Very Good news!

Highway 87 has been reopened by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Our local paper, The Payson Roundup, has breaking news on the reopening on its website (it's virtually the same text, but gives you a hometowny feeling to see it as a news story).

Although motorists will use only the northbound section of the highway with one lane going in each direction, this will save hours of time and miles of travel for us in Central Arizona. Hurray!

Compare the photo above with the one below to see how extensive the area of slippage is. The crack you see in the top left above is the same one below the M-shaped cut at the top center in the photo below. The chasm marking the slide makes a backward C-shaped line all the way around the bottom of the darker foliage in the center right of the photo before it goes back toward the highway.

How about a roller-coaster ride on this pavement?

Since I have a family event in Mesa on Saturday, it's a blessing to me that the highway has reopened. Otherwise, I could have looked forward to nine hours of driving and about two hours with my family. Now it will be around five hours of driving and more time to spend with the birthday boys.