Headed home 10/5/18

I'm writing this a week later because I've been putting off finishing up the blog posts about the trip. That means I will no longer be going through the pictures and reliving the trip :-(

Except that I'm preparing for a couple of presentations about the trip! I just culled through all the trip pictures to pick out the ones I'd like to have printed and will include in my presentation. My first sweep through resulted in *751* photos!! Guess I'll have to make another couple of sweeps through!

Anyway, if you're in the New Haven area and want to come to one of the presentations to hear stories and see pictures, please come!

Back to the "headed home" portion of the trip...of course there is a story...I was leaving Sedona, sobbing my eyes out as I drove out of town because I just wasn't ready to go home! I saw an arts and crafts show and decided to stop. I did it because I knew I had plenty of time, I love stuff like this, to delay my departure, and to avoid my feelings! :-)

Before I show you some of the goodies I saw, I have to say that this stop was divinely inspired. I say that because, as I was walking back to the truck (which was parked across the street) I saw that the front portion of the camper was not locked down! I freaked! It turns out that in my disturbed state, I completely forgot to clip down the top of the camper all the way around!! If I had not spotted this error so soon after leaving (and before getting on the highway and driving at high speeds), I would very likely have ruined the camper!! So thank you God for inspiring me to stop.

These were some of the cool things I saw. I bought one of the necklaces made of local Red Creek jasper, and one of the candles made of rock. I really wanted to buy one of the metal cacti so I could have a way of having a cactus outside my home, but didn't want to deal with shipping yet another  item, and that's the kind of purchase I need to think about!

Leaving Sedona, headed to Avondale where Greyson and Brandi (camper owners) live...

I stopped at the National Monument Montezuma's Castle (a misnomer, btw). These are "a set of well-preserved dwellings located in Camp Verde, Arizona which were built and used by the Sinagua people, a pre-Columbian culture closely related to the Hohokam and other indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States, between approximately 1100 and 1425 AD." (quoted from the website). Very cool place!

The bottom right photo is of a diorama of the insides that was created when they closed the dwelling to the public decades ago.

And here is the truck, back in the driveway of it's owners Greyson and Brandi.

This was on the wall in their bathroom, it felt very fitting for my trip. I cried when I saw it. Not only because of the cactus, but because of the unparalleled level of freedom I experience on this trip!