Driving to LA

Hi all,

We had a great sleep last night and woke up to the sounds of birds chirping by the creek down from our balcony. A pretty good natural alarm clock! We enjoyed some cereal in the sun on our balcony and then headed off for a quick morning walk.

First we descended via steps at our hotel to the creek which looked really pretty in the morning light. Then we walked through Sedona and did a bit of a loop. None of the shops were open and there was hardly anyone around, but this was actually nice as it felt like we had the place to ourselves. The sun was shining and the wind had calmed compared to yesterday.

Funnily, Rob and I stayed in Sedona as I heard about it in a Facebook group during the first lockdown in 2020 called ‘what do you see from your window’. People shared the view they could see in lockdown so others could armchair travel. I saw some beautiful Sedona views posted so added it to our itinerary for this trip!

The town of Sedona is named after Sedona Schnebly, the wife of the area’s first postmaster, TC Schnebly. TC wanted to name the town ‘Oak Creek Crossing’ or ‘Schnebly Station’ but the Postmaster General preferred one word town names at the time, so it was suggested to him he name the town after his wife. Her name was a made up her name that her mother said “sounded nice”.

The couple were from Missouri and settled in the Sedona area in 1901. They built a two storey home that was the area’s first hotel and general store. TC planted crops and flowers and would travel to Flagstaff to sell them and bring tourists back to see Sedona. After the death of their young child they moved back to Missouri and then to Colorado, but they later moved back to Sedona 1929 and lived out their days here. When Sedona died, TC asked not for flowers to memorialise her, but collected money to purchase a bell for the church she attended so it could toll in her memory. Apparently it still does today. After Sedona had died in 1950, TC would still walk into town in Sedona daily to converse with visitors and suggest hikes to them, and would still dress very well. At this time he was in his 80s.

We enjoyed reading some history about the town from some plaques along the footpath from our hotel such as the above. Lots of movies were filmed here and that’s the main reason Sedona has grown so much in popularity from a quiet little town in days gone by. Part of ‘Stagecoach’ that was filmed in Monument Valley was also filmed here. The most famous movie filmed here was ‘Angel and the Badman’. We read about a man named Bob Bradshaw who was the first person to offer official tours in this area, and ended up working with Hollywood directors and actors as a location scout, stunt double and even an actor himself. We also read about the creation of the Arizona Rangers in 1901. A team of 26 men were assembled to get the state under control, as lawlessness was so bad that Congress would not consider statehood for Arizona at the time. The rangers were disbanded in 1909 and Arizona was granted statehood in 1912.

For the rest of our walk, we admired the huge cliffs surrounding the town, the interesting statues in the streets, enjoyed a coffee and had a go at the public xylophone in the street. Then we packed up and set off towards Los Angeles on the final day of this leg of our trip.

Today was set aside as a travel day, so there isn’t too much more to write about. We drove for around 8 hours with a couple of quick stops to swap drivers. We saw cool cacti and yellow wildflowers along the way. We drove to our hotel in Anaheim near Disneyland, unpacked and checked in and then returned our car to the rental company near the airport which took another hour. We then caught an Uber back to the hotel.

Once back we grabbed a quick dinner at Panera Bread (soup in a bread bowl for me and a toastie for Rob) and now we are in the room. We have the next three full days at Disneyland and I’m so excited. I'm very fortunate that this is my fourth visit to Disneyland in California, as well as having been in Paris, Hong Kong and Orlando. As a result, I think it makes more sense for me to post one Disneyland blog after the three days we have here. So my next blog will be up on Sunday Melbourne time.

And just like that, our first little leg of our trip is over. It wasn’t little though, we drove 4400 km across 11 days which is the same distance as driving from Melbourne to Cape York via Brisbane - a huge drive! We saw five national parks and many amazing sights such as wildlife and weather events along the way. Thanks for accompanying us on the journey via my blog so far. There is plenty more to come!!

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox