My Arizona itinerary

On September 13th (a week from Saturday) my wife Patti and I will arrive in Arizona for a weeks vacation.  It's also sort of a preliminary scouting trip to look around at some condos and places to live.  Our plan is to move there in 2010 when I retire.  Our #1 choice is Flagstaff, but we'll probably also be looking around Sedona, Cottonwood, and Prescott.  This trip is more vacation time than anything else, but we'd like to get a feel for what's available for housing, how much we might be looking at for prices, etc.  I've been in touch with Astrid (SauseEnte) and she's been of enormous help.  Patti and I are planning to meet up with her, hopefully for a lunch or something while we're in the area.  I'll post our rough itinerary here and if anyone happens to be within yelling distance of us and would like to say hello, meet for lunch, coffee, or just general BS, send me a PM and I can give you my cell phone number.  I'll also have my laptop with me so I'll have web (and BT) access as well.

Sat. 9/13:  Arrive Phoenix @ 12:30 PM, rental car, drive to Flagstaff.  Staying Saturday and Sunday night at Days Inn I-40.  Spend the weekend in Flag, checking out condos and the city in general.  Touristy stuff.

Mon. 9/15:  Drive to Grand Canyon south rim.  Staying Monday and Tuesday night at Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan.  Planning to spend both days at the south rim.  One day I plan to take a solo day hike, probably down Bright Angel to Indian Gardens, across the Tonto trail and ascend via South Kaibab back to the rim.  Patti is going to lounge around the motel pool and chill out for the day.  There is a possibility we may stay a 3rd day at the GC if there is a motel room opening.  If not, we'll return to Flagstaff on Wednesday.

Wed. 9/17:  Back in Flag.  No advance motel reservation at this time, will just wing it and may stay at the Days Inn again.  Wed thru Sat will be for driving around to Sedona, Prescott, any other touristy stuff we can find.  We went to meteor crater in 2001, but we might go back again.

Sun. 9/21:  Fly out of Phoenix at 11:45 AM

Can't wait to get there.  This will be my 4th trip to the Canyon, with 2 of those having been multi-day backpacking trips.  I'm psyched...I might even be looking for potential work (part time) after I retire, so I'm keeping my options open there too.  Patti is a little limited in what she can do as she has Multiple Sclerosis and gets around OK, just rather slowly.  In any case, here we are:

(xxLucy 5K 001.jpg)