After driving through the desert for God knows how many days I were delighted when I once again came back to civilization. Sedona was adorable. It was a little artistic hippie community in the middle of gorgeous scenery of red rock mountains and canyons. Here I found galleries, fancy cafés, a chocolate shop, a place that just sold various caramel apple combinations, lots of very affordable T-shirt and dress shops, and too many little galleries and gift shops to count, all displaying locally made creations, some pretty out there. There were creatures made out of welded scrap metal, horses and bunnies made convincingly out of chicken wire, plenty of pottery, blown glass, bric-a-bracs, and anything you could have possibly wanted. This place made me very happy, it filled me with a sort of joyful warmth.

Every so often I’d come across a statue of a peccary and its baby and each time it was painted another crazy psychedelic scheme of colors. There were also statues of horses and old western figures and a place where some old western stars had left their handprints. I didn’t know who any of them were but that’s OK, I don’t think I have ever watched a whole Western from beginning to end without falling asleep anyway. In any event the people were friendly, everyone was laid back, there were pink jeep tours and helicopter rides going on to see the local canyons. It was all very nice. Even the buildings were unique, two story pueblos that went all the way down the street. The only way you could to the second floor was taking the stairs at the end of each street. It was very neat. They even had a little rock and fossil shop that sparked the interest in the nerd in me. A $12,000 trilobite fossil made my mouth water and my eyes glass over.