Sedona Bona Fo-fona

Thanks so much for your great responses to my Sedona posts. I love traveling, and at this time in my life, I'm taking more advantage of doing it when I get a chance.

Personally, I went to Sedona for the natural beauty and the spas. Not for the woo-woo factor, which I've heard is rampant, what with all the hippies and reflexologists and endocrinologists hitchhiking hither and yon there. I just wanted some beauty and peace and relaxation. After all, I'd had my chakras removed years ago, so I certainly didn't need anything opened. I just wanted a quiet, scenic, hike-replete place upon which to rest my weary head and have some vodka.

But I've discovered that odd things can happen in Sedona, even if your feet have just been sanded and buffed and you slide off your shoes before you can lace them.

To make a short story long, we were out at the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon--what's known as the Studio 54 of Red Rock--and just as the lights were coming up and the birds were starting to blast the tuneage, we pulled into the lot at the trail head. We read the signs and found out we needed 8 bucks to park.

I thought that was a bargain! In L.A. if you only need 8 dollars to park, you tip the attendant 12 from sheer gratitude. At this trail head, it's a self-serve kiosk during the hours before normal people wake up. Since all we had was a $20, we needed dollar bills to put in the envelope. So, we scrounged around anywhere we thought there might be dollar bills, and we finally found a bunch of ones. I started counting them out at the kiosk.

A couple had driven in before us, and they walked up to us from their car. The woman said, "We didn't know we'd have to PAY!"

Apparently, they were from Milpitas.

She said, "We thought the Red Rock weekly pass would cover all the trails!"

Well, I'd be steaming mad, too.

Actually, she wasn't angry, she was just at ends, because they didn't have enough ones to pay the fee, and they were ultimately responsible citizens who respecteth the state ground upon which they walketh. O Brother, I heareth you.

By this time we'd discovered that we had two extra dollars. So I said to this woman, I said, 'Sunny One So True, how short are you?' And the man looked at her and she looked at him and I fully expected her to say 5'5", but before she could, he said, "We only have $6.00."

They were two dollars short. We were two dollars over.

You see where I'm going with this...?

SYNCHRONICITY, BABY!!

So I said, oh! We just happen to have two dollars! And I reached my hand out to give them to him. But he was kind-hearted, mild-mannered, and polite, you know, kinda like Flava-Flav, but without the clock necklace. And he didn't want to take our money.

I said, "No, really. We don't need it, we're 2 bucks over, Chuck."

And he looked at it, and she made a tiny O face of surprise. And I was starting to get irritated. Because, let's face it, I was missing all the action out on the dancefloor trying to force these people to let me be nice, for once.

I said, "Seriously, in daily life I just toss money like this out the window! Please take it!"

And he smiled and he reached out and took it, and he looked at me and said, "Oh, well, then we better start following you around!"

They were really nice sorts, and you can't make jokes about people who buy weekly passes at State Parks so that they can go hiking. I mean, you can't make them in my house, sister.

So, we parted ways, and I felt happy that they finally picked up what I was about to throw down.

That was Tuesday morning. The incident was a distant memory by 11am, and out of our awareness completely at 12:15 or thereabouts.

Wednesday afternoon, we went on a train ride through Verde Canyon. It's a four-hour ride, we sat first class so we could get snacks (because I knew it would be at least an hour since I last ate, and I didn't want to pass out). I bought myself a little Engineer Bear and he went on the ride with us.

Pointing out the engine, up ahead.

Entering a woo-woo tunnel!

We had a four-hour tour on the train, gorgeous, wish you were here, and near the end of the trip it started raining, as it had every afternoon thus far, and it was cool and pretty and we sat out on the open car most of the trip because it wasn't very hot.

The engine, making its way to the other end of the train, for the return trip.

We disembarked and walked the several minutes to our car, and everyone was getting in their cars and pulling out. We were just about at the car and heard this little twitter behind us.

(not Twitter--twitter)

We slowly became aware that someone was behind us and was saying something, so we turned around and the Red Rock Pass couple was there, and the woman was smiling, and said, Can you BELIEVE this?!

I made a little O face of surprise. I said, HI!

And the man pressed two ones into my hand, and said, "I'm so glad we happened to see you again!" I asked him if they were stalking us, but they didn't want to say. We exchanged pleasantries and many happy thoughts of the train tour. Then we parted again. This time, it was kind of sad. I mean, no dinner, no drinks?

You must admit, that was pretty serentipitous. We never saw these people before, we had the two dollars they needed, we thought we'd never see them again, and they were on the same train the whole time!

I said to Cathie as we were driving away, isn't life amazing?!

And then I looked down at the ones in my hand and said,

"Wait.

"These aren't the ones I gave him!"

Next Up: Chris interrogates some French people who pretend not to understand her.