Our flight out of the islands was again bumpy, but nothing too out of the ordinary. Strangely enough, we actually had more issues landing in Phoenix. Our plane had to fly around for an extra 30 minutes because of a storm system before it was able to land.
We picked up our rental car and navigated to our new home base. And that’s when things got weird.
We pulled into the driveway to a beautiful house with a gorgeous fountain out front. I sent a message to the hosts letting them know that I thought we were there. A few minutes later, a couple open the front door, looking a little confused. The man was wearing nothing but a robe, with a glass of wine in hand. The woman was wearing a lacy black slip, showing off her huge boobs. I thought at first we must be at the wrong house, but nope! They warmly welcomed us in. We stepped inside and were met with mood music, red lighting everywhere, and a mannequin sitting in a chair next to us.
They showed us to our room, decorated with pictures of naked women.
They then gave us the tour of the house (which, aside from the weirdness, was actually quite gorgeous) and then out to their beautiful, big, lush backyard with pool and hot tub. That’s where they told us that the whole backyard area was completely clothing optional, and we should feel more than welcome to do some nude sunbathing or skinny dipping.
We decided to head out and grab some food instead. There was an amazing vegetarian café a block over that we thoroughly enjoyed, and after that, we went back and climbed right to bed.
We went out to the backyard the next morning to drink our coffee (clothed), but then we were ready to explore Arizona.
We went to a brew pub for a light brunch so that Anthony could watch some of the Chiefs preseason game, and then we drove around Phoenix until we decided we were bored with it. We went back to our neighborhood and tried out another restaurant, this one vegan and also delicious.
Then it was roadtrip time. We started driving north to Flagstaff, through the desert, when I get an alert on my phone for a flash flood warning. Awesome. I check my weather app, and there was a “Heavy Thunderstorm” happening ahead of us, and flash flood warning along the whole drive. In the desert. I did not expect to escape a hurricane to the desert, and still deal with severe weather.
Fortunately, the storm itself was nothing compared to the ones we get back home. Eventually, we made it to Flagstaff and stepped out of our car to the incredible smell of pine all around us.
We walked around downtown, stopping in a couple shops and then a café to dink some coffee. The town seemed really cool, had a real outdoorsy and fun vibe to it, and as usual when visiting somewhere new, I imagined living there. The idea didn’t sound too bad.
After a couple hours, we started heading back south toward Sedona. We started winding down the canyon, cliffs and pines all around us.
We drove through the beautiful Coconino National Forest, making plans to come back and camp there someday. We decided that making this roadtrip the direction we did instead of Sedona first was the way to do it. The views were always in front of us instead of behind.
The red rocks of Sedona started becoming more and more apparent. We had to stop and snap pictures a couple of times.
By the time we reached town, it was getting a little late, and was already getting darker than I had anticipated, the sky still cloudy. We decided not to stop and instead to head straight to the Red Rocks State Park. It was about to close so we drove the loop instead, catching the beginning of a dark, cloudy sunset. While I would have loved that bright orange Arizona sunset illuminating the rocks, it was still so much prettier in person than I had imagined.
While there, I got a breaking news update on my phone that John McCain had passed. I told Anthony, we were silent for a moment, and then we began our journey back to Phoenix. At one point, our navigation had us turn off one highway onto a road that would take us to another highway. Right after this turn, we saw a parking lot filled with news crews and state troopers on motorcycles. We had no idea what was going on, but then Anthony saw a sign that said “Thank you for your service, Senator McCain.” I started googling and discovered that the McCain family ranch where he passed was there, and that state troopers would be escorting his body back to Phoenix. It was rather surreal.
The rest of the drive back was pretty, the sunset finally peaking through the clouds. During this drive, I started wondering how we were supposed to check into our flight the next day without checking into our flight from Lihue to Phoenix (we were hoping trip insurance would still cover that flight). I decided I’d call American Airlines to ask. I explained the situation, and the agent informed me that we would not be able to get on that flight from Phoenix. That as soon as we didn’t show up for the flight in Lihue, our tickets would be voided. This was insane to me. We booked seats on that flight. We paid for seats on that flight. We should be able to use them.
As we were still driving through the mountains, I lost service and the call dropped. I was thoroughly stressed, though, and unable to wait the hour til we got back to Phoenix to get it sorted out, so I called back, again explaining the situation, and again being told that we would need to purchase new tickets for a flight we already had tickets on. Again, the call dropped.
We waited awhile until we thought we safely had enough service, and went through the whole ordeal again. And of course, the call dropped.
We finally decided to wait until we got back to Phoenix. Anthony called again. He got transferred. The agent told him there was nothing she could do. She transferred him to her supervisor instead, putting him on hold for 20 minutes while she explained the situation to her supervisor. Once on the phone, the supervisor instantly had an attitude and told him “there was nothing they could do with the ticket no matter how many times he called back.” So basically, to get to safety from a hurricane, American was expecting us to pay $900 for our flights back to Kansas City, flights that we already had seats on.
We called our credit card company instead. They talked to American, and the best they could do was “change” our flights to just be Phoenix to Kansas City, with a change fee of $284 per person. Still outraged but with no other options because we had to get home, we went ahead and paid it.
We went to dinner, sitting out on a patio, hoping a glass of wine or two would calm me down. It mostly did the trick. We talked about all the fun we had had on this vacation prior to that phone call, and then went back home for a late-night swim in the pool under the stars.