This trip served three purposes:

• Photograph a state capitol building -- towards my goal of photographing all 50
• Visit a national park -- towards my goal of visiting 100 of them
• Visit a good friend in Arizona

ARIZONA:

MISSED VISITING:
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah: From Flagstaff AZ it would be an extra 11 hours and 600 miles of driving

IMPRESSIONS: Arizona is a beautiful state with a variety of terrain. Desert, Grand canyon, forests, miles and miles of nothing that no one wants to buy (so the state owns it), high temperatures (Phoenix) and cool mountain temperatures. Even at 7500 feet, on a sunny day of 63 degrees the sun felt hotter than a comparable weather day in Kansas City. I also got a driving tour of the Apache Indian Reservation. The word is that local Native Americans are excellent at managing their natural resources but generally lack strong business skills.

OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:

• Meteor Crater was much smaller than I expected based on pictures and seeing it on TV
• Petrified Forest was much less than I expected. I did not have time to tour the entire park, only the south end.
• Hardly any PT Cruisers in Arizona outside of Phoenix. Again, only big city folks bought that car.
• Drove past places with names such as Jack Rabbit Road, Bumble Bee Road, Show Low (a town) and Snowflake (a town).

The Bests:

1. Seeing friend Diana for the first time in three years and our four hour Sunday morning conversation
2. Finally getting to meet John, Diana's life partner
3. Seeing the bright yellow aspen leaves under a brilliant sun

The Worsts:

1. Really nothing disappointing/bad about this trip. It was a short trip.

The Totals:

• Miles Driven: 527
• Driving: 10 hours
• States: 1 -- Arizona
• National Parks: 1 (Petrified National Forest), Meteor Crater is privately owned/managed
• Pictures/Movies Taken: 59/0 (and deleted 6 of them)