Yesterday started out with a short drive to see Montezuma’s Castle, an ancient cliff dwelling Tami remembered from her childhood. It really was in a beautiful setting, right above a river so that the flat ground at the base of the cliff is filled with trees. It was apparently part of a series of communities along the river, relying on the water for agriculture. Tami said she would be happy to live there. We did, however, manage to leave before the Rough Riders re-enactors got going.

From there we decided to take a closer look at Sedona. It seems like some of the main things to do there are hiking and mountain biking, so we thought we’d go for a little hike to see if we could find us a vortex. Bell Rock is reputed to be a powerful vortex location (it said so on our vortex map) – therefore a good place for our hunt.

Walking up the trail toward The Rock, we started hearing powerful vortex noises – various whooshes and even rumbles. We were getting very excited! (We discussed but rejected the idea that the noises could be related to the main road we were paralleling.) Strangely though, as we climbed the rock, we found we were not gaining energy, but instead losing it. Finally we reached the ledge where we had read that the vortex was at its most powerful. Suddenly Tami was enveloped in the swirling vortex and began spinning in circles. I was afraid she was going to spin right off the ledge, but since we had not eaten our picnic lunch yet, Tami managed to redirect the vortex towards the food, and finally broke free.

After eating, we headed back, finding that the going was much easier – was it the power of the vortex, the food, or the fact we were going downhill? We settled on the power of the food. The trail was very busy. Perhaps a bit too busy for the mountain bikes that kept whizzing by. Another thing we noticed was that some people made it all the way to the top of the rock. I never figured out how they got there, as the last part of the way appeared to be vertical and I could not spot a route that would allow access short of rock climbing. Our souvenir of the hike was our very red shoes.

Looking at the map, I realized that we had actually missed downtown Sedona yesterday and apparently had only passed through West Sedona, the strip mall district. Therefore we headed that way to see if downtown was the interesting area we had always heard about. It wasn’t. It turned out to be just another touristville with lots of T-shirt shops, party bars, second rate art, etc. The traffic on the one lane roads leading into and through town was terrible as well (we spent maybe 15 minutes in a probably mile long backup just getting into town). That must really frustrate the people who have lived there from before it got so popular. After walking around a bit we gave up and headed back to our hotel. At least Tami had found a dealer for her crack – chocolate covered peanuts. Back at the hotel she was quickly covered in the creamy dark stuff.

After an early dinner, we spent a while battling our terrible internet connection to try and follow the end of the Husky football game. We occasionally got just enough connection to catch a quick update. A 41-17 win was a thrilling result! We also noticed that the Cougs won another game as well, though by a much closer margin. It is shaping up to be an interesting Apple Cup this year!

Today was an easier outing – we drove to Clarkdale to ride a train. The train was a four hour trip up the Verde Valley Canyon and back. Before we boarded we enjoyed the special Octoberfest sausages and beer tasting at the station. There are some good breweries down here!

After boarding the train, we found that our first class seating (coach was all sold out) included an appetizer lunch. We did what we could, but had to call it quits after a game try. We discovered the real upside to having been forced to buy the first class seats when a passenger from coach walked through. He stopped and exclaimed “you don’t have 100 screaming children up here!”

The route followed the river the whole way, so between the river bottom and the red cliffs, it was again very scenic. At one point we went through a tunnel that they told us had been completed in 6 months by a crew of 25 Swedes. We figured if it had been Norwegians, it would have taken a year.

At the turn around point, Perkinsville (pop. 12), we noticed we had just enough cell signal to check in on the Sounders game. This was not just any game, but the final game of the regular season that would determine whether they got into the playoffs. While they moved the engine to the other end of the train, we watched the live game discussion from the Seattle Times, but just as they were going into the final 3 minutes of stoppage time, leading 2-1, the train started moving again and we lost our signal! It was not until we were back at the station in Clarkdale that we were able to confirm that the Sounders had won and would advance to the playoffs! Almost as good was learning that the Portland Timbers had lost – no playoffs OR Cascade Cup for them!

Back at the hotel we watched the Seahawks play the worst game we have ever seen them not lose. I believe I heard the announcers say after it was over that it was the lowest scoring tie game in NFL history (6-6).