Headed to the OC

My travels are taking me to Anaheim, California this week for Commodity Classic. (You may recall previous postings from Classics in Nashville in '08 and Grapevine in '09. Oh, wait...I wasn't keeping a blog when it was in Nashville. Nevermind.)

Currently, I'm stationed in Albuquerque, New Mexico and enduring a four hour layover. My flight will leave here, make a brief stop in Phoenix, then finally arrive at the Orange County airport near Anaheim at 5pm PST (7pm CST). There doesn't seem to be a quick way to get to "the OC" from Lubbock via Southwest, but my loyalty to the fun-loving airlines and my disdain for American Airlines keeps me on the big blue and orange jet. Plus, even at this rate I'm still more likely to get there before any of the delay-prone airlines could.

I sincerely wish I could better visually document the people I see in airports. Every airport has its own culture. New Mexico, of course, definitely has its own culture - lots of poorly shaped felt hats, fleece jackets with giant wolf graphics on the back, and lots of chilli pepper knick knacks.

The flight from Lubbock to Albuquerque is pretty short. It's just enough time to enter another timezone and for the landscape to turn into a more desert/mountain range look.

The term "enscarpment" came to mind several times as I peered out the window on the short flight over from the LBK. Flat desert or agricultural land turns into cliffs and canyons with the rise in elevation.

Then, before you know it, you start seeing the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Sandia Peak (a ski resort) is near the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area. "Sandia" means "watermelon", according to my husband the human atlas.

So, for another few hours, I will observe the people of New Mexico as I journery to the most populous state in the country.