Right Wing Radio

I've made it to Flagstaff, Arizona, former home to American writing icon Gerald Gabriel. I've already taken the Gabriel literary tour and purchased souvenirs: a copy of a half-completed story ("If I Were Part Cat") and a pencil thought to be chewed by Gabriel. The teeth marks are rather too close to the tip of the pencil for my liking, and seem to indicate frustration on Gabriel's behalf.

That aside, the trip from Santa Fe to Flagstaff was a good one. It's hard to fully appreciate the Southwestern vista from a photo, and thus driving across I-40 and seeing the desert landscape unfold on the horizon is something I will always cherish.

But first, I must describe Santa Fe. I left I-40 yesterday afternoon and drove up US 84, which is a slightly longer way to get to Santa Fe (rather than go to Albuquerque first and take I-25 north), but by taking US 84 I was able to come into Santa Fe through the mountains. This area is also littered with Native American sites and Spanish Mission sites.

Because Santa Fe has such a strong Native American and Spanish heritage, the city is vastly different to other American cities. For a start, the city is entirely built in adobe style. When I came down from the mountains it was hard actually seeing the city because the brown adobe style makes the city blend in so well with the physical landscape.

On Tuesday morning I drove into the historic area of Santa Fe, parked and then walked around. It's a small sized state capital and there is a lot of historic places to visit. The city is also cosmopolitan and the people I spoke to were very friendly (as opposed to the Oklahomans I talked to on Sunday). Santa Fe is full of cafes and Native American/Spanish/Mexican/American infused foods. It's also home to old Spanish Mission sites and Native American dwellings. If you're looking at killing some time on a cross country trip, I recommend Santa Fe.

The Arizona landscape is different from New Mexico. I can sense the oncoming desert and the Grand Canyon is about 70 miles north of Flagstaff. Like many historic cities, Flagstaff is divided into historic Flagstaff, which is rather cool, and urban sprawl, which is, I guess, where my hotel is. I'll get breakfast in the historic part of town tomorrow, then drive up US 89 to the Canyon and loop back via US 64 before heading to Las Vegas.

One of the things I've been doing on this cross-country trip is to try and listen to the radio rather than listen exclusively to my own music. As a result I've been listening to a lot of contemporary country music (which I hope to write about next week), Christian radio (I'm now starting to really question this whole "Heartland" thing) and Right Wing talkback radio (Liberals are evil: they hate god, want to ruin the country, don't care about their neighbourhoods, hate America, etc). I listen because I can. And the more I listen the more I worry about Obama's chances.