CO to AZ Scrawl Crawl or The Edge of the World

Summer greetings from hot and dusty Phoenix, AZ, USA. I spent the Solstice driving from Cortez, Co back home to Phoenix. I've done this drive many, many times. I know the best snacks to pack (Chex Mix and Animal Crackers), the cleanest bathrooms (NOT the Conoco in Ridgeway, CO) and where you can find a nice patch of grass for the dogs (NOT Kayenta, AZ). Despite numerous sojourns across this desert, the expansive beauty, desolation and anesthetizing boredom of the five hour drive across the Indian reservations in northeast Arizona, once again left me contemplating life, death and how one survives without Starbucks. Racing as fast as the law and our V-4 engine allowed, I spaced out the window and was struck by the clean edge of the horizon. It seemed that with a swift jerk of the wheel one could careen off the edge of the world. I could easily imagine how humans might have believed that the earth was flat. Also on this particular drive, while I tried hard to focus on the long day of light and shadows, my attention kept being distracted by, of all things, the moon. It was the sun's companion and ours for a good part of the day, a reminder that night would indeed come again.