Our flight from Hawaii arrived in Phoenix just before midnight. We were booked into the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Glad we were only staying there for one night. I had first come to the USA 40 years ago and travelled across the stats on a Greyhound bus. The Crowne Plaza reminded me of the hotels we stayed in then. In other words, the hotel could do with a make over.
8.30 the next morning we collected our hire car and we drove to the Grand Canyon via Sedona. Sedona is situated in the “Red Rock Country” and has featured in many westerns. It has grown up into a tourist town and an “artistic centre”. As we wandered round the town we came across some italians. Another opportunity to find people from Pesaro. We didn’t even talk to these italians as we were able to understand everything they said, meaning they spoke very clear italian and therefore not from Pesaro.
The other thing that we noticed in the shops were indian carvings. These were Hopi carvings and each indicated a spirit or a power. We went to a store specialising in Hopi carvings (Kachinas), pottery, bows, arrows, peace pipes, feather head dresses. It was a great shop and we ended up buying a Kachina (not the one in the picture but hope we like the one we bought when we get home).
From Sedona we drove for another couple of hours to reach the Grand Canyon at about 5.00.