Flagstaff
CA was primarily desert land along with the western part of AZ. Great big giants pieces of brown rock and mud, which at one time hit the 114° mark in the little town of Needles.
As the sun went down I began to feel the urge to capture it which sent me to screaming, rock-spitting stops in the median where I imagined were created for construction equipment and smokey’s to lay in wait. Immediately after the sun went down the moon began coming up. A moon in which, in it’s oblong orbit was approaching the Earth closer than it does normally; a Supermoon. And it was spectacular.
I made it into town roughly on time spent about a 1/2 hour looking for a room and ended up at the respectable Highland Country Inn, a 10min-ish walk to Historic/Southside Historic Downtowns. Quickly sink-showered and hit the street. Circled around a bit and realizing that most of the bars/restaurants had already begun shuffling around their dining rooms — as I assumed to make room for dancing — dipped into a sports bar for fish tacos. That were awful. But having eaten little-nothing yesterday it would suffice. Then darted across the historic Route 66 to Lumbaryard brewery for a unremarkable, relatively tasteless IPA. Growing quickly tired of this bland brew, and quickly tired decided the moment everyone rushed out of the bar area to the also cleared dining room to line dance that it was time to leave.
Line dancing is a miserable excuse of human interaction. Or should I say miserable excuse to avoid real, meaningful human interaction. Stumbling around like a grade-schooler being taught pre-Civil War dances occasionally clapping. Super. Congratufreakinglations. You avoided conversation and getting to know someone, instead laughing about how you might’ve stepped on someone else’s toes or clapped off-beat like super-whitey. Sigh.
And so beat-feet back to the room for the inevitably daunting and predictably frustrating realization that between having put together my original list of stops, and all the great suggestions and ideas along the way that I wasn’t going to be able to do and see everything I’d hoped.
The couple of drives that will get me back to the East Coast on time will be long. I need to pound coffee and make a decision quickly.