DAY 14&15

Arizona: meeting friends younger than sixty and a sunny hike in Sedona

Flagstaff ended up being both a fun and funny experience. When we were walking around town, we acquired one of those big touristy maps (you know, the colorful ones with all the cartoons and bubble letters) and spread it out in the middle of the town square. Soon after, three gentlemen came over to us and asked if we knew of anything fun going on, since they weren't from the area. We replied no (duh), and so they asked us if we wanted to explore the town later and maybe get a drink or two. Later on, I realized their scheme was a pretty poor attempt in simply asking for our numbers. After all, we were gushing over a huge map of Flagstaff at the time..... we certainly weren't locals. I don't do well with "signals."

We had a good time, though! They asked us to get dinner beforehand, but our schedule was pretty full. First off, we had to set up camp in our forest. Here she is!

Then we had to do something about the fact that we hadn't showered in a few days. We could take an eight-minute shower at the campgrounds for $4, but that was obviously way out of our budget. Instead, we filled up our jerry-jug with water at the tap and took sponge baths. Same concept, and now we were $4 ahead of the game! After clean, we had to go grocery shopping to stock up on essentials. We got the usual invigorating foodstuffs: bread, salsa, rice, cookies, vegetables.

Our night out was fun; our new-found friends were in no way creepy or aggressive. It was actually really interesting to talk to them, as they grew up in a totally different environment from the all-competitve east-coast. They didn't have college degrees, yet seemed to be content, intelligent, and financially comfortable. They had different goals for themselves. Even better, they bought all the drinks! Rest assured, we were also responsible; can't forget that we have to drive back to our sleeping bags in the forest.

The following day was..hot. Very hot. So what do we decide to do? Go for a hike at noon in Sedona. So smart! We almost ended up doing a 5 mile loop (another Moab mishap), but an elderly couple told us the direction we were heading was going to probably lead us to dehydration. So we turned around.