Flagstaff et al

A couple of weeks ago I went to a conference in one of my favorite places, Flagstaff, Arizona. When I left Parker it was 112 degrees. I bought a AAA membership and took the old car north. She held up admirably well. The conference was fair, and my presentation went off passingly decent, but I mostly enjoyed hanging around the city, reading and relaxing in the cool weather. At the same time, I was disappointed with the lack of independent bookstores in a city that I would imagine able to sustain a couple. Starrlight Books is a small and quaint downtown store with, from what I could tell, only used books. There is also a Bookman's in town, part of a small Arizona chain of used book superstores. I'm not sure how I feel about this concept. Perspectives? *

But that's all I found. If you know of others, please let me know.

On my ride back to the desert, to my amazement, I hit a snowstorm. I don't see snow that often, and I certainly didn't expect to see it falling in late May. It was there suddenly, then gone before I knew it, but I enjoyed what I saw. In no real hurry to get home, and wanting to give my car every opportunity to make it back, I stopped for the night in Kingman. Kingman is the hometown of Andy Devine, which they announce prolifically. I googled him when I got home, but at the time I admit I only knew the name from the Jimmy Buffet song "Pencil-thin Mustache."

I got a room at a 50's travel lodge on the Historic Route 66 (review forthcoming).

I thought I would write, but since there was HBO I ended up watching Bottle Rocket, which I've been meaning to see and which I liked a lot. The Wilson brothers, for me, seem to have a take on the world that I really identify with. Both of them, especially Owen, deliver dialogue in a special way that I can't quite name but which is really suggestive toward something. Is that vague enough? I also watched Knocked Up, which was about what I expected it to be in all the good and bad ways.

The next morning I drove home.

It was nice to get out of town.