Native men and even the young male employee working behind the counter to see this 49 year old red headed lady walk in late at night from the desert in the middle of nowhere. I noticed my necklace instantly caught the glance of two men, which I felt may have made me less of a stranger and which I was now happy I was wearing. I asked the young Navajo, to please direct me back to H191/H160. After a moment of stunned silence he said "you will have to turn around and drive at least 60 miles to get back to 191." I almost fell over hearing his words. "What the H_ll happened to me out there?" were my only thoughts. After he kindly gave me directions on how to get back out of the area of the "rez" I was in, I got back in my car and began driving on the darkest, scariest road of my life. It takes a lot to scare me, but let me tell you I was scared to death. I knew if I went off the road or was run off the road by a lone male in the pitch black in the middle of nowhere, no one would ever find me. In that moment, I truly gave all my faith over to the Great Spirit and made total peace with dying. My thoughts were "I have lived a good full honorable life and in all reality there's no better place for me to die, than surrounded by Native Americans. If it time for me to die, than I'll die." I thought of my kids and mentally told them, how much I loved them - and that everything is good. I also found comfort knowing, I had brought along my old .40 Glock hand gun, I had used as a State Park Officer sitting comfortable on the seat next to me in the event I would need it. I had only driven for about 15 minutes going around a gentle curve, heading into no man's land, when suddenly a big bloated dead deer was right in the center of my lane just as the dog was a while back.
Fortunately, I saw it in time to avoid hitting it, knowing it would have instantly flipped my little car. After back tracking north back up to 191 & 160, I finally arrived in Flagstaff around 1:00am. To say I was exhausted, is an understatement, and now the weather had turned from dry and beautiful to a blinding rain and snow storm. I was beginning to wonder why the GODS were making it so hard for me to get to Sedona. Then to my horror, as I entered Oak Creek Canyon approximately 20 miles north of Sedona, the rain was coming down in sheets with huge boulders coming off the cliffs into the middle of the narrow, winding road making my path very hazardous. I had to avoid hitting a boulder 1/8th the size of my car and weaving past all the little ones praying the hill side did not give away. Thank God it didn't . When I finally made it to the straightway, there on the right side of the road, was a BLM campground, which I gladly drove into so I could go to sleep right there in my car seat praying, the wind and rain didn't cause a tree to fall on top of the car. It was now 2:00 in the morning; three and half hours after when I should have arrived. Thankfully, I had brought my buffalo hide along, which I threw over me for warmth in the car, only to wake up an hour later to find 4" of snow majestically covering the forest and my car.
In the morning, I took a walk through the forest savoring the grandeur of the sand stone mountains covered in evergreen trees with white frosting on top doing my best to reconnect back to the earth and reorienting myself and reflecting on the craziness of the night. Soon after, I drove to a nearby viewing area to sit in my car and eat a bowl of granola and dried milk. While sitting peacefully, I glanced over at my dash and the time said 11:11, and my odometer was at: 1151.11. Considering 11/11/11 was soon approaching, I found that a bit interesting. Despite the insanity of the night, it was beyond beautiful and my reality had now become surreal. I finally made it to Sedona!
