"In the Air Again"

Where you been, girl? In the Air Again sung to On the Road Again, traveling joyfully after a five-and-a-half month hiatus. This trip was a most welcome change of pace, the impetus for which was a two-day seminar in Scottsdale, Arizona. Afterwards, KLK and I took advantage for a quick "taste-test" of central Arizona and a bit of west-central New Mexico that included time with treasured but seldom-visited friends. I went to grad school at Arizona State University (ASU), in Tempe, the town next to Scottsdale, for a couple of years, and while there extensively explored the same area as our vacation route, but have spent nearly no time there since. The growth since I left, economically, physically, and on the dimension of sophistication, has been stunning. 

The trip was rich one, one that promises to yield a number of posts, should I be so lucky as to find the time before we leave again for the Greater Yellowstone area, while I'm buried at the office and so far behind in basic housekeeping that it seems my apartment will never come to order again.In the meanwhile, thanks for your patience with the no-blog state of Amusing Musings.

This is a photo of 12,637 foot Mount Humphreys, the tallest in the Spanish Peaks range. The Spanish Peaks mark the location of Flagstaff, Arizona, also the junction of the interstate that runs north-south along the center of the state, and I-40, the east-west superhighway that replaced the iconic Route 66. The photo is taken from Meteor (aka Barringer) Crater, along I-40 in central Arizona (more about which later).  On my outbound flight, as the plane made its way from Chicago to Phoenix, Mt. Humphreys hove into view at about 2:00 with respect to the angle of the plane and stayed there, looming snowily against the blue sky, sitting on the flat, drab early spring earth, for a good 45 minutes until the plane angled south for its descent. Unfortunately the (annoyingly thoughtless) person in front of me had his/her seat back down all the way, and I could not access my camera for what would have been a superb aerial view. But you get the idea!

The windy road in the panorama is the access road to Meteor Crater from I-40. Hard to believe that it is actually cattle ranch territory. We saw this sign, but no baby calves, along the way.