WAS THAT A MOUNTAIN LION?

At 2:15 am I let Happi out to pee before I caught my flight to Arizona.  While she was peeing, I heard a deep growl somewhere high like up in a tree or on a fence.  I grabbed my supersoaker and started spraying the area with water.  I rushed her inside.  The growl was like the type you hear in the big cat section in the zoo.  We have coyotes but it didn’t sound like a coyote.  We have raccoons but it didn’t sound like a raccoon.  

I filed it away and finished packing and went to the airport.  I discussed it with my taxi driver.  There had been a mountain lion sighting a ways away but that would have been a far way to travel.  I warned my dog sitter and that was that. 

I arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona after a quick change of planes in Phoenix.  I am in Sedona for a vortex healing retreat.  When I got to Flagstaff, I decided that since my hotel room was not available until 4pm I would drive to The Grand Canyon.  I had been there 25 years ago when I drove across the country by myself. 

Well, the Grand Canyon has not changed.  It looks exactly the same.  The only difference is that it costs $30 now to see it.  I hear come January 1, it will cost $70 so I guess I got a bargain! After walking around the south rim and Mather point, I got back in my car and drove to Sedona.  

I got to my hotel at exactly 4pm for check in.  It was a lovely Best Western.  I was now starving.  One of the best attributes of this hotel was the shuttle.  Their shuttle would drive you anywhere on the half hour.  Sedona is broken up into four sections: Uptown (which should be called downtown), West Sedona, Tlaquepaque and another I can’t remember.  I went to Uptown to get some food.  Uptown has a bunch of shops that sell t-shirts and tchotchke ( you know do-dads, key rings, crystals, jewelry, etc.).  It also has some restaurants.  I found a pizza place that had vegan pizza.  It was the flat crust kind.  I ate the whole pie.  I had not eaten a meal in 14 hours.  I was starving.  I went back to the hotel and went to sleep.  It has been a long day.

The view from my hotel

 Until tomorrow…