I didn’t write last night. I had every intention of writing last night. Last night was New Year’s Eve, I actually had many intentions for last night, one of them being getting home. But none of them happened. Our last morning in Sedona turned into a hybrid of the options that were before us, either get up early and head to the Cathedral Rock Trail and climb the rock before the snow came in or laze around in bed and get brunch. In the end, we chose to have a lazy morning and still head to Cathedral Rock regardless of the snow starting to fall. The snow made it feel magical out and, after reviewing what we had read about the trail, we decided we would head out and do as much as we could before the conditions became too dangerous. After that we would get brunch, then come back to our rooms to change and pack up, head to get our 90 minute massages, and then hit the road back to Phoenix to catch our 7:10pm flight home. We had a plan, and we were off. Our trek at Cathedral would be very short so I didn’t even bring my pack.
The Cathedral Rock Trailhead was only 4 ½ miles from our hotel, we made it there in just about ten minutes. It was snowing but it just added to the magic as we layered up and hit the trail. The Cathedral Rock hike is only about .6 miles each way but the last .1 or so is straight up the steep rockface. The snow started to flurry heavier and as we walked on the landscape around us became whiter and whiter. We met a couple ladies at a trail sign, sisters, and we exchanged picture taking with them; sharing the wisdom we’d learned on getting amazing panoramic shots in Sedona and directing them to other trails. We should be trail guides. When we said that out loud the ladies agreed. We told them about the Fay Canyon trail and the uplifting energy we felt there and also about the Birthing Cave trail and the solemn somberness that it elicited.
We scrambled up the first true climb on this trail, only about a 6 or 7 ft rock face, and it was getting slippery. We decided that plateau would be as high as we could safely go. Watching people starting to slip and slide on the trail above us quickly confirmed we were making the right decision. A blanket of snow was now covering everything around us and we took our time on that ledge, feeling the energy of the vortex and honoring ourselves. The ground was getting slicker beneath our feet and people were falling on the trail beyond us.
A family from Florida approached and stopped at the base of the rock we had scrambled up to get to the ledge. I think there were 5 or 6 members of this family, each of them wearing some piece of University of Central Florida gear, either a beanie or a sweater with the logo on each of them. Apparently the football game is today. Go figure. We warned them that it was slick and we weren’t going any further. They were going to turn around. Jenny and I realized how slick the rock face we had climbed had become. Getting down was going to suck. The family asked if we needed help and, with the assistance of a couple of the men, we very carefully found hand and footholds and made our way down. Without their assistance the tiny little climb down would have been near impossible to do safely. They stayed and helped more folks coming down behind us. These were the first guardian angels we encountered this day.
We walked back slowly, both because the ground was quite slick and to take in the final energy field of the trip for as long as we could. We talked about our chakra healing from last night and letting ourselves heal. It’s not always easy but in order to heal and realize your true potential you must let yourselves feel all the feels. If you don’t feel them, you can’t heal them. It can hurt, it can hurt bad, but our souls are like muscles, they must be broken down before they can be rebuilt to their pinnacle. We walked in silence for a few minutes and I thanked mother earth for everything she has taught me this year. One year and one day ago I impulsively booked a trip to New Zealand for 6 weeks later with no plan in place. That was the start, where mother nature really stepped in and intervened with me, making me a stronger person. I found strength I never knew I could muster by embracing her and myself. I am so grateful for the story I wrote for myself this year and the lessons I learned in creating my story. I am on an airplane right now (we’ll get to that later) but I just looked up and the lady across the aisle from me is holding a book titled, “Your Second Life Begins When You Realize You Only Have One.” I have no idea the contents of this book but how perfect is that title?!
We got back to the car and laughed, we had thought it was funny how much snow was on the car when we left the hotel this morning, now it was really covered. We had no idea what was to come. It was 11:30am and we thought our timing was perfect, we wouldn’t have time for a long brunch but we were only ten minutes from our hotel so we could grab a quick one before we packed up and headed to our 1pm massages. There was a lot of snow on the gently sloping road and I said out loud “this could be fun.” We got in the car and mocked the people who were putting on chains in the parking lot. Chains? Really people? Its only 6 inches of snow. Maybe even less. I pulled out of the parking spot and the Jeep slid a little bit. Hmm. The parking lot exit was a little steep and it took a minute to get traction and make it up, but it went. It’s just a little snow, I’ll drive slow and careful and it will be fine. As we turned on to the road we made it about 50 ft before the tires started to spin. About 100 ft ahead of us two men were pushing a little tiny Nissan up the hill. Thank god we have an AWD Jeep! But we weren’t moving. The car was stuck. Ok, I got this. The tires spun and I stared at the road. I had to be careful if I were to get traction and start going, I thought, since the car was being pushed ahead of us. I finally found a rhythm that got the car to inch forward, and I do mean inch forward. Punch the gas, hit the brakes, take a deep breath, repeat. Very slowly we crept forward, finally we started to move, as had the little Nissan being pushed ahead of us. We made it about 100 ft maybe and then it happened again. Sure enough the Nissan was again stuck and being pushed, and we were stuck as well. We discussed our options; could Jenny push? I tried the gas/brake/breath system that worked earlier, I tried punching it, the car wasn’t moving. All of a sudden two people came running up behind the car. It was an Asian couple, the ones driving the mini van I had mocked for putting on chains. This was our second set of guardian angels. They gave us a push and we were able to get moving. They never came to the window or anything, just ran up to the car and started to push. Here we go!
We tried to remember the little street and how it looked coming in and thought we were at the worst of it and should be good to go. We made it a tenth of a mile or so. And then the car stopped making progress yet again. The little Nissan was stuck ahead of us and so I had slowed. And now, yet again, we were stuck. There were finally a few cars behind us. I tried, I tried hard, I inched forward a tad but literally, just inches. The car was starting to slip and there was a hillside to our right and a drop off of to our left. Jenny jumped out to try to give it a push. The couple from the mini van again ran out and helped her. We weren’t making much progress. And no matter how I turned the wheel it was trying to slide into the hillside. More people came to help. More guardian angels. Including the gentlemen who had been pushing the Nissan in front of us. They were officially stuck and out of luck with that little car but they ran down to help. Floor mats were the answer they told us. It’s how they made progress with the Nissan. Put the floor mats under the tires and it will help with traction. Genius! We decided one of the men would jump in our car to steer and I would help push since he had actual experience with these conditions. We grabbed the floor mats from the back seat, set them at the front wheels and started to push. This was a group effort, about 7 people were now helping us. Each side mirror had someone pushing and the rest of us were around the back. The floor mats worked! The car caught traction and moved, and the floor mats came flying back. Someone grabbed the mats and ran up to the wheels to reset them. We repeated this cycle about three times until we were on a flat spot and the car would go on its own. We profusely thanked our angels and got back in the car. “Don’t stop, whatever you do, don’t stop. The car will probably be squirrely but just keep it floored and keep moving. We’re past the steepest part of the road, it should be fine.” I soaked in these words of wisdom and slowly we made progress. I carefully navigated past the stuck Nissan (I’m not going to lie, that was scary), and a couple minutes later made it back to the main road. It was probably about noon.
Traffic was backing up on 179, the road we needed to take back to our hotel and also back to Phoenix later today. As the traffic slowed, and stopped, Jenny and I discussed our options. The Yogi’s husband had warned me last night that we should allow 3 ½ to 5 hours to get to Phoenix if today’s storm came in bad. I thought he was crazy. But as we crawled we decided maybe he wasn’t. We wanted to be safe and allow ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport. It was already 12:20pm and we had only made it maybe 3 miles. It was only another 1 ½ miles back to the hotel. We made the tough decision to cancel our 1pm massages and get a quick bite on our way back and then pack up and go. We called and explained that the snow storm had messed with our estimated travel time and they let us cancel at this last minute without charging us. We were barely moving. It took us 50 minutes to make it another ¾ of a mile. That’s right we had been on the road for over 90 minutes and had only gone about 3 ¾ miles. We inched forward. And then we stopped inching. My intuition told me we may be screwed. Very gingerly I told Jenny that I was worried if we were going to make our flight at this point. A big rig was stuck in the oncoming traffic, actually two were stuck just a couple hundred feet apart, and there was a hill. No cars could make it up the hill. People were hopping out and pushing one car at a time to clear it. Jenny disagreed and thought we’d be fine. But we were giving up on getting brunch first, let’s just get back to the hotel, pack up, and go. We were starting to get a little punchy. The stress hadn’t really set in yet.
In 45 minutes we moved ONE TENTH of a mile. We both got out of the car at times, everybody was. Another 45 minutes later we had again moved only ONE TENTH of a mile. We were half a mile from the hotel. We discussed if we should park the car and leave it, walk to our hotel, and walk our bags back in the snow. The cars weren’t moving. But the gas station was up by our hotel and we had to get gas before we could head out so we had to get the car there.
We came to a roundabout, you should zipper merge in these situations, and this biatch in a RAV4 would not let us merge in on our turn. She hugged the butt of the car in front of her so tightly you would’ve thought she was a hemorrhoid. We had very choice words about this woman, and fantasized about knocking on her window to tell her how rude she was. It was about 2pm now. At this point it had taken us 2 ½ hours to go 4 miles. We inched forward, eventually making around the roundabout and another tenth of a mile. I was becoming certain we weren’t going to make it back to Phoenix in time for our 7pm flight. Not at this pace. I could tell Jenny was realizing that truth as well. I knew she was upset, she had plans to spend the evening with her boyfriend.
Someone had built a snowman in the middle of the road. A snowman. In the middle of the road. In Sedona. I felt like a selfie was in order. I hopped out of the driver’s seat and tramped over. As I knelt beside the snowman I slipped and went down onto all fours. I laughed myself up and my bruised pride was sure the cars around had found it entertaining. Jenny was disappointed she hadn’t filmed me falling. After another bit of time I needed to find a bathroom, I hadn’t peed in close to 5 hours! We were near a restaurant and some shops so Jenny moved to the driver’s seat and I took off on foot. The restaurant was closed but I found a public bathroom in the adjacent shopping center. Score! There was a little picnic area and it was stunningly beautiful decked out as a snowy winter wonderland. I took some pictures of a family and they recommended I check out the view on the footbridge.
As I walked back to the Jeep, which had not moved more than three feet, literally, the rude lady in the Rav4 in front of us rolled down here window. “Did you figure out what was going on?!” she snapped. Nope, I just went to find a restroom I told her. She wanted to know where, she had to go too. I pointed and told her she should just go. We weren’t moving. “Yeah, but you could go cause you have someone in your car.” She also pointed out the boot on her foot. I told her that I would sit in her car if she really had to go. She may have pissed us off at the roundabout but last night’s teaching of forgiveness and compassion was fresh in my mind. A few minutes later she approached at the car window. Was I still willing to sit in her car so she could go? I sure was. Jenny was still in the driver seat of our car from when I went so I hopped out and went to sit in this lady’s car. Not once did I have to take the car out of park. She had a barf bag on the front seat and I felt my good karma while feeling bad for her and the bad karma her rudeness would surely bring on. When she got back, we talked for a minute. She was trying to get to Flagstaff. She just heard that highway 89A was closed in both directions right now and a big rig was stuck blocking 179. She had pulled out of parking lot on the other side of the roundabout right behind us at noon.
As we inched forward I saw a side street and pulled up my map. There were no cars on this side street and it would curve around to the gas station, we had planned to get gas after we packed up but the empty side street was alluring. When we finally inched close enough we turned down the side street and, yes, forward motion! But at this point we knew we probably wouldn’t make our flights. We had already checked and made sure there were flights tomorrow. We didn’t want to give up and just stay in Sedona though. We would still try to at least get to Phoenix. We got our gas. At 3pm we finally pulled into the hotel parking lot. It had taken us 3 ½ hours to drive 4 ½ miles. Our moods were taut. And we were hungry. There was a Chipotle adjacent to our hotel and we picked up some food to eat while we packed up. We had called the hotel a couple hours earlier to let them know we had missed our check-out time and didn’t know how long it would take us to get back, they were super nice and would make a note to hold the room until we got back.
There was an 8am flight out the next morning or a 12:30pm flight. I hate early mornings, I didn’t really want to rush and would prefer the 12:30pm flight. Jenny preferred the morning flight. She was upset, she was supposed to be with her man and wanted to get home ASAP. “The later flight is fine for you but I have a loved one I want to get home to,” she told me. Her words stung. Thanks for the reminder that I have no human to go home to. We were resigned that we wouldn’t make our flights and packed up efficiently while eating our late lunch but didn’t overly rush. The air was a little tense. We decided to see how long it would take to get to the main highway and from there we would gauge our chance of making our flight home this evening.
At 3:50pm we hit the road again. Highway 89 had been closed in both directions by the onset of heavy snow and accidents, hence why we had been completely stuck, as that was the road on which our hotel set. The road was just reopening. This was positive, traffic was moving. But we needed to take 179. We pulled out of our hotel straight onto 179 (our hotel sat in a T-intersection with 89A going both directions and 179 coming straight into it) and were optimistic for the first mile as we actually moved along fine, Waze said we could make it to the airport by 6:30pm. It would be TIGHT but we could make our flight conceivably. LIAR! As we started on the next mile, traffic again slowed. And again stopped. The car in front of us was leaving about ten car lengths between them and the next car up. It drove me nuts. Pull up!!! You’re making us feel like we’re making even less progress!! And our car was bigger so surely everyone behind us thought *I* was the asshole leaving so much space! I wanted to honk. We discussed at what point I could start honking. Ok, if we see the brake lights ahead go off, then I can honk. The car behind me revved its’ engine at me. See, they did think I was the asshole. I, in turn, revved my engine at the car in front, nothing. I finally honked. The guy behind me was over this, he had big tires on his old truck and veered to the snow banked shoulder to go around me. I had considered doing the same. And the jackass in front of me moved to the side to not let the guy pass. So frustrating.
We inched forward for a while and then all movement stopped completely at a hill. We were parked yet again. My best friend Shelby called and I put her on speaker to tell her about this adventure and our misfortune. She laughed hysterically as a true friend does! It was now 5pm, we had left over an hour ago and had only gone two miles. We tried to find out if the road was even open. We called 511. It was useless. We tried to search online but couldn’t find much and we had really poor reception so not much would load. We needed someone who could help us look up the info. We tried to call my mother, no answer. We tried to call Jenny’s boyfriend, no answer. Then Jenny had a genius idea, we should call our friend Lisa, she’s about as resourceful as a person could get! So we called and she answered! We had Lisa on speaker as she tried to search road condition information for us. She also wasn’t having much luck. People were out of their cars up ahead and started to come down the hill, playing a game of telephone basically passing the road conditions from car to car. I hopped out of the driver seat to walk up the road and see what info I could find. Turn around. Turn around was the message of the moment. A big rig was overturned somewhere down the highway, blocking it completely. It would be 3 to 4 hours before it would be cleared. I came back with this information and we told Lisa we would call her back, we needed to figure out our next move. It looked like we were staying in Sedona tonight.
As we turned around I called the Hyatt back to see if our room was still available. Nope, they were sold out. Data service wasn’t great so we called Lisa back to help us find a hotel. Jenny had some reception as we headed back towards the Hyatt, I didn’t know where else to go, and both Lisa and Jenny were rattling off what they were finding as Jenny and I were also side conferring. And then it hit me, highway 89A! It had reopened and I remembered that on our way to Sedona on Friday I had seen that as an optional route, it was a longer route but if it was open we had a chance. I shared my aha moment with Jenny and tried to figure out what to do. With Lisa rattling off hotel rooms, Jenny and I discussing, the stress of the traffic and SNOW, my head starting to spin. I thanked Lisa but said we needed to call her back and hung up. The situation was getting very frenetic and I needed to concentrate for a minute. We decided to give 89A a shot, we might as well. But we knew we had no chance of making our flights. It was time to give in and call to change them to tomorrow.
We again discussed how we preferred different flight times. I tried to explain to Jenny that I hated early morning flights and I travel SO MUCH for work, and one of my legitimate goals I had already set for 2019 was less early morning flights so for me it was kind of a big deal personally to not do the 8am flight. I’m sure this doesn’t sound like a big deal to most people but for me it’s a really big deal. Jenny cut me off. She snapped that we could just take different flights. “Yup, we will,” I said abruptly after she cut me off. “You’re getting upset,” she told me. I assured her that I was because I really didn’t appreciate how dismissive she was when I was trying to say something that was meaningful to me. She was upset about missing her New Year’s Eve with her man but that wasn’t my fault. I was over this conversation. As we turned onto 89A I picked up my phone and called southwest. While I changed my flight to 12:30pm she booked one on her phone for 8am.
Now for a place to stay. She called her friend, Jeff, who lives in Phoenix, and asked if we could crash with him. When she had told him we were doing this trip originally he had suggested we stay the extra night and spend new year’s with him. Now it looked like that would happen. Jeff was thrilled when she called and said there had been a small fire at his house so there was only one bed right now but we would make it work. He also had two extra tickets for a new year’s eve party at Copper something. We should call him when we got to town to meet him for his house keys and then clean up and join him out. We were still dressed in our hiking clothes from Cathedral Rock. We weren’t sure if we wanted to go out, Jeff was adamant we should. Jenny told him we would play it by ear if we just stayed in at his place or joined him out.
Highway 89A had been plowed, the accidents cleared, and was moving. The road was icy in patches and it was getting dark but driving slow and careful enough it was fine. My stress levels were coming down. The air was tense in the car still though. “I’m really sorry I got upset earlier,” I told Jenny. “You didn’t realize I was trying to say something that meant a lot to me and as accepting as I am of the bind we’re in, it is stressful. I’m sorry.” Jenny thanked me for acknowledging and we discussed context and intention. She leaned over and wrapped her arms around my shoulder and kissed my cheek as we drove on and the air was cleared. Almost immediately both our moods lifted and conversation flowed.
As we made it back onto the main highway and closer to Phoenix, Jenny sent a text to Jeff to see where he was so we knew where to go to meet him and get the keys. We would have to meet him out to pick them up and he was still adamant we should come out with him. But neither of us were in that mood for a new year’s shit show. With our energies back in sync, Jenny suggested we see what hotels were available. We still never made it to the hot tub this trip so after checking the website to make sure they had one, we ended up booking a room at the Hyatt Regency in Phoenix.
It was 8:25pm when we stopped at Safeway, about a mile from our hotel, to get some provisions for the night. It had taken us 4 ½ hours to get from Sedona to Phoenix. We spent over 8 hours in the car today on a combined drive that should have taken 2 hours and 10 minutes. Both of us were now in great moods and ready to make the most of our night. We picked up a bottle of Mumm sparkling rose, lentil chips, hummus, goat cheese, and a slice of cookies and cream cake. We also had rice cakes and almond butter from the weekend, this would be the base of our New Year’s Eve meal! We checked into the Hyatt feeling like schmucks still in red-dirt stained hiking clothes while folks dressed up in sparkling new year outfits surrounded us. I think we were both delirious at this point.
We had the hotel deliver champagne glasses to our room and we spread out our New Year’s Eve treats before popping the champagne and changing into our bathing suits to finally get some hot tub time!
Except that the hot tub was closed. What the hell?! Pad locks on the pool gate held us back. We were not giving up, our heart was set on hot tub time. They had said it closed at 10pm and it was only 9. We went back to the room and called the front desk. They had closed it for the holiday. This made no sense to me but whatever. With the official hot tub off limits we improvised! We had a tub. We had hot water. And we had pink champagne. We may not have had jets, but we had bubbles!
We laid out a towel across the toilet and set up a snack stable with chips and hummus. We laughed at ourselves and the situation and knew we were doing New Year’s Eve just as we were meant to, as the universe meant for us to. We FaceTime’d Jenny’s man from the tub. Bryan had been sleeping and awoke startled to the sight of the two of us sitting in our little oasis. Jenny tried to explain to him how symbolic it was for our chakras that the bubbly we were drinking was pink. I tried to explain to him what chakras are. And then he had a genius idea. We should have our own YouTube channel, the Hot Tub Journals. Look out world, Jenny and I may be coming at you from a bath tub soon!
After about an hour, multiple hot water additions, most of a bag of lentil chips, and a bottle of bubbles, we were satisfied that we had gotten in our hot tub time. But now we didn’t have an appropriate beverage to go with our desert. We needed more bubbles. With some quick sleuthing (call to the front desk) we found that the Marketplace was still open downstairs. We called them and confirmed they had something that sparkled. We pulled on sweaters and headed down. Barbara behind the counter at the Marketplace was not amused by us. I don’t think Barbara was happy to be working, she commented on being there so her staff could enjoy themselves. We told Barbara how much we appreciated her but I don’t think she believed us. I think Barbara needs to love herself a little more so she can accept the appreciation of others. We bought a bottle of the only sparkling wine in store plus a slice of pumpkin pie and retreated back to our room and pajamas. Stopping along the way to play at the empty Enterprise rent-a-car kiosk for a minute since Jenny used to work for Enterprise and our mutual good friend, Lisa, still does!
Back in the room we tried to open the new bottle with fanfare. But the cork was stuck, that sucker was not going to open. I grabbed my scarf for traction, no luck, I grabbed a towel for traction, magic! We drank our bubbles while eating our deserts and repacking our luggage. We poured fresh glasses and laid in bed side-by-side laughing hysterically at our picture and video shenanigans from the evening while jotting down the ideas for our Hot Tub Journals – episodes on chakra healing and citizenship tests may be coming at you soon! With Andy and Anderson on the TV in the background we called her man to FaceTime for the countdown to midnight. The recording of the east coast feed of the Times Square New Year’s extravaganza was not in the right time zone and thought we were in PST so we did our countdown without fanfare and toasted to the new year, friends, and adventures!
Before too long we were both sound asleep. I vaguely heard Jenny get up this morning but she didn’t wake me and I slept as she left to catch her 8am flight home. I got up a little after 8 and took my sweet time getting out of bed. Finally readying myself, and leaving for the airport ahead of schedule, for my flight home at a respectable time. The same lady, in the same outfit still, who checked us in last night was still working the front desk. I hope she’s getting massive overtime. I guess it only makes sense that I would begin my New Year with a Hyatt room and Southwest flight. As soon as I got settled in at the airport I pulled out my laptop and spent the half hour before boarding starting this blog. I wrote the entire flight. And the entire uber ride home. I am now home getting new year’s love from my pups (shout out to my awesome pet sitter Michaela who has no idea how much she helped lower my anxiety levels yesterday by being able to come back to stay with my babies last night). Happy New Year’s to all! Excited to see what adventures 2019 will bring!
Taking On the World 
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