BUSTING THE ART BUDGET IN SEDONA

The drive to Sedona was an easy one, and as we dropped off the main road into the camp ground area, Deb exclaimed, “Thank you God for trees!”  It was one of the nicest places we have stayed.  They had 2 or 3 VERY FRIENDLY cats (one got in our RV one night and wanted on the bed with Deb!) and even friendly raccoons and skunks!  I’m serious!  The first night Deb was down at the office borrowing a movie (ok it wasn’t perfect, no TV reception and spotty cell phone), and the lady said, “I guess it’s time to feed the critters”…. She got a large cup of cat food and went out to this gnarly tree trunk and threw it and about a dozen coons and 2 skunks came out and began feeding.  It was amazing to see them suddenly appear!  She said the skunks only sprayed a “little bit” when they fought with the coons for the food!  LOL We were so glad to be out of the heat, we just settled into camp and grilled hamburgers and enjoyed a fire.  The couple beside us had their 2 year old grandson with them and Deb had a good time playing with him and his trucks.

After settling in we drove into Jerome.  We were really disappointed.  The last time we were there the town was an Artist's Haven.  Now it was a chotsky jungle.  We only saw about 4 or 5 artists there and bought nothing.   But we had fun riding up and down the hills on our segways.

The Red Rocks of Sedona are truly breath-taking and David enjoyed playing with his new camera at several overlooks as we drove around Sedona.  But they had major competition at the art galleries.  We arrived in town about 10:30 after driving through the State Park and Dave “camped out” at the Men’s Day Care Center (ie. Brewery) and worked the phones and email for Design Strategies, while Deb explored the galleries.  About an hour later David called and said, “Come down the hill, there’s more galleries down here and I’ve found some stuff you’ll like”… I was saying the same about the galleries “up the hill”… LOL…. We joined up and by 3 pm we were hungry and “broke” and still had only scratched the surface.  Though we didn’t purchase any more of their work, it was fun reconnecting with some of the artists in our meager collection.  The Eisenharts have a gallery in Sedona.  She did the masks presently in our dining room.  Andrew Carson had about a dozen “wind divas” in the parking lot and on the grounds  of the Galleries at Hillside (“up the hill”).    We passed on many more pieces than we purchased, but we learned that there IS art that we can definitely agree on!!  There were MANY pieces that we both liked.  At the end of the day, we came home with 2 pieces by Geisel, otherwise known As Dr. Seuss, one quite provocative and NOT in his books!  The other is Sam-I-Am with a picture from the book, framed beside his concept drawing complete with notes, and ANOTHER triptych, for which we have special plans.  Let us know if you want to be invited to the “unveiling” party!! LOL It was odd… on our last visit, we felt like Sedona was chotsky and Jerome had the “real” artists, this time we came away with the opposite opinion.

 

Back at the camp (after trips to the grocery store, hardware store, and home depot!), we settled into laundry and preparing for dry camping the next 2 days.  Deb met a family from New Zealand and enjoyed reading to their children while their parents finished fixing their supper.  (The “3” books she bought Abbie are coming in handy for “meeting peoples”)  Later with laundry complete, and kids in bed, we enjoyed several bottles of beer and wine by the campfire.  He is a pilot for New Zealand Air and regularly flies to LA and wanted to bring the family over to show them the USA.  They had rented an RV and had already done the mandatory visit to Disney and were taking the children to Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Napa:  all within about a month.  We shared tales of our similar trip with Emily and Clay and even invited them into our bathroom to show off the poster of the kids in the Grand Canyon!  We had fun learning about their cattle farm on the North Island, and comparing NZ and Australian Shiraz to American Zins and Cabs.  We encouraged them to visit the Russian River Valley and fondly recounted our afternoon on Robert and Carlene Rue’s patio.  Their kids didn’t like American bread (too sweet) and they were amazed (and maybe a little appalled) at the size of portions in America.  In NZ, their children are encouraged to climb trees at school on the playground and they laughed at our unnecessary obsession with safety when their children were reprimanded for climbing on the cuing rails at Disney.  We chalked it up to our litigious society.  LOL   The next morning, we all said good bye with slight hangovers!

As I write this we are seeing a small patch of snow on mountains around Flagstaff and what we originally thought was fog in the distance is smoke from a controlled burn.