the city of albuquerque is nice

if for no other reason than they have given me free wifi in the airport! I'm about to fly back to OAK and complete the Third Annual Hajj to the Sacred Scenic Byways of the American West, as I'm going to call it. My little avatar on this blog is made from a photo from last year's Hajj, and I'm hoping that if my photography skillz were mad enough, I'll have a new one. Hopefully from the Rainbow Bridge, which may be the coolest thing I've ever seen. I'm certainly one for list making and superlatives, but it's a hard decision in the category of coolest things I've ever seen. Unfortch my photo won't have water in it as that particular waterway is intermittent and is dry at the mo.

I won't get into crazy details about where I went, but here's a general list in case you're interested: Albuquerque, the Very Large Array, Roswell (detritus from the crash is not on display for "insurance reasons"), Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mtns (I made it to Texas!), White Sands, Saguaro Nat'l Park, Taliesen West (Frank Lloyd Wright's "Desert Camp"), Zion Nat'l Park, Glen Canyon/Lake Powell/Rainbow Bridge, Painted Desert/Petrified Forest, Petroglyph Nat'l Monument. There may be some more I'm forgetting. It was a lot. I added two new states to the list, NM and TX, so I'm up to 36 out of 50 now. Pretty pretty good, although I can't imagine the circumstances that will bring me to, say, Oklahoma or Arkansas anytime soon.

Been out of the loop for a week now. No crossword puzzles or anything. Looking forward to rejoining civilzation.