Arizona June 2008 - Apaches, Road Runners and Pool Party

Emily and I left for Arizona on Qantas out of Brisbane. In what is becoming for us true Qantas style the aircraft was late to depart and we got various conflicting stories from staff who we soon figured out had no idea why it was late. It turned out to be a water problem, the water heaters on the aircraft were broken and at altitude the water tends to freeze - getting things fixed on planes is good :-)

We arrived in LA and then flew onto Phoenix, the delay at arrivals in LA was short so that was good. If you manage to land behind a 747 of non English speaking tourists that line can be a ripper ! We stayed in Scottsdale in a hotel near our friends place where we were going to the pool party (Pool Party) and hired a nice little cross over type car (like a Rav 4 or similar).

We met up with friends Travis (Evo), Shiela and their son NJ for lunch. That was good because NJ had a license and could our drunk asses home (put it in the words of his Dad).

Whilst in Phoenix we drove out to the Apache Trail from Apache Junction west of Phoenix to Globe and then back again. It was a good trip about half of which was dirt road on roads that appeared to be made by mountain goats. We saw our first Road Runner and got really excited,
when we told our US friends about it they just looked at us like fools - they are apparently as thick as fleas over there. It was summer there so there were not too many people using the parks along the way due to the heat.


























We also saw the big Cactus Joshua trees - they are very big inded.






























There were several dams and lakes where people were enjoying the water though.















The trip can be seen at this map:

Map

On the way there and back we saw some great examples of how roads should be built, the American freeway system is something to behold. The builders of these roads do not know small.
















I had a game of golf at the hotel, very nice course. I played with a chap from New York in my buggy and another couple from Canada. We tee'ed off in the morning to escape the heat but the buggies actually had an air conditioning system that blew cool air onto your neck and the back
of your head ! It made too much noise for me so I turned mine off much to the horror of the people from closers to the Arctic Circle :-)

On the Saturday we went to Mike and Laurie's for the pool party.

We met up with people who we knew from before and new ones as well. Emily helped out Charlie do a podcast for his show called Speaking of Beer where they tried out dark beers for taste and got to rate and talk about each of them.

The pool was nice and company was good.

We left Phoenix for Chicago, I watched the 3rd State of Origin on that flight - always good to see NSW get their arse kicked :-)