A Million Little Pieces Of My Mind

I have to admit I was pretty groggy by the time my Lyft driver got me to Tampa airport. I had wheelchair service which was good since I had to be wheeled from one end of the airport to the other. I wound up with a window seat but I just kind of slept. At least, this plane's seats were a little padded. And then, when I woke, it was daytime and there were views outside the window!

The air was still pretty hazy. Fortunately, post-image processing allowed me to cut through the haze so the images on these photos are much better than the view looked at the time.

Flying over Kansas, I was happy to see the windmills. Note that they do not in any way impact the farming going on around them.

Denver of course is in the foothills of the Rockies. Here are the foothills.

Interesting to see the trees wearing their fall finery…from above!

Denver itself, as we all know, is the "mile-high city". This is the plain on which Denver sits. Look how high the Rockies are beyond them!

And then it was time to land!

In Denver, I was surprised to discover Frontier Airlines, in addition to all their other money-saving moves, have decided they don't need gates. Instead, they've got this contraption that I had to walk down because there were no wheelchairs up there.

And I don't know why there weren't, because when I had to board my flight to Phoenix, the airport person wheeling me around did manage, with much effort, to wheel me up the thing. But, finally, I was more than ready for the last leg of my journey.

Time to take off!

The Rockies, which are amazing to drive through, are also pretty spectacular from the sky.

This is Navajo Lake State Park, just over the border from Colorado on the Navajo Nation.

A community in the Navajo Nation.

These are Arizona's Vermillion Cliffs, which look different from this viewpoint but are nevertheless breathtaking.

And this is Canyon de Chelly, a place that's on my bucket list to see from the ground.

And here's an aerial view of the Petrified Forest National Park.

This is the Mogollon Rim, which rises about a mile from the Central Arizona lowlands. It's the edge of the Colorado Plateau, which began rising about 60 million years ago.

And here's Bartlett Lake, on whose shores I've car camped many a time.

And, finally, here's a view of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, where I have done a lot of hiking.

As planned, Michael picked me up in my Tesla after I landed. I dropped him off and, a half-hour later, I was home at last! Another trip completed!