Last week, Pepper and I flew to Arizona. Allegiant Airlines, one of the cheapest budget carriers around, happens to have biweekly direct flights between Kalispell (45 minutes north of us) and Mesa (15 minutes east of Pepper’s sister Jeanele). For around $200 we took a four-day trip on a whim.
At the Mesa airport, you climb on and off the planes on open-air stairs. I can’t help but notice their logo is reminiscent of a firecracker. Am I the only one who thinks a firecracker might not be the best choice for an airline logo?
Firecrackers notwithstanding, the flights were fine and the plane was a newish Airbus 320, not the twenty-seater turboprop I was half-expecting for a fifty-dollar airfare.
I think this is the first time I’ve been in Arizona in January, and it was amazing. Sunny and 60 every day. Now I understand why people “snowbird” there every winter. A number of people I met in Bigfork in September and October vanished to Arizona or southern Utah, and I don’t expect to see them again until at least April. Even though our winter here in Montana has been fairly mild thus far, it’s hard to beat sunny and 60.
Pepper and I went to Jersey Mike’s, which is one of my favorite sandwich shops. There’s only one of them in the entire state of Montana, and they’re not that good I’d drive hundreds of miles. But it was walking distance from Jeanele’s house, so we took a pleasant stroll and had awesome subs.
My brother-in-law David asked if I’d like to head out for some mountain biking. We went with two of my nephews, Kaleb and Luke, and had a great time in the desert. Here’s Kaleb on the trail ahead of me:
The entire landscape was peppered with enormous saguaro cacti. So cool.
Here’s one particular cactus that apparently couldn’t figure out up and down, and ended up getting a bit tangled in itself.
Another prevalent plant is the jumping cholla, which looks sort of like a large fuzzy bush from a distance.
Spoiler: it’s not fuzzy at all.
It has some particularly wicked spines which have microscopic backward-facing needles, so if one impales you or even gets caught in your clothes, it’s incredibly difficult (and painful) to pull back out.
After an hour and a half on the trail, we headed out for some disc golf. I haven’t played disc golf in almost six years, but it was refreshing to know my ultimate skills still come in handy. I easily beat David and Luke, both of whom play pretty often.
In addition, we watched some movies in a home theater, played darts and foosball, I learned a new board game (Splendor), and we spent time just sitting around chatting. It was a good time all around, and given the cheap and convenient travel arrangements, I expect we’ll do it again soon.