Superbowl Sunday and Sedona

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We get up late and start drinking early. I pour a couple of strong Rum and Cola to get us in the mood for the four hour extravaganza, not coke-a-cola I don't drink that stuff.. We go to the local theatre where the game is being show on the big screen. It is free to get in and there is complimentary food. There are not as many people there as we hopped, perhaps they were all watching at home on their super sized plasma screens, but there were enough Cardinal fans to make a bit of atmosphere and a few Steelers fans to jeer back. We ordered some beers and settled in for the game. A few beers into the first half we realise that it takes about three times the amount of time to play a game as is on the clock. The clock stopping each time the ball goes out of bounds, their is a score or a time out. There are adverts every two minutes or so. We read in the paper that advertising time was being sold for three million dollars for a thirty second commercial during the Superbowl. We order cokes and add Rum to them from the bottle that we sneaked in. I grabbed a large plate of food for us both with cheese salad sandwiches, crisps, salsa, pretsils and a large helping of refried beans, cheese and salad. I had already eaten one portion when Lou tried some and detected pig in the refried beans mix and declined to eat anymore. I wasn't so sure that there was any swine derivative in there so helped my self to another plateful of the free and delicious mix. Lou rejected the cheese salad sandwich as the cheese was 'like plastic'. We drank another beer. Half way through the second half of the game it became apparent to me that Lou's lack of consumption of solids was having a detrimental effect on her focus as she was swaying back and forth on her stool with her eyes closed. I attempted to coax her into eating something and managed to get her to eat a few crisps with salsa. The game was building to an exciting climax with the Cardinals briefly taking the lead before the Pittsburgh Steelers came back to win the game in the final minutes. We left the cinema and I supported a giggling and wobbly Lou back to the motel. I left her in the room and popped across the road to the petrol station where I bought hot chocolate, muffins and chewy cereal bars with which to revive her. They seemed to do the trick giving her enough energy to cause mischief for a couple of hours with a cherry tomato, among other things, before we both passed out.

The next day was spent mainly under bed covers with trashy TV for company. I went on a mission to the local Safeway and bought some comforting microwave mashed potato, Brocoli gratin, Salmon, Fruit juices and yogurts for dinner. That was pretty much all that happened on Monday.

Tuesday we awoke renewed and refreshed and set off early, well a relatively ten past ten early for Sedona. Sedona is a beautify forty five minute drive from Flagstaff on a road that winds down a rocky cliff face and the follows a tree lined river until opening out to reveal a small town nestled between great outcrops of huge peculiarly shaped red rocky hill sides and cliff faces. We buy our $5 pass at the visitors centre and drive up Jordan Road where we park to begin our hike. The ground is brick red, rocky and uneven. Sometimes sandy and other times flat and hard rock. The green of the trees clashes beautifully against red earth and blue sky. It is red, blue and green everywhere. It is other worldly, strange and fantastic. It would be no great surprise if Spoke and James T Kirk pulled their phasers on us around the next corner. We got to the top of the hill and looked back at the view. Surrounded by giant red rocks on both sides and in the distance there are rocks the size and shape of temples, giant heads and rockets. Sedona is below us. We walked on across a plateau or perhaps it was a the floor of crater with a crown of strange red forms around the edge. We turned onto Soldiers Pass, the trail that would loop around and take us back to the car. We stopped at a viewing point on top of a massive red slab and once again took it all in breathlessly. We walked down past what is referred to as the 'Seven Sacred pools' which is seven pools of stagnant water descending in steps down the red rock, on past a dramatic thirty foot cave in and around the trail before getting lost. The trail just seemed to petter out until we were standing in a bunch of scrubby bushes not knowing which way to turn. I looked around for a land mark but everything looked strangely unfamiliar. So relying on instinct we pressed on down the side of a creek, across fallen branches and past a large animals burrow and then up the other thorny side across lose and crumbling rocks. We emerge again onto a trail which we follow for a while until it turns into one of the best mountain bike trails I've seen twisting and turning tightly over undulating ground. I wished I was on my bike. After following the bike trail for a while it seemed to turn off back in the direction we had come from so once again we were forced to battle our way through thorny bushes in the general direction of another hiker that we had caught a glimpse of in the distance. I enthuse to Lou about half the fun of hiking being the excitement of getting lost. She doesn't seem to share my enthusiasm. We eventually find a trail again but it crosses under some power lines that I do not remember seeing which makes me feel more lost and I lose confidence in my homing instinct. We push on down hill towards civilisation and on spotting a tarmac road and houses we skip over a broken fence and ask a man in a parked car for directions. As it turns out we were not that far off from our car and we follow the road back a little dusty, a little tired and a little more baked by the sun than we would like.

We grab a reviving drink in a holistic cafe where the waitress informs us of the best spiritual sites for male and female energy. We the while away the rest of the afternoon driving from view point to view point taking in as much as we can of this strange and beautiful area. Just before sunset we head up to the airport view point which is meant to provide the best views but beat a hasty retreat as it is busy with tourists and their big camera lenses cluttering up the view. We find a quite little trail lower down and follow it around for another great view across the valley. We return to the car and drive out as the sun dies, the cliffs seem to glow golden and blood red in the failing light.

We spend our final day in Flagstaff gathering information about our ongoing trip, getting lost in the car, visiting a second had bookstore to exchange read for unread books and watching the ludicrous plot fail to suspend disbelief in 'Taken' at the cinema. I drink some Guinness and a $3 long island ice tea over fish and chips at a Irish Bar whilst waiting for our night train to Los Angeles. At 9.55pm we board the train and wave goodbye to the hire car. We drink a couple of stiff Rum and Cokes in the deserted viewing carriage and taking a headphone each we take turns to select tunes from my Ipod and drunkenly sing along to The Prodigy 'Music for a Jilted Generation', Amy Whinehouse and Metalica's 'Enter Sandman'. A little before three we go back to our seats and reclining them fully attempt to find some sleep among the travelling Amish group and a hugely overweight man who is snoring like a bull elephant. It is not to be. I manage to fall asleep at six thirty just in time to have a twenty minute nightmare where I am on a massive roll-a-coaster watching a young girl trying to restrain a toddler who seems intent on throwing itself out of the car to certain death. The conductor wakes me announcing our arrival at Los Angeles.

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