As I got closer I realized that Flagstaff was at the foot of this mountain, and I began to realize how different of a world it really is up here. Flagstaff has four seasons (well, three and a half, but still). The air is thinner, the wind less predictable, there are occasional morning mists and a constant buzz of conversation about how to get into the expensive ski parks without paying an arm and a leg. There are few places in this country as unique as Flagstaff: a large State-funded university, a thriving tourist/skiing industry, an altitude of about 7000 feet, and the crisp, low-precipitation desert weather, Flagstaff is pretty much beautiful 90% of the year. Though it was still "winter" when I was there (a fair amount of snow was still in the shady areas), it felt like early spring in Michigan, highs ranging in the mid- to upper-60s, sun shining, winds not too strong. I immediately felt at home. And then there were the people!
The couch I surfed while in Flagstaff was hosted by three peace-loving hippie girls, covering the range from über-shower-once-a-month-subsist-on-granola-and-tofu hippie to the still-semi-religious-laid-back-river-guide hippie. They were all hippies and all their friends were hippies too, and pretty much everyone I came across in the town had at least some tinge of counter-culture to them, so that only increased the sense of kinship. I only noticed a few Generics (i.e. frat boys/sorostitutes), and they seemed to keep to themselves. This town was like Austin minus the big-cityness/government, like Ann Arbor minus the frat-dominance. And then there was the mountain, which attracted all the skiers and the tourism and the money. It was really quite an interesting dynamic, I can only think of a few other places that might be like it (Boulder? Somewhere in Washington?).
So anyways, back to the story. I arrived about an hour earlier than I was expecting to Flagstaff, but it ended up working out fine. When I finally found the house, Heidi came out to meet me and led me into the kitchen where there were 4 people (all with varying degrees of hippie indicators on their bodies) standing around chatting, none of which actually lived there. This came as a startling surprise, particularly because all of the communications I had had with Heidi had indicated that they were all going to be super busy with school work and wouldn't be much fun. But hey, it was Fat Tuesday, I guess a little letting loose was in order right?
A few minutes into meeting all these people, more people came in, and one (Leigh, who did live there) was carrying a 30-pack of cheap Mexican beer. Beer for dinner! Works for me! So I cracked one open and by the end of it Heidi was like "oh yeah, by the way, you're in a high altitude, so alcohol's going to affect you more." I'll be fine, I thought, I can handle beer... lol, well that was something of a mistake. 2 beers in I was already pretty tipsy (probably much of which having to do with the emptiness of my stomach), so I made some salad and ate that along with some bread, and then drank more. We did some shots in celebration of the festive occasion, as more people kept filing in and out of the house. Then eventually, after we were all good and crunked, we headed out to the Green Room, where there was a reggae/funk band playing (no cover, yay!). [pic to left, me and my hosts, Kelli, Leigh and Heidi, several drinks in...]At the bar we met up with another friend, so it was Heidi, Leigh, their friend and I. Heidi said "watch this" and then somehow managed to convince this 40-year-old republican guy to buy us all a couple rounds of drinks, so we got to drink for free! All I had to do was, well into the second round, argue with him about Obama's stimulus policy. His main argument was "research more," and when I told him I had, and made some valid arguments about success versus opportunity for success he got kinda quiet, then just repeated his research mantra. It was kinda funny. At one point Heidi jumped in and said something about McCain wanting to reinstate the death penalty for children, and I think I heard him say he was in favor of capital punishment for 12-year-olds... some guys I'll just never understand. But hey, free drinks, so what the hey. I'll roll with it.
During the band's intermission (around midnight, probably), a drumming troupe came in and performed on the floor. We lost Leigh a while before to the crowd, but I think at one point we noticed her with a drum, or maybe just dancing like a wild thing in the middle of it all. Towards the end of the drumming we decided to head out (after Heidi noticed her foot was bleeding profusely from accidentally stepping on some broken glass). After spending about 20 minutes trying to get Leigh to come with us (she was very resistant...and also very drunk...), Kelli told us to just go home, she'd deal with Leigh (ominous, but effective). We went home and started fixing up Heidi's foot, and not 10 minutes later Kelli and Leigh walk in. We were dumbstruck. Kelli must've just hauled Leigh off by her keester, kicking and screaming. At any rate, it didn't last long. Kelli went to bed and about 15 or 20 minutes later Leigh grabbed her dog Luna and headed into the night again. We didn't see her until the next morning. A Wild Child, that one. She's gonna go far....
So yeah, first night in Flagstaff, epic win. Made lots of new friends, heard some fun music, got some beads, some free drinks, and ended up with a great story! I think I'm beginning to like Flag... The next day I decided to explore the town. First I headed up towards campus and found a relatively empty cemetery (compared to cemeteries I visited in places like New Orleans, Savannah and the like), then I turned around and headed into town, finding lots of eclectic stores and art galleries, murals and restaurants. There was a crepe store right by this one really cool mural, but it was closed (why I could not tell...), so I hit up the Flagstaff Brewing Company, drank some beer and had a killer green chili burger. While I was sitting at the bar, I got into a conversation with the guy next to me and he told me to check out the Walnut Creek National Monument. I had seen it on the NPS website and on the way into Flag, but hadn't really considered going there, as I figured the Grand Canyon was enough. But hey, from what this guy said, it was only like 15 minutes away and there were some really sweet Indian ruins. And with my annual pass, how could I pass it up? So what the hell, I thought, I've got an hour and a half or so before the park closes, I'll check it out.
I got back to the house and was going to invite Heidi along for the excursion, but she was napping and I didn't want to wake her, so I headed out solo. Walnut Creek really was quite a sight. Half the trail was closed off due to a rock slide, but even still, seeing the way these Indians lived was amazing. As opposed to the last Indian ruins I saw on mountains, these guys actually lived IN the mountain. There were different types of sediment along the side of the hill, and so the Indians dug out the softer rock and used the harder rock above as the roofs for their houses. It was so cool! These Indians were mountain goats true and true, it was quite impressive.I returned to the house around 4:30, about when Heidi was waking up from her nap, and proceeded to nap myself. That evening was pretty chill, just sat around, read, put photos up online, just chilled. It was nice, especially compared to the craziness of the previous night, so I was thankful. I had to get my beauty sleep, for the next day I was heading to the Grand Canyon! More on that in my next post, to be continued..........
No comments:
Post a Comment