Scott...
I've been waiting to get back to Arizona since the moment I stepped on the plane for the flight back to Chicago; it's been about two years since I've been there. You think I'd be more prepared than this; I've only known about this trip for over a month. It's not a surprise that it's now the night before we leave and I've done NOTHING. I have to say it looks like I've never traveled in my life, or maybe too much?
I actually got out of work early and was on the 3:00 train back home. That proved useless. My priority when I got home wasn't packing; it was a 'quick' trip to Starbucks and then a stop at the mall. While at the mall I decided to call my cellular company and tell them to switch me to a nationwide plan; I thought it'd be nice to be able to call and share the trip with other people. It's got to be about 5:30 now. Let's just say that the whole ordeal finally ended after 3 hours on the phone with many, many people and culminating with a trip back to the mall for a new cell phone that IS nationwide capable.
I figured I'd start packing after Cyrus came over. It's now about 10:30 and I'm still whining about having to pack. We got to bed after my 20-minute smash and grab routine into a suitcase. Not too bad, either, I only forgot my cell phone charger. I guess I wanted to forget about the whole 3-hour ordeal.
Cyrus...
I woke up at 4:00 am, at my apartment in Phoenix, to get on a 6 am flight to Chicago. All I've got with me are two carry on bags (laptop, and a briefcase), so I don't have to deal with losing my luggage. The plane got to Chicago at 11 am, a few minutes early (surprise!), and I went and picked-up my car from the parking lot. I had a few things to do today: get the moving van, move the stuff that's almost packed in my apartment into the moving van, clean up the apartment, and get the hell outta Chicago.
I picked up the truck but they didn't have anyone to hook up the tow-dolly for my car, so I told them I'd be back at 4:30 to pick up the dolly. I leave my car at the place where I rented the truck, and took the truck home. It was now about 1:00 pm, and I was starving, so I stopped at the hot dog stand, about a block away from my apartment to get some food. Went back home and while I ate, finished packing my stuff. The movers got to my place at 3:00 pm, and they were cool. We were jokin' around while they loaded up the truck.. I gave them my last case and a half of beer when they left, and then finished cleaning the apartment. I went back to get the car at exactly 4:30; everything was timed perfectly. The landlord came over at 5:15 pm, and she went through the place, I gave her the keys, and I was outta there at 5:30 pm.
I went over to my parents place for a good-bye dinner, and then headed over
to Scott's place. I got to Scott's at about 9:30 pm, he was totally not
ready to go. He hadn't even eaten dinner yet, so we went to some Mexican
taco place by his house, and got back to his place about 10:30 pm. Of
course he hadn't even packed yet, and was bitchin' and moaning about packing. I
think he finally started packing around 11:30, and finished about midnight but
not before downing a few shots on Patron. (We seem to do this a
lot)
We finally got out of the house about 10:30am. After a detour and a great breakfast at Marry Todd's in Frankfort, we hit the highway at around noon. My friend's mom works at Marry Todd's. They have the best omelets around! I had one with artichokes, asparagus and cream cheese topped with hollandaise. Yum! Cy had ham and cheese and sausage. Safe choice. Stop by in the morning and see Harriet, she's a sweetie.
We got through Illinois with no problems but Cy took out a couple of construction cones with the truck; it was fun watching them tumble. Missouri was getting boring and I had already held Cy hostage and talked programming for half the state so I was getting horse. Gots me that new national capable cell phone so I decided to give my dad a call - haven't talked to him in a while. He had no idea I was even going out of town and was surprised that we were going to drive right past an old hunting buddy. Detour. We were game for some silliness. After all it was only a few minutes off the highway & dad would get a kick out of it.
After sorting out bum directions from dad, locals helped us track down Buck's house. Buck Earl. Swear, that's his real name. But, after that tracking, Buck wasn't home. Broke the news to dad, got off the phone - the battery was just about to zonk, and all of a sudden, Buck's van rounds the corner. Let me state that I've never met Buck, but dad told me he drives a van and we just got lucky. We had to run back to the truck, get the other cell phone battery, get another cell signal, which, in the sticks is not easy, call dad & surprise Buck with dad on the phone. To anybody else we sure looked like we were up to something. We ran into Buck's yard while I was trying to get a signal... dog's barking... Buck's turning on lights to the trailer & fetching his 12 gauge (not really, but he said he was gonna). It was all to pull off a little gag. Life is fun.
Finally got a signal and pulled off the surprise. Buck was a really cool guy with whom my dad sees once a year on this weeklong deer-hunting trip. Buck has this trailer that he hauls down every year. He just had to show it to us; he was quite proud of it. Have to admit, it was kinda funny. They had all the hunters' names and corresponding nicknames painted in big red letters on the side of the trailer. Red neck humor at it's finest. Very, very sad to say that I am an idiot and thought not to bring the camera. Duh. Nice folk, would have talked our ears off all night, given the chance, but we had to make Branson that night. So we were off. Mission accomplished. Fun detour.
Got to Branson very late but you wouldn't have known it because the whole town was lit like a Christmas tree. I have to admit that we used to vacation there as kids, before it was a big tourist destination; haven't been there since. Wow. It's now a bad cross between Vegas and the Dells. Tacky, Red-neck, Ughh, and really, really gaudy.
We had a bizarre dinner experience. The town is so over-built that we
saw a steak house, parked and by accident walked into the wrong place.
It's that confusing. I know it sounds weird, but it was real easy to
do. We walked in and EVERYBODY turned to look at us like we were holding
hands or something. We were easily the youngest patrons there by about two
hundred years. Too tired to even think straight, turning around and
leaving didn't really occur to us. We figured out that we were in the
wrong place about the time the creepy waiter brought our meal, at least that's
what he passed it off as. He looked like the guy in Rocky Horror without
the make-up.
The food sucked.
Check in at the Radisson was a bit humorous because of my last second packing stunt. I had my suitcase, a big duffle bag and a backpack. Yea, I had it all together. Desk clerk asks, 'So how long you guys stayin?' We got a laugh out of it.
There was a lounge downstairs, so much for hitting the bricks. Some big lug at the bar tried to hit on Cyrus. No luck though. Had a couple-a-drinks and talked .asp code and programming logic.
Neighbors from hell. Woke me up at 7 with blaring gospel music. No lie. Cyrus could sleep through Armageddon. Bastard.
We needed some familiar food to counter last night's dinner fiasco. Found a Bob Evans right off the highway. I always have the same thing, biscuits and gravy; makes me feel like crap and puts me to sleep every time, so I make sure I only go a couple times a year. Cy had a hamburger. Still playing it safe.
We opted to continue south through Arkansas to avoid going back north to get on the toll way. We took what looked like a fine route on the map, but it quickly turned into a back-road death trap at 10 to 30 miles an hour for about three very long hours. I was already groggy from my power breakfast, somehow I had pulled a muscle in my leg, which hurt like hell and I was getting pretty freekin sick of being tossed around in the truck by Mario Andretti at the wheel on the back-roads of hell. I was getting pissy.
There was this stupid 50 pound ashtray of Cy's under my seat that kept smacking me in the ankles every time speedy boy hit the brakes because he was doing 80 into a 20 MPH turn. I swear I thought the car in tow was going to swing around, or jackknife and take us out. So.... I took that damn ashtray and whipped it right out the window. Wow, flew just like a Frisbee. Yay. Cyrus was not thrilled. He actually slowed down and kinda expected me to go back and get it. Like that was an option. Not. I immediately felt better but he clearly felt worse. He whined on and on about it being his favorite and something about his now deceased brother made it for him right before he died of gout or something - I dunno, I tried to block him out. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I had to promise him I'd buy him one when we got to Phoenix just to shut him up. And it had to weigh at least ten pounds. At least I don't have to ship it. The decision to take the low road through Arkansas cost us a bit of extra time, and an ashtray. Would of been a better decision to head back north and take the toll way. Live and learn.
I called Dixie while in Oklahoma because I could not get a call through on the cell phone in Arkansas (where she lives) without a calling card or credit card number, so much for nationwide access. She was happy to hear from me and we had lots to talk about. If you know Dixie, she said HI!
We found ourselves in Weatherford, OK. in the early evening. We were
cruising highway 40 when the T-Bone Steakhouse caught Cy's eye. I thought
this place was a little strange. It was a restaurant/lounge.
Normally you'd have the two areas somewhat separated. Not here, we were
eating in a smoky lounge right next to the bar right out of those low bucket
type lounge chairs, you could hardly reach the table. They had a problem
cooking the steak. I asked for my prime rib medium rare and got it medium,
almost well. I was polite and asked them to please bring me another.
This time the cow was still alive. They tried again.
Perfection. You think they'd know how to cook a steak in
Oklahoma.
We planned the next leg of the trip over dinner and
decided to stay in this town overnight. We found a nice hotel, but they
were booked. Desk clerk suggested we stop in the next town headed west,
there were hotels there. Before we hit the road I insisted we stop at the
local ick-mart (Wal-Mart) to see if they had the trip planning software that we
should of bought 1,000 miles ago. Bought that and the new Eric Clapton/BB
King CD - Riding With the King, kewel. Now almost two-thirds into the trip
we could finally look up points of interest and directions on the laptop for the
towns we were in. Duh.
We drove west to the town of Clinton and tried to navigate with the software
as we drove and failed miserably. Cy stopped at a Red Roof Inn.
We checked in,
dropped off our bags, bitched about the icky, small room that smelled bad, plugged
in the laptop and put the new software to another test. We plugged in Clinton, OK
and told it to find us something to do, it was like shaking up the old magic
8-ball. We found two things. Route
66 museum (which we thought would be neat & decided to check out in the
morning) and the Loose Change bar. We cleaned up, hopped into the truck
and headed to the bar. It was pretty funny shifting out of 'moving mode'
to 'going out on Saturday night mode' but still being stuck in the same
vehicle. Yep, we tooled around town in a moving truck with a car in
tow. Looked pretty funny. Not nearly as funny as the locals,
though. We parked and started walking down what was probably the main
strip, maybe three blocks long. We came across a bar with some real scary
locals. I asked the bartender the name of the bar and it was not Loose
Change so we abruptly left. I wonder what we would have done if it
was. We walked around a little bit and noticed the same ten or so cars
driving in circles around this small strip. Then we came across three guys
standing around a pick-up truck blasting Jeff Foxworthy. Yikes. This
is Saturday night in Clinton, OK folks. We decided to call it a night.
I was so wiped when I went to bed and can't really remember how we got on the subject but we talked about cartoons and laughed until I passed out from exhaustion, it's tough work sitting in the passenger seat and coming up with funny stuff to say.
Lousy neighbors woke me up at 6:30 while packing up their van. I felt like I was a kid again staying in bad motels. I gave up trying to sleep, took a shower and packed it up. Loaded up the truck while Cy got ready.
We went to check out and get the day started. You know when you embark
on some big trip or some big project and there are some defining moments, we
were about to have one. Cy pulls around to drop off the keys and goes to
pull under the awning by the front desk. It looks kind of low and Cy asks
'I wonder if we'll fit under there?' just seconds before we reach it. I
chime off 'we'll find out' and next thing you hear is the high pitched
grinding sound of the truck becoming wedged under this overhang.
Speedy boy hit
the breaks hard and fast so we only went a few inches. Damn
funny regardless.
Cheap, quick and easy eats are the order, McD's. We have a seat and I FINALLY got started with the trip log (the mumbo jumbo you are reading now). I had a bunch of ideas and was flying along and then BLANK! The laptop just stopped on its own, and shut down. Imagine my surprise, not knowing anything about laptops except that the mouse ALWAYS sucks and the keys are way too small. Cyrus looks at me like a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and professes that he played Quake WITHOUT the laptop plugged in, running off of battery. Duh. So much for getting some work done. Cyrus does not own a car adapter either.
We walked across the street to check out this really cool mid 50's Chevy
pick-up truck for sale.
It was in amazing condition and damn cheap.
I actually called the number and talked to the owner and talked him down over
the phone just for kicks. Buying a truck in Oklahoma would have really
screwed things up, so I dismissed it pretty quickly. Heck, there's trucks
for sale in Phoenix, right?
We stayed in Clinton for another reason; it sits on Route 66 and sports what looked like a pretty nice 66 museum. We headed there but had some time to kill so we went into the Route 66 restaurant across the street and had some pie and waited for the museum to open.
Personally, I like to explore and focus on every little thing in a place like this. I did not want to hold our travels up too much, so I just kinda moved along at a normal pace. I could have read every word I came across there and blown a day. We were in and out in about an hour or so.
We headed down Route 66 toward the industrial area one more time; this old hotel caught my eye the night before. We came across a postcard in the museum for it - the Glancy Hotel. Here was this really beat up very 50's hotel. I don't know why it's such a big deal to me but I got a huge charge out of this place; it was really run down, but I was floored that it was still there.
Time to head toward Amarillo. We had a lunch date with a BAS (BIG ASS
STEAK). Driving down the highway in a car with less of a schedule probably
affords you more chances to stop on a whim. East of Amarillo stands, well
leans, a water tower. I guess this is a tourist attraction because it was
listed as such on some placemats we came across later.
I have no idea how big of a deal this is or why, we did not stop. Just down the road and on
the other side of the highway stands the country's largest cross. It was
big. Darn big. Still, I have no info on this thing. We blew
right by. It's just a pain to stop, park, and maneuver the beast of a
truck with the car in tow.
We made up for this a little later. We jumped off of the highway when
we came across a sign pointing out Route 66.
I know, just a dumb road to some people, but a whole lot more to me.
I was instantly charged the moment I got out of the truck to walk down the
very road that countless people
traveled to get out west.
It's such a big piece of Americana that I can
only read about and ponder. This was a chance to walk on the same ground
and close my eyes and conjure up images of what it must have been like to pack
up the family and head west on this new and exciting route. Cyrus and I
bitched about little things about hotels; they were too small, smelled badly,
nothing to do there and other little things. We had hotels. Many
years ago along this route these people slept in their cars or wherever they
could. I was humbled.
We planned on driving 66 to Amarillo but had to turn around when the road
just dead-ended at one point.
It was really kind of sad. It was so
great to be there on 66 but sad to know it's been replaced by interstates.
Changes made in the name of progress, just like everything else. I got out
of the truck and walked to the end of the road. Just before I left Chicago
I bought a pocketknife that goes on my key ring; ya know because we were headed
to the wild west. Fierce Indians, roaming buffalo and it might come in
handy opening up the bag of beef jerky we just bought at the last truck
stop. For some reason I thought if I started digging that I might come
across some artifact or something. Sounded like a good idea.
We dug
for a while with this tiny knife. We must have looked pretty silly from
the highway. I kept a neat looking rock and a small piece of hardwood that
was impregnated in the dirt.
We turned the beast around and headed east until we could hop on the
interstate again. We saw these jets off in the distance and had to find
out why they were there. They were just along the highway, so they looked
really out of place. It's amazing what you see when you go out for a long
drive.
We asked about them at a nearby gas station and the girl really
didn't have a lot to tell. Time to explore. In retrospect, I should
have taken a picture from a distance. They were sitting at the far end of
what could have passed for the junk yard of Freed Sanford. Three huge jets
just sitting there. I figured we'd find a way to get on them, you know,
where there's a will, blah, blah, blah. It was easy, there was a ladder on
one and I boarded. It was awesome; I went through the whole plane, even
the cockpit. It was pretty torn up in there.
Someone was planning on gutting the plane and had torn out all the seats and placed them in the
middle. It looked as if I had just stumbled on a wreckage; it was chaos in
there. I grabbed one of those flight magazines and a life vest and tossed
them down to Cy. My superior intellect deduced that the jet was in service
in Germany because the magazine, some of the signs I came across and the flight
manuals in the cockpit were in German. Bond. James Bond. We
took some pictures and headed for dinner, onward to the Big Texan.
This place is world famous. We are here for the challenge: eat a 72 ounce
sirloin steak, baked potato, shrimp cocktail, salad and roll in one hour or less and it's free.
The waitress brings us a sheet of rules that we have to agree to and sign, which
we do and she heads off to get the steaks ordered, or should I say, to get the
cows slaughtered.
When the steaks are ready they bring us up on a stage in
front of the whole restaurant and sit us at individual tables. Yep.
They put us on display in front of everyone so they can watch us make complete
pigs of ourselves. Wait a minute, a place where you're actually encouraged
to eat as much as you possibly can, I can get used to this.
I look at the plate in front of me and think; 'this is the whole reason for one cows
existence' it's that big. They let us take one bite out of our
slabs-o-beef to test for doneness. Of course mine is still alive so I have
them cook it a little more, which later turns out to be a mistake. A big
digital timer set to 60 minutes sits just behind us as this guy goes into this
whole embarrassing banter about why were up there and what we have to do.
It was weird, but fun. This is my kind of challenge.
At least it used to be. I was unable to finish the cow. I don't like my steak
well done and that's what's happened. The darn thing held so much heat
that it kept cooking right on the plate. A medium to well done steak is
harder to eat than a more rare steak, which I eat. It got to the point
where I could not swallow the food anymore; it just would not go down. I
made the waitress take it away so I would stop trying. We both ate at
least two-thirds of it, not a bad showing. Cy never leaves a potato, so he
ate that. I had some salad. You figure out why. I guess I
saved room for desert because I asked for some pie and had two cups of coffee
afterward, yet I could swallow no more steak.
I swore off steak for a while. On to Albuquerque.
We found our way to a La Quinta in Albuquerque, NM, unloaded, cleaned up,
then headed out for the night. We went bar hopping. We did not get
to sleep until about 3 am. Ouch.
We checked out and put our stuff into the truck. I was so out of it that I tripped and almost died getting out of the truck. It was funny. I fell backward and it took about ten steps before I actually hit the ground, quite a site. I looked drunk. I may have been. We walked to a nearby strip mall. Starbucks was the first stop because I cannot live without espresso for too long. You really can't get any in Podunk Arkansas. Oklahoma either. Asking for espresso is punishable by law in Texas. Breakfast was Quiznos sub sandwiches, yummy. Cy got a beefeater and I got steak. Swore steak off for long, didn't I?
We're still trying to find a power thingy to run the laptop in the car so I
can type for more than a couple hours on battery, so we headed over to
CompUSA. No such luck, but Cy bought a GPS to hook up to the laptop to
tell us where we are.
Now I'm really starting to question our sanity for
buying travel software and a GPS receiver on the last day of a long trip.
It's actually pretty cool. 10 minutes on the road and it was
operational. It hooks up to the laptop and sits up on the dashboard and
gets it's data from a satellite. It showed us exactly where we were on a
map, told us our elevation and even our speed. I plugged in our
destination and it gave us an ETA. It refreshes about once every second or
two, so you're always current. Enough of this high-tech toy, I had some
typing to do, at least until the battery dies.
At 10 to 5pm on Sunday we pulled off at an exit for Meteor Park. I
don't know anything about it, but Cy said it's where a meteor hit.
Cool. I'll go check out a hole in the ground. A sign said it was 6
miles down the road but closed at 5. We did the math and got back on the
highway. No hole today.
It got really noisy while heading toward Flagstaff. We had some
climbing to do and the truck is darn loud on inclines.
We passed an
Outback steakhouse and agreed on STEAK. God do we have problems. We
get off the exit but are unable to find it. Funny thing is that I got a
call from Dawn asking how we did on the steak at the Big Texan as we are hunting
down another steak house. We need help. Pulled in for gas at what
must have been the CLEANEST most well appointed truck stop I've ever seen in my
life; you could live there. Across the street sat Black Bart's Steak
House. Dinner. Well, dinner theater.
The wait staff wanders
around belting out various songs and productions solo and as a whole while one
waitress plays piano. Are we still in Branson? It wasn't that bad,
but different. We had steak.
Home stretch. Southward down 17 toward Phoenix.
I was co-pilot,
thus in charge of music for the trip. I figured some high-energy music was
in order for our arrival into to town. Not necessary. Speedy boy was
now pretty comfortable with the portable zip code we were driving and was doing
about 100 down the incline from Flagstaff and taking turns at about 80.
I had to pinch myself. We flew past familiar places I had been to in the past. I got goose bumps. I love this place. We had arrived. I had visions in my head of banners waving and welcoming us, a parade maybe, something. Nothing. Damn.
We pulled up at 10:20 local.
My body is telling me it's still 12:20. We parked, grabbed a few
things and got situated. I cannot believe we did not just drop, but
we actually went to the store to get a few things.
Time to unload the truck. Cy wanted to call and hire someone but I told
him we'd be fine and do it ourselves.
I am an idiot. It was like 110
outside, he is on the second floor, and we are about as in shape as a couple of
ladies in a nursing home.
We made a three-hour job out of one.
Furthermore, running from hot outside to cool inside screwed me up for the day
and almost made me sick. I needed more sleep but got none.
The funniest thing happened during the move. We get to the couch and I
just could not believe it. It looks as though he's had it for a hundred
years. A lot of his stuff is a bit older. I'm a bit surprised he
didn't just decide to buy new stuff and not bother with the hauling of it.
The couch was the worst, though. I asked him why he bothered and he said
it's because he hates shopping. Wow. Hates it that much he'd rather
move it. I told him I'd help him buy a couch and that this one should not
be brought in; it was that bad. He really had a problem with going to pick
out a new one. I reassured him that we'd get something nice that would not
break the bank and it'd be painless. He agreed and we dumped the couch in
the garbage. 1,900 miles just to throw it out.
The alley back home would have been easier. We laughed so hard at the irony it hurt.
Maybe I should have helped him pack; it may have never left the city limits.
I really have top make sure he gets a new couch or he's gonna kill me.
We finished, cleaned up and went to drop off the truck and car trailer. Cy pulled in for gas and while there I saw a Jack in the Box across the street. WOW!! I must not have cared or noticed the other times I was here, but just had to go now. I got a burger and a cool Jack-head antennae topper, had to have it. Bought a kids toy, too - Jack in a Karate uniform. I haven't been to Jack in about 20 years, since they were in Chicago. Yay!
Jack was a hold me over, we went to Chevy's and had Mexican. I was dead tired and could not make up my mind so I let the waitress pick something out; she did well. We've been in town a whole day and still haven't had the urge to order a margarita. We were doing well. I think we were to wiped out to drink.
We saw a CompUSA on the way in to the restaurant and being within a couple hundred yards of a CompUSA, we had to go in, it's geek law. I've always hated laptops. I think they're a sorry excuse for a real computer - small keys, little screens, not enough storage or memory. I started this trip without any plan of doing a diary. I thought we might code a little bit but the truck just wasn't conducive to it and by the time we got to a hotel we were either too tired or we were too tired an wanted to explore our surroundings. The trip log just kinda happened. I have to admit that I got a little hooked having it along. I don't want to plunk down a thousand bucks or two for a laptop, though. So I looked at Palm Pilots and I just think that might be worse than having a laptop. Seems like way too much trouble, so I just blew the whole thing off. Then I saw it; this incredibly tiny laptop about the thickness of a toothpick with ample memory, disk space, screen size, stick slot, firewire, usb, everything - I've kinda gotten use to the smaller keys on this trip just using it to type. This thing is the geek holy grail, I swear. I've got to have it. My next toy. It aint cheap.
Back to the Cy's to clean some more and talk about how cool the laptop is until we got hungry again. To much time on the road, we were eating way too much. We went searching and came across a little place called Café Sahara. It was Middle Eastern, a small family run place where with cheap prices and the owner was way too nice. We had Chicken Feta; it was one of the best meals I've ever had!! Definitely going back there before I leave town. This place is a good enough reason to re-locate. Seriously.
I've had a taste for ice cream for days but have had a hard time finding room for it between steaks. There happened to be a place called Cold Stone right next door to Sahara. It's currently a local Phoenix thing, but my guess is that this thing is gonna grow; keep your eyes open. Have you been to Stir Fry? Very same thing, but with ice cream - they mix it all on a cold stone instead of a hot griddle. You tell them what to mix in (tons of toppings) and they scoop out the cream with paddles and fold in all the ingredients manually on this slab stone. Yea, I can hear it now 'we've got the same thing here, it's called a blizzard and we use a blender'- nope, not nearly as good and not nearly as fun. You can make up your own creation or choose from a menu of theirs.
I ran to the store while Cyrus cleaned, there was no food here. I came back and whipped up a couple of my world-renowned omelets. Cy approved. Cy proposed. I have to admit, they're pretty good. I did not accept.
I took a bit of time in the early afternoon to finally sit down and get
current with the trip log and am finishing it at 3:30 local time. Wow,
that's 5:30 Central. Everybody is headed home from work. Work.
I won't be back there for quite some time. That's a million miles away to
me right now. I should make the most of my time off. I'll tell you
how it pans out. Check back later if you like. I should have
made some updates by then. On the short list of things to do.. go to
Scottsdale and drool over some dream motorcycles I cannot currently afford, head
north to Sedona, Cyrus has never seen it - he's gonna flip, and eat at Sahara
and Cold Stone again, repeatedly.
I'm backfilling again; it's Thursday. I've been busy. We're now sitting in a biker bar
in Scottsdale called The Hideawy. It's a place recommended by Drew, one
of the Weerd brothers. These guys are totally cool. More on them later. We're slobbin
down sandwiches. AWESOME Philly steak, Cy's got a burger. Coronas. Patron.
It's gonna be a good night.
Back to Tuesday.... Cy crashed around 11am. I took care of business. Made some calls and got this document current. I tried waking him. No luck. His ability to sleep scares me. I left at about 7. Time to explore. I headed to Tempe. Parked and walked around. Got some more Cold Stone. Hooked. I stopped into a hippie shop close by, still searching for that ashtray.
I got back to Cy's at about 10:30. I walked in at the very same moment he was crawling out of bed. He yelled at me for letting him sleep all day. Bastard. He never knew I was gone. I stayed up for a little bit & zonked.
I wanted to get out early and get some stuff accomplished today. We had a plan.
First priority, find Cy a couch. We went here, we went there. I fended
off salesmen to protect Cyrus from getting something he didnt want. We killed two of them.
Then we saw it; I can tell he liked it. He made a completely different face when he saw
it and a new sound when he sat on it. I haggled. I could have shored it up then and there but
thought we could do better. We left. Looking back, I think that'll be the one he gets.
Enough of this couch thing. On to the motorcycles! We went to two places, but Bikers Dream
has the coolest ones, many of which are on display only and not for sale, as if I could pull
$30,000 out of my pocket anyway.
No trip to Phoenix is complete without poking around Old Town Scottsdale.
This is where you find all kinds of stuff to buy. Most of the places are these
family owned little shops
that have a wide selection of goodies, most are jewelry, though. After an hour or so of
trudging from shop to shop you get a bit worn and parched.
That problem was solved when we went into Pischke's Paradise. The usual order - Coronas and Patron.
Plenty of Patron (thanks Dan) in this town. Good. Ordered us up some more beef and some
spicy scallops. We ate too much, we drank too much.
We were there way too long.
For some stupid reasonon the way home I suggested we ought to go to the Café Sahara again.
Cy agreed. We're completely out of control. Neither of us is hungry; it just sounded like a good idea.
We ordered up a dish that was not on the menu. It wasn't as good as the dish we had there the
other day, but still good. Might have even been better if we were hungry. I had the laptop
with us this time to work on updates and the owner, Adel, asked what we were up to.
I showed him the part where we made mention of his cafe, he got a kick out of it. We chatted
and at some point he pulled up a chair. We left late. Adel's picking up our next dinner tab.
Yay. Told you he was nice.
Cy insists he has to go to work today. I try my hardest but cannot talk him out of it. I've done enough damage as it is I guess. We drove to Scottsdale so I could have the car if I needed to get around. What a friend! Didn't really need to today, though. I ended up working until about 3pm, part of it was getting this thing current, AGAIN. This is not easy. Oh well. I got around to making a phone call to the motorcycle shop of the Weerd brothers. Real name. These goof-balls piece together their own funky version of a bike and private label it. Custom Harley kind of thing but with European influences reflecting the current trends there. I spoke to Drew and told him how much I liked what they were building and asked if we could stop by the shop and see what they do, bend their ears, etc. He was so darn nice and told me they were going to be in the shop all night and that we could stop in. They normally don't work late but had to get a bike ready for a customer flying in from the east coast on Friday. I asked for a place to get some food around there and he suggested a biker bar that just happened to be two minutes from where Cy is currently working. I left the Cy's at 4pm to be in the area when he called me so he did not have to wait around after he got off of work at 5. He called me half way there at about 4. Back to the Hideaway bar. We stopped in there for a couple and to get some eats. Drew told us to talk to the owners, Dan and Mark. We did - nice guys. Everybody is so darn nice here. Every time I'm in town it just floors me. See what nice weather does to people. Time to go see the wierdos.
I came prepared, laptop and GPS; that's how we got to the bike shop. It's the coolest thing. I plugged in the address before I left. Cy turned it on after we left the bar and we used it to navigate our way there, we just followed the icon (Cy's car) right to the destination address I set. Too stinkin cool. We knew where to get off the highway but after that, just a rough guess. They were nested away in some industrial park and I would never have found them if we did not have the GPS. I usually take better directions than that.
I get a rush out of talking to business owners. These guys have been here only 3 years, definitely
newbies in the market. It was great hearing about the challenges of business ownership. They
had two emergencies to talk about while we were there, entertaining. I picked up a 12-pack
on our way there to grease the wheels and it worked. They were really cool, showed us everything
and even gave each of us a super-dooper-cool t-shirt with the logo on it.
I was up at 6am AGAIN, this SUCKS! I've got to get back to Chicago to get some sleep. New homes
are being built a stones throw from us and the walls are thin here. I've been jarred
awake by trucks every day now. I decided not to fight it and was on the laptop by 7.
Same routine, Cy got up and I dropped him off at work and drove around and took some pictures.
Still have to find a couch. Heilig Meyers is going through chapter 11 and is closing
down and we saw one on Thursday. I went there to see if there was a suitable replacement.
Maybe. I'll take Cy there after work. I found a tasty little coffee place in Tempe and
had an iced mocha. I actually was getting my drinks hot when I got here.
No wonder I was ill. It's like 200 degrees outside and I'm ordering hot espresso drinks.
DUH. I felt right as rain after that puppy. Mmmm caffiene good. Now I can tackle
those work problems from the office back in Chicago - so much for a vacation.
I left to get Cy at about 3:30ish. I worked all day UHHH!! I picked him up and we went to a
different Heilig than the one I went to and they had squat. Time for dinner. I've been to
a place on Scottsdale road called Rawhide a couple times before. It's an old western town
complete with saloon, shops, entertainment (yes, they had a shoot-out) and a pretty good restaurant.
Wouldn't be the norm if something didn't happen to us every time we are together. This time we
almost ran out of gas.
This place is really far north and there's nothing out there. I wasn't
even thinking about gas because I started the day out with almost half a tank. Furthermore,
I didn't see the guages much because it's so sunny that there's a glare almost everywhere. You
pretty much just drive and squint here. Maybe I need some bigger sunglasses. Anyway, we passed
Rawhide because it looked like civilization north of there. We found gas and went back and parked.
I noticed that things weree moved around a little. We stopped and talked to two guys dressed
in full western garb (they even looked dirty & grubby) when we noticed an admission booth.
The place was all decked out for Halloween and I thought that maybe it was admission for
some attraction that we could bypass. Afterall, we just came for steak. Nope. They're under
new management and they charge an admission just to get into the town. Unfortunately you
cannot get to the restaurant without going through 'town'. Makes sense, but we're NOT going
to pay 8 bucks each just to go eat steak. They offered us a $5 each, but then we still have
to pay $6 more than the price of the meal. Nope, we opted to leave. I'm sure they'll
get a lot of that and figure out a way to make an alternate entrance to the restaurant, don't
want to turn away business. I already regret not taking at least one picture of the place, sorry.
I suggested the Arizona Center. Downtown, close to the new ballpark and the stadium, lies this
kind of North Pier place. It's not on a river, though. It's not indoors, either. O.K., it's
not like North Pier at all. Wait, I new there was something - it's got two floors. Yeah, just
like North Pier. It's outdoors, there's misters everywhere and it's kinda fun with some bars and
a Hooters. Of course we ate there. We had wings. During our wing-fest these BIG-ASS trucks just
start pulling up onto the concourse just a few yards from where we were eating.
It was pretty strange, we were being over run. They were there part of some promotion on
Saturday & Sunday. We finished up, took some pics and walked around. The place was really dead.
We headed out to find something to do. We stopped in downtown Tempe. (It's 7:30 am Saturday morning,
Cy just came out & turned on
the tv - this is why it get's special mention - he came across Sesame Street in Spanish, it was
hilarious, we left it on)
We parked and walked around, but because of my early mornig schedule
here, I was getting really tired. I got an iced mocha. We came across the hippie shop I stopped
in the other night looking for an ashtray for Cy and went in. I did not look around the other night,
I just asked if they had any big, heavy, ugly ashtrays. Now I know what they really have, bongs.
Lots and lots of bongs. Ahh, college towns.
Cy wanted to go to a club, but they looked
really packed and I was in the mood for nothing more exciting than a coffee house. We kept walking
and found a restaurant called RA. It's a sushi bar. Yay.
It was quite good. We ate, we left.
We headed home. I think I nodded off in the car, it's a good thing Cy drove. I crashed immediately.
We had plans for Saturday. Tombstone.
This morning there was no construction, yay! However, I was still bumped awake by a diesel truck rolling through the parking lot - 5:30am. I give up. I showered and got ready to go and thought that I'd do updates until Cy got up. I'm thinking he'll get up at like 9ish, I hope. For the first time, my commotion woke him at about 7ish. YAY! So I'm rushing to finish so we can head out.
We stopped for gas and food north of Tombstone. Eats, Mexican at a cafe. Kinda funny - we pulled up & there are two places to choose from. One is Mexican, another was just a cafe. Water is a bit spicy to Cyrus so he wanted to go to the cafe. The whole menu was Mexican food :-) Damn good local food. We got gas and I noticed an ice cream/coffee shoppe. I ran into the gas station to get some Tums - I have to admit, I needed them today. I came out and was headed to get some ice-cream and went to ask Cy if he wanted some when he walked out with a cone. I got a coffee shake (cookies and cream and 2 shots espresso). I told the owner I was suprised to see an espresso machine in town (we were in the middle of nowhere). He said he was the first. Yummy shake. Cy said his mint chocolate chip was good.
While waiting for Cy to finish his cone we went into a tiny record store that appeared to be a living room. I bought an 80's stumper casette (can't say which one, it wouldn't be a stumper then) and the new Disturbed CD which I dropped the laptop on ten minutes later and broke the case. Well the laptop seems to work. On to Tombstone
Let me say that our mission this morning was to get to Tombstone. Before we left we decided we needed to get to Fry's Electronics before 9pm. This is a HUGE store that blows away CompUSA. I saw it when it first opened about 4 years ago in Tempe. It was then owned by Incredible Universe and it really was. Big. BIg. BIG. I wanted to go there during this trip, but could not remember where it was. I looked for Incredible Universe in the yellow pages and had no luck. During our last conversation with Adel I asked and he told us it was bought by Fry's. We passed it last night on the was to downtown Tempe just as it was closing. It's now 4pm and we kinda ripped through Tombstone and are rushing back to get to Fry's prior to closing with enough time to browse. New mission.
We were also tipped off by Julie (thanks!)about an airplane salvage yard just outside of Tucson. It was in the movie Can't Buy Me Love.
OH MY GOSH!!!!! It's almost 1pm, my flight to Salt Lake City is in a few hours and I've got soooo much to do. I gotta run!!!!
I've got a bit more to talk about from Saturday/Sunday and will finish this up when
I can get to a computer, hopefully before I get back to Chicago next Friday.
I REALLY NEED a laptop. Donations can be sent to..... I hear the weather has SUCKED back home!
I hope you've enjoyed reading this, it's been fun blabbing about it. Feel free to
check back later... I've still got a bunch of pictures to post, too.
Cyrus - Again, THANKS A TON!! I had a BLAST and have laughed more in the last 12 days than
I have in the last couple months. The place is great, I'm SOOO SORRY about the couch and
I will find you another really big, ugly, heavy ashtray. I can't wait to get
back to Phoenix already, it makes me sick to leave. See you later my friend.
--> Scott