I woke up early and went through
the room twice to make sure I did not forget anything. A nice waffle for breakfast and the hotel shuttle dropped me off at the Hertz rent a car place beside the airport. It was a huge building with a couple of levels of cars. I rented a Nissan versa and was on the road by 9:15 headed north to Sedona and the Grand canyon.
The weather report was for snow and they had actually closed the hi-way to Flagstaff
( on my way) as they had received 9 inches of the white stuff. I stopped in Anthem to try and find the Big Dog store for Shauna but they were no longer there.
On to camp Verde where I bought a watch and some postcards.
Trying to get back onto the 17, I had to turn around and went into what I thought was a shortcut across a lot (it looked like a road) turned out to be for trucks not cars so did a little 4 wheeling and got a little muddy. I drove around a Taco time restaurant a few times getting the dirt off the wheels as I figured that if I went onto the freeway with that much dirt flying off of them I would be a hazard.
I was hoping to find a puddle as it was trying to rain but had no luck. I stopped in to the visitor information and asked about directions to Sedona. The man who was there asked me if I was single, married or widowed and I said goodbye, I would get directions elsewhere. I had no idea that a person’s marital status was important when getting directions.
He tried to say that they had a time-share in Sedona but the damage was done and I was out of there. Very weird. The signs to Sedona are very good so got there with no trouble.Big red, red rocks everywhere, absolutely gorgeous, and the sun even came out for a little while. The town is kind of odd as it is long and narrow and has about 10 little traffic circles.
I don’t think I actually got downtown or up town but I did see a lot of the galleries that Will had told me about.
Had a nice quiche for lunch at the Hillside restaurant which has a great view when it is not raining/snowing. I stopped a few times at the raodside turnouts on the way back to 17 to get some pics of the great rocks. as it is in a park one needs to have a parking pass or you can get a fine so the pictures cost me 5 bucks but are worth every penny.
The weather pretty much deteriorated as the afternoon progressed. I went into snow as the road went higher. I thought when we hit 6000 ft that we must be at the top but no, 7335 feet at the top of the Arizona divide. Lots of times the traffic slowed right down to 40 mph , a long line of cars following a big truck. No one went faster or used the other lane, but we did get through to Flagstaff who was indeed under a blanket of snow.
It is a beautiful drive with lots of different scenery. Big ponerosa like trees or flat mesas, sage rolling hills. Very nice. I went through Red lake, Valle and Tusayan and got into the grand canyon about 4 in the afternoon. I was not surprised and laughed out loud when I finally got to the edge and couldn’t really see the canyon for the snow. I took some photos and videos. I even got over being fearful of falling over the edge, as I could not see how deep and scary it really was, and got some shots looking down into the canyon.
It was cold and I did not have any gloves or a hat. I wore my scarf as a hat but a 5 when it was getting dark I headed back to the hotel in Tusayan just outside the park.
The park attendant had told me where to find the hotel as it is not visible from the road. you have to go behind the Imax. I never would have found it well maybe I would have. The room was very cold and I could see the thermostat so I called the front desk. 
oh yes they had one on the wall right beside the sliding doors. Turned out it was the actual heater which I cranked up till the room was toasty. had a great sleep dreaming of snowy roads and non existent cliff edges.
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