An Added Note To You, Quilting, Food, & Sedona, AZ

I sewed a 55-inch table topper quilt for the fall. You know, in HOWE (footnote 1) our dining table isn’t that big! HAHA This was a kit that I got while shopping with my friend, Bridget, in Spearfish, SD. I rarely make quilts from kits but this one caught my eye. It will be a wall hanging for us. In the evening we walked around this campground, Verde Valley Thousand Trails. We went into the huge lodge (clubhouse) that is close by. They have a big screen TV with a sign “Arizona Cardinal games get priority watching.” LOL Love that! There is a large kitchen area, dining tables, library and game area. It is one of the nicest lodges we have seen. 

Oh, let me add a note here for you, Readers! As I have mentioned, I have to whittle down my travel journal for the parts we post in the blog. Otherwise the posts would be way too long! LOL Anyway, I think I didn’t include something and want to share it now. Back when we were in Apple Valley, Utah, we saw there was a Monster Truck Show and we bought tickets ahead of time. We haven’t been to one of those before and thought it would be a blast! The morning of the show we saw that the event had been canceled. No reason given. Oh, we were disappointed! Then I said, “Well, ya know, refund money is ‘free money’…so let’s split it and go buy something fun for us.” Now, the funny thing about this is, if we want something, we buy it. But there was just something extra silly about spending this “free money” and we gave ourselves a really fun time. What did I purchase? I wanted a food processor. I have a Cuisinart one at our homebase house. It just slices and shreds and I didn’t think I needed it in HOWE. But lately I had been thinking I want one in HOWE. At the store we didn’t find the one I have but did find a Ninja Food Processor – that even makes dough! That was my purchase. Kevin bought various stuff for his ham radio online. Aren’t we silly!?!

The evening was perfect weather. When we got back I did the food prep for fajitas. I will tell you, my new Ninja Food Processor sliced the onions and green peppers perfectly! In fact, I like the food processor so much I am thinking of keeping it on the kitchen counter in the corner. You know that is special because I don’t keep things on the counters! LOL We will see how long that lasts. I also chunked chicken and then Kevin cooked it all on our Blackstone. The food was outstanding.

Happy Candy Day! Funny, we just ate a few of the mini candy bars we got for ourselves the other day. However, I did some cooking! I tried out 2 new recipes from the Ninja Food Processor instructions recipes. The first one was Key Lime Cheesecake. Oh, gosh, the Ninja Food Processor did a great and lightning fast job on the graham crackers. For the filling, it was so neat to use the programmed setting. It went long and I wondered if I should stop it but I didn’t. It stopped and was exactly mixed and the right consistency. Very happy. Very yummy. The next thing I made with it was the Calzone. Making pizza dough in a food processor? Yes! Soooo easy. I enjoyed the entire process. I am super impressed with this food processor. We didn’t have any trick or treaters.

To Sedona. It was another gorgeous, sunny, warm day. We stopped at a view area and just starred at the beautiful red rocks and formations. Some places are just columns. And then the surrounding areas are green from the trees. We have been to Sedona quite a few times over the past few years. It was a favorite place of Uncle Jim & Aunt Goldie and we met them there a few times, too. We always included a drive through Oak Creek Canyon – one of our most favorite canyon drives in the U.S.

Our plans were to go to the shopping area around El Rincon Restaurante Mexicano and eat there, a favorite place. Well, the traffic was stopped. We went into the left lane thinking the right lane was turning somewhere else. We quickly saw all the traffic was waiting to turn into Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village. And to add to all that, there were guards and cones with signs saying parking lots full. What was happening? A quick google search told us Day of the Dead event here. A big deal here and lots of “shuttle to event” signs. We drove up a side road that ended up at a trailhead. The parking lot was full but I jumped out and took a few pictures. Back we went past the Village and still no parking. No problem, we will go to the north side of town. Thankfully, near the end of the shopping we saw a sign for parking that was a large empty lot behind the art galleries. Free. We stopped in at Sedona Arts Center. The lady there told Kevin the drawings were a contest and the artist had 30 minutes to paint. They were incredible! This was in the old apple orchard building. The next building had arts and crafts for sale. It is fun to see different perspectives and how artists vary in their crafts. We enjoyed several more galleries. I really enjoy the photography ones. We continued strolling along, going into shops along the way. We didn’t buy anything but fun to look around. 

From here we drove through Oak Creek Canyon. The yellow leaves were stunning. The rocks and cliffs change from red to white. The canyon was busy but not as bad as sometimes. We said we missed the construction! All the other times there was construction and you would have/get to sit for awhile. We always enjoyed that because you could take a long time to look at the beauty around us. 

We got to the top of the canyon and Kevin pulled into the view area. This is a neat place where Native Americans have permits to sell their wares. Kevin bought me a beautiful handmade necklace here before. He wanted to buy me something there today. I saw a very unique bracelet – it has silver beads that form 1/2-inch circles. We walked on to the view area. Then walking back Kevin asked again if I wanted anything. I went back and looked at these few bracelets. Kevin picked up the one I was especially looking at, with a few beads in Arizona colors of blue/green and orange. He picked it up and fastened it on my wrist. Beautiful and fit perfectly. He bought it. Such a sweet and precious gift he gave me. Drove back the way we came.

We just kept saying how much fun we had being together and seeing the beauty. We got back home (footnote 2) just in time to go to the lodge to watch the World Series last game. There was an older man there, two women, and us. That is all. We watched the entire game together. Fun and exciting game.

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!

1. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country.

2. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.