Living in Florida makes us Flatlanders. Our house sits at Elevation 12’ above sea level which we love because that means we don’t have to worry about flooding (or buying flood insurance). Everywhere we look, the landscape is pretty level. It saves a lot of physical exertion when walking. But if I’m honest and someone makes me admit it, as much as I love Florida, it’s a little boring from a scenic viewpoint.
On the drive through Arizona, as the landscape began to dip and rise, we hotly debated how far we could see. Google provided information that said that on a flat horizon, like standing on a beach in Florida, the curvature of the earth only allows a line of sight of about 3 miles. When the roadway we were driving on was higher than the valleys it overlooked, even though it didn’t seem we had any elevation at all, we could see for miles and miles and miles, certainly more than 3. And of course, when the landscape began to consist of peaks of buttes, mountains, and mesas we could also see those from many more miles than 3 away. The drive through western New Mexico and Arizona is a visual smorgasbord of beauty and color.
At Flagstaff we turned south toward Sedona. Only 24 miles, that drive took more than an hour with all the mountain switchback changes in elevation, and the Labor Day weekend crowds swelling the amount of folks normally in the area.
I’d heard that little desert town is known to be artsy, and spiritual, featuring a thriving New Age community. Lynn and I added Sedona to our trip for the specific reason that it’s said to have several energy vortex sites. We had no idea what that meant, but being around the natural energy of the planet sounded good to us. I asked a friend of mine who I thought might be able to give me some insight into the energy vortex things and he said, “People get out of them what they expect to get out of them.”
We stayed 2 nights in charming little bungalows at a really nice resort (Sedona Pines, in case you want to look it up) we found on Booking.com for $98 a night. Hot air balloons floated over us in the early morning hours. It was quite hot there, but it was a dry heat, so it didn’t seem so hot as the wet, dripping, humid heat of the Midwest. Randy and I enjoyed it, being used to temperatures in the 90s. The dryness was a kind of heat reprieve for us. Not so with Lynn and Dave who didn’t quite melt but came close.
We spent the first day hiking around Bell Rock and visiting some of the vortex sites. Neither Lynn nor I felt any of the energy that’s supposed to be concentrated there. Maybe we needed more time to soak it up. The town itself is beautifully picturesque, surrounded by gorgeous red rock formations the likes of which we Flatlanders have never seen before. But driving through Sedona reminded me a lot of Branson in its heyday, where you drive through town at 15 miles an hour because it’s just so crowded. Everywhere we looked, psychics offered to read our palms or provide a tarot card reading. Shops and booths sold crystals and reiki infused jewelry, seminars offered holistic therapies and healing. Hotels held spiritual retreats. And there are so many outdoor jeep adventures! The vibe was very high end materialism, with healthy, active millennials and Gen Xers in their element. I wasn’t uncomfortable there, but these are definitely not my people. It felt too California get-away to me.
Lynn loved Sedona and she and Dave think they may want to go back someday. I am fairly certain it was the last one and done for me and Randy. That’s not to say we aren’t glad we went. The scenery was truly spectacular and there was a peace about it that’s not easy to come by in the hustle and bustle of where we spend a lot of our time. But I need water around me to be truly happy…natural water, not the manufactured streams and water features that ran through the resort we stayed in.
From Sedona we drove to Las Vegas to spend 2 days in Sin City. Randy and I have been there twice before together, and I was there once with a girlfriend. Lynn and Dave have never been there. I thought it would be fun to see Vegas through their eyes.
One of the things I was looking forward to the most was The Sphere. It looks so impressive when you read about it. The monorail is new since we’ve been there last and the thought of not having to walk or drive the whole strip was appealing. I found great rooms at the Sahara Hotel for $67 a night. They got bonus points for being a stop on the monorail.
We got into town too early to check into the hotel, so we headed to the old downtown, The Fremont Street Experience, first. Oh Lord, I had forgotten the sensory overload on Fremont Street, even during the day. Lynn had the look of a deer in the headlights. We found a quiet bar in an older casino and had a drink, the cost of which didn’t, as we expected, break the bank. We knew we wouldn’t be drinking anywhere on The Strip as we’d heard, and it proved to be true, that it has gotten phenomenally expensive.
The next day we rode the monorail all the way to the end of the line, the MGM Grand. We walked across the street to the Excalibur and rode a tram to the Luxor. We’d never been in that. It seemed dark and foreboding to me. I’m glad we didn’t get rooms there.
Walking through New York, New York, we stopped to rest a bit in their food court. Looking for water, they wanted $6.95 for a 20 oz. bottle of AquaFina. A deluxe pizza was priced at $53.95! We walked out of there as quick as our tired legs could move. Just down the street we found a CVS Pharmacy where we bought a 1 liter bottle of AquaFina for $2.89. And boy, did that water revive me.
I don’t know how far we ended up walking in Vegas, it was a lot. But I’m happy to report that of the 4 of us oldies but goodies, for a change I wasn’t the first one to break down. Dave had a new pair of shoes that bugged him, and Randy’s back was giving him fits. I did just fine although I was E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D. when we got back to the Sahara. We sucked it up later in the day though and went back after dark to the Bellagio to watch the water show. We got our money’s worth out of that Monorail Unlimited 24-hour Pass.
In the end we only saw The Sphere from the monorail (both during the day and at night) and it wasn’t as impressive as I expected. We were planning to see a show there but the only thing playing was an AI (Artificial Intelligence, mom) enhanced version of the 1939 movie Wizard of Oz. Tickets started at about $130 each. To watch a movie. We did meet a couple on the monorail who said it was the most fantastic thing they’d ever experienced. Having been through a tornado ourselves, which was the most fantastic thing WE’VE ever experienced, I’m glad we decided to pass.
The rooms at the Sahara were a bargain and very nice, but I really dislike all the rigmarole having to get a bell hop and all that. The pool closes at 6 p.m. every day. In Vegas. Where the temperature is about 100 degrees this time of year. I didn’t get that at all. I suppose they need to drive people to the casinos, shows, and bars. And what an interesting mix of humanity. And fashion, or lack thereof. Like I said earlier, Vegas is sensory overload, and I just didn’t like it that much.
We were glad to get out of there and head to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, which I’ll tell you about in the next post.
Later, gator!
P.S. I’ve got to admit that while in Vegas, for the first time since my mastectomy, I kinda sorta missed my boobs. Because boobs play a really big role in Vegas. And I’ve got nothing to show off anymore. If I were inclined to show them off.
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