Day 19 / Munds Park, AZ

This morning we packed up our sightseeing stuff: camera, extra lens, hats, water, ice, phones, car chargers. And off we went to Sedona! It was so cool to watch the terrain change from pine forests to the red rock cliffs and buttes. The landscape is stunning! We stopped at the visitors center for Coronado National Forest which Sedona is part of. Both MIL & DH have National Park Golden Passes. So the ranger gave her a hanger for the car that the pass fits into. Every trailhead parking lot, one needs a pass to park so it worked out great. Although we weren't hiking, we did park to take photos. While driving to Picazzo Organic Restaurant, I saw a Jeep rental sign. When we got in there, and they were doing their spiel, I realized it was a high pressure ploy to get us to listen to a membership talk for some resort. For listening for the 90 minute spiel we would be able to rent a vehicle for $99. After they asked what our income was, I said no. Immediately the guy's boss came out to find out if he could be of assistance to us. From there we headed to the restaurant and saw a Whole Foods Market and we stopped at another rental that actually was s legit rental.
MIL decided to stay at the motorhome tomorrow while we are going off roading for 4-hours. Of course I didn't realize our stint was at 7:30 in the morning and we are an hour away.

At 12:30 pm we were meeting some of my Zaar Buddies Worldwide Facebook friends at a restaurant in downtown Sedona. It was one of those crazy odd things. Two friends from two different states, one New Jersey and the other, Tennessee both travel unknown to each other to Sedona. I knew she was in Phoenix, AZ when I was in Tucson, AZ. I just happened to see her post on Facebook that she was in Sedona yesterday. I posted under her posting that I would be here today! So she suggested lunch or coffee to meet up. Turned out we met up for lunch and had a most amazing time! Food was great and dessert was incredibly delicious. I gave them James Saltwater Taffy from the New Jersey Shore. DH heard that we should go up to the road to the airport to view the sunset. After lunch we had photos taken of all of the Zaar Buddies Worldwide. Some lady asked if we were celebrities? As there were numerous photos taken. We all had a good laugh and parted company.

From there we stopped at Whole Foods Market. Then we went driving on the scenic byway. I programmed Google Maps app to go to the campground. DH said to me, "Is the road we are driving, a loop". I said yes as I was looking at a circle and we weren't back tracking to get back to the campground. So we are paralleling  Oak Creek. At some point DH asked me if we were headed back to Sedona and I Said no, we were headed to our campground. That was when he let me know that Tex told him to go on the Airport road to see the sunset on the buttes. So we turned around and headed back to Sedona. On the way back, I asked who Tex was? He then said, your friend West Texas Chef. I laughed.

So while killing time we went to about, 29 different shops. I finally bought a hat to wear while traveling. We left the shopping area to go wait up on the scenic overlook which was above Sedona. We all had see these incredible photographs of the buttes lit up by the sun so much that the upper cliffs glowed yellow orange. So most of us were facing the buttes and rock faces across the canyon. Some were looking at the sunset. I was doing both. Well the buttes didn't glow which I believe was caused by the sunset itself. Some sunsets are so incredibly beautiful and others are what I think are run of the mill pretty but not drop dead gorgeous. Or the photos are enhanced with Photoshopping techniques to bring out the colors. Or it could have been that we just were not in the best viewing location? Anyways, we drove back to the motorhome in the dark and had hotdogs for dinner at 7:30 PM.