Phoenix, AZ.

I arrived in Phoenix yesterday evening, to attend the PC Forum conference in Scottsdale. Straight away I knew something was up when we got on the shuttle bus to pick up the rental car.

weirdo green alien lighting


I wondered why they chose such a bright green for the interior lighting... was it to make us feel calmed and healed by our arrival in this fair city?

The light was very strange, especially as the street lights started to come on.

more weirdo light?


But the scent in the air was approaching sublime. There are something like 50 billion orange trees in this area, all of which are blossoming now. They even have a variety of tree which bears inedible oranges. They do look pretty.

The sun sank lower.

palms


We drove around Phoenix a bit. It is a sprawly place, with no apparent urban planning. You couldn't possibly guess where you might find anything. On one block there would be a bunch of stores mixed in with government departments mixed in with you name it. So I took this instead.

free papers


You wouldn't be able to exist in this town if you didn't have a car. Everything is so spread out that in order to pick up a Sunday paper, then pop over to the hardware store you'd need to drive on several 5 lane roads for 20 minutes in one direction, and then 35 minutes in the other.

a shot from the car