The loser survived

Hey guys, I’m back in the Midwest. Safe and sound. Woopie ding. I didn’t fall down into the canyon, the coral snake the boys saw didn’t kill anybody, and the sores on my ankle that I got when I slipped and fell into that cactus on Bell Rock…well, they’re almost completely healed. My skin is still incredibly dry though. I’m not a mountain woman (Um, the air is dry?) and when you combine that fact with a sunburn and hard hotel water you get something that’s not very pretty. But thank God for lotion right? Goooood lotion.

Wow, I have two weeks that were jam packed full of freakish weirdness that I need to write about and I have no idea what to say. It’s all a bit of a blur right now, but vacations tend to blur in my mind. Or maybe I’m still just mentally unstable from the car ride home. 25 hours kids. 25 long hours. So should I try and focus and write a bit more about the actual events that took place? And some observations maybe? Or should I just keep rambling and talk about my flaking skin for a while?

Drink your tea Cam, drink your calming peppermint tea. That’s a girl. Good. You’re not in the car anymore. And, you get to sleep in your own bed and take a shower with soft water tomorrow. There we go.

Let’s see here, we left two Saturdays ago. The start of the drive was alright, I had new birthday music to listen to and a LOT of time to read ‘War and Peace’ (I’ve been so bad about reading lately, it seems like it always gets pushed aside.). I also had my darling Sharpies with me of course and a tape recorder to mess around with (Many a disturbing message was recorded in reg speed, and then played in either fast or slow to freak Mom out. Ha ha, very good times.).

It was cozy I guess. But how can you not be cozy in a fifteen passenger van with 8 people and all the crap they need for eight weeks? Ah well. I was able to sleep quite comfortably though. I cuddled up in pillows and blankets, and fell asleep while listening to Pearl Jam.

When I woke up, I was totally taken aback. We were in New Mexico, and the landscape was bizarre! Well, in a bad way. Lets just say going west on interstate 40 through New Mexico isn’t what I would call a ‘scenic drive’. Well maybe you would, I don’t know. I was just totally weirded out by the miles of ground speckled with hunter green bushes (Like, freckles or something!), and the creepy abandoned (Or at least they seemed to be.) houses that were everywhere. I wasn’t trying to be critical, I just…didn’t like it. I was starting to get really worried about the next two weeks.

Then we arrived in Albucurque (Sp? I don't know!!!) and it didn’t do anything to calm my fears. It was neat, I mean, it was a city with mountains…so that was cool…heh. Yeah. We couldn’t check into our hotel until three so we spent a few hours shopping. We FINALLY checked into our hotel and we swam in the pool, slept, ate breakfast, packed, and hit the road. It was supposed to only take four hours to get to Sedona.

Unfortunately, it started friggen snowing! SNOW! Like we needed snow! We left Iowa to get away from snow. And do you know what those crazy New Mexicans did when it started to snow? They shut down the friggen interstate! It wasn’t even that bad! I’ve driven though MUCH worse, no sweat. We were simply flabbergasted. Why would you shut down an interstate because of such a small about of snow? Being Iowans, well, we just thought it was a disgrace.

So there we were, stranded in Winslow Arizona. For over three hours. Just itching to get to Sedona. It was painful.

Gosh I’m already tired of writing about this stupid trip. I’ll try to lay off the details.

Um, we got close to Arizona and the landscape changed AGAIN. I swear, the southwest is simply…extremely diverse as far as landscape goes. We were heading up mountains, and down into canyons, all of it covered in Pine and Sycamore trees. We rounded a bend, and HOLY CRAP! We started to see these AMAZING Red Rock mountain…um…thingys. They were simply stunning. And WOW! We’re up on this tiny road, and the bottom of the canyon is thousands of feet below us! And Mom is freaking out! And she’s yelling at Dad to keep his eyes on the road! And Erik is crying! And we’re going down this canyon road!

We were in Oak Creek Canyon. It was beautiful. Simply beautiful. We made it down the canyon safely, and arrived in the fair little city of Sedona. Our hotel was easy to find, and once the girls and I unpacked, we opened our deck door and found a path leading right to the pool and hot tub. It was a gorgeous pool area, sort of set so that you couldn’t see anything but the mountains.

We spent many a morning and evening swimming in the pool, or just sitting in the hot tub and staring at the mountains. It was sensational. The air was so cool, that you would have to dash to the pool, or the hot tub, SO quickly because the water was warm but the air was freezing! Very refreshing.

We stayed at that hotel for the first few days. A few things we did during that time were: quite bit of shopping, trout fishing, hiking, golfing, and driving through the mountains on scenic routes, just trying to get familiar with the area.

Dad and Mom did do something completely insane during that time as well. They bought into a ‘Travel Club’ at the ritzy resort we golfed at. Basically, its like a REALLY nice time share. But owning time shares is what wealthy retired people do! And now my parents have spent thousands of dollars that they hadn’t planned on, they technically own property in Arizona, and they have to either take or sell 9 weeks of vacation at an ILX resort a year! INSANITY! If the place wasn’t so reputable I would be worried that they were scammed, but I know they weren’t.

Still. My parents are morphing into yuppies.

Anyways.

Um, I think it was the first Friday that we were there that the tennis thing was going on. Dad, Mom, Laura, and Emily woke up at four in the morning and drove four hours into California to attend the ‘Pacific Life Tennis Open’ in Indian Wells. While there, they spotted many of their favorite players practicing, they watched four matches including the match between Andy Roddick and Carlos Moya (Roddick being Laura’s all time favorite player, and Moya being the one the girls despise the most.), thank God Andy won, and they met Rodger Federer.

Now, Rodger is Emily’s player. He’s number one in the world, and has been for quite some time. He’s from Switzerland, gorgeous, humble, a wonderful sportsman, faithful and devoted to his sweet girlfriend Mirka, and you just can’t beat him.

Well, they saw him in a practice court and got to watch him play for about an hour, just a few feet below them. Afterwards an official said that if anyone wanted an autograph, that they should line up and Rodger would give them one. Apparently Emily was having trouble breathing. Rodger signed the girls paraphernalia, they got to touch him (HA!), and he used Laura’s Sharpie and then asked whos it was and gave it back to her.

They had a ball. I think Mom and Dad had a great time as well. They got back at about four in the morning.

Meanwhile, I was back in Sedona with the three little kids packing up everything from our old hotel, and moving into the Hilton down the road. It was quite an adventure. But I got paid. ROCK.

Honestly, I wasn’t that impressed with the Hilton. I thought the setup was completely disorganized, the help was lacking and rude, and it just didn’t give me a good vibe. Plus the hot tub had serious problems. The spa wasn't even that impressive. 5 stars my ass. Friggen preppy Hilton.

Anyways, during the next week we did more of the same in different areas. More hiking, shopping, and the like. We had dinners with the Edward Jones people of course, so that was a different dynamic. One of the dinners was out at this ranch in the middle of no where, it was very ‘cow-boyesque’. I wore a cowboy hat. I wore a friggen cowboy hat and tied a bandana around my neck (Okay, it was a black bandana that I turned into a stylish chocker necklace but still.). I even participated in the dance (Okay Mom paid me and I charged her extra for taking pictures but still.).

I guess the most exciting thing was climbing Bell Rock. It was this small mountain, thing (Well I don't know what you would call it!), and you could leave the path and climb up the interesting slopes almost to the top. Laura was usually a chicken, but Emily, the boys, and I were quite daring and I am sure we could have died a number of times had we slipped. HA! I only slipped once though.

As far as shopping goes, I bought three skirts (Very gypsy-esque!), some earrings, gifts for a few friends, and stones from this really neat Mineral store in Sedona. I didn’t want to spend any money…but I couldn’t help myself. Mom said God would forgive me.

One thing that I learned from this trip, is that I NEVER, ever want to be roommates with Laura. We three girls shared a room the whole time, and it was a bit stressful. They would want to watch T.V at night, and I would want it off…so that my mind could wind down, and so that we could REST you know? And then of course there’s the tension between a neat traveler (Myself.), and the amazingly messy travlerer (Laura.). Uggg. Anyways, we survived this as well, but it wasn’t fun.

The last night we had a dinner with the Jones people. It was dressy, and there was a dance. Of course the girls and I didn’t dance, we didn’t have dates and the other Jones kids on the trip were all posers, but Mom and Dad danced and looked pretty cute.

We left the next day pretty early. The drive home is never as fun, but I spent quite a bit of it in front with Mom while she drove. We talked, and that was nice.

At night when everyone was sleeping except for poor driving Dad, I was wide awake. I wanted to sleep, but I just couldn’t. So I just sat staring out the window up at the stars for hours and hours. Copeland was the only thing I could handle listening to. I listened to the music, really…intensely. It was weird, every once in a while I would shed a couple of tears for no reason. I felt really alone, but peaceful. During the whole trip, I had wanted it to be over, and to get home. But then I would think about things I would have to deal with at home, and I never wanted to go back. Needless to say, I felt completely homeless on our little adventure. The drive home was different though. It was like…I was just right there, in that moment. I wasn’t thinking about the things that had happened before, and I wasn’t worrying about things to come.

I was just there....with the cool window, the music in my ears, the warm sweatshirt on my body, the dark sky with its diamond stars, and…this peace. I think in the quiet, I took the time to remember who I really was... and even if I didn't really know who that was, it was okay. I would figure it out sometime. I remembered that I don’t have to worry about everything, and that there was someone who I could trust in. That my life, wasn't the center of anything, but it was still worth something. That even if I screwed up again and agian, like I'd been doing lately, it would be alright. It wasn’t a revelation, just a peaceful moment. A very nice moment indeed.

And so…we’re back home. We were all bummed to come back to our crapy little town in Iowa, and Emily even suggested turning around and going back, but I was thrilled to see my room, to smell the house, to see Seth (ha!), to take a shower in nice water, to sleep in my amazing wonderful bed all alone, and to do the dishes.

I don’t mind doing the dishes.