By Bear Howard
Sedona, AZ — made the mistake of going out to pick up a few things from Bashas on Saturday afternoon, December 28. Dumb move, I should have known better. Going up Cooks Hill, I could already see the line of cars beginning to back up to the light at Airport Rd.
Click to hear narration by AI.
I thought, “No big deal, I’ll just get in and out of Bashas, grab my stuff, and head home.” But wait a minute – the line wasn’t just at the light. It was now stretching all the way to Ace Hardware! My bad. All I could do was sit in my car, in line, text a few friends, and express my wish to be home already.
If you’ve lived in Sedona long enough, you’ve got your version of this story. We all know the drill. most of the time, you can jump in your car and head over to Ace Hardware or Whole Foods with no problem. There’s no real traffic, and everything is pretty calm and peaceful. But we also know better than to venture out after 3:00 PM on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, especially during the holiday season.
The typical reaction to such a situation is muttering to yourself, swearing a little under your breath, and cursing the world around you. “Dam #%$#%… and the dam city #$%$^… the dam #$^^% tourists!” But after a few minutes of just sitting there, I started to calm down. Yep, I’d messed up. It was my fault for not planning. I should’ve known better than to venture out on a Saturday afternoon during the madness of the Christmas holiday.
Thirty minutes later, I finally made it to the Y, and I saw the Sedona police officers directing traffic. At least they were trying, bless their hearts. You’ve got to give them credit; they were working to fix the unfixable. A friend once told me, “Traffic is the tax we pay to live in Sedona.” And you know what? That’s true. Nothing is free, and tourism is how and why most of us ended up here. Most of us first experienced the beauty of Sedona and the Verde Valley when we were driving to the Grand Canyon or going on a day trip from Phoenix. Or we saw a story in a magazine and said, “I want to go to the place called Sedona!”
Sitting in that traffic for 30 or 40 minutes allowed me to reflect and calm down. I took that self-imposed 45-minute “car trip” to beautiful places in America. After all, I decided to be out there, not the visitors’ fault. They were stuck in traffic just like I was. Yes, Sedona traffic on weekends and holidays is a bit of a “tax” –but it’s a light tax, and we must pay it to live in such an amazing place.
This inconvenience for residents translates into a strong economy for Sedona. The business owners, bartenders, and wait staff are all trying to make a living, which sometimes gets lost on us retirees. So this Christmas holiday season, Spring Break in March, Holiday weekends, etc, let’s remember to live and let live. Let’s enjoy the holidays, stay home, binge-watch some Hallmark movies, eat those leftovers, and – for god’s sake – avoid making a quick trip to the market at the wrong time.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Sedona! And let’s embrace the beauty of our town, even with a few days of heavy traffic. I look forward to January when we don’t have to get in line to hike, eat, shop, or drive. Oh, and by the way, I just tripped over this website: sedonatraffic.com which would’ve told me that there was a horrific backup on Cook Hill if I had just looked before I got in my car to go to Bashes. Live and learn!! BH
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