Vacation 2024 Has a Change of Plans!

Vacation 2024 Has a Change of Plans!

By Marcella S. Meeks

Lake City, Colorado has always been my favorite destination spot and still is, and I am still going and staying at The Texan Resort for 21 days. It’s already booked and paid up and has my name on it so I am going there regardless. But after much thought and deliberation and cost consideration, I decided to extend my vacation a couple more weeks more. I figured since we were already halfway there to where I am fixing to tell you about, we may as well go – so we are.

While we ae in Lake City, Colorado, my best friend Marjorie Bull and her son John and his family will be joining us for a few days. They’ll be staying in town at G & M Cabins, another of my favorite places. I can’t wait till this summer – we are all going to have so much fun.

Arizona has always fascinated me to some extent, but I just never had the courage to do something different. I have always thought about it and have researched places like Scottsdale, Phoenix, Flagstaff and Tuscan – even Tombstone. But each year, it got canceled and added to my bucket list of places to go and has just sat there idle for many years.

Well, when we leave Lake City and the comfort of our cabin at The Texan at the tail end of June ’24, we’re going to head over to Albuquerque, NM for 2 nights – there’s some things that my grandsons enjoy doing in Albuquerque, and since it’s not far out of our way, I figured we’d go ahead and stay for a couple of nights on our way to Arizona.

When we leave Albuquerque, we’ll head off to Sedona, Arizona. We’re staying at the El Portal Sedona Hotel for the next five nights. OMG! What a beautiful place to stay at. Why did I wait so long to go here? And our pets can stay for free. It’s a bit expensive – but worth it. After all these years of wanting to travel to Arizona, I figure it’s time to treat myself and my family to a little luxury.

We’ll be in Sedona for five nights and so far, each day is filled with fun things to do. I did a little research and found a bunch of things we can do but I’m going to take it slow and easy as not to wear myself out. Most of the things I want to go see is mainly hiking trails and state parks but that’s okay. Here are some noteworthy places: Cathedral Rock, Chapel of the Holy Cross, Devil’s Bridge Trail, Airport Mesa, Red Rock State Park, and Slide Rock State Park. The Chapel is one that I will be spending some time at. I saw a video on YouTube and this place fascinated my curiosity big time. They have a trolley that will take you around but driving to these places is really the best way to go. You can take your time and not have to cram everything into one ride. And if you’re in your own vehicle, it’s more economical and don’t cost you anything except a few gallons of gas.

There are some other places we’ll probably be going to and staying at before heading back to Louisiana – just playing it by ear for now to see how things go. I’ve been tossing over in my mind about extending this trip even more – I’m wanting to go to Las Vegas, NV and then over to a little town called Tehachapi, California for a few nights. I’m looking into staying at the Brite Vista Retreat in Tehachapi but it is not a definite as yet.

As that unfolds I will let you know for sure how it turns out. And then we head back towards Louisiana with many stops along the way. I want to stop in Tombstone and possibly Phoenix on our way back. Once we get to New Mexico, we’re stopping for the night in Carlsbad and doing the Carlsbad Caverns. I’ve only been there once a few years ago, and have always wanted to go back.

That’s still in planning mode at this point but it’s all coming together slowly! As this trip unfolds I will update this post accordingly. Arizona and California – here we come!