Chapter 13: Flagstaff and beyond

Very early the next morning, all four travellers were up, ready and having a last look at the Grand Canyon before breakfast. Having had their fill of the view, all of them went in to the diner and had the nearest thing to a 'full English' that they could assemble. On this morning, they included cereals and orange juice as well as coffee. The reason for the early start was so that they could drive South to Flagstaff, and check in to a hotel before deciding which of the local attractions to visit first.

As they checked out of the hotel, Sid was still concerned about Cassie's state of mind the previous evening.

"How are you feeling this bright morning?" asked Sid.

"Happier for spending a night together." said Cassie, "I don't know why I'm having these doubts about us, but they keep recurring."

"Try not to worry about it." said Sid, "Our love should help us to get through this."

As the car travelled along the road South across the Coconino Plateau away from the Grand Canyon, Cassie commented about the landscape.

"If I was an explorer going across this land in the other direction," she said, "I think the canyon would be a major surprise. It's so level. You wouldn't expect anything so spectacular."

"And that mountain looks out of place." said Sid, "It makes me think of Mount Erebor in 'The Hobbit'."

"I don't think there's a dragon living under it though." said David, "But Erebor wasn't called 'the Lonely Mountain' for nothing."

After a while, the landscape became more mountainous. They had left the Coconino plateau behind and were passing the San Francisco Peaks, the highest mountains in Arizona. This was a sign that there was not much further to go before they reached Flagstaff. When they arrived there after a two-and-a-half-hour drive, they were pleased to find a motel with ample parking at the foot of the hill leading up to the Lowell Observatory. They checked in for two nights.

"I think that settles what we're going to visit first." said David, "The Lowell Observatory is just up that hill."

"Shall we walk, or take the car?" asked Caroline.

"We've all been sitting still for a couple of hours." said David, "I suggest we have lunch in that diner, then walk it off by going up the hill."

Having made their decision, all four strolled across to the adjacent diner, and enjoyed their lunch, while discussing the next day's target, the Barringer Crater. After a comparatively early lunch, they were able to join a tour of the observatory and learn about some of the work still being carried out there despite the proximity of the city of Flagstaff and all its lights. By the time they had finished the tour, the sky was completely clear. This pleased all four travellers as it meant that that they could come up here again after dinner. The next tour they embarked on was entitled 'The Story of Pluto', which covered the discovery of this remote little object, which has now been demoted to the status of being a dwarf planet. This tour was again only forty-five minutes, so they stayed on for the four o'clock solar observation demonstration. During this, they had the opportunity to view the blindingly brilliant surface of our nearest star through a specially adapted solar telescope. Fortunately for them, there were a number of sunspots, which made the observations more interesting.

By the time they returned to the hotel, they were all in need of a rest. Walking up and down the hill, and strolling around the observatory had proved quite tiring, so they made themselves comfortable in their rooms for just over an hour, by when it was time for dinner. During the dinner, Cassie observed the staff at work, and began to wonder if Sid and herself could spend a few weeks working here before going down South to Phoenix.

"You seem to be watching things very closely." said Sid.

"Yes," said Cassie, "This seems an interesting place. I was just wondering if it might be worth making a stop here for some work."

"You did say we might pause here for a few weeks." said Sid "We do need to earn some more money. The Grand Canyon was quite expensive."

"We'll be having breakfast here tomorrow and the next day," said Cassie, "I'll make some enquiries before we set out for the crater."

The sky was still cloudless when they had finished dinner, so they drove back up to the observatory and experienced some of the evening activities, including viewing some celestial objects through the telescopes. These included both the 'Ring' nebula and the 'double-double' star, both in the constellation of Lyra, as well as some star clusters.

Now that Cassie was trying to plan her immediate future employment prospects, there was none of the self-doubt that had plagued their previous two bedtimes. She seemed more confident and surer of herself. This pleased Sid, as her recent comments had given him something to worry about, which was the last thing he wanted. Sid and Cassie spent a peaceful, and for a change, worry free night in each other's gentle arms. They slept peacefully until dawn.

At eight o'clock the next morning, there came a knock in their door. It was Caroline, dressed and ready to go, suggesting it was time for breakfast. The four of them made their way to the diner for the meal. At breakfast, Cassie made enquiries of the duty manager as to whether she could find work there. She was told to come back later. She explained that she was going with her friends to the meteor crater and wouldn't be back till late afternoon. The duty manager said that would be perfect, and asked about her previous similar employment. She gave details of some of her recent short-term jobs, particularly at Salt Lake City. The duty manager said he would have these followed up by the time she returned from the crater.

After their meal, they set out on the drive along the interstate highway to the Barringer Crater. Sid explained that about fifty thousand years ago, a nickel-iron meteorite about a hundred and fifty feet across hit the earth, causing the crater to be formed. Fortunately for visitors, the crater was preserved from erosion by the area being desert for most of the time since the impact.

"Where did you get all this information?" asked Cassie.

"I read the leaflet about it in the hotel reception while you were still in the diner looking for work." said Sid, "There are a few interesting places around here, but we've been to the big one, the Grand Canyon."

"Are you going to look for work?" asked Cassie.

"Yes." said Sid, "I've got it in mind to see the hotel management when we return from the crater. Hopefully, we'll both have been offered jobs for the next few weeks by dinner time."

"That would be good." said Cassie, "How long do you feel we should stay here?"

"At least three weeks." said Sid, "If it's not going to get too cold, I'd like to be in Flagstaff for six."

"My thoughts exactly." said Cassie, "Then we can think about getting to the West coast."

After about an hour of driving, a good proportion of was spent threading their way through the Flagstaff traffic, they reached the crater, parked, and entered the Visitor Center. There, they gathered even more information about the large number of small objects floating at random around the Solar System. The first thing they did was to look at some of the various items on show round the exhibition area before going in to the widescreen cinema to view the videos. They viewed the crater from some of the more accessible viewpoints, before booking a crater tour for the early afternoon.

By this time, it was midday, so all four of them ambled into the 'Blast Bistro' for a light lunch. At two o'clock it was time for their tour of the crater, during which the guide explained the history of the crater, the local climate when it was formed, and the reasons why it is so well preserved. He did mention that over the fifty thousand years since it was formed, erosional forces had reduced the height of the walls, and filled the bottom of the crater with alluvial debris. Immediately after the impact, he said, it would have been an even more impressive feature. He mentioned in passing, that the violence of the impact was the equivalent of a twenty-megaton bomb being detonated.

After the 4D 'Collision experience' Sid, Cassie, David and Caroline, spent a bit more time strolling around the Visitor Center before returning to their car and the city of Flagstaff. It had been a very interesting, and tiring few hours in the Visitor Center and around the Crater, and it give some pause for thought.

"What's the chance of something like that happening again?" asked a slightly worried looking Cassie. "After all, it would completely wipe out any city it hit."

"Fortunately," said Sid, "Very little of the world is cities. Most of it is ocean. Having said that, something about the same size exploded before hitting the ground in a remote corner of Siberia in 1908."

"Did it do any damage?" asked a still worried Cassie.

"It did flatten about eighty million trees over about two thousand square kilometres." said Sid, "But it was in such a remote corner of the world, so very few people were affected."

"That was over a century ago," said Cassie, "Has anything happened more recently?"

"There are stories of an impact over the Amazon basin not very long ago, but nobody's found the crater." said Sid, "Anyway, don't worry yourself about it. If it happens, it happens, and there's nothing any of us can do about it. There have been a few films about asteroid impacts, 'Armageddon' and 'Deep Impact' come to mind, but, as I said, there's nothing ordinary people like us can do."

"I suppose so." said Cassie, "I'll try not to lose any sleep over it."

They returned to their hotel at Flagstaff at about four o'clock in the afternoon. Cassie went to see the management of the diner about her mention of a possible job offer that morning. The result was even more positive than she expected. Not only had the manager contacted their previous employers in Salt Lake City, but had obtained favourable reports about both Cassie and Sid from the hotels and diners they had worked at in Denver and Jasper. They not only offered Cassie at least three weeks work on the spot, but told her to inform Sid that the adjacent hotel would benefit from his services. The added advantage of this was that their accommodation would be provided for the period they worked there.

Sid, acting on this advice, went to see the hotel management. They had already been told about him by the manager of the diner. He, also was offered similar work to that he had carried out in Salt Lake City. They were given their rotas and Sid was provided with accommodation. The couple were settled for a few more weeks before they went South, then West to their hoped-for ultimate destination, Los Angeles. They were given their rotas and decided to spend the time immediately before bed comparing them and noting when their days off coincided.

Once their employment prospects had been sorted out, they went back to their room and prepared for dinner. They had arranged to meet David and Caroline before the meal, and have a pre-dinner drink. They went downtown for what was definitely going to be their last evening together. After breakfast the next morning, the other couple would be driving back to Denver via some of the national parks in Southern Utah.

The two couples spent a convivial evening in a somewhat higher-class restaurant in the centre of Flagstaff before retiring to a bar and comparing notes about their experiences in the USA. At the end of the evening, they exchanged contact details and promised to keep in touch.

The two couples used a cab to get back to their hotel. As they parted for the night, they agreed on a time for breakfast. Sid and Cassie, as they had already decided, compared their rotas, and found that they only had one coincident day off in the first two weeks, although they did have quite a few afternoons free together.

They spent their free time exploring the city and visiting attractions that they hadn't seen yet. On their one day off, they visited a local Native American site, a little way out of the city. They also made one or two more evening visits to the Lowell Observatory.

Sid and Cassie's stay in Flagstaff was to last for six weeks, before Cassie felt that cold weather was on the way. It was largely uneventful, but Cassie was having more frequent doubts about the future of their relationship. Sid was getting to wonder whether she was doubting his overwhelming love for her. It wasn't that they were having major disagreements about things, but the atmosphere between them seemed to be cooling slightly. As neither of them could put their finger on what was wrong, the situation was allowed to continue without either of them doing anything very much about it. Sid hoped that it was a temporary phase Cassie was going through, and it would blow over in about a month.

At the end of the fifth week in Flagstaff, Cassie was feeling restless, and wanted to move on. In any case, Autumn was advancing, and the temperature in this relatively high-altitude city was dropping. Both Sid and Cassie advised their managers that they were moving on.

At last their day of departure arrived. They collected their pay. By chance, the previous evening, they had met someone who would be travelling to Phoenix that day and offered to take them, provided that they didn't mind stopping at one or two of the more interesting places along the way. These would include the misnamed 'Montezuma's Castle' and the experimental eco-city of Arcosanti. They would also be going by the pretty way via Sedona. Obviously, this would add an hour or two to their journey time, but they would still be in Phoenix by late afternoon. They agreed to meet in the diner at breakfast.

Their driver and his wife were as good as their word. At half past eight, all four of them were sharing a four-seater table in the diner and discussing what they were going to see on the way to Phoenix. Sid had the song: 'By the Time I Get to Phoenix' going round and round in his head as they walked out to the car.

At about half past nine, they started on the leisurely, scenic drive to Phoenix. They wouldn't be joining the interstate highway until after they had visited Arcosanti. Their first stop was at Sedona, where they browsed some of the shops and appreciated the multi-coloured rocks on a nearby cliff. By the time they reached Montezuma's Castle, it was now late morning. As they had had a relatively late breakfast, they decided to delay lunch until they reached Arcosanti.

Montezuma's Castle is a bit of a misnomer, as it isn't a castle, and has nothing whatever to do with Montezuma. It is, in fact, a collection of cliff dwellings built by the Sinagua people, a tribe who lived there between 1100 and 1425 AD. Some of the present day Hopi and Yavapai people trace their ancestry back to the people who used to live in this part of Arizona. Cassie gasped with amazement when she saw these dwellings, which had been carved out of the solid rock over six hundred years ago.

"Well, this was certainly unexpected." said Sid, as he also wondered at the construction.

Once they had appreciated this 'National Monument', the group moved on to Arcosanti. This was a more modern and Eco-friendly way of setting up a city in the middle of the Arizona desert. Both Sid and Cassie were impressed by the place, which was designed to be sustainable. Since they had arrived there at about half past one, the first place they headed was to the café, where they enjoyed a late lunch. After this, they spent some time in the Visitor Center, and joined the three o'clock tour. This meant that they didn't come away from Arcosanti until about a quarter past four.

Reaching Phoenix at about six o'clock in the evening, the first priority was to find a bed for the night. They thanked their driver for the ride down from Flagstaff, and he recommended a hotel in the city, and dropped them off there. They booked a room, initially for one night, with the option to stay on longer. Neither Sid nor Cassie had yet decided whether they were going to seek work there. Sid had decided, however to do something about the state of his relationship with Cassie. He felt that would have to make his move later that same evening before things got out of control. He didn't realise it at the time, but the result of his action would affect both their lives for years to come.