Back in Arizona

Believe it or not, I made it all the way back to the west coast with nary a delay. It is a real shock to the system being back in the desert. For one, I forgot how bright the sun is. Secondly, its remarkable how much driving in Phoenix resembles playing a video game. After driving around snowy, hilly, potholey Ithaca in the standard, tooling around flat, flat, flat Phoenix in the Honda is almost surreal. Add in the palm trees and the constant scenery of big box stores, and I really do feel as though I'm traveling through an artificial world.