Arizona Trip: March 16, 2009

We started again at Waffle House after sleeping in late (at least by our standards for this trip). We packed up and left the hotel with all of our kit. As the flight wasn’t until 10:30 pm so we had ages. We decided to go to the Arizona Science Centre. Here they had many hands on exhibits on magnetism, water, electricity, weather formations, geomorphology and plate tectonics etc. There was also a special exhibition on Star Trek, which I believe Marisa quite enjoyed. From here we drove to the mountains again to do a similar route to mine on Saturday. We took the route up towards Payson, but not as far this time as we immediately took the turning to Roosevelt. Marisa had me take a picture of her next to a large cactus. This time I will be able to see what the Canyon looked like, as Marisa was doing photography throughout. These should be posted on our facebook page etc. in the next day or so. The journey wasn’t nearly as long or worrisome as the first time, for me as the driver, but then I knew what to look out for. It was then back to the mall for some wandering around and something to eat and then to the airport. We checked in and caught the flight to JFK. The flight was too short for a proper sleep, so we are both a bit zombified. So now there is just over two hours until we fly again.

Arizona: March 15, 2009

Woke up very early again. Went to Waffle House for breakfast then dropped Marisa off. Then I headed off on another expedition, this time to the south. Firstly I travelled west on the I-10 and then south on the AZ-85 to Gila Bend. From here I drove down through Midway, Ajo and Why. From Why I travelled further south to Lukesville through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Needless to say, I saw a very large number of cacti. It turns out that Lukeville is on the US/Mexican border, so I took a couple of shots looking over into Mexico and then headed back. This time the plan was to take a more eastern route through the Indian reservation. I was stopped by the Sherriff’s dept for a sobriety check, which basically involved a couple of questions and handing me a leaflet. A while later on the Indian reservation, I was stopped by the border patrol and had to show my passport.
I arrived a bit early picking up Marisa and sat through the last part of her class. We headed back to the malls to pick up one or two items we forgot about yesterday. We had dinner (very nice) at a restaurant called the “Melting Pot” which does fondue as its main feature. We headed back to the hotel and I figured out what I’m going to take Marisa to see today before we fly back.

Arizona: March 14, 2009

Got up really early, about 5:30 (which was still 9:30 ADT). Finished making the required changes and had breakfast at Waffle House again before taking Marisa to class. Then I drove to a couple of flag places, where I picked up some items, and then it was off for the day’s big adventure. I drove through Mesa worked my way up into the hills. The wonderful thing about the GPS system is that you can pick a random point on a map and the GPS will get you there. In this case the choice was a town called Payson, for no other reason than it was a drivable distance into the Tonto National Forest. The road went up through the White Mountains. Some of them still had snow on the northern tops. Payson was at about 5000 ft ASL (Phoenix is at 1045ft), so there was a lot of uphilling.
Just for a change, I decided to take a slightly different route back. This involved passing by the Roosevelt Reservoir and Dam. The first part followed the lake side and ended up at the gorge were the dam had been built. There was a bridge crossing just upstream. I got out to take some pictures. I then set the GPS to take me down Route 88 which told me I would be back in Phoenix by 4:30 – so I was already half hour late. About two or three miles down the road a sign appeared which stated that there was “Mountain terrain 22 miles”. So I figured I might as well proceed as it probably meant a few tight bends with not a lot stopping you from falling off a cliff. Well, that was only half the story. The other part was that it turned out that the road was unpaved for 22 miles and you could travel a maximum of 20 mph. This was not going to get me to Phoenix in any short time, but to go back was much longer. I was committed. So I drove 22 miles on a dirt road up and down and around for what seemed like forever. The scenery made up for it, or at least what little I saw, because the driving was rather nerve racking. I finally got to Phoenix by 5pm. Fortunately the day had gone much better for Marisa and I only received mild chastisement for being an hour late. In the evening we drove to Scottsdale to meet with Mandy and Bryan and their daughter Annalise for dinner at a place called Olive & Ivy. It was very nice. Afterwards we took a bit of a detour to Barnes & Noble bookstore in Tempe before heading back and calling it quits.

Phoenix: March 13, 2009

Went to Waffle House for breakfast and took Marisa to class. The rest of Friday morning was wasted. I had to first take the car back to the rental agency. It turned out that the cigarette lighter wasn’t working, which wouldn’t ordinarily be a problem, except that I needed it to keep the GPS charged. They gave me a new car, with power windows, central locking and cruise control. A definite step up.
We also found out that we had been placed in a smoking room. By morning we were very stuffy, so I went about changing that. Consequently, it was much later when I was able to get around. Drove to the Arizona Mills mall and wandered around, having a late lunch of Cajun chicken sandwich and fries. Then picked up what I thought would be the end of my shopping (history has since shown that I was VERY wrong). Picked up Marisa at 4pm. She had had a rather rough day, so we went back to the mall and wandered around again. At one store she was asked to be in their fashion show on Saturday. She had to refuse since she would be in class but it perked her up a bit. We came back to the room in the early evening and had dinner in and then proceeded to fix the issues with Marisa’s problem statement, based on the advice received in class. We fell asleep while making the changes.

Arizona: March 12, 2009

Yesterday was a travelling day. We left Bermuda and flew JetBlue to JFK. The flight was very comfortable and took about 2 hours. Jet Blue's terminal in JFK is certainly very well appointed and makes a change from the dingy AA or BA terminals. There is also a very nice food court and restaurants. We had a two hour layover and then took the flight to Phoenix which was about 5:15 hours. Arizona does not change to Daylight saving time, so is now on Pacific Time, which is a bit strange as it is three hours behind the east coast. Therefore we are 4 hours behind Bermuda. Once we landed, the longest wait was for the car rental as there were 10 people ahead of us. We must have all gotten the same deal, because all of the other rental agencies were empty. The GPS system in car got us to our hotel with a minimum of fuss, which was good as it was 1am Bda time. Not having to think much whilst driving was definitely a plus. We checked into our hotel and almost immediately went to sleep. We are just about to go to Breakfast and then Marisa needs to be in class at 8 am. I am then going to try out the GPS.......