That Time of the Year

Yes, it's that time of the year when the rest of the old people head south to hopefully warmer weather. I'm again invited to drive down with Paul and Shirley to Arizona. We were suppose to leave right after Christmas, but the cold bug hit my camping buddies so we held off until now. The plan is to head out New Year's day and hope the camper warms up by the time we get to Oklahoma. I will post when I get a chance and let you know how the trip is going.

I've been busily prepping the household for my trip. Since my wife has to stay home and work while I'm gone, I've tried to anticipate anything that could possibly go wrong. I shoveled the snow this morning one last time, changed the batteries in the programmable thermostat..didn't even realize there were batteries in there. Of course a compact fluorescent burned out in the bathroom this morning, got that changed. The furnace is what I now am worried about. The burner blower is vibrating like crazy when the furnace runs, and I tried to stabilize it by tightening some mounts and adding some padding. It shouldn't be shaking like that. Happen to glance at when the thing was installed and low and behold, the poor thing is working through it's 23rd winter. January is not the time to assessing the capability of your furnace. Hope it keeps shaking away at least until I get home. I don't want to hear my wife tell me horror stories while I'm away. It just isn't good for my health and well being.

Well, it's time to hit the road and see what lies down the road.

This Machine Flys WIthout the Simulator!

My rebate slips are mailed off for my new computer parts, and now it's time to load up the free game that came with it; S.T.A.L.K.E.R-Clear Sky. Now I'm not one to get into first person shooters, but hey, it was free. Loaded it up and am learning the keyboard controls so I can live at least a couple minutes. The graphics are awesome, frame rates are just flying, very happy with my new machine. I'm a few hours into this game when I noticed a secondary use for this snappy machine. With winter coming, one can always use an extra space heater! I thought I was getting warm from the intense game action, well it turned out to be from the increase in room temperature being cranked out by my new creation. Wow, this thing really spews the heat when the shooting starts! Time to save the game and go over my cooling fan configuration. Scrounged up an additional fan to install in the case to see if I can keep it from glowing.

Later:

Seems to run a little cooler now, but on those cold winter days, expect me to be heavy into the battle. One must do what he needs to do to stay warm.

I thought I wasn't on the Bleeding Edge!

The last few weeks I've been working on building a new desktop computer with enough horsepower to run Flight Simulator with as much detail as the machine is capable of. I never buy leading edge because it's just not worth the markup put on the best stuff. Last week I spent a few hours shopping and figuring out what I wanted. I ended up purchased an AMD Phenom II X4, motherboard, 4 GB memory, a pair of Radeon graphics boards I configured in CrossfireX mode, and a couple of drives to configure in RAID zero for read performance. I gutted one of my existing cases, ordered a new 24" LCD monitor, then waited for the UPS guy to deliver it all.

Four days later the adventure begins. Assembly went very smooth, everything actually fit in the case and I had all the parts I needed to finish the build. Usually the tense moment is when you flip the power switch and you look for smoke. There is nothing more exciting than to watch your brand new creation power up for the first time knowing the warranty doesn't cover the smokey and melted parts that you would try to return. This time it came to life and threw me into the BIOS where I prepared it for the Operating System install.

Ok, I'm going to install XP, since the new happy word and snappy reliable Seven isn't out until next month. When you install XP on a RAID configured machine you must install a driver first so XP can see your hard drives. Ya, right, hit F8 and put your floppy containing the driver in your floppy drive........floppy drive?????...what floppy drive???? This motherboard doesn't even have a connector for one. But, have no fear, you can stick it on a USB flashdrive and get it to work. There is even a supplied utility to create this for you. Well, maybe not. It didn't work. There is still one more thing to try: the BIOS has a feature to fool the install into believing the USB drive is a floppy. No, that didn't work either. After a couple hours of playing around I decided I didn't need a RAID configuration anyway since this install is only for a month, until that snappy happy OS comes out.

Home free, the Operating System install is complete with drivers loaded, Flight Simulator installed, and ready to fly. Fired up Flight Sim, picked my plane, 'fly now'. Up, Up, and away, man, this is beautiful, bank toward the high res Chicago skyline...Oh Oh, what are all these words plastered on the blue sky, where's my plane! OHHH NOOO, it's a Blue Screen of Death!!

After repeating the above scenario a half dozen more times to eliminate any feeling of disbelief, I narrow the problem down to the sound driver. OK, now it gets ugly. Find out the two graphics cards I installed have sound chips to handle sound for the HDMI interface. These babies are capable of delivering HDMI HD movie signals, including sound, to whatever I want to attach to them. Well, I wasn't using that interface anyway, so after fooling around for a few more hours I reinstalled XP from scratch, disabled the sound devices on the video cards, installed my sound drivers and I'm set for take off one again. Up Up and away, flying for a few hours without a problem. Fantastic.

Then the next day, I fire it all up again only this time pick a different plane. Taxi this thing out of the gate and POW! Blue screen visits me once again. After again repeating this several times, to purge the disbelief from my system, I start the troubleshooting process. Sound driver, same error.

This is where I find out this motherboard was finalized the end of July. With only two months of history, I had all the latest drivers on the included CD. After more hours swearing at the beast, I again went out to the motherboard manufacturer's web site and low and behold, a new set of sound drivers put on the website yesterday. Guess what? The new drivers fixed the problem as of yesterday.

I'm flying high now!

Bet you wondered about this.

Ok, I can't help it, I'm a guy and guy's think this is funny. Check out the below link and learn something about the shuttle mission last week that I bet you didn't know. Make sure you check out the third picture in case you don't think this stuff hits close to home :-)

http://www.popsci.com/node/38439/?cmpid=PSCenews091709

Now you have an idea what retired guys are combing the web for all day.

It's Fall, things are changing

I'm going to be posting more often now, and since it's not all going to be about travel, I've created labels of interest on the right hand side of the screen to help filter out subjects people aren't interested in. For example, I've created a 'geeky' label for my computer and electronic rants and raves that might only be interesting to past coworkers. If you don't want to read all the posts, try out these filters.
So, what's new on the blog?

Labels to filter posts to subjects of interest.
Comment controls stripped off to allow very easy commenting by audience.
Added metrics to count the hits I receive on the site. So far not much activity. I'll have to start advertising!

So for all those people that wanted to comment but had a hard time, try again, it should be much easier. I may have to adjust the controls if spam starts showing up, but let's see what happens.

Hi, I'm John, and my screen is full of happy words

Seven. I'm fighting the urge to create a slide show right now on my stable smooth and highly polished laptop. Seven. Oh so many happy words. Snappy and responsive is all I can think about while typing this. Seven. I have to keep telling myself I'm not going to create a slide show no matter how much I crave it........Seven......Oh wait, I'm using Firefox on Ubuntu Linux to create this message....Oh Oh....I've been retired a year now, could the brainwashing be wearing off? I'm not sure I would buy into an Operating System that wasn't 'robust'. I hope making this massive leap forward doesn't result in falling on one's face.
For those that don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about, check out the link. It will shed light on the rambling above:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ssOq02DTTMU&hl=en&fs=1&

I think the 20 million adults who aren't going to be able to create a slide show on the new Seven are going to be awful frustrated and mad at this little girl. I'm thinking we aren't going to be hearing happy words spewing from their mouths.

I'm a cynic, and more sarcasm is coming!

Where have I been?

OK, it's been two months since I posted anything out here. Summers are short, and it's been a busy one. I've installed some analytics on this site to see how many visits I was getting, and so far there have only been 10 hits in two months. So rather than keep posting all summer to a very tiny number of people, I decided to rest the blog until fall. I'm heading to Washington DC next week to help move my son and his new wife to Maryland where he will continue his education. After that, things should settle down a bit and I can pick up the old keyboard and start posting for the couple of fans I still have out there. So check back in a few weeks, and hopefully I'll have some interesting stories to share.

Wasting Away in Margaritaville

Looking for a place to buy overpriced mediocre cheeseburgers and Margaritas Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville is the place to be. Here's a pic of myself and my beau having margaritas on the top deck. Word of advice, don't squeeze the plastic cups to hard, when the cup returns to it's original shape the clicking of the plastic shakes the salt off the rim. Obviously we didn't pay enough, or weren't old enough to be trusted with glass. Hey, I don't want to sound like I'm picking on Jimmy's place, all of Vegas is basically overpriced.

The Old Vegas

We had a 24 hr pass for the 'Duce', so we could ride the bus system all day. In the evening we jumped on the Duce and headed to Fremont Street, which is the original flashy Vegas Strip decades ago. Fremont Street is at the end of the run for the bus. We make our way down the new Strip until we run out of hotels and lights. Now we keep traveling, essentially in the dark, since the city did not spend much on street lighting in the older sections. This is where it dawns on you that this might of been a big mistake. There is no glitz down this road anymore, and the bus just keeps on trucking. Now you haven't seen any place where you would feel comfortable getting off the bus, but it just keeps on rambling down the road. Then finally the bus driver says the next stop is the 'Fremont Experience' and it's time for everyone to get out. Also the driver mumbles about the bus doesn't come back this way and you have to walk two blocks in some direction looking for a cowboy and then turn left to catch the bus back to your hotel. This just didn't sound or look very good. This must be the 'stays in Vegas' part. You are separated from everything you own, you leave, but all your stuff stays in Vegas.

The bus pulls to a stop ready to feed the hapless tourists to the darkened streets of old. But wait, to the left the whole street is lit up and full of people drinking beer. Now this just seems out of place, but it looked good to me. For a three or four block stretch the road is shut down to vehicles and is restored to the glitzy glory of the past with one big exception. The sky over the street in this 3 or 4 block stretch is covered with a roof with the underside comprising of a large computer controlled light show. Of course, most of the time there is advertising lighting up the ceiling, but on the half hour they put on a light show on the 4 block 'ceiling'. The long version of American Pie played while we were down there and it was impressive. It was like a huge long scoreboard with rockets and characters flying lengthwise down the whole stretch of road.

The old neon signs are still lit up on many of the buildings and casinos. There are a few signs I recognized from old movies and tv shows. I was impressed, I really didn't know what I was going down there for, and I almost thought of skipping it, but I'm glad I didn't. It did seem out of place, it kinda felt like a trip to the Twilight Zone, where you don't think your dreaming, yet things don't seem to make sense. Either that, or it's the largest alien human trap in the world (sorry, ever since that New Mexico camping site I'm overly paranoid). Of course the three drunk boisterous men on the bus back to the hotel snapped us back to reality. This town is something you have to see to believe, this just ain't right.

Hoover Dam Just Down the Road

One of my objectives for this trip was to see the Hoover Dam. So the first day on the Strip we found a place to sign up for a half day bus trip to the Dam. It took a little bit of time to find a trip that just went to the dam and back without stopping somewhere else. One trip offered a cheaper price if you included the tour of the Chocolate factory, which basically took a couple more hours and I'm sure involved shopping in some type of store.
We were picked up at the hotel across the street and bused to an old office building where someone happily took our money and offered us a special on helicopter rides over the Dam. They send buses to all corners of the city, then herd everyone in this office buiding, then send them on their respective tours. Grand Canyon in one bus, Hoover Dam and Chocolate factory another bus, and just Hoover Dam on yet another. It took less than an hour to get to the Dam and over the duration of this tour we must of heard every dam joke ever written. Dam bus joke, dam tour guide joke, dam this, dam that. It was dam fun. And let me tell you, it was dam big! Nice dam side trip when you need a break from getting carded on the sidewalks of Vegas.

Nude Appendages Pool Side

Now it's not uncommon for me to bear my cubitus, but it is fairly rare that I have a full complement of extremities exposed to the Sun. Notice what effect I had on the attendance at the pool. No one around even though it was in the mid nineties when this photo was taken. Must of been the glare off those bright white shanks.
You can rent one of those tents in the background for $325-$400 a day...hey it includes the padded lounge chairs in front of them. Can we say 'Rip Off'?

Vegas, Something to Behold

Of course I don't gamble, it is just a means for someone to extract your money from you without actually a threat of violence or holding you up. It's like taxes, only you get to play a game instead of just having it automatically removed from your check. But, many people had told me I should go to Las Vegas to see it, there was more than just gambling. Well, my son and daughter-in-law asked my wife and I if we wanted to go to Vegas. With the Recession on, the deals on trips were aplenty, so we hooked into a 5 day trip to Sin City.

Everyone was right, you have to go to Vegas at least once. Otherwise you could never believe something like this could exist. First off, the Strip of casinos and hotels is built on a colossus scale that is very deceiving at first glance. At night, looking down the street one can see quite a distance, and if you didn't know better, you would think you could walk down to the furthest end in a reasonable length of time. Well, you might be able too, but it's a lot further than it looks. More on that later.

We stayed at the MGMGrand hotel which is located near the airport on the Strip. The beginning of the first day we walked the hotel trying to find the best paths to the pool complex, coffee shop, and of course some place for reasonable priced beer. Not sure we ever found the best way to the pool complex, but we did find a shop that sold beer and wine right out the back of the hotel across the alley. That brought the price of hydrating in the desert down to a third of what they charged in the hotels.

The room was a fancy dancy looking room with a modern, sterile look to it. The shower and throne room where separate compartments enclosed with frosted glass. Didn't really care for pondering my kingdom surrounded by glass. But the mirror above the vanity had a television built in which was slick.

Really had a hard time comprehending how big these hotels are. Each having a thousand or more rooms filling the Strip for over a mile. Over the course of several days, we walked up and down the Strip checking out each hotel/casino. Walking down the Strip is not a straight line proposition by any means. There are a couple blocks with a normal sidewalk along the road, but in many places the sidewalk disappears and you get routed through a large hotel/casino where you get lost only to come out an hour later one block further down. When you are walking on the sidewalk, there are people standing every 3 feet clicking business cards trying to get you to take one. The businesses are for the bawdy side of Vegas, not the 'family oriented' activities, unless you were thinking of practicing to start one. Of course the polite people can't refuse taking one, and once they have one they gasp and immediately throw it on the sidewalk. So the public sidewalks look like a huge peep show with business cards containing glossy colored pictures of naked women carpeting the pavement....that's how you know your in Vegas. Well, a few hours of that and we were looking for a better way to get around. The pubic bus system has special buses called 'The Duce' which go up and down the Strip and to Fremont Street, which is the old traditional Vegas main drag. Sin City was not very busy while we were there, so it was very easy to jump on and off the buses to move around on the Strip. So the base activities included the pool complex, walking the streets, and visiting the Irish Pub in NewYorkNewYork hotel a few times. Have to admit, it was fun.

Elvis Lives, at least in Vegas

The ghost of Elvis definitely lives in Vegas. While visiting this city, you are bound to meet him on the streets and in the casinos as different incarnations of him walk the town. One of my biggest regrets of the trip was not stopping to take a picture of fat Elvis standing next to the McDonald's sign in front of this fine fast food franchise. When I saw him, I already had captions running through my head to post on the blog with the picture. I'll really work not to have an opportunity like that pass by again. Man, that would of been great! Oh well, I don't think ghosts show up on pictures anyway. I know it was true with film, but does anyone know if it also applies to digital pictures? Might be a good topic to apply for a government grant to study whether ghosts can be captured in digital photos. Since digital photos are easy to doctor up, I'd guess the answer is yes. And of course we should start seeing some excellent UFO digital pics. Ya, I'm digressing once again.

The thin Elvis was seen in one of the casinos or hotel lobbies, and there even was a medium sized Elvis I saw somewhere during the week. Vegas is a good place for his ghost, the town really isn't part of the real world anyway....... You know........Vegas isn't really that far from Roswell NM........ya.....that's it.....Stop John, 'they' will suspect I know!

Las Vegas.....Ah, Vegas..What can I say

Since I haven't posted since I went to Vegas, I hope you didn't think I won big and didn't return. That would of been very difficult for me since I don't gamble, and I didn't gamble at all while I was there. And by the way, I didn't see anyone at the tables or slots smiling and jumping up and down with money flying out at them like seen on TV. And since the design of the whole city is to route you through all the casinos when your not ignoring the street peddlers handing out porno business cards, I spent a lot of time walking through casinos. So when they say 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas' they mean don't tell anyone that everyone gambling is losing their sorry a$$, and it's their money that is staying in Vegas.

There, that should of taken the rose tint out of everyone's glasses and sent the gamblers away in a huff. I do have to convey one last observation on gambling though, this observation was made outside the casino restrooms while waiting for my spouse.....(I think that is where she went to do her gambling since she didn't care for me watching....gambling, watching her gambling). I was watching a young man working a slot machine next to the doorway. Now working a slot means shutting your mind down and pushing a button on the machine, then moving your hand to the right and pushing another button. You repeat that until your money and mind are completely gone, or the flashing lights on a different machine draw you away. So all the while I was there he pushed one button, then the other, back and forth with a zombie expression on his face, with this distant hope of walking away a millionaire. That pretty much is what all the people on the slots were doing, or so I thought. After being there quite awhile, (my wife must of been winning) and watching him the whole time, I noticed he wasn't always paying attention to the machine, he really was watching the women coming in and out of the restroom, although he did it without ever changing the cadence he had moving his hand from one button to the other. I thought that was a tad bit pathetic even for Vegas standards.

Nuff of that, I did enjoy the trip, and the next few posts will document some hopefully interesting observations and details. I didn't bring my camera, but I did get a few pictures in Vegas, I haven't really looked at them yet, but maybe I can share a couple.

On the Road Once Again

Been home for a couple of weeks now, trimmed the trees and cut the lawn. The motorcycle is out and running great. It must be time to hit the road! Heading to Las Vegas today and returning later this week. Won't be taking my laptop this time around. Found out they charged $15 a day for Internet access in the hotel. A bit steep for an old retired guy.

I've been thinking about what to do to separate the different subjects I'll be posting going forward. So I learned what I can do with Labels. I've added the 'Areas of Interest' section to the right, so you can filter the many posts down to one of the subjects your interested in. I'll add some more as time goes on. I'll also have a report on my first ever trip to Sin City. And contrary to what they try to sell you, what happens in Las Vegas will be reported here. See you next week.

Trip Home April 20, 2009 Day 4

We were up and on the road shortly after 7 this morning. The goal was to make it to northern Illinois or southern Wisconsin for the last night aboard the RV. Paul took it around St. Louis in moderate traffic into Illinois. We switched a couple times throughout the day and had lunch at a truck stop somewhere in the middle of Illinois. At this point the driving was going quite well, and the topic of making it all the way home came up. It was looking like we might make Wisconsin by the middle to late afternoon. The question would be at that time whether we will have enough time and energy to make it home before dark. Paul’s segment in northern Illinois was a windy section with gusty crosswinds. If that kept up, quitting early and resting seemed like a good idea. As we entered Wisconsin though, the cross winds subsided and we were again making good time. At this point it looked good for completing the trip today. We stopped at a truck stop in Fond u lac and ate our supper, then jumped back on to Hwy 41 to arrive at Paul and Shirley’s a little after 7. Shirley had indicated that was a new record number of miles in the RV for one day. Somewhere over 520 I think.

Well, now I've got to get back to real life and get the lawn mower ready for the summer.

Trip Home April 19, 2009 Day 3

Shirley won 9 bucks in the casino after our $2.99 breakfast at the Fireside Casino where we had spent the night with complementary RV parking including water and electric hookup. I don’t think the casino really envisioned people rolling in to stay a night for free, win enough to eat breakfast free, and then rested, full, and showered, leave not to be seen again at least for the rest of the year, if ever.

PauI got up this morning, started the coffee and went outside with the right rearview mirror under his arm. Before he fell asleep last night he figured out a possible fix to get us all the way home. So he was out there with toothpicks and wood glue banging and screwing the mirror back on to the side of the RV. It was re installed before the coffee was even finished brewing. I went out and checked his work, and I really think it was installed better than when they bought the RV.

We head back on the road at 9:30 am to fight the wind and rain for the remainder of the day. Today was fairly uneventful. No pepper spray in my eyes when I drove, and nothing broke or fell off of the RV. Midday, after seeing the waterlogged farm fields as we made our way across Missouri, we switched the destination for the day and picked a campground that indicated a good gravel base. I was driving the last leg this day, and exited I-44 at the correct ramp. Only problem was after we drove toward the campground a sign indicated the place wasn’t opening until May. Well, there wasn’t much room to maneuver, so we kept driving down this narrow road searching for a good place to turn around. After a couple of miles, we saw indications that maybe this narrow road would lead us back out to the Interstate, so we kept on. Paul kept reminding me to take my half of the road in the middle because there wasn’t a shoulder to speak of and the RV was easily as wide or wider than the lane. So we kept motoring along with me driving a touch to the left of the center line. Every once in awhile we would come up next to the Interstate and drive a short time next to it, but we weren’t seeing a way back on. About this time we realized we were on the ‘Old Route 66’. Traveled a few more miles down the road until we finally came upon a ramp back on the Interstate.

So my adventure was complete, we ‘got our kicks on Route 66’. Now I've heard the songs about this highway, but I couldn't remember any of them, and when I asked Paul and Shirley if they remembered so we could sing while we weaved our way back to the Interstate, they weren't much help. Anyway, we headed to the original campground and found it was now called Ladybug instead of Blue Moon, and the new owners had graveled it the year before. All was good. While talking with the new owner we find out he’s spent the last 38 years driving cattle to slaughter houses all over the U.S, and this was his retirement project. He’s delivered cattle all over Wisconsin including to Green Bay and Milwaukee. Didn’t really realize they truck cattle from Southern Missouri to Green Bay to create next week’s quarter pounder.

Thoughts While Driving

"Man, we've been driving for days! Wonder if we'll ever make it home.....where is home again?.....some place the sun don't shine......doesn't matter, I don't have to go to work tomorrow....... I really have to learn how to drive this thing before we get home.......hope I don't get pepper sprayed again.....eeewwww, that deer really got hit.....couple more hours of driving and it's Miller time......what the hell day is it anyway?......doesn't matter, I don't have to go to work tomorrow.....I should really put on clean jeans for tomorrow though......Man, we've been driving for days! Wonder if we'll ever make it home....wonder if the lawn needs cutting.....where is home again?....Got to figure out how to turn on the headlights pretty soon.......couple more hours of driving and it's Miller Time!!"

Trip Home April 18, 2009 Day 2

A few miles down the road the snow was gone and with the drop in elevation the temperatures warmed up some. As we chased the Low pressure system traveling east, the winds weren’t much of a problem. In fact as the day progressed, we had a mild tail wind, so we made good progress traveling slightly over 500 miles this day. On my turn driving, the vent system unleashed another blast of burning particulates, or some variant of pepper spray, don’t really know what. This time it only succeeded in burning my left eye. I didn’t say anything at the time because I thought the excitement the day before was enough for one trip, and I could still see out of my right eye. Anyway, Paul ended up driving more than he should of the day before while I was resting my eyes. With no construction this time, I found it easy to drive for a little while with my left eye closed. Paul or Shirley couldn’t see my left side anyway, so I mentioned it to them after the burning receded. Shirley wiped off my glassed again and we kept going. Needless to say I redirected the vents away from my face for the remainder of the trip.
Toward the end of the day, Paul was driving around the Oklahoma City bypass. The traffic wasn’t bad since it was Saturday, but it’s still a busy multilane, exit enriched section of road. We were making pretty good time when a load noise emanating from the driver’s side of the RV overpowered the usual loud road noise. I had a good suspicion about what that noise was, so I quickly looked out of the driver side window next to Paul and satisfied my suspicion by not seeing any part of the left side rear view mirror. It was gone off the side of the RV. Paul was peering through the remaining right side mirror, and looking at the rear facing camera screen to see if he could see where it went. He worked the RV over to the right side of the freeway and pulled off as far as the road would allow, which wasn’t far enough to safely walk on the driver side of the RV. Paul sticks his head out the window and finds the mirror dangling from the cable connected to it. As luck would have it, the mirror has electrical controls for adjustment so required a good sized cable through the bracket into the mirror assembly. After looking at it for a minute or so, Paul grabs the wire clippers and we clip it off and bring the mirror inside. But before we even get it inside, there in front of us is a cop stepping out of her car to see what’s happening. Paul cradling the mirror indicates to her that we were just securing the broken mirror and will soon be on our way. And we were, with Paul using the rear facing camera much more than normal to compensate for the missing mirror.The stop for tonight is at a casino which offers free electric and water RV hookups. Shirley had found out about this casino while in Arizona from some of their friends. By driving all day, we managed to drive under the Low pressure system and on the warm side of the accompanied cold front. Of course we were barely east of it, in fact, we were just ahead of thunderstorms which caught up with us as we were driving into the casino lot. We found the sites off to the right and quickly picked out an empty spot with electric and water hook ups. In the rain, we unhooked the car and Paul backed the RV into the spot, lucky number 13. Paul hooks up the power and water while the rain is starting to come down at a clothes drenching pace. Everything is set, it’s Miller time. Shirley grabs a couple bucks and takes a shuttle into the casino to get a camping pass and try to win ownership of the casino through the slot machines. While Paul and I were hydrating in the RV, Shirley calls and informs us that number 13 has electrical problems and that the RV will have to be moved. The electrical was working fine, so we didn’t feel the need to move. A little while latter a Security officer stops in and asks if we have a Pass. Paul tells him that Shirley went in for a Pass and hasn’t returned with it yet because of some supposed problem with the electrical. Officer tells Paul to get a pass as soon as convenient. Paul then asks the Security guy if Maintenance is coming out to the site he should ask them if they’d bring a drill and power screwdriver so Paul can reattach the mirror. The Security guy smiled shook his head and drove off, not to be seen again. An hour later Shirley comes back to the RV and informs us we don’t have a Pass because they wouldn’t give her one for a broken site and that we were suppose to move. Meanwhile, the thunderstorms started up again and the temperature was dropping with a brisk wind. Well, we didn’t move, and we really didn’t ever get a Pass to stay there, but no one bothered us again, and Maintenance never showed up. Maybe they weren’t excited about working on Saturday night in a thunderstorm on a fictitious electrical problem.

Trip Home April 17, 2009 Day 1

Left the campsite at 7 am this morning and headed north to Holbrook to catch I-40 going east. Paul took the first shift driving and took it up to the Interstate where we stopped and stretched before driving east on I-40. Pretty routine drive until somewhere in New Mexico just as I was entering a single lane construction zone something came up through the air vents that started burning my eyes. My left eye I couldn’t keep open it was watering so bad, while the right eye was struggling to see the road. Being funneled down to one lane with barriers holding us in the lane, there was no room for me to pull off. Once I could sort of open my left eye, I noticed a fog over my glasses. After fighting my way down the road for 4 or 5 miles I finally exited out of the construction zone and pulled over. Paul then took it for the next few hours. Don’t have any idea on what blew into my face, but at least my glasses repelled some of it from going into my eyes. Don’t really need that type of excitement when I’m trying to aim this RV down a one lane construction corridor. Have I told you how wide this beast is? Finally at the end of the day at Clines Corners NM we pulled over into a Travel Center to spend the night. It was down to 33 degrees and started snowing to beat the band. Welcome to the rest of the country! There was about 1-2 inches on the ground when we woke up at 6:45. Had some breakfast, wiped the moisture off of the inside of the windows and started rolling again around 7:30.

Home Again - Still Winter

Made it home Monday night after racking up over 500 miles traveling from south of St. Louis MO on Monday. Following will be some posts chronicling the trip back from Phoenix. We left Phoenix Friday morning, just days before they had their first 100 degree day. Good time to get out of there. The snow here Monday night did a good job snapping me back to Wisconsin's climate.

I've been unpacking and catching up on the email, snail mail, and bills that accumulated over the last 2 weeks. This morning I ran across this article that supports my belief there is still something going on at Roswell NM. Yes, I know, plenty of arguments about aliens, but here is an astronaut claiming aliens exist and just might have been at Roswell. So why would the government try to keep hiding the fact aliens might of crash landed in the 40's? I'm now thinking the aliens have taken over our government and are running it. That would be a very good reason to hide the evidence. What makes me think that? Ever notice whenever your voting it seems your always trying to pick the candidate that would do the least damage? No one has any respect for politicians, they seem to only be looking out for themselves. Intelligent people don't seem to run for office. Politicians never seem to know what's going on and always tell us what we want to hear. Yet never follow through on campaign promises. Sounds like maybe they aren't one of us, uh? Check out the link and see what you think.

http://www.dailytech.com/Former+Astronaut+Says+Aliens+Exist+Accuses+Government+of+Conspiracy/article14917.htm

Pack it Up, Party's Over

Snow birds are packing up and heading to their homes. Each day a few more people and trailers leave the park. The people that stay behind get to eat from everyone's refrigrator and freezer as they are one by one cleaned out. Tonight I had pumpkin pie with whipped cream. This morning it was oatmeal left behind by a different Snow Bird. If someone played their cards right, they could get free groceries for a month as everyone clears out of the parks.

Paul and Shirley have been pulling their stuff together over the last couple of days. Reshuffling the storage compartments to put things back in their proper position for the trip. Tomorrow, Wednesday we leave the RV park and head up to Usery Park for a couple of nights camping before saying goodbye to Arizona. Friday the long trip back starts as we head north to I-40 at Winslow.

This will be the last of my Internet access until I'm home next week. So I will dutifully accumulate any good stories on the trip home to post on the blog after I'm home.

Event Three: Religion

So it's Mesa in the morning, Scottsdale in the afternoon and now the third event is at a Mormon church in Tempe. After supper we load up three lawn chairs and drive to Tempe. The week preceding Easter this Mormon church puts on an Easter Pageant that basically consists of a play that brings you through the New Testament from the birth of Christ to the Ascension into Heaven. Well, as it turns out it is a very popular event that draws large crowds. Paul was grumbling about parking most of the way there and when we were close, I understood why. This was like Packer Sunday around the Stadium an hour before game time. There were cops directing traffic at the intersections and cars parked in every available spot for blocks around. After an average amount of grumbling we located a spot on a side street about a quarter to half mile from the event. We walk, carrying our lawn chairs to a large field in front of a stage that looks like it's a quarter mile away. On the way people were selling bibles, candy bars, and I think someone might of had a bottle of salvation. OK, I made up the salvation stuff. Every five steps someone was trying to hand us pamphlets. Couldn't tell you what they were since we resisted taking them. Once we made our way to the event, there must of been 5000 chairs set up in the grass facing the stage, almost all of them filled. Behind the chairs was a sloping ridge where blankets were spread out filled with even more people. You'd think we were attending a rock concert (without the smoke, drugs, and booze of course) with up to 8-10 thousand people attending. We slid along the back ridge slightly parallel toward the stage. We found a clear spot in the grass and set up our lawn chairs. Just as we sat down a guy behind us asks us to move because 'We have been here a long time and can't see over your heads because we are on blankets.' He repeated this until we picked up our chairs and moved them over 6 feet. Rough crowd, we couldn't figure out why if he was here so long he didn't take the spot in front where we set our chairs up.

Before the pageant began, the actors, in costume, roamed around the crowd handing out pamphlets or programs and visiting. After the second one offered a program to me, I took it just to prevent anymore actors hassling us. I don't know exactly why they were handing out programs, it was dark in the audience, and no way to read it. After we got back to the car I did take a look at it, but the whole thing was in Spanish. Oh well, at least while I was waving it around at the show it kept more actors coming up and offering me another one.

Twenty feet behind us is the sidewalk along the main road. Being a public walkway, anyone is allowed to stand or walk along it. So along the sidewalk are many of the competing Christian religions protesting with large banners and of coarse handing out propaganda to anyone who takes it. Once the show started, we had one protester yelling at the crowd about how we shouldn't be watching the brainwashing the Mormons were doing to us. Let's call him 'Born Nut Job'. He was the very vocal dude with the heavy beard and goofy hat, and shouting with the good book in one hand. While Jesus was throwing the merchants out of the temple on the stage Born Nut Job was telling me I was going to Hell to burn for eternity. Well this went on for a little while longer until one of the other protesters from a different denomination who was carrying a large banner near Born Nut came over and started discussing religion with him. Let's call him King James. King James took pity on us poor spectators and struck up a conversation with Born Nut Job so he would quit shouting across the audience disturbing the show for so many people. Another denomination's representative chimed in to the conversation at first and I thought there might be a round of fisticuffs on the sidewalk behind us. But they settled down and the technique worked in quieting Born Nut down. Not all the denominations participated in pacing and yelling from the sidewalk. Roman Universal had a wood vendor's stand set up at the intersection with a full array of religious paraphernalia. I suppose Roman figured he might not be able to change to many people's minds, but at least he'd have their money.

The show was professionally done, and involved hundreds of actors. But the part I enjoyed the most was the spectacle which included the 'christian' protesters and vendors giving it the feel of a large political rally or sports event. I have to believe even a devout christian would look at this with a cynical eye.

Well, what a way to end a busy day. The next couple of days have been much quieter, and this Easter Sunday is just about finished. The next couple of days Paul and Shirley have to start packing up for the trip home. Wednesday we move from the RV park and move to Usary Park for a couple days of camping before heading back to Wisconsin around Friday.

Event Two: History

Lunch in Downtown Mesa, then on to Scottsdale for the Titanic exhibit. This of course was free, but was located in the back of a shopping mall so everyone had to walk through most of the Mall to get to it. The exhibit was sponsored by Country Financial. With them being a financial institution it gave me confidence it was sponsored by a company that was an expert on disasters. Pictured here are Paul, Shirley, and myself in front of the Titanic staircase ready to view the artifacts from the great disaster. These were limited to the ship artifacts and thankfully didn't include any of my recent retirement investment statements which would of fit nicely in the display. This exhibit was mobile, and consisted of a few rooms of murals, facts and quotes printed on the wall. Along the sides and center of the rooms were glass cases holding the artifacts which consisted of jewelry, papers, and pieces of the ship. For being somewhat small, it was very well designed. The last wall listed all of the passengers, sorted by 1st, 2nd, or 3rd class and whether they lived or died on that fateful voyage. Very good visual showing how, percentage wise many more 1st class passengers survived compared to the other 2 classes. Then of course at the very end was my favorite quote of the exhibit by an Irish philosopher Jack Foster:

"We are all passengers of the Titanic"

Now the art exhibit I missed the meaning of the different pieces, but this quote I just love to think about all the levels and different meanings and contexts where this could apply. And I'm sure I'm reading more into it than the author intended.

Event One: Culture

As you already should know by reading older posts, Shirley had gotten a free pass to the Modern Art Museum in Mesa, AZ by waiting in line at the Library. Thursday morning we headed to downtown Mesa to take advantage of them. Walking through the downtown was something we did, and obviously no one else did. There is this huge modern theatre and Art complex that seemed abandoned. After wandering for a bit we honed in on the Art Museum located a flight of stairs down from ground level. At the front counter Shirley started digging in her purse for the pass. The Lady at the counter immediately looked straight at Shirley and said 'Oh, the museum is free today, it's free every Thursday.' I could see the look of disappointment on Shirley's face as she realized her wait in line at the Library was a waste. Can you imagine being disappointed when you find out something is free? Isn't it a little foolish to hand out a limited number of free passes to something that is free one day a week anyway?

Well, ok, into the museum we go. Inside we find a limited time exhibit by Sergei Isupov called 'Androgyny'. Since my artistic side of my brain never formed as a baby, I have the ability to not get distracted by the artistic value or meaning of the exhibit. I can easily and logically describe this exhibit in two words--Ceramic Heads. That's it, there really isn't anything else I can say except they were about 4 feet tall and somewhat impressive looking. On to the next rooms where there were more ceramic or glazed figures scattered all over the floor. Then a room with paintings, and sketches. Since this is modern art, some of this stuff has just been finished and hung on the wall. I could almost smell the odor of fresh paint as the thick areas of paint on the art work dry out. Must be easier running a modern art museum. Just think, you don't have to preserve anything, and don't have to have curators dusting the old treasures.

So it's obvious not much culture rubbed off on me, bounced off like water on a duck's back. But it was interesting to see what the artistic thinking people come up with. I know my mind doesn't work that way.

Well, next post, on to the Titanic.

Culture, History and Religion in one Day

The schedule was packed yesterday. First there was the Modern Art Exhibit in Downtown Mesa. Second was a mobile Titanic Exhibit at the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall and to end the day there was an Easter Pageant at a Morman church in Tempe. All venues were of course free, or at least not a monetary price to pay. Since these were very interesting endeavors, and I'm not a fan of long posts, I'm going to split each of these categories up into individual posts. It's like this town just feeds me material for this blog.

Today it's windy again, but not up to 'blowing dust' proportions. But there is unbelievable excitement about a 50 50 chance of a quarter inch of rain tonight. It hasn't rained here since I left in February. They count the days since the last rain, sort of like Wisconsinites measure days below zero in winter. It's been over 53 days since it's rained last.

As the Wind Blows

Wednesday was a cool 79 degrees and in the afternoon quite windy. If you didn't get your newspaper read before noon you would of had to move inside. This wind wasn't the New Mexico wind at Alamogardo encountered on the drive here in January, but strong enough to blow your paper plates off the patio table. The Weather Service forecasts days like this on their Internet site as 'Blowing Dust'. I think that is a little understated. They shut Interstate 40 in the northern part of the state down because of the winds and blowing dirt. I was taught a different term which I think is more descriptive of the situation. It's called a Sand Storm.

Now today the winds are calm and it's going to be a nice one. It's after 9 this morning and most of the people in the park have their cars dusted off from the wind and are ready for another day of goofing off. We're headed to the Modern Art Museum in Mesa today to acquire a little culture. My skin is quite repellent to that sort of thing, but just maybe I can absorb a little bit. Shirley went to the Library yesterday and grabbed some free passes for the Museum. She was going for the free Zoo passes, but the kids in line in front of her grabbed all those before she got to the front of the line. I think if it wasn't Spring break for the schools she could of scored the Zoo passes. The art museum might be more interesting. I've seen monkeys and lions before and I'm certain I haven't seen anything that is on display in the art museum.

The vote is in

Well, after a week or so of heavy voting, the future direction has been set. Of the three people who read the blog, there is one vote to continue a blog and write a book, one for continuing the blog, and one vote to quit and find something I'm good at. One of the votes was mine, so there are only two votes that are valid. After pouring over the numbers and studying the results the best direction for now would be to continue the blog, hold off on the book, and stop reading my own blog. This will make everyone happy, but there will be a longer wait for the book. And that should give me enough time to develop writing skills.

Now for the blog, I'm back in Arizona as of yesterday getting acclimated to the weather in preparation for the trip back to Wisconsin. So the posts will start tomorrow and hopefully keep you up to date on the action. It was 92 here yesterday, to hot to work on a computer, but it's cooled down now and I've got a good Internet connection for at least a week.

Where Have I Been and What's Next?

I've been home and contemplating what kind of stuff to post here now that I'm not on the road. I also have taken a look at this blog software and found a setting to make it easier for people to post comments without having an ID. So don't be afraid, I can always delete your comments if I don't like them :-)

New gadget purchased in the last couple of weeks. I purchased a Kindle 2 off the Amazon site. It's the geek factor, I don't read enough books to ever get it paid off with lower book costs. To cost justify it I'd have to read hundreds of books, but that isn't why I got it. Walking around with a Kindle makes me think we are closer to attaining the Star Trek dream. You never see paper on Star Trek, but we are really a long way from it in reality. Unless you own a Kindle, then you can pretend it's the 22nd century. Some other time I'll let you know the pros and cons of this thing. Anyway, while surfing around the Amazon site I find where I can publish my own book. Now there's an idea, I can publish my own book with no up front costs on my part. That sounds like a good second career. I'll start writing books. I only have to learn how to read, then how to write, then come up with an idea for a book and finally write the book. When Diane, my wife, came home from work I told her about my idea of writing a book. Well, her response was 'So what time today did you start drinking?' Wow, I just opened my first beer when she got home. Guess that wasn't much of a vote of confidence.

Speaking of voting, I also found a gadget I can add to my blog to take polls. So I'm giving you a chance to put your two cents worth on the subject. I'm hoping anyone can vote and you won't need an ID, but of course I didn't test it. So good luck.

Space is Really Cold and Why Few Pictures of Me on this Blog

Friday night turned out to be a clear night, excellent for telescope viewing. I set up the scope on the front porch of the Cabin and aimed it at the first subject in the sky at dusk; Venus. I went back inside and waited another hour until the sky became completely dark. Once it was dark and I saw the sky was still clear, I moved the telescope to a spot on the driveway away from the lights of the cabin and tried calibrating the computerized object finder that I had problems with a few times before. This time it calibrated on the first attempt, and I was ready to explore the Universe. It's a good thing it calibrated fast, because when it is dark and clear up north you become part of Space. Or in other words, it is FRICKING FREEZING COLD! But that along with the dark moonless night makes it perfect to observe deep space objects. The Object Finder has an option to 'tour the night sky'. I observed about six different objects before the LCD screen was freezing up and getting difficult to read in the 8 degree temps. That was fine though, since my fingers and toes froze about 5 minutes earlier. The most impressive object was the Orion Nebula, I was surprised at how well it looked in the telescope, filling the complete field of view. I went inside for another half hour to wait until Saturn rose over the hill to the east, and then eventually Comet Lulin. Once back out, I commanded the Object Finder to locate Saturn for me. The screen was really cold and hard to read, but it displayed exactly where it was. It was a nice clear steady view of Saturn and its' rings. I picked out a few other objects to view while waiting around for Lulin to rise above the hill to the East, but the clouds moved in and my hands lost feeling before it became visible. All in all, it was a very good night with the scope.

Biggest lesson learned that night - don't exhale when your using the telescope. With one exhale you can fog the sighting scope, eyepiece, and your glasses all at once. It's really cold standing around waiting for the fog to clear from all that freezing cold glass!

Now I'd like to clear up something about the pictures of me in this blog. My dear wife Diane made a comment to me on my pictures when she came down to Arizona a couple weeks ago. She asked me 'John, your wearing the same Packer sweatshirt in all the pictures of you posted on the blog. Don't you ever change your clothes?' So if anybody else thought that, first, you shouldn't be paying that close of attention. Your most likely at work and shouldn't be spending time checking out what some old retired guy is wearing. Second, I have three Packer sweatshirts, two of which I packed for the trip. So I do change my clothes, and I did laundry three times on the trip, so back off. Geez, I checked all the pictures, and in many of them I was wearing my black jacket. That is why I don't like to many pictures of me floating around, I always end up defending myself.

Heading North Chasing the Stars

Heading to the wilderness of Florence with the telescope to see if I can focus in on Saturn and the Comet Lulin. I call it wilderness because I have no Internet access, and barely have any TV reception left. At least they delayed the digital transition until June so I have a couple of channels to watch until then. The Sky's might be clear on Saturday night, that looks like the only shot this weekend to use it. I have a feeling I'll only use it for a little while once I get standing around in the freezing cold of the night. But we'll see. Diane's heading up with me, so I need to come home Sunday so she can get to work bright and early Monday morning :-)

Spuds and Splits

Rewind to the day after Diane arrived in Phoenix. Shirley had gotten us tickets to the annual 'Spuds and Splits' event in the neighboring RV Park. This is a fund raiser for the RV Park softball league. It takes place in the large activities hall in the neighboring park, so it only takes two minutes to get there. But now remember, these are all retired people, so we need to head over 25 minutes before they even start serving. After all, we don't want to be eating while they are piling up the tables and chairs like they were for the breakfast we attended a week ago. Well, two minutes latter we are there, but there are only a couple of people outside the facility. Something is wrong, there isn't a line waiting to get into the place, and we're here only 23 minutes before it opens. There should be 100+ retirees visiting out front waiting for the big event. So as not to look like old fools, we drive around the park sight seeing for 10 minutes. By then we see some people heading toward the Hall, so we pull into a parking spot and head in. Upon entering, we immediately realize why there wasn't a line before the event. The place is well over half full of people already seated and eating. Obviously they opened 30 minutes early assuming there might be some 'early birds'. Well, we didn't look like fools, but now I felt a little foolish thinking there wasn't anyone there yet when we first arrived. I've been here a month, I should of known better.

Upon entering, we turn in our tickets, and move to a table a few steps away. There we are given a plate with a large potato, or potatoe, depending on your political affiliation. The potato (or spud if your having a hard time following along) is split (no, this isn't the split part) and shaped to provide a bowl. You move to the next table where you pile on chili, onions, peppers, salsa, melted cheese, or a variety of other condiments until you have a complete meal heaped on the potato. Then you search for an open table, where you sit down and eat. Now Shirley is suppose to save a spot for friends of theirs that were running a little behind. Now behind means they will actually show up after the starting time of the event. Of course Paul and Shirley ran into other friends, and it became a challenge to figure out where and with whom to sit. It reminded me of a high school cafeteria watching kids try to figure out who they will sit next to, and who do they want to be seen with. Some things just don't change with age. Well, we finally picked a table and leaned some chairs up to reserve them for their friends. We then dug into our spuds.

Their friends arrived about half way through my spud, but I didn't really slow down much, just continued inhaling my meal. After all, when I'm done with the spud, I'm only half done with the event.

While finishing the spud, I eyed up the split situation on the other side of the Hall. I could see there weren't many people yet diving into the splits, so I figured we wouldn't want to wait for a big rush latter. Now this event had several hundred people here, so lines will at times form in key areas. I kept my focus though and finished my spud in good time. Now in order to maintain a modicum of manners, I looked at our table to see if anyone was ready to hit the splits table. After all, it might look rude if I jumped up myself and ran over there. Diane was close to being finished, so I encouraged her to wolf down her spud so she could go up to the split table with me before a line formed. That didn't go over real well, but we did get up there before any line formed. There we were handed a tray with a split banana and ice cream (this is the split part, still following?). Traveled a few steps to the next table where we could load it up with caramel, chocolate, nuts, various fruit, and whipped cream topped with a cherry. Just as we were finishing our split, I glanced at the split table where a line of 30+ people had formed. I looked at Diane and verbally reinforced my correct assessment on when to 'hit' the split table. We left full, and we finished before they were piling chairs. A successful event!

Suggested improvements for next year; 'Suds, Spuds, and Splits' Raise the price and add some beer. Heck, could add a band and make it an all night event. Could be named 'Suds, Spuds, Splits, and slither'. By the way, an all night event is defined as finished and with chairs piled by 10 pm.

Business Opportunity, Cell Tower Trees

I saw several of these out in Mesa. It does blend very well into the landscape. So much so that I'm thinking I should start selling them in Wisconsin. Now I know I"ll have to do a little testing to see if they can handle a heavy snow load, but it would be cool to have cell towers that no one can recognize. There was one right outside the RV park that I didn't recognize for days after I arrived there. What do you think? Ready to be one of my big investors? Maybe we could hang some coconuts off of the antenna braces.

Need a Trim, or Need to be Trim

Here's a photo I took at Greasewood Flats. I just liked the fact there was a bald guy waiting for the Barber shop to open. A few minutes after I took the photo he walked up to me with a concerned look on his face and asked me if it looked OK. He was concerned his jean jacket didn't fit him anymore and was afraid it looked bad on him. Of course he wasn't afraid enough to not wear it out in public! He seemed to feel better once I showed him the picture. I might of failed to mention I was going to put it on the Internet :-)

So now you know why he doesn't have the jacket buttoned.

Too Harsh, Out of Retirement? and saved from kidnapping

Ok, maybe I was a little harsh in my thought of being duped. I'm looking around the street, because that's what retired guys do, and I see signs that indicate it might not of been that nice while I was gone. In several people's yards I see Christmas decorations that must have been recently uncovered by the snow. There are extension cords running across the yards, and Christmas lights abandoned on the gutters. Obviously if it was nice out while I was gone this stuff would of been cleaned up by now. I also noticed the neighbor has two satellite dishes on his roof. It must of been bad if one dish wasn't enough to make it through the winter.

Hey, my working career might not be over yet. Watched the national news the other night and found out this old retired dog won Best in Show. He was retired once, but came out of retirement for this show. In people years, this old guy would be 70! What an inspiration, my best work might still be yet to come. Only problem is I don't have his good looks to work with. He's got a really long ugly name, but he's known by his friends as "Stump".

The news also informed me that Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the country. I guess the drug war violence is spilling across the border and kidnappings in the Phoenix area are increasing at an alarming rate. The thought of me being kidnapped and no one putting anything up to have me released makes me glad I'm out of there. It was bad enough worrying about alien abduction.

I've Been Duped and Reality Sucks

I've been duped by family and friends in Wisconsin. The flight home went well. Fairly uneventful except for the fact it was warmer in Milwaukee than it was in Phoenix. Here I've been feeling sorry for the people left in the Wisconsin cold and snow and I find out yesterday that you have it better than I did. Diane filling me with 'oh I had to shovel and snow blow while you were gone' only to come home to a lot less snow than when I left. Heck, it hasn't even been below freezing since I've been back. Well, I'm going back to feeling sorry for myself instead of the rest of you. Didn't think Wisconsinites were that mean.

Well, I'm home. It's great to be back except for the fact there is a pile of mail I need to go through, and I better start pulling the stuff together to do our Income taxes. First day back has been tough for a couple of reasons. One, I don't have the sympathetic audience of old people to exchange trivial gripes about the long lines at customs to get back in the country from Mexico, the cost increase in the RV parks, and whether the hot tub should have the jets running or not. My wife Diane doesn't seem to by very supportive when I talk to her at work and tell her I'm so busy I might not get through the mail, and I didn't check my email until this afternoon. I've figured out that going to work makes people crabby. Second, I usually have a beer by mid afternoon to make sure I stay hydrated from the desert. Well, I don't have that excuse here. So to try and transition, I found a cooler in the refrigerator called Bahama Mama that reminds me of warmer places. Oh, I have so much to get done, there isn't much time left in the day, so I better get back at that mail.

But before I go, here's a few things I need to tell you about in future postings that I haven't covered yet. I put them here to remind me later, otherwise as time goes on I'll forget and deprive you of this useless information.

Mission Church in Tucson
Waiting at the Barbershop
Packer Sweatshirts
Fellow Wisconsinites in Tucson hotel bar
Spuds and splits
Friday fish at the VFW
Business opportunity, or maybe not

There's more, but the thoughts are already slipping away with all these pressures of day to day life :-) So stick around. And by the way, my return flight to Phoenix is in April so I can travel back with Paul and Shirley and enrich my life experience. It was cheaper to book a round trip ticket from Phoenix than it would of been for a one way ticket back home, so why not?

All Good Things Must Come to an End

I'm talking about this trip, not this dang blog. You won't get off that easy yet. Well, tomorrow morning we head back to Wisconsin. The timing couldn't be any better. It's only going to be 58 degrees here tomorrow, and it sounds like it will be 50 degrees in Wisconsin. Perfect for the transition back to winter. This might be the last post 'on location' for me. I'm guessing the next time will be from home tomorrow night, or Wednesday. I have a few stories and pictures piled up, so I'll continue on with the blog for at least a little while, maybe longer if I can detect that anyone besides me is reading it.

Up Up and Away, see you all back home!

Photos of Sadona area

This picture is taken from the Catholic church built into the rock mountain. I assume the house in the foreground is the Rectory (Priest's house for those non Catholics) since it's right below the hill the church is built on. I'm sure the observatory is used to communicate with the Holy Father. (That's God, not the Pope...the Pope mostly uses a Blackberry to communicate)


This is a view from outside of the church. They call this area Red Rock Country for an obvious reason.

Cute little fund raiser

This piece of art work in Jerome is about 15 to 20 feet below the sidewalk. You can throw your money at this and other junk below for fun. It's the way they raise money for their museum. Hey, it's no worse than the casinos, and at least they don't give you the illusion your going to win something.

This is what Paul and I did while Shirley and Diane shopped in the 'galleries'. Let me tell you, it's impossible to get those 20's into the hole. I guess paper money doesn't really work very well with this kind of thing. Wish I would of realised this earlier. But hey, throwing 20's into an outhouse is probably cheaper than shopping in this town.

No I wasn't throwing paper money, but I'd most likely try it before I'd gamble in a casino.

Walk in the Desert

Friday, Diane and I visited the Saguaro National Park and walked down a couple hiking trails. Here's a flavor for what we were hiking through.

Sedona and the Motor Mouth

Saturday's plan called for a trip to Sedona. This is the Door County of Arizona. Start with some beautiful geography and add some artists and other people hungry to separate you from your money, and you have the essence of Red Rock Country. To get a good taste of the area, we started with some switchbacks on Hyw. 89A and wound our way up to a small town hanging on the side of a mountain called Jerome. This is the ultimate artist paradise. Gallery after Gallery of priceless art work. By priceless I mean nothing was marked. In the galleries that did have prices listed, it would take your breath away, more so than the thin air. Don't get me wrong, it was nice stuff, just not worth hauling down the mountain at what they were asking. At that altitude the view was awesome. A person can see all the way to Flagstaff!

On to Sadona, indirectly via a Red Rock Loop Road which passed through the Coconino National Park. Got a little nervous when it turned to gravel as it wound through the mountains, but it was a small loop through relatively flat land. The scenery through there was fantastic. Then back on Hyw. 89 to Sedona where there was some lively discussion of where the ripoff shops were located in Sedona. After some discussion and aimless driving around, we pulled into a small parking ramp. Shirley and Diane headed for the shops, Paul and I spotted a tavern to hydrate ourselves from the long drive. The menu posted on the outside of the tavern only listed wine, no beer. I was getting a little concerned, I hoped this wasn't too snotty of a place that they wouldn't serve beer. And if they did, I didn't know how much they were going to rip us off. I knew we were only going to have one beer in this neighborhood, but it would be nice if I knew ahead how much damage to the wallet would be afflicted.

In we went; cool, there's a bar on the left. Double cool; they have tap beer! Triple cool; it wasn't just Bud and Miller Lite. One of them was Fat Tire, that's a good one, but wait, there's a an Oak Creek Amber on the end. Never heard of that one. I asked the bar tender if that was a local brew, and he verified it was. In fact it was from Oak Creek, AZ which was just down the road a piece. I ordered Paul and I each an Amber and watched the bartender draw two beers into what looked like wine glasses, only with shorter stems and larger bowls. That's when I got concerned about the price. What's wrong with a frosted mug like most normal taverns?

Took a sip of this unknown beer, and it tasted fantastic! A new local brew discovered, well worth the trip....or so I thought. After the first sip, the motor on the woman's mouth seated to my left started up never to stop until I chugged the last swallow of beer and ran out of the tavern with Paul. Now I am never one to encourage conversation with strangers, and I didn't do anything to encourage this woman to start, or to continue this one sided conversation. I quickly acquired the trapped feeling I would get sitting in some senseless meeting at work. You know, the conversation is going nowhere, there is nothing worthwhile being said, nothing being accomplished, and your losing minutes of your life that you will never get back again. And yet, you can't leave. At work it was because you were being paid, at this bar, it was because this was a very good beer, and I won't chug down a good beer that I've paid to much for. So there I was, trapped. While half listening I gleamed from her that; she was a few years older than me, owns or manages a shop in this shopping center that sells pet toys or supplies, she drinks here everyday at lunch, and orders a sandwich to go, her best friend works for her, but is a lousy worker, and there is a 17 year old on their first job that is the best employee she's got. She moved to San Francisco, but couldn't get the Oak Creek Amber, and that is what she missed the most. Now all of that delivered while I was facing forward or facing toward Paul, on my right. Never uttering more than a periodic 'Oh Ya' trying to be at least a little polite. WOW, at least the beer was good!

Back on the road with a stop off of Mission Road to view a Catholic church built into the side of a mountain, then a scenic rest stop where I took more pictures. Then we finished the day with ribs and a burger in a Chicago style sports bar in Scottsdale on our way back to the Park. This wrapped up what looks like the last good weather day that Diane and I will see before we fly home on Tuesday. Today, Sunday will have a high of 61, with thunderstorms and showers off and on. By Tuesday they are calling for a high temperature of 59. It's a good way to start getting acclimated to Wisconsin weather. In fact, it sounds like the differential in temperatures might be the smallest it's been since I've been here.

Hydrating from the desert heat in Big Nose Kate's

Here comes a Fat Tire served up in Big Nose Kate's Saloon. When traveling it's always fun to drink the beers available in the area. Fat Tire is a Denver brew that I haven't found widely available in Wisconsin. When hydrating at the hotel, it's been a brew from Tempe, AZ called 'Kilt Lifter'. It has a high alcohol content so it needs to be respected. As I said before, when in the desert you must always make sure you drink enough liquids. So far I haven't had a problem with dehydration. I think it's do to my vigilante approach to hydrating :-)

Something stinks in Tombstone

We discovered upon walking around Tombstone that a TV station was doing a news story on the big shootout. But you can see from the guy on the left that he senses something ain't right. We didn't hang around, so we don't know if it was something Wyatt Earp is telling the reporter or flatulence on the part of the cameraman.

If you are quick, you can follow the link below and view the news story on the TV stations site. But I'm guessing within days this link will break. It was a little upsetting to watch, so be careful. Found out these people aren't real, but just actors. So much deception in the world today!

http://www.kgun9.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=3418531&at1=News&h1=A

Gentleman prestaging?

Here's Boot Hill where the results of the OK corral shootout are buried. This town was not the place to be in the 1880's that is for sure. One epitaph reads "Lester Moore - shot with 4 slugs from a 44. No Less, No More." Now I've heard that before somewhere, think it was from a former coworker. Here I thought they were clever, now I know they were just a plagiarizer.

I think the guy on the left is there to save on transportation costs to the graveyard. You know how expensive those dang funeral costs are!

Underground and Six feet Under

Today it was head east 50 miles to Kartchner Caverns State Park for a tour of some caves. It was stalagmites, stalactites, bacon, columns, and popcorn for about an hour in a 70 degree cave with 99 percent humidity. I don't know of any caves in the Midwest that maintain 70 degrees year around. To be that warm up north would most likely need some hot lava pouring out of a wall of the cave. Oh, I digress. The caverns were discovered in 1974, kept secret for 14 years while the owners figured out how to protect them. In the early 90's the State bought the land and developed the site to allow the public in to see the caverns. If your at all interested in caves, this would be a good one to see.

From there we headed south to a historical Fort Huachuca, but on the way we decided to swing east and head to Tombstone instead. There we walked around for 30 minutes or so, then looked for a good old fashion saloon. Big Nose Kate's Saloon was the first one we saw, so in we go to hydrate ourselves from the heat of the desert. (High of 84 in Tucson today, but the warm days are coming to an end) Wyatt Earp was in the saloon keeping the peace, but shortly after we arrived, a ruckus broke out sending a cowboy out of the saloon. Later we found out there was some shooting going on at OK corral, just down the street from us. Heard it had to do with the cowboy settling the score from being ejected from the saloon. We really got the sense this town was not safe after dark. In fact, after the shooting we decided it was better to go back to the hotel for our beer. I took some photos that I will post tomorrow from Tombstone.

Seriously, the Painted Desert is Beautiful

The Petrified Forest is in the Painted Desert. So if you visit the Petrified Forest National Park, you get both. I thought I would at least show you one photo of the desert. It really is beautiful, and photos don't capture the colors and vastness of the desert. But here's a little bit I can show you. I have more photos but don't tell anyone.

Can't escape reality

This is what is left of our rental car after returning from a hiking trail. As you can see, it was the least expensive car I could rent. But jeez...I didn't think those tires were worth taking!

Spying on Me?

This guy just wouldn't let me alone. The look he gives me bothers me, really a bird? Certainly has an attitude. Wasn't going to mention aliens, but look at the way he leers at me!

Sums up the Petrified Forest

There is nothing that people can identify with better than a pile of firewood to keep warm with. The Petrified Forest is full of firewood and old logs that makes you want to grap a pickup truck and an axe and gather this stuff for the wood pile. Of course all of it is rock, so it won't do much for you.

By the way, it was in the mid 50's on Tuesday in the Petrified Forest.

Tuesday at Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

Monday we escaped the heat of the desert floor and headed 'Up North' to the Painted Desert. When you travel through the mountains all normal highway rules are off. You are spun off to the side away from the on coming traffic, and then you will cross over the top of the opposite lane and be driving on the left of the on coming lane. You spend an hour going up and down, side to side, every which way but straight and level. You end up on a two lane road in the snow on top of the mountains driving through what Arizona would consider 'Up North". This is where people escape too in the summer. Now there isn't anyone up here, because people in Arizona are whimps and can't handle the cold up here in the winter.(it was in the 40's on Monday). By the end of the day we were at Holbrook, AZ for the night.



Tuesday we headed to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert. The weather was great. Never had to break out the winter coat. Sun was out with no breeze, so sweatshirts were enough for comfort. I took a tremendous number of pictures, enough to question my manhood in past coworkers eyes. I'm going to throw out a couple of pictures to bring you up to date on the Painted Desert, then tomorrow try to catch you up to the current time. I think Google lost my last blog update. So it looks like I'm two days behind. Of course I didn't have my posts to this blog backed up, so it's lost forever. Oh darn.

Photos at Greasewood Flats(Yes, John K. it does exist.)

Waiting for our burger order to come up. Of course you don't want to get dehydrated in the desert, so we try too take in sufficient liquids.

Here is the dance floor with surrounding campfires. It's starting to get dark, and I don't like using flash, so yes, these pictures are a little dark.

Saturday Night at Greasewood Flats

Out of the pool, time to head out and show Diane some sites. Now that Shirley has Diane to help sway our activities, we headed to Scottsdale's Phoenician Hotel and Resort. This is where people with money that have to wear their wealth on their sleeve stay. Lots of marble, fountains, and plenty of staff for the rich people to throw money at. We walked and gawked around there for an hour like the first trip of the Beverly Hillbillies to the big city.

Once we finished there, it was off too Greasewood Flats for a burger and a few beers. There we ordered cheeseburgers and MGD and sat down at the picnic tables to listen to some live music. Now this place is an old ranch transformed into a large outside bar. It once was out in the middle of the desert, but now the suburbs of Scottsdale are encroaching on it. There is a stage with a round concrete dance floor which is surrounded by barrel fireplaces. As it gets dark, the customers are responsible for starting and maintaining the fires. Three buck beers and 7 and a half buck half pound cheeseburgers. It was a good meal, but after a couple hours we were ready to head back. Diane was up since 2:30 am, and the rest of us are old, so we called it a day.

Monday, Diane and I headed north to Holbrook on our way to the Petrified Forest. It was going to be almost 80 in Mesa, so I thought I'd bring Diane north where it's in the mid 40's. I was afraid she'd melt in that heat so soon after freezing in Wisconsin.You don't want to thaw someone out to quickly; need to prevent tissue damage. I also had an opportunity to see snow in the mountains which I haven't seen in some time. Once in Hollbrook, Diane acquired a free one pound petrified wood rock from John Grey's Petrified Wood Store. Not really sure what she is going to do with it, but I'm hoping I'm not going to see it approaching me at high velocity anytime in the future.

Tuesday we head to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest and spend a chunk of the day. Then head back to the heat in Mesa Tuesday night.

Required for every vacation

Last night Paul and Shirley went out to paint the town, so I spent time surfing the other blogs on blogspot. Oh My! I hope this one is better than many I perused last night. Wow, I was getting embarrassed for them. I had thoughts of pulling this thing down, but then I remembered nobody looks at these blogs anyway. I also keep the content somewhat anonymous so I have deniability if anyone should confront me on it. Who would believe our real names are John, Diane, Paul, Shirley, how creative is that? So then I thought, in the spirit of bad blogging, I'd post a picture I took, just for such an occasion.



Every vacation has to have a picture shot out of a moving vehicle. Worse thing you can do, so I made a special effort to get one. I also made sure I didn't remember where, or when I took the picture in order to stay in the spirit of vacationing. So here it is, scenery somewhere in Texas, going around 60 miles an hour down the Interstate. Think it will win any awards?