Briefly is a weekly newsletter where I share original poems, short stories, essays, and tales of our Airstream camping adventures. I’d love to have you join my community! This is #6 of the Airstream stories. If your email gets cut off, you can click the button below to find this story and others in this series.
I am writing these Airstream stories in chronological order, beginning when we first decided to buy an Airstream, to our maiden voyage to pick her up in Michigan and back again, to our first “real” big trip after that which lasted many months. This is the 6th installment, and it’s about our stops at Sedona and Roosevelt Lake in January 2021.
But before I get into the incredibly beauty of Sedona, Arizona, please indulge me in a brief conversation about the beauty of a decadent cheeseburger dinner. While I might not eat burgers as often as I once did (hello menopausal weight gain, the current price of beef, and screw worms infecting cattle in the U.S. again), this is a meal I will always adore and splurge on from time to time. You might notice that Alex’s plate on the right is a less decadent burger or chicken sammie of some sort. Not the same thing. I give him kudos for being healthy, but when you’re going all in with the bubbles and tots, I say go all in!
After all, this is not something we do everyday. Can we agree that cheeseburgers everyday would be a bad idea? We all saw the movie Supersize Me, and if you haven’t go watch it. Yes, I get that pairing a cheeseburger with champagne and tater tots may seem a bit much, even as a one-off. But I think there’s a time and place for everything. COVID had made us all feel so uncertain, so locked down, so sad and angry, we were actively looking for ways to not only survive the unknown but also thrive and lean into possibility. This was not an impossible burger! It was a POSSIBLE burger and a POSSIBLE roadtrip! It was time to celebrate.
So we rang in New Years Eve in 2021 in Sedona, and went for it with this meal (seen above) one of the nights we were there, which wasn’t actually NYE. Regardless, we treated the entire time we were there, which was a few days, as our NYE celebration. We had a lot to be grateful for being healthy as we entered 2021 on the road in Joy. We had also just spent the previous few days in Dome Rock, eating off paper plates, and not showering to conserve water and grey tank wastewater space. It was time for a little decadence. But the food was only part of the splendor we experienced there.
🍔 🍾 🥂 😍
We drove into Sedona via the I-10, the I-17, and Highway 179, otherwise known as the “Red Rock Scenic Byway,” arriving in the late afternoon. The sunlight drenched the landscape in a buttery warmth that made all the colors richer and brighter. That scenic byway certainly earns its name. It’s a gently winding road, and every turn reveals a new panorama of pinkish-orange buttes, mesas, spires, monoliths, and bluffs rising into the sky from a land dappled with the many-hued greens of Manzanita, Yucca, Cypress and other high desert plant life.
The place seems like a perfect setting for a story about an alternative universe where fantastical creatures live. The uniqueness of it made all the myths about energy vortexes and the plethora of psychics and spa resorts in the area make sense. In case you didn’t know, there are purported metaphysical energy centers called vortexes all around the Sedona area. I was curious if we’d feel any magical energy while we were there. In the meantime, I kept my eyes peeled for banshees and dragons.
Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” played on the radio in our car as I attempted to capture the landscape with my iPhone camera. If you ever get the chance to go there, there are various routes you can take. But I urge you to drive this particular route, even if it adds miles and time to your journey. Years later we had a big family reunion in Sedona, and my sons drove in from Los Angeles and didn’t arrive until late at night. They had missed seeing all this! If you go, drive in during the day, preferably late afternoon, as the sun begins to slant across a cerulean blue sky. You will not regret it.
We stayed at Rancho Sedona RV Park, a small campground located just below the main street of downtown Sedona (which is actually Highway 89A, but feels more like a Main Street). The RV Park is situated alongside Oak Creek, which flows by amidst cottonwoods and pines. Oak Creek is also the source for many of the popular swimming holes in the area, but as we were there in January, we did not go swimming.
Despite the winter chill, we did crack the bedroom windows so the birdsong, babbling water, singing wind, and rustling branches could be the sound track we fell asleep and awoke to. Normally this campground is booked months ahead of time. We’d planned this trip at the last minute and simply got lucky. People had cancelled their plans when the pandemic shut everything down, and we just happened to be ahead of the curve in making reservations as things opened back up.
While we were there, Alex’s nephew, his nephew’s wife, and their little boy, came down from Flagstaff to say hello one day, and we also spent a day visiting them in Flagstaff. It was that strange era when we were no longer wiping down our groceries before bringing them inside (and no longer wearing medical gloves at the store), but we were still wearing masks most places, but not all places. My style is “better-safe-than-sorry.” (You know this already if you’ve been following along. If you haven’t then you might want to read my first In the Airstream post about how we ended up doing this in the first place.) We hadn’t been vaccinated yet, because vaccines had only become available after we left on our trip and still weren’t widely available. Restaurants were open, but the waitstaff (depending on the state we were in) wore masks. We wore masks too, most of the time. I found myself judging people who didn’t wear masks, then realizing there were times I didn’t wear them either, based on whatever seemed rational to my mind at the time (like visiting family and wanting to eat my cheeseburger).
As we traveled, it became evident that what people believed or didn’t believe, and did or didn’t do, had a lot to do with where they lived. I felt this odd mix of excitement to be out in public again, anchored down by a pervading sense of unease and uncertainty. I was more careful than many, but looking back I probably got lucky too. We all just did the best we could. My armor, in addition to embracing masks as part of my wardrobe, was joy/Joy. With all the chaos that is going on in the world today, I continue to cling to joy and enjoy Joy as much as possible.
The RV campsite had a little trail that ran along the creek. We went for a short walk there one day, and in addition to seeing a Flicker, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Scrub Jays, we spotted the Four Seasons Resort just across the water. Aha! I love birds, but Alex isn’t fan because he’s the one who typically ends up cleaning their poop off the cars, patio furniture, etcetera. But we did agree that we needed to enjoy a cocktail and nibble at the Four Season’s restaurant. (I can’t recall if this was before or after our cheeseburger meal.) We couldn’t traverse the creek to get there (we tried and quickly decided that was a bad idea). The only way to get there was to head into town, which we hadn’t done yet.
The town is only a mile away from the campground, but required walking along the highway and then up a very steep hill. That didn’t sound safe or fun, so we pulled out the e-bikes, only to discover that one of the electric panels had indeed been damaged by the “atmospheric river” we’d driven through when leaving the Pacific Northwest back in December. The bike wouldn’t start. And electric bikes - especially the Lectric brand we had, are very heavy. Not the sort of thing you want to manually pedal up a steep hill.
Looking back, I’m surprised we didn’t just ride the one good bike together. Alex could have driven it, and there is a spot behind the seat with a flat space for either a basket… or a butt. I could have ridden side-saddle! I suppose we probably avoided an ER visit by not doing that. 🙄 The hill was very steep…
Anyhow… Alex tried to fix it, but couldn’t. He called the manufacturer to ask for advice and if they could FedEx us a new electrical panel he could install himself. It turned out they were located in Phoenix, and since we’d be passing through there to our next stop in a few days, we made an appointment with their service department. Then we hopped in the car and drove the one mile up to town.
We should have walked. Parking in Sedona sucks, especially when you’re driving a big SUV. I think we spent as long looking for a parking spot as we did exploring the stores there. It’s mostly tourist shops selling crystals and t-shirts with sayings like “High Vibes” and “Cosmic Cowgirl.” I wasn’t in the market for that sort of thing, but the cocktail and food at the Four Seasons made the trip and the painful parking experience worth it.
If you ever go to Sedona, my suggestion is to spend the bulk of your time hiking and exploring the natural wonders in the area. If you want to explore the town itself, I suggest taking an Uber or Lyft or riding a bike/e-bike. By the way, the lower “old” part of the town (at the bottom of the steep hill, closer to our campground) has art galleries and more shops. I realized that later.
The day after our “cheeseburger in paradise” evening, we decided to hike the Airport Mesa Loop Trail to work off the food babies that were beginning to form in our bellies after all our indulgences. It’s a little over three miles long and mostly flat. But it took us about two hours because the trail is a bit rocky and uneven, so you need to watch your footing. Plus I was taking a million photos, most which did not do the location justice.
The trailhead is a wide open flat space that offers 360-degree views of all the red rock formations as far as the eye can see.
From there we set off along a rocky trail that would take us clockwise around the mesa.
As we walked I thought to myself, thousands of years ago other people must have also walked right where I am walking now. What were their lives like? What were their worries and dreams? I felt they were with me as I walked, and I wondered if perhaps I was feeling some vortex energy. Or maybe my vertiginous, dreamy state had more to do with the altitude. The trailhead sits at about 4,580 feet above sea level.
In case you’re curious, as I was writing this article I asked AI to tell me more about the vortexes of Sedona and it told me this:
“Different traditions assign different qualities to different vortexes.
- Airport Mesa: perspective, insight, seeing the bigger picture.
- Bell Rock: vitality, motivation, personal growth.
- Cathedral Rock: feminine energy, emotional healing, relationships.
- Boynton Canyon: balance of masculine and feminine energies.”
There is no scientific evidence vortexes are real. But just because you can’t prove something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. For example, I read a recent article in The New York Times about a third circulatory system they’ve found, in addition to the lymphatic and cardiovascular systems, called the “interstitium.” Apparently the interstitium maps similarly to the meridians used by Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners, which could explain why acupuncture works. So before this western medicine didn’t believe in or validate acupuncture; now they might. Maybe someday someone will find a way to “see” the mystical energy vortexes in Sedona… For now, you just have to feel them to believe them.
I was once hypnotized and experienced three separate past lives. (Maybe I’ll share more about that in another post someday.) I told the hypnotist I was semi-conscious as I told her about my past lives and asked if maybe it was all just my imagination. She asked, “Does it really matter?” She had a point.
Does it matter if the hype about vortexes is hogwash or real?
Soon (too soon) it was time to leave Sedona and head to our next stop. On the way we stopped at Lectric’s headquarters in Phoenix where they successfully and quickly fixed the damaged e-bike. Then we headed to Roosevelt Lake (aka Theodore Roosevelt Lake) which sits about 90 miles northeast of Phoenix.
The lake is actually a reservoir formed by the Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River, one of the early projects of the federal reclamation program in the American West. It’s a beautiful area, but as I like to do, I looked into the history of the place. The completed dam and reservoir was named after Teddy Roosevelt and dedicated in 1911 with him present. The dam created more manageable, consistent irrigation for modern American farmers, and without it the big metropolis of Phoenix would probably have not come into being (although water levels of the lake itself are way down these days and energy issues are an ongoing concern in that area).
In the context of developing the west, one could argue that the dam was a good thing. But another reality is that the reservoir flooded land that had significance to Native peoples that had lived in that area for hundreds, and in some cases thousands of years. Below the surface of the water where we paddled in our kayak by day, and enjoyed millions of stars by night, there are burial grounds, religious and cultural centers, and what was once farmland for indigenous peoples who were ultimately pushed out against their will. History helps put things into perspective if we are willing to ackowledge it’s many nuances and layers.
When one is able to experience new places and learn about the past I believe it adds important gravitas to how we see the world and our role in it. Knowing others had likely suffered here in the past was humbling. Like on the trail in Sedona, I found myself thinking about the people who had been here before, pursuing dreams, raising families, burying the dead, farming, warring, exploring, expanding, demanding, eroding, flooding, taking, building, growing, floating, sailing, paddling, playing, sleeping, waking, eating… greeting each new dawn with prayers hoping for a better tomorrow. I wondered what it looked like before the dam made the reservoir, before settlers came and changed everything.
I just read this morning that some people are comparing AI to immigration/new settlers because of how similarly massive the changes will be across economies and societies. But unlike past big changes like industrialization which took place over a hundred years or so, this change will take place in the next five to ten years. Imagine that scale of change happening that fast. At least COVID ended up being temporary. What if it hadn’t?
😳
Whew…this post about Joy has meandered from light hearted stories about cheeseburgers and parking adventures and ended up somewhere more serious. Thank you for bearing with me as I rambled around in my mind and on the page.
I hope you find these tales about our adventures and my reflections on all of it interesting and thought provoking. I’d love to hear what you think.
