The Wild Blue Yonder

There are four institutions of higher learning in our area: Prescott College, Yavapai College (whose name comes from the Yavapai Apaches who have, among other things, a small reservation housing two casinos), North Central University (an Internet school), and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (one of two campuses, the other being in Florida.) This last school trains pilots, aeronautical engineers, and many other specialties related to flying. Their school mascot is the screaming eagle.

All of which is to say that I took a drive around the backside of the Prescott Airport (Love Field) today and stumbled across the Embry-Riddle "air force".

I assume these airplanes are used for training flights by the students. There are also many, many buildings housing various aspects of the University. (The main campus is a few miles away.)

My favorite building is this one:

I thought the hanging propellor perfectly matched the sign in the lower right.

Meantime, as I was driving around taking pictures, I couldn't help but wonder if someone in this tower was keeping an eye on me!

Feeling somewhat conspicuous, if not amused at the thought of some unsmiling guy in a security vehicle pulling me over to inquire just what I thought I was doing (evidence of reading too many James Bond novels!), I continued on down the road until I entered an area called the Prescott Air Park. It's actually an industrial park with many different businesses having buildings there.

Already feeling some trepidation at my previous imaginings, I was startled when I encountered this beast in front of one of the office buildings.

A closer look at this grizzly's countenance could give a person bad dreams.

As for me, looking at those teeth, I was taken back to my recent contretemps with Smoke!