Observations on the West's landscape from a plane

Sitting in the airplane, peering out the window, taking in the huge stretches of desert below. Gritty, sandy, hilly desert. Clouds are sparse below the plane and the disappearing sunlight makes the hills and mountains more dramatic. I grew up in PA and spent much of my younger life on the east coast, where green vegetation sprouts up with every chance it gets, there are many chances. I still find the vast desert regions of the west surprising.

The Grand Canyon appeared below us as we flew into Phoenix from Boise.

Photo courtesy of Bill

After flying into Phoenix, from Boise, where we attended a wedding for Bill's grad school friend, we got on a smaller plane to Burbank. Still! Even in California! There are lots of desert-like regions. I knew this, seeing it is something else. More real. More this cup of coffee in my hands is really hot, less I'm thinking about how coffee can be hot.

I also noticed a dry river bed as we got closer to Burbank, well maybe we were 125 miles out yet. This river bed had a lighter color than the surrounding desert. Small, scrubby plants dotted sections of the bed. I think the bed is associated with the Mojave River which flows underground most of the time. I welcome corrections to that assessment. The landscape turned greener as the plane approached Burbank. More welcoming. LA's climate is classified as subtropical-Mediterranean, similar to Italy. It just gets enough rain to get this classification though!

There are tons of water sculptures in Los Angeles which is something of a joke. We've taken enough water from our neighbors to even make art out of it! Yet I find them soothing to observe.

There's lots more I could say... one is that I'm thinking of a song by Death Cab for Cutie called Why You'd Want to Live Here. The title of this song and the lyrics are a bit contradictory. Here's a part of it:

I'm in Los Angeles today: It smells like an airport runway.
Jet fuel stenches in the cabin and lights flickering at random.
I'm in Los Angeles today:
Garbage cans comprise the medians of freeways always creeping
even when the population's sleeping.
And I can't see why you'd want to live here.