Flagstaff to Yuma, AZ

We're on the homeward stretch now - but those scenic vistas just don't stop coming! Today, driving out of Flagstaff, we passed through the Coconino Park in Sedona. Sedona is famous for its 'energy vortexes', discovered, of course, in the New Age 1980s, and subsequently swarmed by people in touch with their chakras.

Today it became newly famous as the site of one of John McCain's many, if difficult-to-recall, homes.

Pundits on the telly tonight were picking McCain's out-of-touchness with his home ownership status (he recalled 4 out of 7 houses) as the issue that will lose him the election. We'll see.

Icecream and a 32 oz Dr Pepper at the Kofa Cafe, outside temperature 108 F.

Roadrunners running.

Inside temperature: chilly.

Then, the final 89 mile strip of desert before we hit our home for the night, Yuma.

The only tourist attraction listed for Yuma is an historic prison, famous for housing Arizona's most notorious criminals.

We came across the US Border Control who were stopping people coming north from Yuma, which is only a few miles north of the Mexican border. The whole area on either side of the road is US army land, and there aren't any side-roads to turn off, should you not want to be stopped by the Border Police.

And, what is this? We could see it, completely stationary in the sky for miles - was it a weather balloon? As we got closer we were able to zoom in on it with Graeme's camera. How did it sit high in the sky, with no visible attachments to the earth?


The attraction of Yuma for us is its proximity to San Diego - 177 miles. We will be in our new home by tea-time tomorrow. Our lives as car-and-motel-dwellers, seeing the country out the window at 60 mph, will come to an end. But, there's one more day of road-tripping left in us yet... especially if it contains a trip to the fabled Las Americas 125-shop outlet mall on the Californian-Mexican border. Shopping - just the way to ease ourselves back into normal life? (What about those austerity measures I hear you say? I did say they were outlet shops.)
And, we'll see the ocean again. Forecast for today in Yuma: sunny, 106 F.