AZ Trip Observations

I’ve been out in AZ for the past five days, doing college visits with my son. We also headed down to Porto Penasco (Rocky Point) for the weekend. In the past six years thousands of condos have been built on Sandy Beach. That little town is on its way to becoming another Cancun as investors from CA and AZ scoop up everything built.

On Monday we drove from Porto Penasco thru Why, Gunsight, Sells, Covered Wells, Tucson, Red Rock, Tempe, Sedona and ending in Flagstaff. It was a full day, covering over 600 miles with visits to two colleges.

We were at a U. S. Forestry visitor’s center in Oak Creek, AZ getting maps and information when lightening hit on the hill across the road. Within minutes flames were shooting out of the hill. We were amazed at how quickly a fire can develop in this country. The forester said that she had never seen a lightening strike like that. We wasted no time in leaving as the fire trucks and aerial spotters were converging on the area.

Sedona (population 10,192) is very unique place to visit. The red rock formations there are incredible. It’s a place that you ought to see sometime in your life.

Flagstaff (population 52,894) has done a wonderful job of resurrecting their downtown area. There were numerous small shops, restaurants, etc. with virtually no vacancies. I was very impressed with Heritage Square, which has become a natural meeting place for young professionals at night. They’ve obviously taken a lot of care to develop their own special sense of place. And it is working.

I was hoping to drive up to the Grand Canyon prior to our last college visit. “It’s only an hour and half up there. We could leave really early in the morning and make it with ease,” was my argument to Betinha and James. They pointed out to me that our other son Joseph would love to see it also and my plan would involve a Clark Griswold moment from the movie “Vacation” of viewing the Grand Canyon. “Yep, yep, that’s the Grand Canyon. Let’s get rolling.” We’ll do that trip some other day. Undoubtedly, it will yield some memorable tales.

I wrote this bouncing in the backseat of a cab that was streaking from Flagstaff to Phoenix when American West cancelled our flight this afternoon. Fortunately, they agreed to ferry us to Phoenix to catch our connection. Wireless internet is wonderful, even if the hub and spoke air system isn’t.