Got into Mesa yesterday and headed to my fave record stores and ate at Pancho's Mexican Buffet. Talked to Dennis Lancaster for about 10 minutes last night, guess he came home from a 7 hour flight from New York and was up for 24 hours. He's going to spend the day with his sons before getting back to work tomorrow and we won't be getting together this time out.
Mesa seems to be a ghost town from where i was staying at, Best Buy moved across the street to Fiesta Mall and most of the buildings on that area are now empty although Staples is still there and Borders. Haven't gone into Borders, they had not much of a music selection anymore.
This morning I took a bit of a walk around the La Quinta area and then got on the road to Globe and took some pictures of downtown and the drive in that is still operating. However getting over to Tucson on highway 77, I ended up getting my rental car stuck in one of those Runaway Stops that you see on steep hills in Arizona. If you have a car, stay the fuck away from this area because once you get into the rocks, you'll never get out in a KIA. Thank God that a guy in a jeep saw me cussing at the heavens and towed me out and didn't ask for any money. That guy was an guardian angel and I definitely owe him a beer or two or three. For had he not came over and helped I'd still be there, I would have been probably picked apart by buzzards swarming around me.
And then I got stuck behind a fucking stoplight on INA street in Tucson that had a train coming at me at around 50 miles and hour so had to high tail it to the side and get onto the I 10.
Day three found me talking with Barbara, a friend that I met in Face book via Farm town. We decided to meet at the mall and she was about 45 minutes late but we managed to talk for a couple hours and it was nice to meet her.
Drove to Tombstone soon after and I waited a bit too late since when I got there most of the town closed up but managed to snap some pictures in the process. Saw a horrific accident on the I-10 back up to Tucson; some SUV landed on its top on the side with half of it torn off. May have been due to a heavy monsoon rain and whoever drove it was going way too fast. Surprised if anybody survived that crash.
It always seems like when I go to Tombstone it rains. It rained back in 2002 when I was there and it rained there yesterday. Good old monsoon storm developed on top of the town and while I did managed to take a moonshot picture, the skies darkened and we got to see lots of wind, lightning and the rains. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to Boot Hill, it was closed when I got there. Seems like every other tourist town, it's like that. They rolled up the sidewalks at 5 and everybody goes home at 6. Hopefully the next time when I go back there it won't fucking rain.
Surprise, I didn't buy any new cds although I did checked out the final Bookman's and Zia's. Maybe I was burned out or it was the lateness of the hour. Usually the Phoenix stores stay open till 11, here in Tucson they close at 10.
Good thing we have unlimited mileage on the rental. I'm already closing in on 500 miles so far in three days. And still got another week to go, on the way back to Mesa and Kingman and points in between. This is not all about bargain hunts, it's about seeing plenty of desert and tourist traps.
And hope that I don't get into anymore surprise monsoons.The monsoon has followed me up to Flagstaff yesterday. But first, went to Jerome to take some pictures only to find that the battery went low and died on me so had to cough up thirty bucks to get a replacement battery since I forgot to pack the battery charger. So I lost out taking some cool pictures at Jerome and at Flagstaff.
I've settled at Flagstaff last night and took a walk downtown to old Flagstaff which is full of Motels and restaurants and a train station. Ended up getting soaking wet about a half mile from the motel I was staying at. Some dark cloud opened up on me.
Stopped over Crookton Pass bridge and hung out there and watch lightning and thunderstorms coming all around me and counted about four trains. And then it rained all the way into Seligman, to which last time I visited Angel Dedillago he mentioned they hadn't had any rain in about five months. Told him next time I visited I'd bring some for him. And I delivered big time. It poured for about an hour. So I moved on down to Kingman to spend the next two days.
I didn't sleep very well last night and ended up getting some back spams while walking out to the car. So I don't think I'll do too much today, just kick back in the motel room and take a nap and then put a new battery in the camera and go try to get some decent sunsets on old Route 66 and then head over to Hastings to see what bargains I can find. So far, I have found lots of bargains and have yet to figure out how I'm going to get them all home in one piece.
Another day, another monsoon to deal with. Rained a bit in Bullhead City and then came into a ghost town Oatman with a howling wind and a downpour. Amazing thing about Oatman is that i heard a lotta banging and howling wind while walking down a quiet boardwalk hearing footsteps behind me and seeing nothing. Even the burros were not to be found. Basically frustrated I stopped in at the only open bar and for the first time in ten years had a beer.
Lake Havasau City was hopping. 108 degrees and plenty of people and boats on the water. For the first time, I saw lots of scantly dressed ladies in simply shorts and doods with bigger bellies and man boobs then myself walking up and down the path alongside the lake. Perhaps I should have made this place a stopover rather than the two nights at Kingman. Lots of tanned bodies, oodles of tattoos and plenty of beer and rap music blasting on the waterway. And ladies bouncing to the beatbox. Gawd I miss the days of rock and roll.
Bullhead City was even hotter, 110 degrees and a spotty shower that actually felt good, it wasn't those gully washers that I had to contend with in Tombstone or Seligman. Last year when I was here, the Hastings store didn't have jack shit. This year I found plenty of stuff in the clearance bins and probably bought about 20 cds in the process. Some good, some sucked and will be donated to the Goodwill in Mesa on Monday. Don't ask me why i bought Travis tritt in the first place. But the Hastings store surprised me enough with cds in the five dollar range that perhaps a Ames trip might be forthcoming.
I seem to blend with the crowd on Route 66. Came across some Germans looking for the ghost town on the copper mine about a mile away from Oatman. Although I wasn't much help I still think that Oatman is a haunted ghost town when the shops close up around five and that perhaps the steps behind me were Oatie paying me a visit since the Oatman Hotel was closed by the time I got there in a howling wind.
Finally got some nice moonshots as well outside of Kingman right before the sun set. With a replacement battery I plan to head to Seligman and Crookton Pass and take some pics before returning back to Phoenix Mesa to conclude this trip.
I'm also not feeling well, had major back spams last night and didn't sleep at all. Then my nose screwed up on me as well. This has been the nadir of the trip so far, the fucking back spams that started at Flagstaff and have continued on and off since then. And I still have two more days before I return home, so here's hoping for a major miracle that i get to feel better before then. I know the damn flight home is going to suck with this. Then my feet broke out in a rash too, so my body is going to hell in a hand basket.
We must have had a power outage last night at the motel room. Everything was blinking and the local channels were knocked off. I'm not too impressed with this motel either. They switched to a much smaller pillow and i couldn't get comfortable either. Plus they're remodeling too so I can't take the famous Highway 66 logo. Not a great indication that I might be here again next time i'm in the desert.
The Fourth Of July I returned back to Phoenix/Mesa via route 66 and a stop at Seligman and got to see Angel Delgadillo riding his bike around town. The guy is 82 years old and he's running circles around me. I ended up having major back spams the last couple days of the trip so I didn't do much walking anywhere, but I did managed to spend an hour at Crookton Pass bridge and took a couple pictures and got to see a couple trains. I didn't bother Angel since he was out bike riding but it was nice to see him one more time. I also need to send him the picture of us taken together last year.
After Crookton Pass I drove down to Prescott and spent a couple hours at the Hastings store and found nothing. But in the long run, this year the Hastings stores that I visited on this trip had some cheap cds and some mid priced ones at 4.99.
I didn't sleep very well that Friday night at Kingman. The Comfort Inn was a disappointment simply of the fact that they had a power outage and all we could get on the tv was the Dish Network on how to program your TV. I nodded a few times driving to Prescott and finally had to load up on the Pepsi trying to keep awake. I think once I got to the Mesa LA Quita Inn I did take a nap and did managed to find some nifty fireworks show outside the window as the Tempe Fire Works Show was beautiful to watch and didn't have to venture out to see it.
Sunday, I went to Phoenix to Metro Center to the Jade Express for some chicken fried rice. Always loved their food the best although it did give me gas most of the day. Then found the last of the Bookman stores and Zia's and found a few more cds of value. But it must have been orgy night since most of the couples that I saw were sucking face, hell I had two couples in front and back of me sucking face. Geezus will they get a fucking room and go fuck?!? Must have been Romper Room night at ZIAs as we had kids running up and down the aisle and dammed if one of the suckface couples follow me down to ZIAs. Can't get away from these jokers.
Monday took it easy and soaked in the hot tub but only to find that a lizard was in my skibbies. Never seen that before, put the undies out to dry and then there was a small lizard who high tailed it into the AC unit. But then again, made a big mistake of going to Sarro's for some spaghetti wearing nothing but white. White pants, white shirt and yeah got plenty of tomato sauce all over it.
In the end, while the 10 days In Arizona was fun at times, it was draining and I think we didn't have the best of luck. I think getting stuck in the Truck Runaway Lane outside of Globe took a bit of fun out of it and so did getting back spams in Kingman on Wed and couldn't shake them whatsoever. I did find bargains and plenty of cds and records but I also donated about 7 useless cds back to Goodwill. The Tragically Hip 2007 album was a piece of shit, and London Wainright the 3rd, first album for Atlantic wasn't all great either. Quicksilver Messenger Service is a dated band and although i did find their cd for a dollar at Goodwill on the first night, I re donated it back. QMS is a boring band. And Travis Tritt?, what was I thinking?
I think in the end, I got disgusted of seeing too many public display of affection and although I'm all for love, I'd rather not see folk tying their tongues in knots at the music store, nor seeing unruly brats and uncaring parents who ready to pop another one out. See way too much of that. Plus I also seen way too many butt cracks too. Nothing more gross than seeing some 50 year old woman, wearing something that was too short and seeing something that I'd rather not see. That or man boobs.
Did I do too much down there? The grand total of miles driven in those 10 days was 1,650 miles. Lotta driving from Mesa to Globe to Tucson to Tombstone back to Tucson and then to Tempe and then up to Cottonwood, Sedona, Flagstaff, Kingman, Lake Havasau City, Bullhead City, to Oatman to Kingman and back on Route 66 to Prescott and to Phoenix.
Perhaps i should have spent the night in Lake Havasu City. Driving 1,650 miles in 10 days probably wore me out and once I got back to Mesa I pretty much took it easy. But Phoenix did lose another record store. Memory Lane Records, based in Tempe is now a memory but as far as I have seen ZIA and Hastings and FYE did pretty well in CD sales. The Best Buy in Mesa moved across the street to Fiesta Mall and now sell music instruments. But it always seem like everytime i went somewhere I always have to have some help hounding me about wanting help. I have 6.000 cds what I am looking for they don't have anyway.
And so it goes. We learn to never say never. I'd like to return back to the desert in the future but only God knows if and when I do. In the 10 days in AZ, only one was spent in Phoenix if you could believe that. Most of the time I based myself over in Tempe/mesa/chandler and spent two days in Tucson. And managed to meet up with Barbara, a co player of Farmtown and we chatted for a couple hours. Didn't meet up with Dennis and perhaps next time we will get together. If there is.
Gas prices were affordable. 2.67 the norm but they varied from 2.38 to 2.43 a gallon so I got lucky. I did find that great Mexican restaurant in Tucson next to Bookmans which name escapes me so i snapped a picture of the place in my digital cameras. El Molinito its called. Best Mexican food in Tucson, highly recommended.
Well that concludes the 10 days in AZ vacation. Over just like that. It wore me out, I ended up having one too many monsoon storms for my liking but I did find bargains. And in the end, did have a good time regardless.
