I wanted a GOOD flavor like the ooey-gooey salted caramel that Jeanne got! I would never order chocolate chip!  Sigh. Next time I get ready for a splurge, I’m just gonna go for it.

I had more photos but I’ve tried with my Chromebook and the cellphone and I can’t get them to load. Sorry but I give up! The new WordPress has finally defeated me.