Dances with semi's

Ah, Flagstaff at last!  The weird thing is me arriving at 8:30 pm instead of, say, noonish.  I have a dark relationship with packing and leaving, complicated by a sleep cycle totally fucked up the last few days -- up until 3 am reading, sleep until noon or later.  Today I set my alarm for 9 am but didn't get up until 10:00, still a lot better.   I felt so sluggush.

Rode my exercise bike, had three cups of great coffee, ate a toasted cheese sandwich (cheddar on homemade bread), and still I felt like a lizard on a cold day.  I had money issues to resolve, bills to pay -- got that done while listening to a lot of NPR, absorbed in a discussion with Michael Stone about his book, The Anatomy of Evil (22-point scale, if I remember right, from mean normal to psychopathic torturers & cannibals).  This is one of my favorite topics.  I almost forgot I was leaving, had to call Motel 6 and make a reservation just to make sure I got up off my ass sometime today.  But I didn't really learn anything new (already read too much).  Then Judy Collins.  Finally Obama's news conference on health care, boring, heard it all before, finally let me go.  Drove to an ATM and back home because I forgot to bring my food, finally drove off without shampoo, but what the heck?  Who's looking at my hair?

I left so late it got dark and a little rainy, not fun on curvy, hilly highway dodging big trucks going really slow and maybe not visible until right on top of them around a curve.  Shudder.  I listened to Salman Rushdie's Fury most of the way, missing parts when unnerved by a truck.  Tomorrow morning, breakfast at Quinn's and hike on Kachina Trail, starting at the Sno Bowl, determined to make this a longer walk than before.  It all rides on weather, hoping for a sunny morning.  Here, this time of year, virtually every afternoon a thunderstorm, but mornings are usually great.  I'm spending one more night here, another hike Friday, then home.  It is soooo good to be away from Phoenix!