Northern Arizona ...

I've been camping in Northern Arizona and I would still be there if I could take my computer with me.

Politically I'm a void except:

• I finished reading The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal by Jared M. Diamond.
• I saw, first hand, the magnitude of the damage being done to the area by off road vehicles (logging, ORV's and the various impacts of global warming are not doing these areas any good, to put it mildly).
• I also read 1634: The Baltic War by David Weber and Eric Flint having previously read 1632 (Eric Flint) and 1633 (Eric Flint and David Weber). As alternate histories the first two books of the Ring of Fires Series (1632 and 1633) are pretty good, in my opinion. The author(s) set their extremely human heroes on a course to correct some of history's tragedies (slavery, the Holocaust). On the other hand unless these same heroes have more insight and skill than we have in this day and age, they are going to move the global warming fiasco much earlier in earth's history.
  
• While filling up my truck at a gas station in Florence, a former (self proclaimed) rodeo guy commented on my camper, the price of gas, the price of campers and that we might as well go ahead and invade Iran. I don't know how much of his sentiment was for real and how much was a general feeling of depression or hopelessness with the way things 'are.' The impression I got was one of vicarious aggression masking hopelessness (my 2-minute psychoanalyses). When I suggested that such actions could lead us into WW III he said well, yeah, it might be disastrous but there are too many people (or those people) in the world anyway. When I said they may feel the same about us that was the end of the interaction.

The weather was really nice. I first camped in the Stoneman Lake area. When it started getting warm I drove on into Flagstaff and stayed a couple nights at a KOA camp so I could get rid of unwanted stuff and fill up on needed stuff. Then I camped a couple nights north of Flagstaff. Then I drove home.

Here are two pictures that I hope you enjoy (click on the images to see a larger version):

Stoneman Lake Area North of Flagstaff