Recently I had the opportunity to fly out to Phoenix Arizona to visit and stay with one of my friends for about a week, and seeing as how I have never been farther west than Nashville, I jumped at the chance. Now amazingly this would be only my second chance traveling by plane, which I use to be a bit iffy about with the whole dropping from thirty-thousand feet to your death thing, but have come to really enjoy flight. There is just something about looking out that window down to earth that really puts everything in perspective, from that high up all our petty human arguments and disagreements seem so pointless and small (literally). Thus, it is sort of worth the risk of death (even though that risk is many times less than when driving a car or train even) to get that kind of black and white perspective of life, something that anyone who hasn’t flown needs to experience.
Anyway, the flight was smooth and landed at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor safely and on time. After I collected my luggage from the carousel, I was in desperate need of a nicotine fix after three hours in the air. I walked through the automatic doors into the loading and unloading zone and was hit with a wonderful wave of heat, minus the humidity. After my friend had picked me up we made our way back to his apartment complex and I immediately noted all of the Cacti and Palm trees; which struck me as odd since I figured Palm trees were more of a tropic tree than one that belonged in the desert, so I assumed they had been planted for effect. Being from northeast Ohio I was also blown away by the lack of grass, I mean I obviously was aware that the desert isn’t “grassy” but seeing it is surreal.
So my stay progressed, and I had a good time visiting with my friend and his girlfriend. I’ll admit I didn’t really do much of the tourist thing, but that wasn’t really my reason for going. I am sure that I will make another trek out to the western state soon and I may even decide to uproot myself and settle there sooner or later. If you have never been out west I suggest you take a trip soon as being an American I believe you should try and see as much of our beautiful country as possible before your death (which I assure you, will not be caused by a plane crash). Happy Travels!
