A lot of folks have the impression that Sedona is where the "hippies" and new-age mid-life crisis folks from California have gone, destroying the original charm and native spirituality of the community. Indeed, there is evidence of this type of migration. But Sedona has its own charm that can never be totally smothered with commercialism. There is no denying the saturation of the senses when watching the sunset over the red bluffs, or experiencing moments of silence in some of the canyons that can only be reached on foot.

The third day of our journey was spent relaxing and riding around in Sedona, AZ. We slept in and had a late breakfast in the hotel restaurant before taking a ride into the center of the area. We rode up to Chapel of the Holy Cross to take in a moment of spiritual silence and enjoy the view of the valley. The Chapel was built by Margurite Brunswig Staude, an artist and student of Frank Lloyd Wright, in memory of her parents. The stunning blend of architecture and landscape can't be described. If you ever find yourself in Sedona make sure you take in this site. Oh, and they let motorcycles park right up next to it. Cars have to park in a lower parking lot and hike up.

After leaving a donation at the chapel Carole and I decided to ride out to Boynton Canyon and Enchantment. Carole had visited Sedona several years earlier and couldn't stop talking about the beautiful rock formations found in these much talked about "energy vortexes." She wasn't sure exactly where it was so we just set out exploring, figuring that the scenery encountered during our search would be worth the exploration whether we found the canyons or not. But luck was on our side as we saw several signs pointing us in the right direction. However, as we approached the Boynton Canyon we found it was closed for road construction. No big deal, we would head over to Enchantment Bad news. It turned out Enchantment had been bought by a private group and was now a timeshare resort that did not allow public entry. Bummer! Something seemed wrong with that, but I'm a capitalist at heart so I have to accept the bad with the good. We turned around and headed back into town.

We visited a couple of metaphysical bookstores and did some general sight-seeing, all the while discussing our disappointment over missing the canyons. In the early afternoon we headed to the north end of Sedona and found a local watering hole (cocktail lounge) that seemed like a good place to escape the heat. Carole and I were introduced to Red Bull and Jagermeister for the first time as we chatted with some of the locals, another tourist couple and the lady bartender. We ended up talking about our disappointment with Boynton Canyon and Enchantment. The bartender told us that all we had to do was go to the guard shack at Enchantment, tell them we were looking to invest in a time share, and they would let us in. Carole got this gleam in her eye that told me it was time to put my helmet back on.

We rode the 30 miles back to Enchantment, arriving just as the sun was beginning to set. As per the instructions of the bartender I pulled up next to the guard shack and told the rent-a-cop on duty that we were heading in to check out an investment opportunity. He waved us through, not even bothering to give us a pass or check our credentials or anything. We wound our way up to the top of a dead end road where we took several pictures of our bike and the rock formations. We then rode down to a lodge/restaurant that looked pretty busy and figured we would buy ourselves a beer and enjoy the sunset. The bartender poured us both a pint and suggested we watch the sunset from the roof deck. She never took the money I offered for the beer, so I picked it up with my glass and headed to the roof with Carole. We caught a beautiful sunset and enjoyed talking with others as we soaked in the atmosphere. After a couple of hours to let the beer metabolize out of our systems we jumped back on our bike and headed back to the hotel. We were oddly proud of ourselves at having trespassed on the property legally and gotten a free beer out of the deal do boot!

We decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant again since the hour was fairly late and we didn't want to have to search for a restaurant. As it turned out the hotel restaurant was closed but the were still serving food in the lounge. Carole ordered us a couple of drinks and dinner while I ran back to the room to grab my laptop and camera. I figured we may as well look through our pictures we had taken so far. As we watched our slide show on the laptop a pair of couples behind us began making comments about the pictures, fascinated with some of the sights we had seen as well as our bike. So we ended up striking up quite a conversation. It turned out both couples had moved to Sedona from Hollywood, having worked in various parts of the motion picture industry. They had just come from a private screening that afternoon of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911" with Michael Moore in attendance to give a lecture. They were all big fans of the producer. When they asked my opinion I simply stated, "I don't talk politics. My opinion isn't important to anyone but me." That seemed to insense them so they spend the next hour trying to get me to argue. Carole and I kept laughing at their efforts until they gave up. It turned out to be a fun filled stimulating evening.

We hit the sack around 11:00 PM after setting our alarm to have us back on the road bright and early the next morning.