Flagstaff

Dec. 22nd, 2006 05:57 pm
[personal profile] nibot
We're at Macy's European Coffeehouse, Bakery & Vegetarian Restaurant in (also snowy) Flagstaff, Arizona. The coffee is great and so is this coffeehouse. Flagstaff seems like a neat little town, also on the railroad and Route 66, though I am suspicious of any place that seems to subsist mainly on tourism.

There are trains--Burlington Northern & Santa Fe--passing through every couple of minutes. I was amused to see one hotel advertise on its billboard, "No train noises!" Who would want such a thing? Driving along this railroad makes me think of a potential future couchsurfing+trainhopping transcontinental adventure.

At the White Sands NM visitors center I finally bought a copy of Hot Springs and Hot Pools of the Southwest, the purchase of which I've been procrastinating for nearly a decade. Unfortunately it looks like we probably won't hit any on this trip (the prime New Mexico candidates were obscured by snow as we passed through that state). I'd like to finally make the quest to Saline Valley, a remote Death Valley hot spring oasis sometime this Spring.

Here in Flagstaff we stopped in at a good little book store and found many enticing books (including a first edition of John McPhee's first book) but bought only one, by Edward Abbey. I paged through a 1981 edition of a Moon Handbook guidebook to Arizona; reading the description of Flagstaff was kind of sad, since gentrification has obliterated the Flagstaff described in its pages.

We might spend the night here at the apartment of a friend from high school (who is actually not here right now), or a couchsurfing person, or maybe we'll continue on down the road. I'm looking forward to getting to California and spending a few days in one place.

Date: 2006-12-23 02:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erinmack.livejournal.com
Tobin, do either you or Bree have a cell number, and will y'all be passing through Tucson? I ask because I'll be there sometime on Sunday. I'm trying to figure out how to spend Xmas day in Bisbee while my friends who I'm going to Mexico with do holiday stuff. It's kind of a long shot, but maybe you two would be up for the trek down. It's supposedly a fascinating little place, and it might be one of the only places worth exploring on Xmas since the charm would be evident even if the town was "closed".

Date: 2006-12-24 08:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nibot.livejournal.com
We're in California now, but my cell phone number is 510-520-9697 if you ever need it in the future. Have fun!

Date: 2006-12-23 06:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] heike.livejournal.com
My brother did some train watching of the BNSF out in Arizona some years ago. After seeing the pictures, I put it on my list of things to do. Right now, train watching in Pittsburgh is awesome though.

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