Day 26: All the cops in the donut shops: Sedona, AZ to Cottonwood, AZ

Oil change dilemma solved! Turns out I did not reset the reminder at last oil change. I still have up to 7000 km left on this change and that is plenty to get home! Whew. Means I don’t have to deal with any of my trust issues or the delays of things getting done more slowly than I can do them. Oil changes on the van are pretty darn easy! Thank you RAM (Fiat)!

Last night wasn’t too bad on the BLM land. The off-road vehicles stopped by sundown. The relatively frequent people like us driving down the road to find a place to camp continued well past my bedtime. We had 2 new units join our area. One backed up to our passenger side tree and was about 15 feet from our van. They didn’t block our views so all good. A few of the neighbours were gone before we emerged from our van for the day. And more good news, none of them appeared to be contestants on America’s Next Manson Family. We wondered if the woman in the skoolie was Chef Rachel from below deck. She did not look like Chef Rachel.

Before the evening hours, a couple with young baby in truck arrived with a Ram diesel dually and a 35 foot trailer in tow. Without getting out to inspect, they headed up the very uneven “road” behind our trailer. After getting the guy from Ontario to move his truck so they could make the corner, and getting semi stuck a few times, they got the rig up to the top of the hill. Then they decided to pull forward a bit to reposition. They pulled forward down the hill in front of us and could not back up the hill. Swearing occurred. They hopped in the vehicle, baby in full screaming mode and left to try somewhere else. It’s always entertaining to watch people try and pull into a site. I have been the entertainment too many times.

I’ve started listening to local radio as I fall asleep / in the morning. It’s interesting. Many ads about CBD in Quartzsite. Many ads about spiritual wellness in Sedona. Good news, I am totally healed now.

I had a lovely walk this morning along a closed off-road vehicle trail. I accidentally started the walk recording the workout as a hike. Noticed that about 0.5km in and started a new outdoor walk. I only use the outdoor walk workouts for my monthly totals. The scenery was beautiful and there was nobody around me. I did not get lost, that’s pretty good cause I would probably still be out there. The one oddity is I found these footprints from some devil creature. I assume it was following me. Picture is unedited (except for resolution). Mrs Milddogs did some googling and could not match it to any known creature. It’s the devil, Bobby Boucher! I did not get captured, perhaps because I had my crystals with me.

Post breakfast we packed up and did the slow 3.6 mile (~5km?) drive out of our site to the highway. We have passed all of the shakedown drive tests so far. Our plan was to go and explore the town of Sedona while gawking at the red rocks from in the town. We parked in municipal lot #1 (yay for being a van, we can park in a normal spot) and set out on foot. Amy kept jumping up on the small walls along the sidewalk. It was pretty funny. Perhaps she was already feeling the power of the vortexes. Some pictures from Sedona walk.

People always ask if Amy is a puppy. This upsets Amy the same way the male Lady Bugs were upset in “A Bug’s Life”. Amy is 6 now. One girl asked if she could pet Amy and I said sure. I told her Amy’s name. The girl said her mother’s name is Amy. I told her we named Amy after her mother, as long as her mother is Amy Poehler. Turns out her mother is not Amy Poehler.

After our walk around town we headed to one of the less popular trail heads. You can’t much get to the popular trailheads in a vehicle unless you arrive quite early. We did a big chunk of Chimney Rock Pass. We experienced the Vortex there. I had googled about how to know when you are at the exact Vortex spot and the answer is “you will know”. So, we knew. And we saved $19.95 USD by not buying a map from one of the hundreds of stores that sell them. The trail was nice and the scenery top notch.

With the hike complete we gave up our parking spot rather than picnicking in the van and headed to Sedonuts. Oh no! They close at noon. Super sad face. If only there was a way I could have known that. Well, I grabbed a dollar drink days at McDonalds next door (the one with the turquoise M rather than yellow M). We then decided to pick up some lupper on the way to Dead Horse Ranch State Park and selected Arianna’s Mexican Food in Cottonwood, AZ. We did something we have not done in years. We went and sat on the sparsely populated patio while we (with Amy) waited for food. Mrs Milddogs had a Margarita while I had a Pepsi (je me souviens). We talked to some of the distant neighbours on the patio (we were all at least a table apart) while enjoying this unfamiliar experience. The nice person that got us the food and drinks packaged my drink to go. I still had my McDonalds dollar drink day Coke in the van. Oh my. In the old days I would have added some rye to the remainder when we got to our campsite.

The Hippie Emporium was right across the street from the restaurant. I am not sure if you buy Hippies here or just Hippie supplies.

This state park is pretty good so far. Not quite the views we are used to. A bit more like the first state park in Louisiana.

They gave Amy a Milkbone as we checked in. She is guarding it as she often does with treats.

Showers! Wasn’t long after we parked that I made a dash for the shower. I rate it a solid 5/10 on the cleanliness scale but the water was hot so I’ll give it an 8/10. I could have stayed in there all day. Oh clean me, I have missed you! I even convinced Mrs Milddogs to use the public shower for the treat of abundant hot water.

Our plan for tomorrow is to head north. Up North means we may have to pass by Sedonuts. Maybe we can time it better. We will stop in Flagstaff to do a bit of provisioning. We don’t have a spot booked tomorrow so will try some BLM land near our Saturday destination. Looks like touring Antelope Canyon (upper tour) may not happen. We may have to luck out on a cancelation. We will call the day before we travel through the area. That is one downside to not having a fully planned out ravel plan.

I have not seen much downside to being in a van. I think it helps that I am so agreeable. But, the one challenge is that you always go together. With a trailer, you can run errands in the tow vehicle while the other person / people have a Coors Light and fall asleep in the trailer. With the van, and no secondary shelter nor secondary transportation, it’s all or nothing. I think e-bikes (or an e-bike) is a great option. Assuming you ignore the significant risk of riding a bicycle on the road. We were going to shop for one on this trip but there are very few that fit within the specs of the rack we have on the van. And nobody has any stock of those. We shall deal with that later. In the meantime we yell profanity and throw rocks at all the e-bike riders that go past our van. This adds to the significant risk of riding a bike on the road.

Today we applauded ourselves for our water and propane conservation. We’ve been doing well with both. Our propane tank still reads full and that is likely because we have not used it for heat (yet). We will fill our water and dump our tanks here before we depart tomorrow. After Friday night we have three straight days of full hookups. Oh glory. It’s chilly up north, we may have to head south for one last night before we head home. We shall see.

Sing way-o way-o.