Flagstaff Dec 28 & 29

Reports on weather for Flagstaff on Saturday Dec 28 were bad.  Temperature forecast bounced back and forth between 5 degrees and -3.  Regardless, I thought it would be nice to go somewhere warmer for the night.  Snow hit hard on Thursday and Friday and the roads were pretty bad.  I decided to spend the night in Flagstaff and head out early in the morning towards Camp Verde.  Camp Verde was going to be roughly 20 degrees warmer than Flagstaff, had both a casino and rest area where I could sleep and had a library open on Saturday until 5pm.  I would have preferred to find somewhere that had a library open both Saturday and Sunday that was in the 20-degree range, but Camp Verde was as close as I could get.  Plus, I had missed the hike at Montezuma’s Well National Monument the last time I was in the area.  This would give me a chance to check out the ancient well and structures around it.  I had also planned on doing a restructuring of my car, which had slowly become a jungle.  I was having a hard time finding things and I needed to do a cleaning up.  The rest area or the parking garage (if the weather was bad) at the casino would be an excellent opportunity.

The library at Camp Verde was really nice and the librarians were fantastic.  They asked if I needed help finding something and said I just needed a quit place to work for a while. They opened up a locked ‘quiet room’ and I spent the entire day there.  At least until 5pm when they closed.  I still have a lot of work to do but it was nice making another dent in the work.  I debated fast food for dinner but ended up at the Verde Brewery because I’d peeked the menu and I was curious about the Elote Nachos.  I love elote and I love nachos.  Would I love a fusion?  Yes, yes I did.  I also tried a local beer called Cowboy Coolaid and I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either.

After dinner, I headed back to the casino.  I knew the exit for the National Monument was in between the casino and the rest area and if I went to the rest area, I’d have to do double back in the morning to visit the monument.  The monument was pretty simple, 1/3^rd of a mile hike, which started with a bunch of uphill stairs (which I hated).  But the history of the well is fascinating.  A spring feed deep hole in the ground, similar to a crater.  Multiple tribes used the water source, as water sources were rare.  The wildlife is also unique, due to the high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the water.  No fish or regular lake wildlife live there.  No standard ecology of a typical lake is possible.  There are four lifeforms in the crater.  There is a single cell lifeform, a shrimp like amphipod, water scorpions and freshwater leeches.  When divers from the NPS tried to explore the well, they were attacked by leeches.  They also discovered that the well is feed by two vents and that 1,500,000 gallons of water emerge from the springs every day, so even during the worst droughts, the native people here had excellent access to water.

From the National Monument, I moved onto the rest area.  I spent a lot of time at the rest area listening to a book and playing a game on my phone.  I was really not motivated.  But eventually, I got off my butt and did some work on the car.  I didn’t reach the level I would have liked to, or if I had a garage or hotel to empty it out in.  But I did pretty good.  I think I’m going to need to rent a cheep room at some point and full empty the car and do a thorough cleaning, but its in a workable state currently. 

Made it back to Flagstaff just after dark.  Thought about hitting the Dollar Tree for more energy drinks.  Thought about doing a load of laundry.  Thought about going to the gym.  I ended up going to the Dollar Tree followed by a quick stop at Little Caesars for crazy bread and 20 minutes on the treat mill at the gym.  I thought hard about going to do laundry after the gym, but as I pulled out of the gym, I noticed one of my headlights was out.  Not sure how long its been out, but I expect it hasn’t been long.  I hit the gym regularly and its glass front in the dark makes it obvious when the headlights hit it.  Friday, I messed up my windshield wiper and I’m due for an oil change.  At some point this week, I’ll be doing a day at the car mechanics.