AZ

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”- Kerouac

Denver, Texas, Denver, Boston, Denver, Arizona.

The past three months…Packing, driving, unpacking, settling, packing, driving, settling, over and over.

Right now, this is exactly what I want to be doing. Just when I’ve been in one place long enough that I get restless and start to itch for a new place, we’re hitting the road. Cottonwood, Arizona is our latest spot. In just the first few days it blew Texas right out of the water. Don’t get me wrong—I loved life in TX, but Arizona has a beauty that I’ve never experienced before. The red rocks that jet up into the horizon, blue sky and sunny 60 degree days, and the out door activities. Ah it’s wonderful!! The environment is just perfect (I’m not too keen on the political atmosphere. Not Surprised about that though). My AmeriCorps winter round project in AZ is broken up into 3 parts. For the first month we’re located in Cottonwood, living and working at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. After this we will live at Buckskin State Park for a week, then onto Lake Havasu State Park for the last 3 weeks of the project.

On our way to Cottonwood, AZ we drove through a snowstorm in the rocky mountains of CO, through green and yellow mountains of eastern Utah, through red rocks and clear sunrises of Native American reservations, to the unfathomably vast Grand Canyon. I feel like I’ve already done more in AZ in two weeks than my whole time in TX. Behind the studio room that seven of us are living in (it’s kind of ridiculous…non stop sleepover) there are hiking trails and small mountains. Cottonwood is a small town but there are some very cute restaurants and bars. Last night we went to my favorite bar that has a wall of tap beers, couches, board games, wifi, and last night was bluegrass/folk live music. There were literally people of all ages. We were definitely among the few young people there. There were tons of middle-aged people drinking wine, and even elderly people dancing with beers in hand. It’s a very lovely atmosphere. We live 20 miles from Sedona, which is known to be a place of bliss and spiritual, emotional and physical healing. People attribute this power to the numerous vortices that are apparently present. People of Sedona say that a vortex is a sight of energy influx and a portal. I want to learn more about this, but people seem to really believe in the power. I attribute the joy that I feel in Sedona to the unbelievable red rock landscape, the blue sky, and the outdoor activities there. Yesterday I went on a 12-mile mountain bike ride on the mountains of Sedona. I’ve never done mountain biking before and at times I literally thought I was going to fly off my bike or my heart would explode from exhaustion. We are at a pretty high altitude here. It’s about 3000-4500 feet depending on the town.

I don’t think I’d be happy on this project if it weren’t for the atmosphere. The work we are doing is pretty brutal. We’re working to remove Cattail from the lagoons in the park. It involves a lot of sawing in the water, raking out giant piles of the weeds, freezing in the mornings, getting wet, exhausting your muscles, and not thinking, from 8 to 4 everyday. Its been a struggle to get through every work day. The morning hours go by very slowly. Luckily last week we got to switch up our work. We went out to Fort Verde, which is a historical state park. We did tons of digging, moving piles of dirt and gravel, and painting. It was really enjoyable because of having difference tasks, we had a very cool sight supervisor, and we were able to have conversations with each other without having the motor saw muffle out our voices.

We only have two more work weeks and one more weekend here in Cottonwood. It feels like there’s lots more to do in the area, but I’m getting pumped to pack up the truck and move to Buckskin and have a new environment to explore.