ARIZONA are you ready for us?

DAY 5:
3:15 AM.  Drowsy with sleep I hear noises followed by Otis and Pippa whining and panting heavily.  I wonder what is going on.  I make my way to the living room were I put on some clothes and shoes.  I am a chicken at heart so I'm not about to go outside without my protective Pippa, and Otis has to come too.  I hear it again and this time I realize that what I've heard: coyotes, and they are very close by.  Our neighbor's dog is going nuts and now Pippa and Otis are all excited as well.  The coyotes are howling followed by a sequence of yapping.  My pups take advantage of being outside and do their business before I drag them back in the RV in order to get some more sleep.  All this excitement happens while John and Teddy sleep through the whole ordeal.  There are definite benefits to being hard-of-hearing!

We have an appointment at 8:00 AM to have Teddy's drainage tubes removed from his neck.  While there we learn that the howling followed by yapping of the coyotes is indicative of them having killed a prey.  We are told that usually coyotes are hard to find during the day but that off-leash dogs who pick up on their scent and chase one, will undoubtably be lead towards the pack of coyotes and then attacked.  Good to know!  The appointment takes just minutes.  I explain that we have no need for other services but we are told that the tubing can only be removed after an examination.  Yea right!  After paying a $50.00 bill and walking back to our rig, I swear I hear howling and yapping coming from the clinic.  We've no doubt been easy prey.

As soon as we cross over into Arizona, the scenery seems to change. Everything is neater, cleaner somehow.  We stop in Kingman for a coffee and inquire if there is a place where we can get good fresh masa.  A few phone calls and we know where we'll need to stop on our way home.  :)  The scenery around here reminds us of central Oregon with its many pines.  It is beautiful.  We turn off I-40 and turn on to the I-17 and then Hwy 89A to Sedona.  It is the scenic route and boy was it ever gorgeous.  The road itself is a steep grade, dropping 2500 feet in about 10 miles with many hairpin turns and in sections very narrow.  It is like driving Hwy199 "narrows" for 10 miles while going down hill. The speed limit in this section ranged from 40 to 10 mph.  Many times we wished we could have stopped to take pictures but there were just no turn outs.  The good news is that tomorrow we get our rental car and we'll go exploring over the next 5 days.

The town of Sedona is so cute.  As we drove through, we noticed that it was crawling with Snowbirds.  We look forward to joining them in window-shoping tomorrow and the days to follow.  The town is said to be very dog-friendly and even has

a restaurant that "caters to our K-9 friends".  We love our campsite at the Rancho Sedona RV Park.  We are nestled in the trees that in the summer will provide much desired shade.  An Airstream pulled in next to us, and would you know it, Kees the owner is from The Netherlands.  He owns his Airstream and truck, keeps it parked in storage state-side, and then comes over for several months at a time throughout the year.  His significant other is Italian, and they met in Spain a few years back.  It is such a small world!  Cheers, Salud, Proost!