THE SEDONA ADVENTURE

Part 2: The Snooty Cafe

As night approached, John and myself decided to stay in the car while Brian and Jessica napped away in the tent. They weren't coming out anytime soon and he had homework to do. Me? I was fighting off the after effects of the self-heating lasagna. The experience will forever remind me never to eat anything with "self-heating" on the package. As time rolled on, the windows became fogged up with our every breath. The outside world began to fade as the fog increased and the light outside decreased. All that remained were slight shadows of trees and the occaisional light of a car's headlights shining through them. It didn't take very long to get dark, and by 6:00 everything was hidden by the black of the night.

Always living in areas where street lamps and other illumination is available, it was a very different experience to rely upon a flash light to see where you're going. Speaking of flashlights, Brian and Jessica finally woke up in the tent, no doubt wondering where in the world John and I ran off to. It didn't take long for Jessica to realize we'd been huddled up in the car. The windows were a dead give away.

The thing to note is that I'm not an experienced camper, but out of everyone on this trip I was the most prepared. I brought plenty of food (minus the un-edible lasagna of course), warm clothing, and an adequate sleeping bag to fight off the cold. Apparently, John and Jessica were not so prepared concerning food. Of course after suffering through self-heated evil, my need to eat at that point had somewhat diminished, but John and Jessica were very hungry. After a bit of effort, John and Jessica were able to convince Brian to leave the camp site for a bit and attempt to find food in town. Off to town we went, realizing what complete failures at "roughing it" we had just become.

Along the road there were many places to eat. There were a surprisngly large amount of pizzerias and the occasional Indian cuisine restaraunt. The decision was then made to stop and eat at a cafe, since cafe's are known to serve hot chocolate from time to time. Damn that would have been nice. Up the road we stopped at a cafe. It's name is lost to me at the moment, but rest assured, this wasn't the type of cafe you were thinking of. This was a snooty cafe.

Sedona is the place where rich people go to die. Retired millionaires in their 60's populate the area. No matter where we went in the city, we were given looks that we read as, "YOU DON'T BELONG HERE, YOU GANG OF FILTHY HOBOS!" The surrounding restaurants and shops charge an arm and a leg for a meal. Upon entering this small cafe we realized we were in the wrong place. When standing ready to be seated by a waiter, we were asked if we had any reservations. You know you're in trouble when you're asked if you have any reservations. Especially when you're wearing old pants, a beany, and 6 layers of thick, roughed up clothing.

"$20 a plate?"

Yeah we got out of there fast. Luckily we found a Bashas nearby. There I was able to acquire some protein bars for the next day and my friends all got themselves some warm roasted potatoes. It was good that they did, because they would need every bit of warmth to survive what was waiting for us back at camp.

Mother nature had planned something fun for us all that night.

Stay tuned for Part 3: Us Vs. Nature.