Westward, Ho!

Tomorrow, I am going to drive to the Chicago suburbs, leave my car at Brian's parent's house, take a train into the city, take the el to the airport, and get on a plane that will fly me back to Arizona. Once there I will bask in (dry) heat and intense sunlight for just over a week. Although Brian will not be going with me - and I will miss him - I am looking forward to the trip. I love the Tucson mountains in the summer, and lately I'm experiencing a bone-deep craving for open space. Although I grow more and more fond of Iowa, (largely thanks to Steen), I still miss the freedom of hopping on a horse, riding over a ridge or two and then pausing on hilltop to look out upon a 360 degree view of empty land without so much a phone-line to indicate nearby human habitation.

Of course, even in the remote parts of the desert north of Tucson, these views are growing fewer and farther between. My favorite one is now marred by two houses. Most of the others are mere illusions provided by rising and falling geography. Still, even with the encroaching buildings and roads, there is a different feeling in the west. The land is still wild. Here, everything has been tilled and harvested a million times. There, in most places outside of town, man has mostly just passed through.