Yesterday we chose to drive Renee’s rental car to Sedona and back, a trip of about 250 miles. Our plan was to get an early start, take the scenic route and have lunch in Sedona. Return via Interstate 17 and Montezuma Well and Montezuma Castle National Monuments. Here is the story of the trip from three different points of view.

Author 1: Renee- Mother and driver.

Things I learned on April 15th, 2011:
1. There are approximately 476 tight turns on the narrow, winding roads between Congress and Cottonwood Arizona, but the scariest are on the descent into and through Jerome, an amazing old mining town clinging to the cliffs in apparent defiance of the law of gravity. I think they must do quarterly checks of structural soundness. I know I would if I lived or worked there.
2. The red hills into which Sedona is nestled are unbelievably beautiful. It was worth the trip to see them. The town itself seems to exist solely for the tourism trade.
3. You can lead a four-year-old to restrooms, but you can’t make her go potty if she doesn’t want to.
4. Montezuma Castle is awe inspiring. To think how old these cliff dwellings are, built onto the natural caverns in the face of a sheer cliff, is just incredible. Archeologists still don’t know why the Sinagua Indians chose to live in this way, nor why they left the area abruptly.
5. The Dodge Avenger is not nearly as fun to drive as my Mustang GT convertible back home, which, of course, wouldn’t have carried all five of us anyway. I do see why big SUVs and minivans can come in handy at times.
6. There is a limit to my mellow second daughter’s patience after all.
I’m so glad we were able to make this trip and see such interesting scenery and artifacts. I apologize, Mathilda, for any inconvenience that all of the time in the car caused.

Author 2: Judy-Nana and childcare specialist.
Now, who’s idea was this trip? You got it! My sister Sonja took Gary and I on these gorgeous red rock roads a number of years ago and I was impressed sooooooo!

We could describe the seating in our mid size automobile. Mathilda was behind Mommy, the driver, in a travel car seat, and Georgia was behind papa, in the front passenger seat, in her booster seat. That left Nana the approximately eight inches between girls for her bum, making a major issue getting belted.

Now Georgia had plans for Nana having packed a game of “Go Fish”. Nana lost count of the games played, but Georgia seemed to have a knack for finding ways to win!
Now Mathilda being only seven months had different plans for Nana. It seems she likes to have help playing with toys and falling off to sleep, which she did quite regularly. There were also sips from the Mommy’s Camelback water supply.
All in all, the trip was lovely. The weather a perfect temperature, about 75, the girls were fun and we pulled it off with only a few minor hitches.

Author 3: Gary-Papa and navigator.
I loaded my trusty computer map program with the slowest most scenic route I could find through the Prescott National Forest and the Prescott valley to Sedona and the Red Rock State Park in the rim area of north central Arizona. It was an ambitions day of travel and as Renee related above, the road was anything but fast.

In Sedona we found a nice deli for a quick lunch and then Nana bought Georgia an ice cream cone. When asked, Georgia remembered the ice cream cone as the highlight of the day. I was also the unofficial time keeper. Our plan was to visit Montezuma Well and Montezuma Castle National Monuments before they closed at 5 pm, sharp! The ice cream cone almost tripped us up, but we got under way in the late afternoon. The Xerox copy of a copy of a hand drawn map vaguely showed these two monuments in the vicinity of I-17 and McGuireville. The exits were clearly marked and we zipped up to the Montezuma Well about four. We did the whole tour including the stairs down into the basin, 75 feet down and 475 feet back up with Georgia pig-a-back. Mathilda was asleep in her mother’s arms for most of the route.
I was somewhat skeptical of our chances of getting to the castle, which is 11 miles away, in time but we made it with eleven minutes to spare.

Just enough time to walk to the foot of the cliffs harboring the castle and get our pictures. Georgia was quite impressed and wanted to climb to the ruins over a hundred feet up the cliff face. Fortunately the signs said ‘no one beyond the sign.’ Whew. (The ranger was waiting at the gate to usher us out of the park.)
Georgia requested an Indian princess story from her dad that evening for her bedtime story. Do we have a budding archeologist in the family? We should mention that Dad is slaving away in Hillsboro catching up on his work.
We had an exciting day and saw many wonderful sights and some spectacular scenery. We will have to return again. One day was about two weeks short of enough time. If you are ever visiting the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff, be sure and include Sedona in your plans.
We close with salutations from sunny Arizona from Papa, Nana, Mommy, Georgia and Mathilda.