Today, I took a break from Route 66. I drove south to Phoenix to catch a flight back to Oklahoma City, in order to spend the Independence Day holiday with my family. My mom had planned a reunion with another family we've known for years, the Brewers. Mom and Barbara met while in college and have been fast friends ever since. The Brewers lived in Temple, Texas but their grandparents lived in Oklahoma City, so we got to see them once or twice a year. Barbara's kids' ages roughly corresponded with ours, so we quite literally grew up together. We hadn't all been together in years, though, and Mom got the idea of gathering both clans, all three generations (four, in fact, for the Brewers), together on the Fourth of July and I knew darn well I'd better not be the only one absent.

The drive from Flagstaff to Phoenix is a fascinating one, with the countryside undergoing another major transformation. When I left Flagstaff this morning, it was quite cool; the low temperature the night before had been in the 30s, flirting with the record. As I traveled south, the altitude dropped and the temperature climbed, to well over a hundred in Phoenix. I got a kick out of finally viewing, up close, those cacti one often sees in pictures and cartoons, the tall ones with the arms. Sagueros, I think they're called. I had never come across them before but there are hundreds of them alongside I-71, on the drive into Phoenix.

I spent some time driving around Phoenix, taking care of some odds and ends before my flight - laundry, a little shopping - but before long, I was airborne, bound for Will Rogers International Airport in OKC.

Continue on the American Odyssey.
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