We packed up our souvenir rocks (all the better to improve our 9.5mpg), banged out a quick Randy Quaid, and started the first leg of our return trip - San Diego (pronounced dee-ah-go) to Marne, MI. Seems like we left home about 3 weeks ago, we've both forgotten about our jobs and are convinced that we need to find a way to do this for a living. Buuut... after seeing all the aging hippies in our campground this morning, that may not be the best decision just yet.
It took about an hour to get the Big Truck out of city driving (you have not driven until you have a wandering motorhome being cut off in 8 lanes of stop & go traffic with out of state plates), and when we finally made it to the foothills of eastern CA, we ran into more of the evil windmills. Close up they appear to be out of a bad Michael Bay movie (redundant), and it's only a matter of time until one of them works its way into a Final Destination sequel.
Beyond the windmills was another peculiarity - neither of us had ever seen anything like it. The mountains around us as we approached the AZ border appeared to be just giant rockpiles. This went on for miles - so long that I started looking for facial features, just waiting for Ben Grimm (let the nerd comments flow) to appear. See for yourself.
Up ahead we saw a sign saying "Avoid overheating, turn off A/C next 5 miles on 6% grade", so I checked the weather forecast for Yuma and discovered that it was only supposed to get to 112 degrees. That's when the genious of the Ford engineers really paid off. Where is the best possible place for cupholders in a vehicle? Why not directly above the engine, and if you're going to put them there, why not space them out laterally so each can be directly over its own exhaust manifold? We have started timing it - a giant gas station 64oz big gulp full of ice will melt in under 10 minutes. Reason #1,000 that design engineers should be sentenced to use their own products for eternity.
Coming into Phoenix, we realized that everything looks like it has been built in the last 10 years. Either the taxes at Bill Knapp's and Menard's out here are enormous, or LifeAlert has a franchise on every corner. We then passed University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the NFL Arizona Cardinals.
Our final destination was just north of Sedona, and it turns out that it is on Oak Creek Canyon road, which is exactly the same road that I raced an M3 convertible at 6:30am 9 years ago on my bike trip. Here is a small section of the road that should help you understand how much fun (and horribly irresponsible, Jordan - when you learn how to read) that was.
Anywho, just before we got to our campground, we needed to get groceries so we Garmin'd a grocery store and found one just 2 miles away. That 2 miles put us right in the heart of the Sedona shopping district. If you've never been there, let's just say that we stood out. An RV with a paint job of bug guts, red dirt, and 36 different gas station windshield washer fluid colors rolling into a Williams-Sonoma catalog apparently creates a bit of a reaction. The disapproving stares started immediately in the parking lot. My backward hat and
Kyle Orton-esque neckbeard were not to be tolerated in this 'burg.
Once we got to the campground, we quickly set up so we could get to Jordan's prize. At Legoland we had gotten her a Spongebob set (Patrick's Krabby Patty Kar, the Krusty Krab, Spongebob and Mr. Krabs) but didn't want her to lose all the pieces at the beach, so tonight was the night. We commenced with the build - here's the before & after.
Day 10 has a fairly ridiculous agenda. Shopping just down the street from the campground, then on to Valley of the Gods, Monument Valley, and hopefully to Moab before I need to be in front of a computer for an online fantasy football draft at 8:30. If you've been reading this, you realize I have spent zero time preparing for this draft, so I may just draft the entire Detroit Lions team.
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