Wine in the western U.S.--you inevitably, and justifiably, think of California, Oregon, Washington...but southern Arizona? The high grasslands of Cochise county have seen a handful of wineries spring up in the last few decades.

In a scene more reminiscent of Montana, (there are no saguaros at this elevation), the occasional vineyard interrupts the the otherwise grassy basin-and-range landscape. The lower-elevation desert city of Tucson is only an hour away.

I spent part of my childhood near here, in Sierra Vista; my father was in the military, stationed for a while at nearby Fort Huachuca, at the base of the Huachuca Mountains, visible on the left of this photo.

It's not a big town, and this area is hardly a 'crossroads,' but there exists a diaspora of people who, due to their parents' peregrinations, spent all or part of their childhood in this SE Arizona landscape--divergent paths to and from here...