Here he is at an earlier celebration.
There are a million good reasons to stay the hell away from Flagstaff, AZ. Unrestricted development of stripmalls has polluted the skys to the point where astronomy here is really lousy (unlike Lowell's and Tombaugh's time.) A 15% "bed, board, and booze" tax skewers tourists. Local prices are comparable to Washington D.C. Panhandlers abound, especially in sumer, and use doorways and building entrances as public restrooms (watch your step). There are lots of bikepaths, which the locals refer to as wino freeways. Stay off them at night or you stnd a good chance of "loosing your lycra." Forest service controlled burns fill up the plce with dark brown smoke for a couple of weeks every year. Smoking is forbidden most places (to protect the vacationing street people from sidestrem smoke as they "do their business" in shop doors).
You'll see dozens of Kerry Stickers as the town is heavily DemonRat. Chains and franchises have pushed out most of the mom and pop restaurants and bars which used to give the place some character. Two of my friends died in the same bed in the local hospital of "undiagnosable" septicemic infections. Aother went 4 days without a shower or spongebath because "he was on the fourth floor." (Your guess is as good as mine on this.)
With luck, you'll arrive in time to watch the local lesbians conduct a "take back the night parade." This will give you a good impression of what a Nazi rally in Munich might have looked like if the Nazi's had been overweight, ugly, rattily dressed, Birkenstock sporting, female professors. In a few months, the Amtrack won't stop here anymore so there goes the rest of the nightlife. The countryside is beautiful but the developments are pretty much sucking up the public access. I saw a bumper sticker the other day which read "Have you been rude to a tourist today?"
And that about sums up the town. Oh, and no Super Walmart, because of a big box ordinance to "preserve the character of the town and protect small business." The small businesses vanished about 15 years ago when he stripmalls spread along the freeway. They don't like Republicans either and that goes for you and especially me.
Here he is at an earlier celebration.
