Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
I’ve heard so much about the beauty of Sedona, Arizona and it was one of the “would be great” items on my Bucket List. It wasn’t a “must see” item but as I scratch it off my list, I’m so glad to have added it.
Everything I heard about it pales in comparison to what I actually saw. You really have to see it to appreciate it. We all took a lot of pictures. This experience made me appreciate having a convenient quality camera on that phone/computer/camera device that I often complain about but realistically love having in my pocket—most of the time.
We were invited to join a celebration for our daughter Jessica, who was celebrating her milestone 50th birthday. Also invited were Jessica and Trevor’s youngest son, Kaden, and Kimberly who was celebrating her 26th birthday, and their two children. Trev’s mom Pat, oldest son Keithan and Ashlynn, Macayla, Riley, and young Rustin Davis.
The Davis’s drove all the way from Lampasas, Texas. I checked the mileage according to Google and they were just 8 miles short of how far we drove from Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Jessica and Trev’s childhood friend, Marie, and her family also attended, and I believe the official total was 19 people. Trevor rented an Airbnb big enough to accommodate all of us comfortably. It had a great pool, and we all spent lots of time in it to save ourselves from the triple-digit Arizona weather. Marie and her family had to leave early to go to work and so we had a couple of days with just family.
I was supposed to attend a Board of Directors meeting for the Studebaker club on Sunday. I had set up a great place in the house that had a panoramic view of the amazing mountains through the windows. I called the president of the club ahead of time to let him know that there was a chance I might not be able to attend the meeting. It’s a good thing I did, because I didn’t make the meeting, after all. I thought with all the people there I wouldn’t be missed for an hour but as it turned out, we were away from the house when it was meeting time. Oh well, it had to be family over Studebakers if it came down to that, which it did.
When I was supposed to be at the meeting, I was actually eating at a cowboy restaurant in town. They had a fun menu, and I decided to try the deep-fried sausage made from rattlesnake, jack rabbit, and some pork we suspected was javelina. Javelina (or skunk pigs) are native to Sedona, and we even saw some running free on the property just below the swimming pool. We had fun with the javelinas as none of us had ever heard of them. We had to bring home a javelina souvenir. It was a fun get together and we had some quality family time.
We drove mostly parallel to Route 66, and we took 2 days to get there. We spent the night in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. The Davis’s from Texas did it in one day, but they are not old like us. Two seven-hour stretches of highway is enough for our tired old bodies. I drove the whole way there, but I had to let Carlene take the wheel on the way back for a short stretch of Texas.
We had a great time, but we were happy to get home. I mowed the grass just before we left and expected to need to mow it when we got back. Y’all must have had a bunch of rain in our absence because the grass is a bit longer than my skills and abilities can handle. Armando will take care of it this weekend. He’s got better tools for it than I do. He’s got more energy too. My apologies to my neighbors…
