Singing in the rain

After we dropped Andrew off at Lake Pleasant we headed north to Sedona. Sonya wanted to go to an estate sale held at the home of Donald O'Connor[^].

Along the way we stopped in Black Canyon City for lunch; we went for the second time to Bylers Amish Cafe. I now know just why Americans put so much stuff on their burgers! It's to hide the vile flavour of undercooked ground beef. I sent the patty back to the cook for a second cooking! Don't get me wrong; I enjoy a medium rare steak but the idea doesn't extend all that well to ground 'beef'. When you buy a steak it's obvious at a glance whether what is delivered is a steak or not. Not so easy when you're dealing with arseholes and lips!

Thus North to Sedona and the former home of Donald O'Connor. Stunning location; the view[^] is wonderful.

The sale had been going two days by the time we got there and it had been picked pretty clean! We settled for an unsigned but framed movie poster which, but for the fact of having been apparently in the posession of the aforementioned movie star, would be totally unremarkable.

We went through a stack of books; Sonya picked up and discarded without examination a book that grabbed my attention; a photo history of Santa Monica. Fascinating photographs from a century or more ago. Reminded me of a book I once owned showing the early history of Melbourne in photographs. We bought that one as well, once Sonya realised what it was; she grew up in Santa Monica.

Leaving the sale came the choice, back to Phoenix directly via I17 or a side trip to Prescott, former capital of Arizona before statehood? Easy choice; the day was youngish and I like Prescott.

Along the way to Prescott from Sedona one passes through Cottonwood which is perilously close to the Tuzigoot National Monument[^]. I'd never heard of it but Sonya wanted to go see it. I quite enjoyed it. A storm was brewing away to the west, the wind was blowing something approaching a gale and we saw some awesome lightning. As we walked back to the car a few drops of rain fell; I felt like singing in the rain!