Confessions of an RVer: SEDONA, ARIZONA

When my friends found out that I was traveling to Arizona, most everyone asked me if I was going to Sedona. They all said that Sedona was beautiful and not to miss it. So, I asked Mr. W to work Sedona into the trip.

We arrived here on Monday. We are actually staying in Cottonwood, AZ at a state park named Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Sedona is only about 20 miles away but they only have 1 nice RV park in Sedona and they are very proud of it, if the cost is any indication of how proud they are. So, we opted to stay at the state park. It has water and electricity but no sewer. We have figured out that we can do without sewer if we are careful for about 9 days. We will be here for 7. There is a dump station before we head out, so we should be fine. It is $25 a day.

This is almost the same view I have from my 5W.

They also rent cabins.

Tuesday, we decided to drive into Sedona to see some of the sights. It was a really nice, scenic drive.

I had several people tell me to not miss the "big church with the huge steeple on the side of the mountain" while in Sedona. No one knew the real name of the church, so I Googled it. It is the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It is absolutely beautiful and thousands of tourists visit it every year.

Most of the parking is down at road level and it is a 500 ft. walk straight up to enter the chapel. The chapel inside has an amazing view. Other than that, it is really pretty ordinary. The scenery and the views from up top are pretty awesome.

This is a house that is down below. More on that later.

They had beautiful plants all around the little bit of grounds they had. This cactus had yellow buds that turned into pink flowers.

The "house" is right by the chapel. Everyone who visits the chapel has to drive by the "house". Mr. W and I talked about it after we left. Who do you think owns it? How much do you think it cost? How big do you think it is? I even had him stop so I could take a couple of pics through their gate. It is pretty amazing.

Close up shot from up on the hill

Through the gate

Also through the gate

Well, it seems that I am not the only person curious about the house. While Googling the correct name of the church, a blog popped up with an article about who owns the "house". So, of course I read it. So, here's the scoop on the house.

It is owned by Ioan and Elena Cosmescu. He is a doctor. They were born in Romania but moved to the USA to have the American dream.
He owns a company and made his money by inventing surgical instruments that are successful in their use and are considered "standard" instruments now. His latest invention is a vacuum for the smoke created by the laser/electrical instrument used in eye surgery.
Home is 11,223 square feet.
The lot is .89 acres.
The land was purchased in 2001 for $286,000.
They spent about 6 years building the house and grounds. Someone even posted pics from different years and stages of the build.
Someone said on the blog that they spent $29 million on everything.
Someone went to the tax office and looked it up. The tax assessor's office has it valued at a little over two (2) million and they pay $16,000 a year in taxes. There were many outcrys on the blog for the tax assessor to be fired for not upping the value on the "house".

Some of these people commenting on this blog about the "house" need a job, or at least something to do with their time! Good grief. Sedona is an artsy type of town. Everything is organic and natural. The bakery in town is heavy into gluten-free. Everyone shops at Whole Foods because it and another natural grocery store are the only grocery stores in town. So, there were mostly unkind words about people building this type of home in Sedona. I'm not against organic and natural and my daughter-in-law has gluten intolerance so I'm all for finding options that are gluten-free. However, I have found that most towns (not all of them) that advertise themselves as such tend to think they are a little better than most. Their town "motto" is, God made the Grand Canyon but He lives in Sedona. These types of towns show intolerance for anyone they deem to be more successful than they are and thus messing up their town by said riches. In my opinion, well, they are full of themselves. Sorry if that makes anyone mad but it's my blog and I can say what I want and what my views are. There were a couple of comments on the blog from a neighbor of the Cosmescus and also from a relative. Both talked about how nice, generous, and caring to a fault these people are. They both said that they would hope that people would read about his inventions that have helped so many people instead of bashing his house. Their comments were torpedoed too. Go figure.

OK, on to something else. One of my friends gave me a couple of recommendations of places to eat while in Sedona. I tried the first place and there was no place to park. So, I went to the second recommendation. It had a patio on the ground floor and one upstairs. The weather has been perfect for sitting on a patio. The view was great and so was the food. Thanks Sammye for the recommendation!