Friday, September 6, 2013

Time Zone Confusion

I'm a poor sleeper and I move better from west to east: it's easier for me to "lose" an hour of sleep than the reverse. I like to make sure I change the time on my devices, so that pictures and posts are properly time-stamped. I've lost control on this trip.

I was OK until we reached Arizona. I did change the time when we crossed the border, but something seemed to be askew, especially as we moved through the Hopi and Navajo reservations. The answer: Arizona is in the mountain time zone doesn't observe daylight time, so in summer the time is the same as Pacific time. I should have realized this when Windows had me select "Arizona" rather than "Pacific" time, but the realization came on me slowly as I saw several references to time as we crossed Arizona.

The Hopi go along with the rest of the state, but the Navajo do not, since the Navajo nation spans several states. So what time was it in the Navajo nation in Arizona? I have no idea: I gave up a few days ago, as my cameras went out of sync and my mind couldn't deal with moving between time zones and exceptions.

Here's an explanation, written by someone who really knows.