Finally a moment when energy, time, and internet access all coincide.  It’s 6:10 am in Flagstaff, AZ and I’m waiting for the sun to brighten the sky just a little bit more so I can get running.  It’s a strange neighbourhood and I don’t feel like running alone in the dark here. 

Everywhere’s been a strange neighbourhood lately. 

This trip has been full of such variety that it is hard to believe that it’s all been the same trip.  Chinatown, redwoods, whales at the coast, outlet shopping, the kelp forests, endless urban sprawl, desert so quiet it presses on your ears…  After Portland we drove down to the Oregon Dunes, then along the coast to San Fransisco.  We picked up Rainer’s parents from the airport and have continued to go strong. Ships and archeological ruins, tours of Alcatraz and the Presidio; the celebrity-loving LA, the gaudy tediousness of Las Vegas; the giant crater and the sweep of the high desert from the rim of Meteor Crater…

On this trip it strikes me once again how much like a sort of reverse archeology learning is.  Rather than uncovering layers, we’re making them.  Each mention of a subject in a new location creates a new strata of meaning and understanding.  Sometimes the mind in intrigued and builds a thick layer of sediment rich in bits and pieces of objects; other times just a thin layer of dust sifts over our process, building just a little bit on what we already knew.

I should go.  The sky is that bright yellow-green just before the sun rises and I don’t want to make us late for the Grand Canyon. (The Grand Canyon!)

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