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One Day You'll Laugh At This

by Crystal Coons
Jan 20, 2003

The date was December 29th, 2002. We set out for our day-trip, this time deciding on the ever popular choice of Flagstaff. We set off for our day in Flagstaff, late as usual. Being from the East Coast originally myself, I felt the desire to be in colder weather, and see the snow. I was so looking forward to it.

We began on our day-trip by heading north on I-17 to Flagstaff. An hour and a half into our trip, we noticed the sign for the Montezuma Castle
Montezuma Castle(mo'nt-tu'-ZOO-muh KA'S-sul)

Nestled into a limestone recess high above the flood plain of Beaver Creek in the Verde Valley stands one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America. The five-story, 20-room cliff dwelling served as a "high-rise apartment building" for prehistoric Sinagua Indians over 600 years ago. Early settlers to the area assumed that the imposing structure was associated with the Aztec emperor Montezuma, but the castle was abandoned almost a century before Montezuma was born.

Monument. My Husband, being the Arizona
Arizona(air-i'-ZON-u')

The State of Arizona comprises the extreme south-western portion of the United States. It is bounded on the north by Utah, on the east by New Mexico, on the south by Mexico, and on the west by California and Nevada.

history buff he is, suggests we make the stop to see the ruins. We pull up into the parking lot, only to hear the sound of our Dodge Dakota (affectionately referred to as "Damien") make a rather unusual sound. I was certain that he would die right there. After examining him for a few minutes, we decided to have a professional take a look to decide whether a trip back to Phoenix could be accomplished safely.

After searching through the Camp Verde Yellow Pages supplied to us at the nearby ranger station, we headed back to the town of Camp Verde and made our way to the one garage that was open on Sunday--Lenny's Garage. We piled back into Damien and headed to Lenny's. Lenny was a 40-something mechanic with a mountain-man style beard and a baseball cap. He mumbled quite a bit, and had hands that would make a gorilla jealous. After leaning in over Damien's engine, and mumbling a few words to himself that weren't very audible, he pointed out that the part that needed replacing was difficult to find. He made a few calls, and, with no success, sat down and began to think. He pondered for a few minutes, cigarette held tightly between his hair-covered lips, and came up with a solution. He would take a part he had that was similar to the one that needed replacing.

HUZZAH! It fit!

We paid Lenny and thanked him for his work. We then decided that it wasn't too late in the day to head to Flagstaff for dinner. As we pressed on north towards our destination, the sky became increasingly dark as a storm approached us. Soon, rain began to fall. The rain quickly became snow as we climbed into higher elevations.

"Wow!" said the east coast girl from deep within me, "My first snowstorm in three years!" My excitement could not be contained as I snapped photo after photo of the falling snow. The roads grew slippery as we continued on, and I grew more and more excited. My Husband, on the other hand, grew more and more anxious. The plow that was ahead of us soon exited, and we were on our own on the snow and ice covered road. Before we knew it, we began to swerve into the middle of the road, back and forth across the interstate. In the blink of an eye, we were face-to-face with a tree.

We were stuck in a ditch on the side of the interstate, in a snowstorm. Needless to say, we were a little freaked out. My Husband, I'm sure, was calmly thinking technically and logically of a way to escape our predicament. I, on the other hand, began to curse everything from the snow, to the trees, to the cars passing us by. We finally decided to call a tow truck. At that exact moment, a state trooper stopped to see if he could be of any assistance. He also called us a tow truck. Night took over as the sky finally darkened to black. Maybe it was the female in me, but as soon as I lost visibility, the air became colder and panic set in. I praised myself for planning ahead. Earlier that day, I had put several sweaters and blankets, a scarf, and a set of mittens in the truck. All of which became useful.

We began to shiver when seemingly out of nowhere came a man with a pickup. He hopped out, and my Husband went to meet him. The gentleman offered to pull us out. We took him up on his offer, seeing as getting back on the road versus sitting there in the cold was obviously the more desirable situation. A few tugs, pulls and swings later, we were back on the road. Our plan was to turn around and head back to Phoenix. However, by the time we reached the exit to turn around, sliding the whole way, we agreed that staying at the motel on the corner was the most intelligent way to go. Judging by the way the day was going, we assumed that it wouldn't be long until we were back in a ditch off the side of the road again.

We got a room at the "Motel in the Pines", and realized we were hungry. Naturally, in Pinewood, Arizona
Arizona(air-i'-ZON-u')

The State of Arizona comprises the extreme south-western portion of the United States. It is bounded on the north by Utah, on the east by New Mexico, on the south by Mexico, and on the west by California and Nevada.

, no one was open on a Sunday evening. No one, except for the Chevron. We purchased our microwaveable dinners, sodas, and headed back to our room. We ate and sat by the heater. I sat at the desk provided and wrote this article, at 10:15pm on a Sunday night, waiting for morning. "You know, Sweetie... one day, we'll look back at this and laugh our heads off." The Love of my Life says to me, from his spot on the queen sized bed behind me.

"Yes, my Love, we'll laugh... just not right now." I said, over my shoulder, as we both began to chuckle.

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