David Michael Gordon

In the past three years, my wife and I have made five trips to the southwestern part of the USA including Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah and a bit of southern Colorado.  In our younger days, we likely would have opted to drive there and back from our home in southeastern Massachusetts.  But there was never enough time available for that due to work, school and other commitments.   Now that we are older and possess less enthusiasm for life on the road, we now fly to a major city such as Albuquerque, NM or Phoenix, AZ and rent a car.

The first day of travel is always a long and tiring day. We are usually up at 2AM and on our way to the airport by 5AM.  Since our preference is to fly out of the Providence, RI airport, we end up stopping and changing flights – usually in Atlanta, GA or Minneapolis, MN.  The 60 to 90 minute layover gives us time to have lunch and stretch our legs a bit.

After arriving at our destination airport, we collect our baggage and pick up the rental car.  Landing in Phoenix has meant a 2 hour drive to either Sedona or Tucson whereas landing in Albuquerque is only a 15 minute drive to our motel.  We usually stop along the way for takeout food, a few groceries and a bottle of wine to celebrate our safe arrival.