Two weeks after my last drive up north and the open road was calling. My alarm was set for some time within the 5 a.m. hour which seemed reasonable the night before, but felt less so when the noise jarred me awake. However, since the sun was already up and at ‘em, I forewent the temptation to hit snooze and – unlike my usual behind-schedule-ness – was out the door semi-close to the intended plan.
It was an easy ride if somewhat familiar, I realized much of it followed the same route when visiting Out of Africa – I might have even stopped at the same gas station (with prices noticeably cheaper than Scottsdale… fill ‘er up!)
Sunny and my new purple duck were great company (nary a negative comment while I belted out tunes) as I meandered to Clarkdale, and more specifically the Verde Canyon Railway. The tracks and train are rooted in history (with William Andrews Clark a big part of it…thus Clarkdale). The train car in which I was seated had priorly been part of a Chicago – Los Angeles route. The tracks were built to support area mines especially copper, with trips beginning in 1912.
It was a 4-hour journey featuring amazing views and knowledgeable guides. The train ‘docent’ in my section was a former history teacher and did an admirable job of bringing forward intriguing tidbits. In secondary school, I found History class to be mundane but as I’ve seen more of the world, the topic has become fascinating (especially when I’m not required to memorize a bunch of dates).
At one point we traveled through a very dark, more-than-two-football-fields-long tunnel which had been carved through rock more than a century ago. My first thought was – how did they create this when no bulldozers, excavators or tunnel-boring machines were invented yet (okay, I really thought ‘how did they do this when no construction equipment existed?’ – but the inclusion of actual machinery names into this story makes me sound quite knowledgeable, right?). Ironically, if I’d memorized dates of inventions in high school, I might have already known what Google has since informed me… all three aforementioned tools were, in fact, available at the time the tunnel was created.
But, upon further digging (unintentional pun but I’m not changing it), Google also confirmed that the Verde Canyon railway tunnel creators didn’t employ this equipment. Instead, those ambitious blokes used their hands (plus mules and some black-powder explosives). Not sure if they had a lack of access to the heavy machinery or if after mule-ing it over (ok that one was intentional…and bad…but I’m not changing it), they decided to rough it.
After riding the rails, I combed through Cottonwood and strolled around Sedona – a weekend filled with scenic Verde Valley eye candy (and a belly filled with an amazing chocolate chunk cookie from Sedona Fudge – if the shop happens to see this shout-out – please send a replacement – my other one went missing before it could be photographed)!
Did I miss a pun opportunity in the above story? Do you think the name ‘tunnel-boring’ makes the machine sound dull? Leave a comment below!