Back to the Horny Toad

I had returned to the B & B so exhausted and bummed that I did not even notice the local real estate books that Carolyn got for me and put on my bed.

(God! That lady has been SO sweet and accommodating since day one!)

I just wanted to lay down on the bed and suck up the AC.

But I managed to muster myself and go and find Carolyn.

I showed her my bracelet with the big gaping space where the stone used to be. She was shocked.

I explained that I should not have worn it while hiking.

"Still that shouldn't have happened."

Because Victoria had failed to get me a receipt, and I forgot to ask for one (thinking I was not going to need to return my bracelet), Carolyn strongly suggested that I go back RIGHT NOW while the shop-keeper still remembers me.

Oh geez! I guess I'm going to have to wait until later before I could resume my love affair with the air conditioning.

When I entered the Horny Toad Gift Shop, there was one other customer with Victoria. However, she did not appear to have been engaging in any heavy transaction.

At first Victoria did not recognize me. Then she noticed my tattoo, which is rather hard to forget.

I showed her my defective bracelet and said, "I am broken-hearted."

Victoria was shocked.

And upon examining the bracelet and seeing absolutely no scratches or damage to the setting that could have caused the stone to fall out, she was even more shocked.

She asked if I had the stone.

I said that I didn't.

Not wanting to jeopardize my chances of getting my money back, I fibbed and said that I had been going shopping between Cave Creek and North Scottsdale, and that I did not even notice that the stone fell out until someone at the CVS said, "Do you know the stone in your bracelet is missing?"

I said that I tried back-tracking as best as could, but it was difficult since I had been driving all over the place. And in the meantime, someone could have spotted the stone and picked it up.

Victoria called Bill, whom Gary and I met the day before.

Without a doubt, Bill told Victoria to refund my money. It was unfortunate that I could not recover the stone, especially since it was of significant value. But still, the bottom line was that stone should have not fallen out in the first place.

Victoria refunded my money and had me sign a receipt saying that I accepted the refund money.

I thanked her and told her that I really would have preferred to have the bracelet instead of the money. The bracelet was to be my tangible reminder of the time I spent in Arizona.

Every time I looked at it, I would have been reminded of this place and how much I loved being there. Bills in my wallet could have not served the same purpose.

I returned to the Spur Cross B & B, and asked Carolyn for any recommendations for shops where I could find another bracelet that could be as special as the one I had to return.

At this point, it already was late in the afternoon ~ nearly evening. And I was hungry.

I was excited to still have had those left-over beef ribs from the night before.

However, the mini-fridge was stilled filled with my collection of left-overs from previous days. The chili relleno was particularly nasty looking, swimming in a dubious soupy sea of black beans.

Who was I kidding when I thought I was going to eat all those left-overs? The only left-over I did eat was that to-die-for guacamole from El Encanto.

Well, I had one more night (Oh! Please don't remind me!) after tonight, and I did not want to leave Carolyn w/a messy refrigerator. At the same time, I did not want to toss all that unwanted food into the trash and stink have my room smelling like a dumpster behind a restaurant.

So I decided to let the coyotes have a feast.

I opened my window and tossed all the scraps and left-overs out the window. There was an embankment several feet beyond the window, so the left-overs would have not made that big a mess outside.

(After all, I had this silly, naive concern that Carolyn was going to walk behind the guest house and get pissed off from seeing all that wasted food littering the outside and attracting vermin.)

Those ribs and a chili beer hit the spot.

And while reflecting back on the past five days, I noticed a sense of peace that has kept me company all this time. It was as though the malaise and depression I experienced back home did not even exist. In fact there was nothing to indicate that it ever did exist in the first place.

AHA!

This why people take vacations.

And just think, it took me 27 years to find this out!