The drive to Sedona was quite uneventful until we actually reached Sedona and the check engine light came on – GREAT! Regina had a check up before we left, only has 30k miles, was purchased new, and has never had a check engine light come on so I was like lol great we’re screwed. I couldn’t enjoy any of the scenery because I was too worried about the engine’s inevitable explosion so we went to O’Reillys and had the code read. Dude came back and was like um…no good, engine knock – GREAT. He had zero suggestions for what the culprit might be.
Garrett did some googling and found out it might be crappy gas – bingo – we were trying to be frugal and filled up with the cheapest gas we could find in Phoenix, which Garrett then informed me was 86 octane, to which the O’Reilly’s employee replied “where did you even find that????” After procuring some octane juice for Regina’s tank and driving around Sedona for a few days, the check engine light finally went off, THANKFULLY resolving the problem as we could not tolerate any further ratchet behavior from Regina.
The beast in question.
While we were at O’Reillys the guy helping us was like sooo it’s raining so bad in Flagstaff people can’t drive lol @ your camping plans. Since it was a Saturday literally every hotel was booked so we just proceeded on with our plan to camp, hoping not to die. All three of the campgrounds we had researched before proceeding to Sedona were full – GREAT AGAIN – but we expected this. Garrett pulled into the third one to ask the camp lady where we could find the dispersed camping sites and she barked the mile markers to him because she was an awful human. As we sat in the car trying to figure out what to do while the rain began to pour, I noted that she walked up to the notice board and took the “FULL” sign down and put up a new sign stating that four camp sites were available. UM MAYBE YOU COULD HAVE TOLD US WHEN WE ASKED 5 MINUTES AGO. So Garrett goes to ask her about it and she’s like “yeah, you can camp there” – k great thanks. So we fill out the little form, place our $40 cash in the receipt envelope with the form, tear off our part of the form and put it on our dash, and proceed to our camp site.
We would later watch her scream at someone else entering the campsite for no apparent reason. The second day of our visit when we returned from our hike she accosted us at our campground about how we were supposed to let her know we were staying two nights – at which point we informed her that we had pre-paid two nights and that it was in the envelope. She then yelled at us for not displaying a placard at our camp site that we do not own and that she has and which is therefore of course her responsibility to display. Garrett asked if we were to hang up the tiny piece of paper without plastic covering that clearly states “place on dashboard” onto the post at our camp site as we had no other forms despite the fact that it would immediately become soaked, destroyed and/or illegible to which she replied “yes” then scooted away as she knew she was in the wrong.
Her husband later came and hung up the placard she had neglected to place herself the day before. Later that evening when we arrived back at camp her husband almost wouldn’t let us in because we didn’t have some blue sticker to which we replied we never received a blue sticker and he stated “ok well…I remember him” (referencing Garrett) and let us in. Needless to say I will be crafting a very long letter to her management because a) your job is to run a small campground so its not that damn hard and b) your secondary job is to just be nice because you’re freaking camping all day, and you’re failing MISERABLY in that respect.
Anyway, enough about that awful excuse for a human, pics from our campsite!
It was so humid the first day that our Dominon cards kept doing this.
Draining the pasta, round one….
Spilling half of the pasta =(, round two.
White cheddar and garlic pasta with tuna. I added olives to mine, of course.
Breakfast.
Second day, playing Rummy after the rain cleared.
While in Sedona we hiked two miles in, two miles out to the Devil’s Bridge. It was my first real hike in the US! Luckily there were no bears, only lizards and butterflies.
Yes, I wore a ridiculous hat with SPF 30 and SPF 70 lotion because #nowrinkleswhenim50 also #justvampirethings. After the hike we went to a dive bar in Sedona called The Sundowner where we both had a patty melt and beer. They had cottage cheese as a side!!!! normally only something I can enjoy at Steak ‘n Shake, so I was very pleased. The mid-day rain both days while camping was really lame, but I enjoyed hiking. Our tent was filled with rain water and our mattress and sheets got wet – I complained extensively about how damp it was. The first night the temps got down to the low 40’s, but luckily Garrett is a furnace and radiates heat, so I survived. The second night was much more mild. We packed up June 15th and headed out for the Grand Canyon on our way to Vegas. More updates to come! xoxo Steph
Garrett & Stephanie 