This town is so much stranger than anybody ever tells you. It's a town called Sedona. It's 2 hours north of Phoenix, Arizona. And I'm positive that every person that I talked to about this place before I visited lied right to my face. All they talk about is the natural beauty, the red rocks, the hikes. It's so gorgeous there. But they always leave out the dark underbelly of that town. There's something seriously wrong about that place. And we had no idea how strange and evil it was until we got there. Like, and subscribe. So, we had made a stop in Jerome, Arizona before we went to Sedona. And after we got out of that town, which was weird in its own right, we had to call ahead to the hotel that we were supposed to be staying at to see if our reservations were even valid still. We had stayed an extra night in Jerome by accident. So, we didn't know if they were going to give away our room because we didn't show up for our reservation initially. But, as we were driving down this one singular road that leads into the heart of Sedona, I finally get on the phone with the representatives from this hotel and they assure me it is totally okay. come on through if you want the extra 2 days. We could totally reimburse you. Stay as long as you need. And you would think that would be reassuring, but what kind of hotel just gives you an extra 2 days for free after you missed the reservation without letting them know? Part of me wanted to feel like it was a good sign, but in my gut, I knew that it wasn't normal for a hotel to do that. And after the weird stuff that had happened to us in Jerome, my trust wasn't at an all-time high. But I didn't want to come off as being weird because I was skeptical about how nice they were being. So, I get off the phone with these people and like I said, there's one road that leads into Sedona. You're really close to the town, but it still feels like you're in the middle of nowhere while you're driving down this street. And there's like 40 roundabouts in a row. So, it's not like you could drive fast and finish up your trip quickly. You have to drive pretty slowly down this very desolate road. So, I'm sitting there in the passenger seat and my wife is driving and I'm doing my best to take in the scenery and point towards things that she might think are cool, but I can't take my attention off this massive bird that's flying around right in front of our car. And it's not uncommon to see large birds. We saw like 15 hawks on the drive up, but this one was bigger and it wasn't flying how normal hawks or even local eagles fly because most of the birds of prey in the area fly like vultures would fly. You know how they just kind of like float around up there circling and then they dive for prey? This one wasn't doing that. It was very fluttery. The best way to explain it is that it didn't glide well. It really relied on its wings to stay in the air. So, it was really hard to ignore. Like, it was clearly trying to stay in front of our car and fluttering around. So, I point it out and we're both staring at this thing trying to figure out what kind of bird it is when it nose dives towards our front windshield. And it's fluttering the whole way down. It's not like it's on like an attack dive. It's clearly trying to make itself be seen. And Jess, my wife, is driving and she's an animal lover. She's considering swerving out of the way so we don't hit this thing. And I'm telling her, "Drive straight. Let this thing splatter on the windshield if you need to. Do not swerve this car for a bird." So, she's gripping the steering wheel. Everything in her wants to save this bird's life. and it gets right up to our windshield, flutters its wings, and then zooms out of the way, only to reset back in front of the car to do it again. And the last two miles leading into this town, this massive bird wouldn't stop fluttering in front of our windshield to the point where we had to drive like 15 m an hour. And as we slowed down, the more it would flutter directly in front of us and we would be able to get a better look at it. And by the third or fourth time, we realized what it actually was. This thing was a large owl. It wasn't a hawk or anything like that. I didn't even think owls were supposed to be out until the dead of night. But this anti- nocturnal owl is harassing us on the way to town. And we have no choice but to drive at a snail's pace until we finally make it into town. And it seemed as if once we entered the city limits, the owl was like, "Okay, that's not my territory. I'm going to leave you guys alone." which was an absolute relief until you realize the only thing weirder than a crazy owl fluttering in front of your windshield is the locals. The first thing you notice when you enter Sedona is how beautiful it is. The natural beauty is incredible. But the second thing you notice is that it's not like any other town or city that you've ever been to. And I found out way later that the reason it looks so different is because they have special laws to keep Sedona beautiful. like they can't have certain signage or certain types of lights or anything like that. So, you're driving through what's supposed to be the heart of this town and there's no signs that show where the restaurants are or the stores or what anything is. It feels very desolate. They really try to make it so it's only the mountains and the trees and the colors that catch your attention. And in a way, that's absolutely awesome. But when it's your first time getting there and the sun is setting and it's getting dark, it's a little bit off-putting because you're like, I don't really know where to go. I can't really see the street signs. Yes, we have a GPS, but this is an unusual place with unusual roads and I feel like I need to use my brights, but in a way, you feel so out of place and you don't want to tick off any locals. So, you end up turning your music off and looking really closely for where the street sign is. and you start reading the address numbers instead of trusting your GPS because the GPS is going in and out as well. And it's like it teleports you back into 1990s when you had to write down Map Quest directions and peer out of your window to find an address. So, we finally see the street that we think we have to turn down. But that street is even darker than the street that we're on. So, we go super slow. We take the right and then we take an immediate left into a parking lot. And luckily, we see a sign that says lobby. So, we park the car. We take our flashlights out. We walk up to the sign and the name of it matches our reservation. So, we know we're in the right place. So, we're exhausted from this road trip. This road trip that went wrong. And we finally pull up to the place that we were supposed to be staying. And we're checking in super late. It's almost completely pitch black outside, but we could see that the lights are on inside. The second we enter this lobby, I realized that this isn't going to be a normal interaction. We were the only non-staff members in there. And there were three stations inside of this lobby. There was the check-in desk, there was the excursion desk, and then there was a third desk that we didn't really know the purpose of, but there was a staff member at each desk. And all three of them were standing kind of oddly upright, smiling, waiting for us to come in. And I know that's not weird. That's what customer service is. Most lobbies that you go into have people behind the desks, but they're not standing there like they're mannequins silently. Usually, maybe they're talking to each other on the computers answering phones. These people looked like they were just waiting for us. And maybe they were because we had called and let them know that we were coming in for a late reservation. But when we walked in, they didn't greet us. They were just standing there smiling, waiting for us to say the first words, which is like the opposite of customer service. The first thing that you learn when you work any customer service business, you greet the people. So, I look at the lady that's behind the desk that's closest to us and I say, "Hey, do you do check-ins?" And I swear to you, this woman looks at me and does this. Do you need to check in? It's like she counted to three in her head before she answered me. And I reply to her, "Yeah, do you do check-ins?" And this girl goes like this. I could check you in. And I look at Jess to make sure that I'm not having an aneurysm and I'm having little time jumps in my head. And she's looking at me like, I don't know what this is, but there's something very socially awkward happening here. And we have no choice but to walk up to this desk and to continue this very elongated conversation. And I quickly pull out my phone with my reservation just so she could have all the information that she needs so we don't have to have as much dialogue. And I have my reservation out and I'm like, "Here you and I reach my phone over to her and she doesn't reach back for it. She doesn't acknowledge that I'm reaching out with my phone with a QR code on it and all of my information and my reservation number. She completely ignores that it's in my hand and says first name, last name, which isn't weird. I know that's a common thing. So, I answer very quickly, but she doesn't type it in. And then she says, "Date of birth." And I go, "Do you need my ID?" And she goes, "No, just date of birth." So, I say my date of birth and she doesn't type it in. So, I kind of shake my phone that I'm holding in front of her like here here's my reservation number. It says that we're in room 22. And I swear to you, she does this. Oh, room 22. I have your key. And she holds it up in front of me and shows it to me. So, I take my other hand and I reach out for it. So, she'll hand me my key because this must be the end of the check-in process. But instead of handing me my key, she says, "Please go to desk two." and Trish will show you the next steps. And then she gestures to the other desk across the room with another staff member blankly smiling at us and she doesn't greet us or wave us over. It's as if we have to start the interaction. So I look back at the first girl and I'm like still reaching for the key and she puts it back at her side as if I'm not getting the key to my room until I talk to Trish. So I look at Jess and she can tell that my blood is starting to boil a little bit. So, she puts her hand on my arm and says, "Let's just talk to Trish." So, I walk over there as calmly as I possibly can, and I'm like, "Are you Trish?" And this woman standing behind this second desk is smiling at me like she's counting to three. And in those 3 seconds, I look her up and down, and she has bright red lipstick, long straight blonde hair with bangs, and she looks like she's spent her entire life in the sun. And after I'm finished drinking her in, she says, "And how old are you guys?" And I look at Jess like, "What did we just walk into?" I know this seems kind of ridiculous that I'm harping on this, but when I tell you it was the weirdest interaction I've ever had with other human beings, I mean it. The pace of the conversation made no sense. And the questions that they were asking made no sense because they were similar questions to the other one. And it was silent in this room. They heard the other person ask that same question. Front desk lady number one said, "What's your date of birth?" and I answered. And now Trish is asking us how old we are. And front desk lady number one is still holding our key hostage. So I'm trying to get this over with. So I just tell her my age. And then she asked us, "Are you guys interested in a free vacation?" And I was doing my best trying to lighten the mood. So I said, "Well, we're already on vacation. I'm not really thinking about the next one." And she blankly stares at me for 3 seconds and replies, "Well, maybe you should." This sent me off the deep end. And I clap back at her. I'm just trying to enjoy this one. Can you show us where our room is? It's been a long day. We've been in the car. We want to relax. And it was as if she didn't hear me and continued going on whatever script she was following. And she said, "If you come tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. and listen to what we have to say, you could get a week free every year." And I looked at Jess and she looked at me. Then I looked back at Trish and I said, "There's no way you're trying to sell me a time share." And she goes, "We don't call them time shares." And I turned around. I walked back to front desk escal lady number one and I held my hand out for my key. I knew that she knew exactly what I was doing. I want my key. Let me leave. And she was still holding it at her side and said, "Are you done with Trish?" And I said, "I think so. Can I have my key?" I've never snatched a key out of somebody's hand so fast. And I must have left a dust trail in that lobby with how quickly I dragged Jess out of there. But as funny as that interaction is, as silly as it sounds, there was something off about it. The people in that lobby felt very weird to me. It wasn't like a salesy feel. It was like a fever dream feel as if they couldn't tell that we had just finished a long road trip and were exhausted and definitely didn't want to be sold to in that moment. Like no empathy for the guests that they having. They were just on this repetitive script and they were going to do it regardless. And they weren't communicating with each other. It's as if they each had their own individual script and they didn't care how they came across. So, we get back into our car and we realized that this was probably the wrong place for us to stay because we reserved it because it was cheap. We didn't really look that much into it. We just wanted to check out Sedona, maybe do some hikes, and do a fun vortex tour that we had planned for the next day. So, we didn't really care where we were staying. But, in that moment, we realized we should have put more research into this because this wasn't a hotel. This was like a rent an apartment thing. And you don't go through the lobby, get your key, go up an elevator, and check into your hotel and have room service. It was nothing like that. This place was like a massive sprawling parking lot with identical villas all over the place that just had a number on the front. And the deeper you got into the parking lot, the darker it was. There was absolutely no lights in this place. And it was right next to a mountainside. And there was massive natural trees everywhere that even blocked out the moonlight in some places. And the first thing that we noticed was that the parking lot was filled with cars. All of these villas must be filled with people, but we didn't see anybody. And it was only like 7:38 p.m. You would think there would be some level of hustle and bustle or people outside of their villas or unpacking their cars, but it was radio silence. It was dark and it was quiet. And the drive from the lobby to Villa 22 was like 2 and 1 half blocks away. like it would probably be like a 5 to 10 minute walk from that villa to back to the lobby. And that's not that far, but when you think about a hotel, it's very far. This parking lot went on and on. We weren't even close to the edge of it. We were like dead center and we still felt far away from the lobby. But once we pulled up to it and we got the key unlocked and we had our own space, we finally had a sense of relaxation. We were out of Jerome, we were out of the car and we didn't have to deal with anybody. The only thing else we had to do that night was eat, shower, and sleep. So, we get our luggage in there. We get everything set, and we start looking on our phones for places to eat nearby. And we realize something else about Sedona. It seems as if there's not many restaurants, and it seems as if everything closes pretty early. We thought we chose a place like in the heart of town and we'd have access to a bunch of fun stuff, but we're sitting in this weird, dingy villa, and it seems as if there is nowhere to get food. So then I start to think maybe this is one of those towns that the restaurants like aren't on Google Maps or maybe the service that we have here just isn't good enough and it's not giving us good information. That doesn't happen very often, but I'm trying to justify it in my head to understand why I can't get a meal at 8:00 p.m. And mind you, we haven't eaten in hours. Like, we're not going to go to sleep hungry. We need something. And after 20 minutes of searching, it's only getting later and later. So, we're like, we need to talk to some local or we're going to have to go talk to the lobby to see if they have recommendations for food or if they have some version of room service. And worst case scenario, do you have a vending machine? So, we were absolutely dreading going and talking to these people again. But it got to the point where we seemed to have no other choice. And the last thing we wanted to do was get back in our car. We wanted some fresh air. We wanted to stretch our legs. and we're like, let's just walk back to the lobby really quick and see if they know any local places. So, we leave our villa and we start walking like the two 2 and 1/2 blocks from the villa back to the lobby. And it's not like there was so many twists and turns. We knew what general direction it was in. But after we were walking for like 3 minutes, we start to look around and we're like, we don't know where we are. Nothing looks familiar. We don't see a light illuminating from the lobby. We don't see the sign. And as we're looking around, everything is so similar that we're starting to lose our sense of direction. But we're like, let's just keep walking straight because we know it's that way. If we pass the lobby or we missed a turn, we'll hit the main street at least. So, we just keep walking forward. But without the headlights of the car on, we realize just how dark it was in this lot and in this area. It wasn't regular parking lot at night dark. It was scary dark. I'm a grown man. I'm not scared of the dark, but pitch black, not being able to see 3 ft in front of you, you start to get a little bit nervous. And it's not like we're in the middle of nowhere. We're not out camping. We're not on a trail. We're in a parking lot and there's villas and cars everywhere. But still, the level of darkness in this place was something that we hadn't experienced, not in the woods. So, we whip out our phones and we're trying to use our flashlights to see any signage or be able to see a little bit further in front of us, and it's not really helping. So, we keep walking and we keep walking and then we start to hear something. It almost sounds like somebody tap dancing at first in the distance, but once it starts to get a little bit closer, I could hear that it's coming from my right and a little bit behind me. And I don't like the sound of that because the sound is getting closer to me like it's approaching. And when it's a little bit behind me, I feel like something's trying to flank me. And it's pitch black here. Who knows what's popping out of these dark corners. So, I hit Jess on the arm and we both look in the direction of the sound. And it wasn't tap dancing. It was the sound of flipflops hitting the concrete. It only sounded like tap dancing because with each stride, the flip-flop was like hitting the pavement then hitting the bottom of their heel. So, it was making like two sounds at once as Trish was sprinting towards us. Trish, the middle-aged time share saleswoman from the lobby is high kneeing it through the parking lot in the pitch black directly at us. So, we jump out of the way because why are you sprinting at us? What is going on? Are you security, too? But we get out of her path and she doesn't stop. She flip-flop sprints directly in front of us across the parking lot into this weird corner of one of the villas where there's a massive pine tree shading the deep corner to where if somebody's standing in that corner, you cannot see them. It is so black it almost looks like an animation. and we only see her for a split second as she's running by us and she looks terrified, but we're frozen there watching her run and she disappears into this deep black abyss of this corner. So, we look in the direction that she came from, expecting somebody to be chasing her, but nothing comes and the rapid flip-flop sprinting stopped in that corner. So, we look back to where she ran and we see a pair of eyes deep in that black abyss looking back at us. And I'm like, there is no way that that weird time share lady just jump scared us like that and is now crouching in this dark corner with her eyes kind of glowing looking back at us. My anger was so much higher than my fear because of how weird that interaction was with them that this bizarre behavior almost didn't surprise me. So, we're standing in this dark parking lot having a staring contest with Trish, who's crouching under a pine tree, waiting for her to come out. And we see the eyes blink a few times, turn to the right, and start to slowly walk out of the darkness. And I have my hands out like, "Hey, lady, what are you doing?" And I'm looking at her so skeptically. But when she emerges from this dark corner, I'm the idiot because a coyote is looking back at me, trotting away as if it's just minding its own business. and it's scared of humans. And then we start to think and Jess speaks up and goes, "Was she chasing a coyote? Did we not see it run by first?" We're like, "Is that part of the staff members responsibilities? Like, if there's a coyote on premises, they have to run it off." So, we watch this coyote scurry away, but Trish doesn't come out of the darkness. So, we're like, is there a back door back there? Like, what is she doing? And we have no choice but to walk closer to get a better look. And we have both of our flashlights out. And once we get close enough, we're able to illuminate that back corner and it's just a brick wall. She's not back there. So, we look at each other and we're like, "Let's go check the lobby. Let's talk to somebody about this." So, we look at each other and we're so confused what to do in a situation like this. And it seems like our only option is to just continue on to the lobby. So, when we first heard her running, we turned around because she was running from like kind of behind us and I know what direction that was coming from. So, we made sure to walk in the direction that we knew we were going in the first place. So, we continue to walk in that direction. But a few more minutes pass and nothing is looking familiar. We don't see the sign for the lobby. And I asked Jess like, "Are you seeing anything that seems familiar? Are you seeing any signage that gets us closer to where we need to be?" And she replies like, "Everything looks the same to me." And at that point, I'm mentally defeated and I don't like being out here. So, I'm like, "Let's just go back to the villa. Let's just go back to the room." But we're still walking in the direction of where we think the lobby is. And Jess is scanning her flashlight from left to right. And she turns it back to the left and she goes, "Hold on a second." And she's pointing the flashlight at the back of a car, just like the bumper of a car and its license plate. And I'm looking at the car and I read the license plate. Then I look up at the back window and I look through it to see what's on the front of the dashboard and I see my hat in there and I realize that we're looking at our car and we look back up at the villa and it's villa 22 and we were right in front of our villa right where we parked and we're looking at each other so confused because we know that we walked directly away from our villa in the way that we came and somehow we are standing directly in front of it as if we went in a loop. But we know for sure we didn't. We walked in a straight line and we said, "Screw this. Get in the car." So, we both climb in and we're like, "Let's go see if we could find the lobby with the headlights on. If they're not in there, whatever. We'll we'll drive around and find some food." So, we get in there and with the headlights on, everything is illuminated, not nearly as scary. And it's a very easy drive back to the lobby. We get there in a couple minutes. We pull back up. We both hop out. And as we're approaching the front doors again, I see all three staff members at each desk. I'm like, "Here we go again. I'm hungry. I got to figure this out." I whip those doors open like I'm a cowboy entering a saloon. And I'm like, "Can someone help me?" Front desk lady, 3-second pause. What would you like help with? And Jess is done with this very slowpaced dialogue. So she chimes in and she just says, "Is there anything to eat around here?" Very quickly, very straight to the point. And I was hoping that they would react to her better than they've been reacting to me. But nope, we got the full pause treatment. And the front desk lady replied, "Well, what are you in the mood for?" And I said, "I don't know, something healthy. Maybe like an Italian place." And she took her pause and said, "Italian's healthy." And I was like, "Yo, this is not what this is about. We just want some food. It could literally be anything." And she goes, "Okay, literally anything. Please talk to our excursion expert." And gestures toward the third desk. And in my head, I'm like, "Dude, am I talking to the first ever version of Chat Gybt right now? What is going on here?" So, we both turn around to see desk number three, and I can't tell if this dude is going to do the pause thing as well, but I know for sure that he's going to be condescending. I don't know how else to explain it, but it seemed like his skin was on too tight. Like somebody tied a knot in the back of his head and really was pressing his skin on the skeleton of his face. And I'm not trying to be mean or make fun of somebody's appearance. I would never do that. But it wasn't like this guy's hairline was receding. It literally looked like somebody pulled it back and it looked like he had loose skin near his ears and by his chin and on his neck, but it's not like it was plastic surgery. It looked odd. It looked like he was wearing a mask of a human's face. But I'm not going to be rude. Maybe he did have plastic surgery. What do I know? His appearance was a little jarring, but I'm not going to make him feel weird about it. I'm We're empathetic people. I'm not going to be like, I'm not talking to this dude because I think his appearance is odd. So, I respect him and I respect his profession, his job, and I'm like, do you have any places that you think we should go eat at? This is our first night here. And this guy pauses for 3 seconds and replies, "What are you in the mood for?" In the silent room that he just heard the answer to that question 5 seconds earlier. And I decided to run a little test here. So, I replied, "Something healthy, maybe Italian." And this man said, "Atalians healthy." And Jess took the wheel for the next response and said, "How about literally anything?" And this man tilted his head like he was a curious dog and said, "It's a little bit late for food." The sidewalks roll up here at about 6:00 p.m. And I was like, "The sidewalks roll up here at 6:00 p.m." And he tilted his head the other way and he said, "There's a restaurant just down the block. Why don't you see if they're open?" And in my head, I was thinking, "Why didn't we start with that? There's a restaurant at the end of this block and that's not what you guys said. But I let it be. I'm not trying to give these people a hard time. I was hungry. Maybe I was hangry. I'm not going to let loose on these people just because I'm a little grumpy from a road trip. So we say, "Thank you or gracious." And we leave. But the underlying tone is that we know that these people are bizarre, but we have to eat. So we're like, "Okay, let's see if they're lying about this place. Let's see if this place is open." And we hop back into our car. We drive through the pitch black parking lot to the main street and we take it to the corner and we're looking around for this restaurant. We're not seeing anything because there's no signage. But we get right to the end and I'm like, just stop right here. And we both look to the right. We're like, could that be it? And it's just this square building, no signs, nothing, but the parking lot is completely filled with cars. And there's one window where we could see in. And we could see waiters walking back and forth kind of like into the kitchen. And we're like, "Oh, this has to be it." So, we parked the car and we managed to find the front door. That wasn't very obvious because the entire building was one color. And we opened the door and I don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting this. We were dressed like we were on a road trip. We were in complete sweatuits. We weren't groomed very well. We looked like we had a very long day because we did. And we opened these doors to an elegant restaurant. The place was beautiful. And the only thing more beautiful than the place were the people's outfits that were all throughout this restaurant. Everybody in this place is dressed to the nines. The women are in full dresses. The men are in full suits. The waiters button-d downs vests. The hostesses are dressed for the occasion. Red lipstick, earrings, necklace. How are you this evening? But I realized they greeted us before they took in how we looked because the big smile and kind greeting kind of turned into a scoff because we were not dressed for the occasion. We did not belong in that place. I respect restaurants rules. If they have a dress code, that's okay. So, I immediately walk close to the host stand and I'm like, "Hey, if you guys do takeout, that would be great. We had a long road trip. We just need some food. We could tell that we're not dressed for this place." And then the hostess did something very interesting. She waited for 3 seconds before replying. And that's the last time I'm going to bring up the pausing before replying because it happened the entire trip, but I'm not going to be that repetitive. Every time I tell you somebody said something, just know they waited 3 seconds before replying. And she said, "You guys aren't from here, are you?" And we look at this girl cuz we're like, "We just told you that we were on a road trip. It's not even like reading in between the lines or the context clues. Like, we said it to you." So we're like, "No. we were on a road trip and she goes, "We could seat you over here." And brings us to the furthest back corner, which I respect in a way. Like, I understand we're not dressed for the occasion, so hide us in the corner. But it was this weird tucked away spot. And like the table wasn't as nice as the other tables. The chairs were rickety. And she only left us with one thin menu each. And we're looking around the place, and everybody has like a wineless menu, a full big foldable menu, and then the one small one that we have. And we're sitting there like, "Did she like only give us the kids menu?" And we read it over and it just says like daily specials, but it's like very basic menu. And I see everybody, every other person in this restaurant has a plethora of things to choose from. But we were so hungry and so tired. We're like, "Whatever. Let's just make this quick. Let's get some food. Let's not get under the waiter's skin. At least they sat us. We're trying to see the bright side." And we're looking at these small little menus and we realized the only thing that we could afford on this menu is splitting a cheeseburger. And then everything made a little bit more sense. This was a very fancy place that was very expensive. And they were probably doing us a solid by giving us the menu that we could afford based on our outfits. And once we had that understanding, we knew our place. We're splitting a cheeseburger and we're getting out of here. We didn't even bother talking that much. We put in our order with the waiter and we just started easedropping on other people's conversations because it's kind of fascinating listening to rich people talk. And we both start honing in on this one table filled with ladies wearing dresses and makeup and fancy jewelry. They were laughing really loud like they were having a beautiful rich time. Some of them at shades of a transatlantic accent as if they were all trying to be more uppidity than the other. It was actually fascinating watching a clearly hyper rich people trying to act more rich than each other. It's like a peacocking that doesn't make sense to the regular folk. And me and Jess are sitting there splitting a cheeseburger in a sweatuit listening to these clearly the elite of elite talk about their daily problems. But the stuff that they were talking about, it wasn't like shallow reality TV stuff. Some of the stuff we didn't even know what they were talking about. They were clearly very smart intellectual women. And some of them were talking about some companies that they built in Silicon Valley. And a lot of it was them explaining to each other why they relocated to Sedona. And all of them seemed to be bonding over the fact that Sedona was calling to them. And they were all telling like their origin stories of why they came and what their realization was the moment that they knew that they needed to be here. And it seemed as if they all had a very similar origin story. hyper successful person in tech or finance or something of that nature. And one day they woke up and they realized that where they needed to be was Sedona. And the conversation was only broken up by one new woman entering the conversation. She clearly had gotten to the dinner a little bit late. She knew most of the people at the table except for one. And they introduced themselves to each other. And I don't remember exactly what they said to each other. It was a common interaction, but I remember one thing. The newest girl said, "I knew there was something special about this place. I just moved today from the Bay Area, and after what happened at Bell Rock, they're going to have to take us serious." And that stuck with me because the new girl in the group had the same origin story, moved from a tech area, she had to be here. But all of the other girls seemed to nod their head in agreement when she mentioned what happened in Bell Rock and that they're going to have to take us seriously. It seemed as if some major event happened and they were all in the know about it. Like and subscribe. So, we wake up the next morning after an entire night of an owl hooting outside of our window, breaking up our sleep, but we still have to be up at 8:00 a.m. because we have things scheduled for that day. I had no idea Sedona had so many owls, and I had no idea that they would follow you from the road to right outside of your hotel room and harass you on the drive and throughout the night. But apparently, that's just a feature of the town. But we rolled out of bed, we got ready, and we decided we needed to go get some breakfast before the long day ahead of us. You see, we had a vortex tour scheduled for that day because apparently Sedona is known for their vortexes and we thought that would be a fun thing to sign up for. Even though it's a little bit wacky and a little bit out there, we thought it was a good excursion. And we had booked it months ahead of time. So, we showered up, we got ready, and we drove over to the local Whole Foods. And I'm sure a lot of you can relate to this. Whole Foods is a go-to place if you're just trying to get food on the go and trying to be a little bit healthy without breaking the bank. They have the salad bar, the hot bar, and some sushi if you're not in the mood for anything else. And they have slices of pizza if you want to get a little bit unhealthy with it. So, we pull into the lot, and again, this parking lot is completely full. And usually the vibe of Whole Foods is kind of slow, cruising, everybody's polite, everybody's minding their own business. It's a little bit bougie. We know that. But that's part of the allore. But this one was different. We enter this Whole Foods and it's like the entire town is prepping for doomsday. People have their headphones in. They're on phone calls, frantically talking as if somebody's letting them know what they need to buy in this grocery haul. They're flying around the aisles, filling up their carts, acting like they're stocking up for winter. These people are acting like a meteorite is on its way and Armageddon is about to happen. Or on the other hand, they're prepping for a camping trip that they weren't really prepared for. I couldn't tell which one it was. So, we get out of the grocery aisles because we think that that's where the most frantic stuff is going to be happening. And we get over to the hot plate serve yourself area and it is a battleground. It is like China buffet on Christmas Eve where all of the stepdads are fighting over the crab legs. As the hot plates are going in, people are grabbing the ladles and scooping it out into their portable to-go boxes and they're leaving a minuscule amount of scraps. People are elbowing each other, trying to slip in, grabbing chicken tenders, mac and cheese, emptying the salad bar. I'd never seen a place like this. And I'm like, what are these people prepping for? We were standing there in awe for about 2 minutes watching them fight over this stuff. People flying around with carts to the point where we look at each other and we're like, "Let's leave." So, we walk out of that place and we walk to the nearest by breakfast spot. And it's basically like a breakfast sandwich place. And this place is bustling, too. The line is pretty much out the door, but there's no other places in the area. So, we're like, we might as well stay in this line. It's the closest place to us. and we have somewhere to be. So, we're most likely going to have to take this food to go anyway. And this place was massive. It was like communal seating. And we're standing in this line and as we're waiting, the cashier and the people behind the counter are announcing things that they're sold out of. Like they're yelling like plain bagels are out, bacon, egg, and cheeses are out, breakfast burritos are out, as if they're selling out of all of their ingredients. And we're like, "Is there any way we could win in this situation?" We had no other choice but to stay in line. Finally, we get up to the cashier and we had changed our minds about what we're going to eat the entire way up because they kept being sold out. And it was to the point where I was like, "I'll have an oatmeal." And Jess was hoping there was a bagel left. And this cashier is oddly rude to us. Jess has an onion allergy. It's a real one. And they had said just about every single bagel was sold out, but I could see that there was some everything bagels behind him. So, I very kindly asked this dude, "Do the everything bagels have onions?" because I'm thinking if it has everything, it might have an onion because onion bagels exist. And this man confidently says, "No, it's an everything bagel." And I'm like, "Man, everything sounds like it has everything. Are you sure it doesn't have onions?" And he goes, "No, it's an everything bagel." As if he's annoyed with me. So I'm like, "Okay, one plain oatmeal cuz they're out of blueberries and an everything bagel with cream cheese on the side." And he gives us our number and says that somebody will bring our food out to us. So, we're walking around this communal area. It is completely jam-packed, but there's one dude sitting in the corner. He's an older gentleman, but there's two chairs open next to him. So, we politely go up to him, and we ask him if we could sit with him. And he pulls the newspaper down from his face, and he says, "Of course." And it's the first interaction that I've had with somebody that felt normal. I'm beyond excited to talk to somebody that's actually normal in this town. So, I asked the dude his name, and he introduces himself as Logan. And I'm like, "My name's Doug. This is Jess. were visiting and he looks at me a little bit serious and he says, "How long are you staying?" And I match his tone and I say, "Oh, we're going to be here for about two more days. Why?" Because I'm thinking maybe he has some information on why everybody's acting so crazy. But the only thing he says to me is, "You should leave early." And before I get the chance to answer, Jess answers and says, "Why is something going on this weekend?" And he looks at her, then looks back at me and he says, "You don't want to be here when it happens." So then I think back to what we overheard the women talking about at the restaurant the night before, how they mentioned after what happened at Bell Rock. So I follow up with that. I'm like, "Is something happening at Brock?" And Logan replies, "It's not just happening at Brock. Look around you. It's happening everywhere." Internally, I'm so confused because he's not really making sense, but based on all the interactions that I've had here, he is making sense because he's saying we should leave early, but he's acting like something's already happening. So, I try to get some clarity and I ask him again, "Why should we leave early? Is something going on this weekend?" And he gives me a little chuckle and a smile and he replies, "Bacon, egg, and cheese." And then he glances over my shoulder and I'm like, "What is this guy talking about?" And then a waiter walks by me and I look at the plate and it's a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. What kind of games is this guy playing? Like, you saw bacon, egg, and cheese and you called it out. Why aren't you answering my questions? What kind of crypted answer is that? And then he proceeds to say, "Turkey club, breakfast burrito, oatmeal, everything bagel, pancakes, oatmeal, turkey club, BLT, pancakes." And at that point, this conversation turned from the most normal conversation that we've had to the most bizarre because I'm thinking that this guy is going through an episode. Maybe he actually has something wrong with him and he's just saying random breakfast items. We don't even know what to say to him. But he's sitting there content and he's not saying anything else and he's stewing in the silence between us as if what he said is going to have meaning soon. And over the course of the next 2 minutes, every plate that walked by was the exact thing that he said in order. Going to all different tables, different waiters walking by and bringing it, but the exact thing in the exact order. And two of those things were Jess and Mine's order. Her everything bagel and my oatmeal. And there was onion on the Everything Bagel. the cashier was so confidently wrong that it almost seemed on purpose. And then after our order, we're seeing some of the orders that are coming out of the kitchen and their orders that they said were sold out. And not only were they sold out, but they're coming out in the same order that Logan said that they were going to come out. And as it's all clicking to me, I look back at him and he says, "Broken cup." And a cup shatters in the corner of the restaurant. Jess and I swap our plates because she's allergic to what was served to her. and I enjoy an everything bagel and she has to scarf down some plain oatmeal. And we have no other choice but to finish that meal and leave Logan by himself at breakfast wondering what he meant and how he knew those things. And as we were dismissing ourselves from the table and saying goodbye to this strange man, he asked us where we were going and I was trying to be polite and I said, "We have a vortex tour booked. Pretty excited about it." And this man replied, "Well, you don't want to be around one of those when it's open, especially with somebody who's awake." We were trying to decipher what that sentence meant after we were leaving the restaurant and we couldn't figure it out. We didn't know if he was on the spectrum or something and memorized people's orders and that was just what he was into, crossword puzzles and breakfast orders, but there seemed to be an underlying tone of cryptic messaging, but I couldn't put a finger on what he actually meant. So, we had a silent drive to where we were supposed to meet the tour guide, which was a little bit out of town, at least out of the main city area. We drove about 10 minutes out and we turned into this large gravel parking lot that had two strips of businesses. They were basically like strips of storefronts, but again, no signage whatsoever. And there was only one car in the lot. It was all the way in the back. So, we pulled up to it, parked next to it, and it said Vortex Tours on the side of the van. But the storefront that it was in front of was completely black on the inside. Lights were out. Nobody was home. and we're stuck in this massive gravel lot surrounded by trees with a big red mountain looming over us thinking that we got scammed a few months earlier and there isn't actually a tour today. At this point, you could imagine we have almost given up on this trip because it didn't seem like anything could go right. So, we're just pacing around this gravel lot. We have no idea what to do. So, we start looking for a bathroom. So, we go around the edge of one of these strips of buildings. And on the other side, even deeper into this gravel lot, there's a van tucked away in the corner with three people standing near it. And we're like, "Oh, the van door is open. Maybe those are our people." So, we lock our car and we start walking up to these people. And you know, as you're walking up to somebody in a secluded area like this, like the van is tucked behind a building, nobody else is around, as you're approaching them, you want to make them feel comfortable. Let them know that your presence is here. So you don't like sneak up on them so they're not like, "Whoa, why are you coming out of nowhere? Why are you approaching me in this secluded area?" So I'm trying to kick around the rocks, make some noise, kind of grunt, cough. I have my hand up trying to be polite, trying to gather their attention before I'm even close to them. But these people are completely ignoring me. No matter how many fake coughs I do, no, no matter how many rocks I kick against the brick wall, they're not acknowledging that we are walking up to them. So, I'm feeling more and more awkward the closer that I'm getting to them until I am right in front of them. You would think that when we were 10 feet away from them and I'm literally talking to them, they would maybe glance over to me, but it took us being two feet in front of them, like right there like, "Hey," for them to finally turn towards us like they were NPCs and we were playing Skyrim and you had to like click A to get their attention. You have to be like pressed up against them. And when they finally turned towards us, I asked the very simple question, "Are you our tour guide?" And this guy says, "I might be. Who'd you book with?" And initially I'm like pretty fair question. Like you want to check the reservations, but also there's no one else here and he must be aware that he has more reservations. So if he's expecting two more people, maybe we're those two people. I just felt like there was a different way to approach it. So I ask him, "Is this your business name?" And he's like, "Yeah." I'm like, "Okay, so we're here to have a tour from you." And he just goes, "We'll leave in 10 minutes." And turns his attention back towards the other two. So unwelcoming. So unfriendly. disregarding our presence and starts talking to these other two people again. And I'm like, "Okay, maybe he was handling a situation with them. Who knows?" But I don't leave. I'm standing there listening. And all he's doing kind of like spewing conspiracy theories at these two people. So, when he finally takes a break talking, I ask these two other people, "Are you guys going to be on the tour with us, too?" And they very friendly, super nice couple, and they're like, "Yeah, we're excited. We're traveling all across the Southwest." telling me about them. I'm like, great interaction. So happy that there's some tourists here that actually know how to communicate. But I could tell that this tour guide is like pissed that I'm talking to them and we're having a conversation and he keeps trying to butt in. So their full focus is on him and his grand conspiracy about Sedona. And this is where it really rubbed me the wrong way. I'm down to go into the conspiracy theories. I want to know the deepest lore about this place. It's literally why we signed up for this. And I feel like he's big brothering me out of the conversation. Like as if he's like scooting in front of me so his back is to me to make us feel the most excluded possible and we don't get to hear what he has to say. And I'm like, I literally paid for us to hear this crazy stuff you're spewing. I want to be a part of this. But we have no choice but to start our own little huddle and wait the 10 minutes until we leave. And it didn't get any better when the tour started. We climbed into this weird, dingy van. And the plan was for him to bring us to the major vortexes of Sedona. And he was letting us know that we're going to four places today. And he listed them and the theories behind them. And this time I was like, "Okay, at least we're a part of this cuz he has to announce it to the whole car. He can't exclude us." And we get to the first place and it is a gorgeous view. We get out of the van and I'm like, "Okay, awesome. At least we have this view. Maybe we could listen to him a little bit, but he can't ruin this for us. But right when we get to that awesome view of the first vortex, I hear him mumble like, "This one's closed." But I see all of these tourists here. I'm like, "It's clearly open. We're taking some pics. We're spending some time here. This is what I paid for." And then I start to get a little jealous because there's other tour groups here and they look like they're having so much more fun. I'm with Miserable Mandy. I didn't even get his name. That's how much he disregarded us. And he's walking by his favorite couple that we paid the same amount as them, but apparently they're VIPs. And we're wandering near these other groups that have like Native American drums. They're humming together in rhythm. Their guide is wearing like a wacky fun outfit. He's chanting. He had one of those big triangle instruments that makes one of those really nice dinging sounds that almost feels like all everybody's chakras are mixing. And he was involving all of the people. I was so jealous of the energy that they had going on. So, at this point, I see all of these people having the fun that I'm trying to have, and they probably paid the same as I did. So, I'm going to let my guide know that I feel like we should be doing what they're doing. So, we walk over to him and he tries to ignore me again, but I don't allow it. And I jokingly announce to the whole group, "They look like they're having some real fun. Why don't we do some of that?" And he looks over at that other guide as if he has a horrible competitive resentment towards him. and he starts shaking his head as if that dude is a scumbag. And I start to think, is there this horrible beef between the Sedona tour guides? And then our guide says he's doing the same thing that I am. And then under his breath, I'm pretty sure he said he just hides it better. And I'm like, "Hides what better?" But then he covers his tracks by saying he's high all the time. And I'm almost positive that that was not the first thing that he said, but it sounded close enough that I wasn't able to confront him about it. But I couldn't get it out of my head. So much so that the light confrontation that we were having ended and he forced us all back to the van to go to the second spot. But it wasn't like the time here was over. It was more like he was trying to beat this tour guide to the next place. It felt like we were racing. And over the course of the next two places, it felt the exact same way. We would show up to a place when that other tour guide would get there. Our guide would get very uncomfortable and scurry us out of there. We would just take a couple pictures. He would rush us and next thing you know, we're at the next spot. There was only four spots total. So, we rush past the first three and then we finally get to the fourth one. And to be fully transparent, I was excited for this tour to be over. I didn't like it. We could get these views by ourselves and we didn't have to be with this rushy weird guy. So, we're driving up this hill and the three prior to this were very underwhelming. The natural beauty was there, but the energy of the experience fell so flat because we were with somebody that was ruining it. But when we got to that fourth one, it felt different. It was called Rachel's null. It was definitely the highest point that we went to that day. But it wasn't just the height that made it feel different. When we parked that car and exited and walked closer to the ledge where you're supposed to experience the vortex and look over the landscape, it felt different. There's no other way to explain it other than forced intimidation by a landscape. I I literally felt my eyesight get a little bit shaky. And I'm not very scared of heights. Jess is scared of heights than I am. But it wasn't her fear of heights that was getting to her because right away she said the same thing. She's like, "I don't like being up here." But the guide seemed very excited to be up here. And he starts doing this whole spiel about this place. But before he started the spiel, when he was hopping out of the car, when he thought we couldn't hear him, but I'm listening to everything that he's saying, he mumbled something like, "It's open." Very briefly as he was slamming the car door, but I knew I heard him. He said, "It's open." And then he started talking about the origins of this place, and he was telling some story about one of the houses that are built on the hill. But the thing that stuck with me was that there was a Native American burial ground here. And apparently the land was cursed because people built on top of it. So we start thinking that might be what we're feeling. There's a bad juju in there. But he seemed to be so excited that we were feeling that way. And the other couple was feeling that way too, but they were trying to hide it the same way that we were. But it seemed as if this guide was feeding off of it. And it was the first time that day it seemed like he was acting like the other guide. He opens up the back of the van and he's pulling out all these tools and all these props and he's handing them to each of us. And it's these weird metal rods that are shaped like an L. And he starts showing us how to use them. I guess they're called dowsing rods. And he puts them in each of our hands and tells us to hold it very lightly and start walking very slowly and let the rods guide us and if we feel movement to call over to him. Part of me got excited cuz I'm like, "Oh my god, finally this dude is performing at a level that makes this experience fun." I was living vicariously through the other group, but now I have some props in my hand. Let's see if these magnetic rods work. And I'm trying my best. I'm embracing this situation. We paid good money for this. And as I'm walking, slowly shuffling, lightly holding the rods, they're not moving whatsoever. And I'm trying my best. I'm trying for a couple minutes here. And I look over to him and I'm like, "Am I doing something wrong here?" And I could tell that this guide thought that I was trying to be condescending and make fun of the game that he was having us play. He was talking to me like I was trying to debunk the stuff that he was telling us about. Like I was trying to make fun of these dowsing rods. And I'm like, "Dude, you don't even know me. There's nothing in this world I want more than these dowsing rods to work. I came here for fun. For it to work. I'm not trying to make it not work to make fun of you." And then he says something about my shoes, like, "Oh, it's my rubber souls, so I'm not grounded to the earth." And I'm like, "Listen here, buddy. I'm wearing Vivo barefoots that are literally meant to spread your toes out and ground properly. The bottom are made of cork. They're designed to not be like the rubber shoes. You don't know me. I live this life." But he has no time for me. Especially when the other guide pulls up with his crew, and they hop out quick, and he's handing out dowsing rods, too. and he's hitting his triangle in a nice methodical way, setting a real spiritual tone for the area. And I'm looking to see how my guide is reacting to him. And he does not like it. He starts to get frantic as if they're in a real competition here, but I can't see why he would do that. Like, we're all just here messing with dowsing rods. Who cares? So, after this dude gave us the dowsing rods, we all started walking in different directions because he told us to do them. And after I let him know that mine weren't working, he wasn't spending any time near me. He was going around seeing if anybody else's were working. And in the distance, I see Jess and her dowsing rods are clearly working. Like they are turning left and right depending on where she's walking. And she's doing what she was told. She's following where they're pointing. And I initially get excited cuz I'm like, "Oh, she's probably having some fun." And I start walking over there. But when the guide sees that her rods are working, he like runs over there. and I'm about 50 feet away from them and he's leaning over my wife's shoulder, hand on her low back, talking her through how to use the dowsing rods better. I went ahead and uh hit a light jog and put an end to that. Why are you hunched over my wife talking in her ear with your hand on her back? So, I get up to them and she's holding the dowsing rods right in front of her like this. And I go ahead and I grab the two dowsing rods out of her hands. And this man looks at me like he hates me. Like the eye contact that we had was mortal enemy level. And I didn't do it aggressively. I didn't snatch him out of her hands, nothing like that. I'm not trying to like punish my wife. I just gently grab them and put my arm around her so he stops leaning over her. And then I hand them back to him and I say, "Why don't you show us how to do it?" And this man doesn't reply to me. He runs over to the other couple and goes directly to the other man's wife and is doing the same thing to her. So, I ask Jess if she's okay, and she jokingly replies, "I knew you were going to be so mad. I'm surprised you didn't get here quicker." And we have a little chuckle, but now we're looking at this guy like he's not only weird and dismissive, he's like a little inappropriate. And he's following this other man's wife, taking her kind of like off trail out of the main area. And I start looking back towards the other tour guide because I'm like, maybe I'm going to ask this dude, "What's up with our tour guide?" But he's doing the same thing with some random lady from his group. and they're wandering off into the distance. He's even further away than ours and nobody else is noticing but me and Jess cuz everybody's trying to have fun with their dowsing rods walking around aimlessly. And that's when the real dread started kicking in because it felt like something else was going on here. We already had bad feelings about this place. And now that we weren't interacting with the toys that they gave us, and we're watching everybody walk around aimlessly and these potentially predatorial tour guides walking off with women into the woods. It's getting a little bit sketchy, but we're stuck up here. Our only ride out of here is this dude's van, so we have to stand there and wait. And after about 10 minutes, the other tour guide that wasn't ours, the girl that he was with, wanders back into the main area where we're all standing and goes up to her boyfriend or husband. And I could see that he's checking on her. He has his hands on her shoulders and he's asking her if everything's okay, but the tour guide didn't come back with her. So I look at Jess and she's like, "We should go easille over there, get an earshot, and we hear the conversation that they're having." And it's not like the girl was traumatized or crying or confessing something. It was more like she was almost sedated. You know, in those old Men in Black movies, the neuralizer that makes people like forget the last 20 seconds and rewrite it. That's kind of how she was acting. A little bit spacey, but she was able to put together sentences. She wasn't emotional. She didn't think anything bad happened. It was almost like she was reset. She knew where she was. She knew what they were doing, but there was something a little bit off. So, we're standing there waiting for the tour guide that was walking off with her to come back, but he doesn't. And our tour guide goes up to that couple and starts talking to them. But he was talking to them in a such a different way that he talked to us or the other couple. He was being so polite, a little bit upsalesy, and telling them that he was willing to take them out for a free tour tomorrow. Like, here, book it with me right now. Are you guys interested in this? We could go out again. We'll have so much fun. he was really putting on a show for them. And I'm like, why is this dude offering a free tour when he clearly doesn't even want to do this paid tour? And after the couple agreed, he announces to everybody that all of us have to go back in his van. And the other group is looking around like, "Where's our guide?" And the excuse, the reasoning was, "Sometimes he wanders off. It's all good. He'll make his way back, but you guys got to get back to town. I know you guys have reservations and stuff." So, we leave that other tour guide at Rachel's null. We all jam into this van, sitting like sardines, shoulderto-shoulder with this other group. And this dude is driving like a madman downhill on the phone with somebody. And obviously, I can't hear what the other person is saying, but it's like he's reporting back to somebody what happened, but he's trying to hide that it's a serious thing. He's saying it very monotone, like in a nonchalant fashion, but he's letting the person know that the other guide is nowhere to be found. Everybody around was talking, but we're honed in on what he's saying. And really under his breath, right to the person on his phone, he goes, "Daryl's out. I have his group with me. I'm bringing them back." All he said was, "Daryl's out." And then the person on the other end replied something. He seemed very excited. not excited in a good way, but kind of like his energy, like I was able to hear his voice over the phone. And then our guide replied to him, "It's better if they're here together. I'll take them back out tomorrow." Then very soon after, he hung up the phone and we were back in that gravel parking lot and he basically just slid the door open. It was like, "Peace out, everybody." But I didn't have enough of this guy. I needed one more interaction. I needed to see what the contents of his character were. So after everybody dispersed, I go right up to him and he's just leaning on his van frantically texting somebody and I'm like, "Oh, you're doing tours tomorrow, huh?" And he looked up at me and he said, "When are you leaving?" Very basic question. And I said, "In 2 days." And without looking up from his phone, he said, "You should leave earlier." Like and subscribe. We made our way back to our villa. We took showers and this time we got dressed up pretty nicely because the only restaurant that we knew was open at that time was the restaurant down the block and we didn't want to show up there in a sweatuit again and get mistreated. We wanted the whole menu that night. We had budgeted for one fancy dinner on our trip and we were going to use it here and we had packed one fancy outfit. So, we got dressed up and we headed over there. Obviously, we didn't walk because of what happened last time. We pull up, we open those doors, and we're thinking maybe we're going to get treated like real people. But wouldn't you know it, we get sat in the exact same seat and handed the exact same menus. But this time, we blended in just fine. So, it wasn't even about that. And we're sitting at this table for the second time in 2 days, ordering off of what seems to be like a kids menu, trying to decipher what is wrong with this town. I decided to order the cheeseburger again cuz it was pretty good. and Jess decided to order a chicken Caesar salad. And she made it very clear to the waiter, who seemed to not recognize us, that she is allergic to onions and said, "If there is onions in the dressing, please just leave it out and bring oil." And everybody knows there's no onions in Caesar salad. Caesar salads are very simple and they're very safe when somebody has allergies. So, a couple minutes pass and the waiter comes back with my plate, cheeseburger, same as yesterday. And this man puts a plate in front of Jess and he says, "There were onions in the dressing, so here's your oil." And then he says, "But the salad comes with scallions on top, so the lady here can't eat this." And then he walks away. We only ordered two plates of food. And he put mine in front of me and then placed a salad with garnished onions on top and said, "Here, you can't eat this." And left the table. We were so exhausted with this place, we just swapped plates. We didn't call him over. We didn't question it. We accepted it. And I scarfed down the driest salad I've ever eaten. And Jess enjoyed a nice cheeseburger. And we sat there in silence until I heard something that gave me the craziest deja vu. I heard a group of women erupt into laughter. And then I heard two women introducing themselves to each other. And I looked over Jess's shoulder. And at the exact same table, a group of women in dresses looking as rich as ever, having dinner again, at the same place, at the same table. And I couldn't tell if they were wearing the exact same thing, but I know that they said the exact same sentences. The reason I noticed it was because when they bursted into laughter, it was the exact same pitches the day before. And when I looked over, the movement was similar and I got a wave of vertigo realizing this level of deja vu. But I'm looking at Jess and she's dressed completely different. So our internal experience is a different experience, but I'm watching these women relive the same one. They shake hands the same way. They start talking about what drew them to Sedona the same way. And they say the exact same thing about Bell Rock. And I look at Jess and I'm like, "Did you hear that?" And she looks back at me and says, "I think we should leave early." And I didn't say it, but what I thought was, "I think you're right." And we left a halfeaten cheeseburger and a dry salad on that table and walked right out the front door. I could tell you that we dined and dashed. But it wasn't even that. We didn't have to dash. They watched us stand up and watched us leave and didn't say a word. And I looked in the waiter's face and it was as if he had no recognition that we were leaving without paying. And that made it even more confusing. Seating us in the corner, giving us limited menus, and serving us something that we said we're allergic to, and then allowing us to walk out freely without even questioning us. They didn't say goodbye. They didn't say anything. It was as if we didn't even really exist to them. We get back in our car and we start driving down the dark street through the long weaving parking lot back to our villa. And we're talking about like, do you think the cops are going to show up here because we dined and dash? they just let us leave cuz they didn't want an altercation. And as I'm thinking that over of maybe that's a possibility. Jess stomps on the brakes and I basically crack the bridge of my nose off the dashboard. And once I get back, I see Trish sprinting in her flip-flops across the parking lot, disappearing into the deep, dark shadows under the pine tree where the wood chips and gravel are. This time, we don't stay there and wait. We look at the clock and it is the exact same time it was the night before where she sprinted across this parking lot. And we haul ass back to our villa and lock ourselves in that room. For the rest of the night, we weren't going to drive in the middle of the night. We waited out the darkness. The owl was basically screaming on our window sill the entire night as if it was desperately telling us, "You don't have much time left." And right when the sun came up, we put our luggage in our car. We drove it up to the lobby. I walked into those front doors and I see the three staff members and I walk right up to Trish. It's about 6:00 a.m. in the morning and I'm walking up to this woman ready for a confrontation. Jess grabbed the room key out of my hand and placed it on the main table and let the first staff member know that we were checking out early. She didn't do any paperwork. She didn't put it in her computer. She just grabbed the key and smiled back. And now we're both standing right in front of Trish. And she starts her pitch again. And how old are you two? And are you interested in an extended stay? Would you like a free vacation? And Jess cuts her off and says, "Do you plan on sprinting through the parking lot again?" And I piled on top of that question by saying, "It's a bit weird, isn't it? Same time every night." And this lobby is completely silent. And I'm watching Trish break. Not as if she was putting on an act, but as if her psyche was literally shattering, like she was having an existential crisis right in front of me. It's like I could see her brain malfunctioning through her eyes, as if she was realizing something. And I see her start wobbling a little bit, like she's losing balance. She bends her knees and she puts her hands on the counter as if she's trying to not faint or not fall. And part of me kind of enjoyed seeing her this uncomfortable because of how these people were treating us. They were making us feel so weird all weekend. Watching one of them squirm was a little bit satisfying in a sadistic way. But almost immediately we started to feel bad for her because she was saying things to herself. Things like, "I got to go home. I got to go home. This was just a gig. I have to go home. I don't have time." And then it seemed as if she started hyperventilating but getting louder. and she started screaming a little bit, shrieking, and she started turning her attention towards the other staff members, screaming and pointing directly at them. And it seemed as if she was accusing them of doing this to her, screaming things like, "I should have just left. I shouldn't have stayed longer." And it started to click to us, that that's what she was trying to get us to do. She started ripping things off the table and marching up to the other staff members who are blankly staring in her face, lightly telling her to calm down. She's grabbing their collars and saying, "Don't you realize? Don't you realize?" To the point where I think she's about to start getting physically violent. And she whips her attention back towards us and screams, "You need to leave before she sprinted out of the front doors of the lobby through the parking lot in the exact same direction that she did the two nights previous." And we realized that we didn't send her into a psychotic break. We just reminded her of something that she realizes every night. And we walked out of that place and we went to go get some breakfast at the same place that we went the day before. And we waited in that long line until we were up there with the confidently rude cashier. And I said, "Two bacon, egg, and cheeses, please." And he said, "We're out of those." And I said, "The people right in front of us ordered those just a second ago. I heard them." And this man looked right in my face and said, "That food's for the locals." I didn't argue with him about it. I just wanted the confirmation and I said, "Two plain oatmeals, please." I paid for them and we walked over to the nice, quaint table in the corner and Logan started introducing himself to us in the exact same way he did the day before. I let him do that same spiel he did the morning before, but I slipped up. I remembered when the coffee cup broke, so I said it with him because I wanted to see what he would do. We saw what Trish would do, and he thought he had us completely enthralled with what he was trying to tell us, how he memorized all the dishes. But when I said it with him about the cup breaking at the exact same time in the exact same cadence, he looked at me and said, "Oh, this isn't your first time here with me, is it?" But he didn't freak out initially. He seemed a little bit inviting. And he said, "Welcome to eternity." But I told him, "Oh, no, no, no, Logan. You told us we have another day before we have to leave and we're going to leave early." And he looked at me with a little bit of smuggness in his eyes and he said, "How many times have you lived today?" And I said, "Just this once, Logan." And then I went on to tell him about what we experienced the day before. I let him know that we had already told him that we were going on vortex tours. So I got him up to speed and then I told him how it went. I told him what we experienced with the guides and the one guide going missing. And this man said something very interesting to us. He said, "Those aren't tour guides. Those are swappers. They're not showing you around. You're taking their place." And right at that moment, our oatmeals got to the table are plain disgusting oatmeals. And we took them to go. We get back to our car and on the way out of this very strange city, the same owl that was trying to stop us from coming in. It was like it was guiding us out, flying directly in front of the car in the middle of the day until we were out of the city limits. It wasn't attacking us, it was warning us. Like and subscribe. I know you guys were anticipating that story. I hope it was worth the wait. I hope you enjoyed it. As always, I hope you guys are enjoying the weekly uploads. We are really trying our best. And I hope you're excited about next week's video because we're going to Fire Island. If you haven't liked the video yet, please do. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, please do. A special shout out to all of the exclusive members that really keep the channel going. Your support means more than you could ever imagine. If you have the means to support the channel as well and become an exclusive member, click join below this video. But it's totally okay if you can't. Your subscriptions are more than enough. I love you guys. I hope you enjoyed that one. It was a bit dark. We'll see you next week. And if you liked this video, YouTube also thinks you would like this one. In fact, I would like to personally recommend this