Sunday night, I hooked up with Dennis Lancaster for the first time in over a decade. Couldn't get together with him last year due to him being a pilot but now that he got furloughed out the past year and half he has returned back to air conditioning repair. We managed to grab a drink in downtown Tempe and although The Library was closed we went upstairs to Hooters for more drinks. Had a frosty drink at some bar and ended up getting a hell of a buzz so was trying to sober up. Can't drink the way I used to. Dennis is a couple years younger but still remains fairly good looking, hard to figure since he hadn't had a girlfriend in a while. The one thing about Hooters, while looking at the waitresses and telling him that when we first moved down here back in 86 they were not even born yet. The dilemma of middle age guys, the chicks are so young they could be our children. Dennis was thinking about rejoining a dating site. Told him good luck with that, avoid the too much work related E Harmony but he said he'll return to Match dot com.
Monday, hung around Tempe and checking out the blown out Tempe rubber dam that broke and they lost Tempe Town Lake. And then went to see what the folks at FYE and Zia's Records had for stuff. Found a few things but got pretty much put off by the pushy clerks always coming around at 10 minute intervals if I was all right or Okay? Just wanted to tell them I got 10,000 cd's at home I think I know what I'm looking for, you probably don't have anyway.
Tuesday: moved up the I-17 road up to Flagstaff. First time I have been up there and the skies were clear blue and not a cloud in the skies. 84 degrees, nice. The Hastings has returned back to its usual place but Bookman's was closed due to too much snow on the roof and it collapsed back in January. Flagstaff is a small town but with Phoenix like traffic, which meant the traffic sucked. So moved on down Interstate 40 to the old Route 66 turnoff at Crookton Road and spent an hour at my favorite spot Crookton Pass Bridge. It's such a beautiful place to be but the ADOT have paved up the lane to park the car. But I did park off the road and not too many cars past by that way anyway. Then drove down to Seligman to pay a visit to Angel's Barber Shop and Souvenir Shop and chatted with Angel's daughter for a few minutes and bought a shirt for me and one for my girlfriend. Then drove all the way to Kingman and trying to avoid some dumbass hitchhiker trying to hitch a ride who stared me down after passing him. Pretty much told him it's a great night to walk anyway and then spent the night at Kingman and got dinner at Cracker Barrel which did have chicken and dumplings.
Wednesday: Spent the morning in Kingman walking downtown and checking out trains going through town, then hit the road to Bullhead City/Laughlin for the afternoon. And stopping at Hastings store number three but didn't buy anything but decided to drive across the border to Laughlin, the mini Vegas for about an hour and half. Laughlin was the place that Mingles Singles Party of 2005 was held at. I remember the good times of meeting Lenee and Paly and Becky Robinson. I think it was the last time the original Mingles gang met anywhere. I remember Challace talking all the way down there from Vegas and also Becky yelling at Reload for getting drunk and causing a scene on the riverboat. It was an interesting time...... Then got into the car and head down to Needles to check out the gas prices (3.89 a gallon!). Needles is such a depressing place, not much happens in there, too much gang activity and I see a lot of transients walking about in the 109 degree heat. So got back on the road to head to Lake Havasu City to spend the night and take a night walk on London Bridge
Thursday: I think I drove about 300 miles that day leaving Lake Havasu City to Parker to Phoenix and onward to Tucson. Found the old Parker Drive In movie screen still up and still in tatters so took pictures of that and drove down AZ 72 to US 60 and ended up getting stuck in rush hour traffic on 60. Too much road construction and too many red lights. But kept driving through Phoenix to Tucson to spend the night and having mexican at my favorite place El Molinito Then stopped at Zia's to deal with more pushy clerks and watching the freaks come out. Finding nothing, I went back to The Red Roof Inn to spend the night and got a nice front view of passing trains going through town.
Friday: Spent the morning at Old Tucson Studios and hung out and took some self portraits to which I hope I can post later. Then met up with Barbara at the Foothills Mall to chat for about an hour and half. Then returned to El Molinito for another helping of the sampler plate and head back up to Tempe. For the first time I ended up getting into a damn monsoon storm that damn near flooded the road and ended up seeing three accidents on the road, the worst being some white SUV in a ravine the front just about seared off from driving too fast. I avoided the I-10 by going down the frontage road and then to AZ 87 into Coolridge and the back way into Chandler.
Saturday: the final day saw me going to Arizona Mills Mall and dealing with lots of people there. There's a reason why I don't go to malls on the weekends. Way too many people. The Virgin Megastore no longer exists, it's replaced by an FYE store to which I was tortured by Katy Perry's latest album and a few other boy band autotuned crap. Then finished up my farewell to the cd stores with visits to the other FYE in Chandler and the Zia's off Chandler Blvd and then off to Bookmans to close that down.
The biggest thing I noticed out there was so many beggers coming up to you asking for change. Couldn't avoid them whatever place I went to. Even had some fatassed ugly chick outside the Phoenix Bookmans wanting bus fare money. Told her great chance for her to lose a bit of that weight by walking. The spare changers were out in full force. Had some black dude forcing his cup into my face asking if i had any spare change. Glared at him and shook my head and said nope, I used it all by getting this 79 cent drink at Circle K.
For gas prices Tucson was the cheapest at 2.45 a gallon, Mesa averaged 2.65. The desert towns along Route 66 had them at 3.19 a gallon, Flagstaff had one for 2.75 off the main drag to which they were around 3 bucks a gallon. 2.65 in Bullhead City and Kingman and Needles' 3.89 was the highest. For the most part I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, I didn't verture down to the border towns and seeing bodies out in the deserts or beheaded bodies. While the left wingers complained about the SB 1070 Immigration Bill and screaming racial profiling, it was life as usual. In other words, The Arizona Trip was uneventful. Just the way I liked it.
For sunday I didn't get much sleep, packing away and driving down a quiet Superstition Freeway to the airport in Mesa. The rent a car had XM Satellite Radio, the first time I have had a rental car with satellite music and it's a lot better than FM. Too damn bad that FM radio isn't this diverse. My favorite station was Deep Tracks to which we got to hear lots of lost classics from Rory Gallagher, Wishbone Ash, Camel and Moody Blues. Got to hear to lots of Tom Petty and his Buried Treasures program. If I was running a radio station I'd hire him as programmer. So for the most part I didn't listen to many CDs. Didn't have to.
I did find CDs at the places that I used to go to, but it's to the point that I'm too old for the crap that they play in there or at FYE. Or just can't handle to constant badgering from clerks asking if I'm all right or Okay. Bargain hunters work alone and don't need the help. Unless you have a certain out of print Slade CD.
This is it, the final AZ bargain hunts. Thanks to all the music stores and thanks to the pushy clerks asking about my well being. But as I turn 50, I said I would retire from the music stores, but I didn't leave with sadness but with relief that I won't have to do this ever again. I have no idea if and when I'll return to the valley of the sun. But in this short week of going from jumping in the car and driving around, I did have lots of run rediscovering Arizona once again. In short, I got my groove back till i go back to work and lose it all once again.
Thank you Arizona. I'll miss ya.
