17 July | Northwest Arizona

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17 July: Las Vegas to Fountain Hills, AZ

Continuing our zig-zag path, we escaped from Las Vegas and headed southeast toward the Phoneix area.

Path

Our path took us almost immediately over Hoover Dam and then, following most of the way on US 93 with a late change to US 60, into the PHX area. Once in the PHX area, we skirted most of the city itself by taking the 101 expressway around to Frank Lloyd Wright Rd, where Pat got this delightful shot of a sign relevant to our mode of travel and hinting at my brother's name.

Sights

Sights: Sheesh, there were many. What can compare to the glitz of Las Vegas at about 8 AM? Not much, but we can testify that there are still people playing the slots at that hour. More importantly, there are a lot of people on the roads with their service-industry vehicles doing their jobs and, I'd guess, hoping to raise a family.

Hoover Dam was pretty impressive, as you can see from the photo (right) that Pat took.

In addition to Hoover Dam (where there is constuction of a new bridge so that potential bombers can't get to the actual dam), we saw some wide-open AZ spaces. There were many of them along the road, and I worried that we wouldn't get additional chances at photos of sugaro catci. I wanted to pose with them; if there was one with only two arms, I'd pretend to hold that anathema to me, a gun, to its back and put "Stick 'em up" in a balloon on the photo. Alas, no such chance arose...we breezed by them.

Food

After a breakfast in one of the gazillion eateries in the casino (it was a coffee place called "Jitters"), we departed. I don't want to remember lunch that day, as it was another Denny's and the fare was not fair. Fortuantely, Linda and Larry improved our food situation substantially and in quick order. As soon as she got home, Linda whipped up some salsa and chips that were quite agreeable. Then we went to dinner at a local Italian place, La Piazza (1865 N. Saguaro Blvd.; Fountain Hills, AZ 85268-4631; (480)837-1877), which was worth the stop. We shared a nice round of foccacia and, while Pat and Linda consumed about a third of a pizza, Larry and I had entrees; mine was a grilled salmon that was appropriately cooked (!). The price-for-quality ratio was good.

Bird

The Bird, filthy from the previous day's storm, drove like a champ. I continued to be impressed with how smoothly it took the undulations and irregularities of the roads. It was near time for its 5000-mile service, so once we got to the Valley of the Sun (with Larry's help), I located a Ford dealer that would provide the needed oil change and such. I'd take it the next AM.

Birds

I don't remember what we saw on the road. However, I know that as soon as we pulled into the Hawbaker driveway, I saw a quail scurry past a rock in their yard. It turned out to be a Gambel's Quail, a beautiful (beauty full) bird. Eventually, we saw lots of them. I think we also saw cactus wrens, a juvenile roadrunner (beepbeep), unfamiliar hummingbirds (in the east we only have rubythroated hummers; we're rather impoverised), as well as many other birds. The southwest seems to be a birder's paradise.

Tunes

Larry, who has responsibility for technology for a large local educational area and is a Mac aficianado, was interested in the iTrip. He had one of the original iPods and had both the tape-insert player and the iRock narrowcaster. He was keen to play with the iRock. We talked a lot about these matters. By now, the iTrip-iPod combo was working wonderfully.

Runs

I got a light day in Las Vegas on this day (what day of the week was it?). Outside the gaming establishment, I found a little asphalt path leading through a wash and took it, skipping the concrete sidewalks and busy asphalt roadways. It proved to be a rather short path, punctuated by a man sleeping on a park bench with what appeared to be his shopping cart nearby. I wondered where he had stayed during the previous night's storm. When I quickly reached the end of the path, I loped along on the roads looking for a continuation of the path. Finding none, I retraced my steps, thinking that I would take it past the place I'd joined it. Passing the now-drowsing man again ("Morning!"), I got back to the starting place and took the path the other direction. Alas, it was only good for a couple of blocks, so I was stuck with running along a road populated by fast-food drive-ins and such. A good feature was that it was a modest uphill, so I'd get an easy back for this out-and-back path. Another fun part was that I crossed a road called "Stephanie." Total time was 33:59, so close to 4 miles.