April 3, 2006 Newsletter

By Shawn Olson

Posted on 04.03.06

Today I posted a few photos from my trip to Arizona. While in Arizona we traveled to remote areas both southeast and northwest of Phoenix. So far I have posted photos of desert landscapes as well as the Grand Canyon. In the next week I will post wildlife and floral photos along with images at Meteor Crater.

My trip was partially paid for by my friend and host Rich Boucher. I have to admit that I was more impressed with the scenery of Arizona than I expected. I certainly didn’t see half the things I could have seen; I intend to make a trip back out there sometime when I have more time to explore in depth.

Some of the things I learned while out there:

Wings are wobbly. This fact was learnt on route to Phoenix—as a first time flier it came as a disturbing surprise to see the airplane wings wobble so much. While it disturbed me, I found out that wobbly wings are actually a good thing on plains… at least up to a point. (This according to frequent flyers… though I cannot seem to find the relevant facts online.)
An Arizona rainstorm is the only thing an Ohioan would consider small.
The Grand Canyon is really really really big. Yes, that is three “reallies” in a row. You could probably safely insert one more.
There is a restaurant in Flagstaff called Bun Huggers. I assume they serve hamburgers.
Oh yeah… one more small thing in Arizona is the scorpion. I expected to find big black beasts; they are actually only about an inch or so long out there. That was disappointing, since I am such an avid fan of the rock band Scorpions.
It snows in Arizona.

I am sure that I learned more. But I haven’t soaked my feet enough in hot water to truly reflect on it all. Expect more photos in the next week or so.