Walkabout Wednesday: Arizona

I have waffled a lot about the Arizona portion of my walk.  The original (way back a couple of years ago) plan was to go to the Grand Canyon.  Things changed and I decided to walk more of a straight line to the coast.  Then I realized that a friend is pastoring a church in Mesa and thought it would be fun to visit.  After all, back in the day when I was really traveling, Phoenix was one of my favorite spots.  It has a unique and captivating beauty.  So I swung north to Mesa.  I planned to head due west from there, hit the Los Angeles area, and swing out to San Nicolas Island (I read The Island of the Blue Dolphin when I was growing up).  I had the route all planned out with stops that I thought would be interesting.  I put it all on the Google distance calculator map.  Then I made a mistake.  I trusted Google.  Silly me!  Between Firefox updates, Google maps updates, and general nefarious plots by the whole world wide web (Thanks, Mr. Gore!), my map data was lost. 

My map data was entirely wiped out.


It was time to go back and try to recapture all the data.  I did manage to find this time that I could update the Google maps distance calculator to a new version that supposedly lets me save my data.  I did that.  I think I'm also going to get a pen and paper out and WRITE DOWN each stop from now on.  

As I was redoing everything and looking at the map, I glanced north and noticed it.  Grand Canyon.  Lake Mead.  Hoover Dam.  Lake Mead?!  Hoover Dam??!!!  I was hooked.

Another book I read and re-read when I was a little girl was the little gem Ann Can Fly.  It's the story of a little girl whose father flies her to summer camp.  As they fly over Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, Dad explains a little of their history to Ann.  As a result, I have always been a bit intrigued by them.

The plan has changed again.  I have left Mesa and turned north toward Flagstaff.  There I found the Lowell Observatory and the US Naval Observatory, Flagstaff Station.  Can you tell by now that I love star-gazing?  As of November 1, I have made it down the other side of Humphrey's Peak.  What?  You missed seeing me on that webcam?? 

I hope to be to the Grand Canyon by December and then I'll turn west to retrace Ann's route over Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. 

Keep walking!

Humphreys Peak from Lockett Meadow.  Photo courtesy of Wikimedia