Ahh, to be an Arizonan

Found on Etsy, Desertphotographer's lovely photo

It is a good thing to be an Arizonan....well for one, in Minnesota, it is sort of a unique, extra special situation....the equivalent of saying you are Hawaiian or a Jamaican.  The reason is that there are not a lot of Arizonan's in Minnesota....one because of the lack of Vitamin D and two because it is really hard to leave the Southwest. 

In the past few weeks/months/years, Arizona has received its fair share of bad press.  And well frankly, it is sad.  Arizona is a good place....good people.....beautiful landscape and OH WAIT...did I mention those sunsets?  Seriously, best in the world. Okay, best in the USA....I have not been out of the country too much, but I can claim that of the 20 something states I have visited....best sunsets.....oh and best Mexican food....

The issue in AZ is that there is such a collision of cultures/races/economic backgrounds/ages.  You have your large retiree population....you have your out-of-state implant population....you have your hippies in the north and your conservatives in the south, you have your large immigrant population and then you tie in a terrible economy, a drug war just across your border, uranium and mine drilling on your beautiful land and a large collection of native people....well, you are bound to see some conflict.

I guess what I wanted to say is that Arizona is a really great place. Don't judge it by a few bad apples.... The people are a lot of fun.....they are eccentric....they love the land.....you have cactus, you have trees, you have snow, you have desert, you have good food, you have ghost towns, you have tourist traps, you have wonderous canyons, you have bountiful rivers, you have ruins, you have craters, you have extinct volcanoes, you have fry bread, you have turquoise, you have poisonous snakes and bugs, you have blooming prairies, you have rust-free cars, and slow snowbird traffic.....and all of it is good.