Southwest Journey: Day 1 – Arrival (Sedona)
For each journey to the southwest, the primary day is strategically a very powerful. It defines the success of your complete journey. There’s a lot happening day one.
Air Journey
First, it’s an air journey day. The purpose is to succeed in our vacation spot as early as doable. After being delayed twice throughout connection stops on earlier journeys, I’ve discovered to at all times ebook direct flights to attenuate the prospect of delays.
For us, Las Vegas is probably the most logical vacation spot to fly into since it’s positioned inside driving distance from the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, Dying Valley, and Sierra. However, what makes Las Vegas prohibitive for driving journeys is the worth of rental vehicles.
When you lease a automotive in Las Vegas and return it to the identical location, the costs are cheap. However, if you wish to return the automotive to a different metropolis, it’s rather more costly. I don’t imply like double in value; I imply 4 to 5 occasions increased. Since we deliberate to fly residence from San Francisco, touchdown in Las Vegas and renting a automotive was out of the query.
As a substitute, we flew to Phoenix the place, regardless of the place you come your rental automotive, the worth doesn’t change. It is usually nonetheless inside driving distance to Northern Arizona and Southern Utah.
Automotive Rental
Subsequent, the problem is to lease the appropriate automotive. Since we had been planning on doing plenty of grime highway driving, I completely needed a four-wheel or an all-wheel drive automotive.
When reserving the automotive a month upfront, I chosen the Toyota 4Runner class of automotive and specified we wanted at the very least an AWD mannequin within the feedback. However, I assume nobody reads buyer feedback as a result of after we arrived on the automotive rental hub in Phoenix, there was no AWD mannequin obtainable. After lengthy negotiations, they upgraded us two ranges and gave us a brand new GM Traverse, which is a full-size SUV.
Though it was overkill for 2 individuals, it saved us a few occasions throughout these stormy nights since we may comfortably sleep in it.
Meals
The ultimate problem on the primary day was to load up on meals.
The purpose is to have sufficient provisions to remain off the grid for at the very least seven days. We strategy this activity strategically and know the exact checklist of things we have to purchase.
The primary cease is at all times Walmart the place we buy a cooler. Since it’s not possible to convey a cooler and even tenting chairs on the airplane, we at all times purchase these things on the primary day of our journey after which go away them behind on the final day on the automotive rental after we return the automotive. Over time, we now have dumped at the very least a dozen coolers and over two-dozen tenting chairs.
In recent times, Walmart made touring a lot simpler due to the Ship To Retailer service. Now, I can store for provides on-line from the consolation of my residence and, if the actual retailer doesn’t have it in inventory, they’ll ship it to that location freed from cost. All I’ve to do is cease on the retailer and decide it up on the counter.
I like it!
The second cease is at Costco the place we load up on provisions. That is one other benefit of touring in the USA—your Costco membership goes a great distance. We load up on produce, cheeses, and our favourite California wine.
Usually, we’re prepared to begin our journey at this level however, this time, I made one other brief cease in Phoenix.
Specialty Meals
I found that if you find yourself on lengthy tenting journeys the place you need to cook dinner each day, probably the most strategic meals to have available is Russian-style canned meat. It has its origins within the Soviet army throughout the Chilly Battle. The meat, which is generally beef, was saved throughout the nation in bunkers to feed the army within the occasion of conflict.
The most important benefit of this specific kind of meat is that it could possibly be saved as much as 10 years at room temperature.
Such a canned meat continues to be common in Russia and is accessible at any Russian meals retailer throughout North America. What makes this meat supreme for tenting is that you could have a nutritious and attractive dinner in simply minutes. Prepare dinner rice in boiling water for eight to 9 minutes till it’s prepared. Dump the contents of the can into the rice. Because the meat already has loads of spices in it, dinner is prepared. It’s quick and jogs my memory of my childhood.
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We stopped on the Russian grocery retailer in Phoenix and acquired six cans of Soviet-style canned meat. By then, it was late afternoon after we left Phoenix and headed towards Flagstaff.
Fast Cease in Sedona
It’s a two-hour drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff, leaving us with solely a few hours to spare for a brief cease at Sedona. As a substitute of driving to Sedona utilizing Arizona’s busy State Route 89A, we determined to check the off-road functionality of our rental automotive and drove by the mountains taking the tough and rocky Schnebly Hill Street.
Due to poor highway circumstances, it took us some time to succeed in Schnebly Hill Vista Overlook the place you’ve got a pleasant view of Sedona Valley. Sadly, the climate was unfavorable for pictures. The air was hazy with no clouds within the sky. The one technique to seize the Sedona Valley view was to shoot straight into the cruel solar.
Schnebly Hill Vista Overlook
The excellent news is that we managed to check the off-road efficiency of our rental automotive, which carried out admirably. We reached a small motel on the outskirts of Flagstaff after sundown and had been prepared to begin an actual journey the next day.
