Catching up with blogging

Wow!! I just realised that I haven't updated my blog for 1 1/2 weeks already. There was no internet connection at the place we stayed in Arizona, so I couldn't get online to get emails or anything.
Anyway, here's what happened.

On Saturday, 20th August, I got up early and tried to get a ride to the airport car rental place to pick up the car I'd booked at Alamo for our Arizona trip. Phil had lent me his car to get around in SF, but since it was last minute trip, we did not get a chance to get it serviced or looked at and I didn't want to risk a fairly long trip in it. So I decided to rent a car instead.
What happened was, Phil was supposed to go with another family to his timeshare in Arizona for a week, and we were supposed to spend the week visiting some theme parks and attractions near San Francisco. But at the last minute, the other family couldn't go as their father was critically ill, on the terminal list. So Phil asked us if we wanted to go with his family instead. After discussing with Li Soon, we said.... why not. Li Soon and Matthew have never been to the Grand Canyon before and furthermore, we wanted to visit Yosemite with Wing Kong and family but they were not free. Phil also wanted to visit Yosemite since he had never been there before, so we decided to go to Yosemite on the way home from Arizona.

It was going to be a 800 mile drive from SF to Sedona, Arizona. Sedona is famous for it's red rock cliffs that surround 3 sides of the town. We drove separately to Sedona. Phil left very early on Saturday morning as he wanted to drive the 800 miles there in one day. Li Soon and I decided to take it easy and break down the drive into 2 days.

Well, my neighbour in the dorm, Mr. Ian, who is from Vancouver and dislikes driving in the city, kindly drove Li Soon, Matthew and me to the rental pickup place. After picking up the car (a mid-sized Dodge Stratus), we drove back to the church and loaded in all the stuff that we had packed the night before. It wasn't very much. 1 suitcase, several small bags and a hot water pot. One thing great about a driving holiday is that you can bring all sorts of stuff, unlike when you have to fly and have to worry about checking stuff in and what you can and cannot bring on board the aircraft. You don't even have to pack everything into a suitcase for a driving holiday!

We finally got started at about 1130am and drove through the Bay Bridge, then I-580 East to I-5 South, across to highway 99 and Bakersfield. From Bakersfield, we took the CA-58 which took us to Barstow. About 400 mile drive which was a nice halfway point. We made numerous stops along the way and it was hot, but not extremely hot. Li Soon had her first chance to drive in the US on Saturday. Between Bakersfield and Barstow, we drove through the Mohave desert and the town of Mohave where many unused commercial airliners are mothballed waiting for their day to be called back to service. We also went through the Tahachapi pass, which is famous for it's many windmills that help to generate electricity. We passed by Edwards Airforce Base where the Space Shuttle landed.

When we reached Barstow, which I had been before, there was supposed to be a big factory outlet. Barstow is the intersection of several highways. I-15 which goes from LA to Las Vegas, I-40 which starts in Barstow and goes across the US East-West, and CA-58. I drove through most of Barstow from CA-58 towards Las Vegas on I-15 but could not find the outlets. Finally, I said maybe it's in the other direction. So we turned around and went towards LA on I-15, passed the CA-58 turnoff and voila! The next exit was where all the factory outlets were. Our first task other than looking at what stores the factory outlets had was to look for accomodations for the night as it was getting late. We first looked at a Holiday Day Inn Express which was just next to the stores, but decided against it after we found out it was $130 per night++. We drove across to the other side of the freeway and finally found a Red Roof Inn for less than $50 for the night!! Thank God. It even had T-Mobile Wireless internet (not free), but that was about the last time I had internet access for a week!

Slept the night, woke up and bought breakfast at MacDonald's across the carpark, got everyone ready and then headed shopping!!
It was a huge outlet, so we only had time to visit Reebok, Gap, Coach. Matthew and I bought 3 pairs of shoes. Li Soon didn't buy very much, which was surprising.
After lunch at about 12, we finally said bye to Barstow and headed towards Arizona.

Another long day of driving ahead. We passed through Needles (the most expensive gas I had to pump at $3.35 per gallon!!), Kingman, parts of Route 66, and finally to Flagstaff where we ate at a Chinese restaurant there. (Chinese food out of California/New York is really iffy.) It was ok.
After dinner, it was already dark and we had to drive the last 27 miles from Flagstaff to Sedona.
It was the most scary drive for us. We didn't realise that Flagstaff was on a plateau at 7000ft and Sedona was at the bottom of the plateau at 5000ft, and the road, AZ-89A, was a very winding road down a canyon. It was completely dark outside, I was having a headache and tired, and we had to negotiate this road with hairpin turns and unfamiliar surroundings with very little traffic. Thankfully, there was a car ahead of us, so we followed it. It was good, cos in the middle, the car had to swerve to avoid hitting a family of deer in the dark! However, about halfway through the road, the car turned off the road and we were left alone. The road seemed to never end and kept winding and winding. It was almost 10pm already and Phil was calling us, afraid that we might have gotten lost or worse. After what seemed a long time, we finally saw civilisation. We had reached Sedona. The next challenge was to find the resort. We were given directions, but couldn't find the street in the dark. Finally at what seemed like the end of town, we decided to turn back and stopped at a landmark.... the only green-signed MacDonald's and Safeway. There we tried to call Phil but couldn't get through. We finally called the hotel and got directions. Apparently, the point we turned around wasn't the end of town after all. The resort was at the next traffic light after that, but we couldn't see it cos there was a hill in between. We finally pulled into the resort at 10pm or so. Relieved to have arrived and thankful for God's mercies despite our foolishness and weaknesses.

After checking into our nice studio in the warm Arizona night, we unpacked, showered and went to sleep.

To be continued.