Sedona Outlaws

It was still dark when the alarm went off. Lauryn unzipped the tent door and disappeared into the cold, calm morning air. I stayed behind to start packing up the tent.

It had been a miracle we’d found a campsite the night before. We’d driven over 300 miles that day and my night-blind self had taken the wheel to navigate through the dark, winding, Sedona roads in search of an open campground.

As we were just about to resort to sleeping in the car for the night, we stumbled upon an open campground and, as luck would have it, there was one camp spot left. Our little space had a picnic table and a small, grassy area the perfect size for our tent. It was everything we could have dreamt of.

I’d packed up the sleeping bags and flashlights and had just started working on taking the tent down when I heard a voice behind me.

“Excuse me!”

I turned around to see who we now refer to as Gretchen “Ringo” Lawmaker. She was a petite woman in her mid 60’s, her grey hair pulled back into a tight bun. She had a clipboard in her hand and a crazy look in her eye. 

“You can’t camp here,” she hissed. “This is an RV park and you need to get that tent down right now.”

“I… am…” I said. She’d caught me off guard. Where had she even come from?

It’s debatable whether she actually worked for the RV park or was just a citizen taking the law into her own hands. In either case, she was in the process of furiously scribbling down our license plate number and I wasn’t going to question her.

“Tents are illegal in Sedona. Take it down... Now! ” The more she heard herself talk the more worked up she was getting.

“I will!” I said, increasingly frustrated with her abrasive attitude. “I’m going to find my friend and we’ll go.” (Where was Lauryn anyways??)

“You need to go talk to the office! It opens at nine!” She yelled at the back of my head as I walked away from her.

I walked around the corner and found Lauryn standing in the park’s heated bathroom, splashing around in the sink. Her face lit up when she saw me.

“Richelle! This has been the best bathroom experience of my life. It’s heated and they have magazine racks in the stalls and…”

I cut her off. While Lauryn was off having the time of her life in the heated bathrooms, catching up on the latest AARP, I was left to deal with Sedona’s local RV Park law enforcement. I hated ruining such a pleasant experience for her but we needed to get out of there before Gretchen decided to get any crazier.

We quickly got the tent packed up and sat for a moment debating whether we wanted to wait the three hours for the park office to open to turn ourselves in… as Gretchen had demanded.

It was still dark out and we quickly came to the agreement that turning ourselves in was not on the agenda for the day.

We made a run for it. As we exited the park we drove past a giant sign with an image of a circled tent with a bold line drawn through it. We were now officially outlaws on the run in Sedona, Arizona.