Arizona 25 Notes.

Vacations never seem to last do they?  Just got back home late after one of the longest airplane trips back home.  Our airplane was an hour and half getting ready due to some issues and when we did get on board and hit the skies, we had to turn around and then get another airplane home.  Supposed to get home at 4:40 but didn't till 9:45 PM.

In some ways Arizona 25 (a title given since I moved to Chandler in 1986) was just about uneventful as it got.  Everyday was nice and sunny and hot.  Got there last friday, and spent the night in Mesa, then hit the road to Tucson for the weekend and then on to Tombstone/Sierra Vista on Monday and then spent the night at Casa Grande, then off to Phoenix then to Prescott on Tuesday and then returned back to Mesa on Wed.  And Thursday spent the day at Tempe.  Throughout it all, I never did return to my old place of residence in Chandler or go by it.

FYE continues to close their stores in the area, they're now down to the one next to Fiesta Mall and the one on Broadway in Tempe.  The Chandler store closed up and so did the Arizona Mills store.  For the bargains, The Zia's Stores had them, and basically the Zia on Speedway in Tucson had a copy of REO, the 1977 album that I had on CD but sold off and then come to find out that my vinyl was scratched up so it took me about two years for finally score another CD, as well as the REO Speedwagon Lost in The Dream 1974 album.  FYE at Fiesta Mall had Jamie Brockett Remember The Wind and Rain on CD.  For new CD music, The Casa Grande Hastings had the new Primus album for 9 dollars and some Sony Music CDs for four bucks new.  Although I love going to Hastings, the Prescott store didn't have nothing to offer and since I went to Tombstone this trip, didn't see the need to venture up to Kingman and points North and East.  Surprisingly, I didn't buy any vinyl albums, although I did find a couple of 45's at Zia's on Oracle in Tucson.  Bookman's also didn't have much to offer either, although I passed on David Johansen's Then Came The Night LP.  Goodwill moved their store from Baseline to next door to Bookman's on Country Club in Mesa.  Still with that going on, I really didn't find all that much at neither stores and Bookman's used stuff tends to be overpriced. But they did have The Kings Are Here/Amazon Beach for 16 bucks, which is much cheaper than what's sold on Amazon.com.


Heath-wise, I did okay although while in Tombstone's Boot Hill Cemetery I did get a little ill from the heat. Hard to believe that this was the first time that I have been at Tombstone and it didn't rain unlike the previous four visits.  Thankfully the monsoon season was over.  I also paid the usual visits to my favorite eating places although The Jade Express at MetroCenter I didn't order the chicken fried rice but rather went for a buffett to which I should have stayed with the tried and true.  I also tried the In N Out Cheeseburger that Bob Lefsetz raved about and thought it was okay but overrated but didn't like the fries.  One night had the Poncho's Mexican Buffett supper to which I ate more of the Flan dessert rather than the actual meal.  Tempe had Slices, a pizza by the slice that has gotten rave reviews and it wasn't that bad.  On the first night, I stopped at Pizza Slices for 99 cents and ended up getting a medium pizza for a price of three slices.  And of course in Tucson it was El Morilito on Ina with my good friend Barbara.  Had to eat there twice although the second night, the service was terrible.  I kind of miss the old dude who waited on me there last year.  But for the most part, I live on 79 cent Pepsi from Circle K while out bopping around the state.

Wasn't much for highlights down there.  Train was playing at some casino in Tucson, Santana was going through the state and on Interstate 10, passed one of the Rascal Flatts semi's on the way to Sierra Vista.  At Prescott, I managed to go downtown and got to see a bluegrass trio play some Gordon Lightfoot and then off to another bar to see The Prescott Playboys mangled Long Tall Texan.  They do play every Tuesday Night at some bar down there.  Could never find the GD Hastings store in Prescott, the trick is to locate the hospital there.

Since I spent three nights in around Tucson, going to Kingman wasn't going to happen.  As much as I enjoy Phoenix, their rush hour traffic sucks even more than it did 25 years ago.  The Union Pacific that runs alongside the I 10 gave me my locomotive fix, as trains would go by at least four an hour on a single set of tracks.  Nevertheless, Sierra Vista was the first time I stopped in that town.  For cable TV, Super 8 had the best selection of channels, Red Roof's channel sucked and La Quita's seems to not have WGN.

Back in my old haunts, The Fiesta Mesa Terrance is now empty.  What they used to have for stores, Best Buy, Staples, Payless Shoes and Borders are gone.  Best Buy moved across the street to be one of the anchor stores at Fiesta Mall.  This Borders used to be a good hangout but that place got closed up last year before Borders went bankrupt.  Hard to figure just 10 years ago, that stripmall was hopping, now it's all empty buildings and parking lots.  FYE closed half their stores and it wouldn't surprise me if they finally close the one at Fiesta Mall, which is a shame because I have always been a part of that particular store even in the days that I lived there and Wherehouse Music was there.  But for the most part the Zia's stores in both Tucson and Phoenix had lots of decent CDs and I only got hit on for help one time.  I did noticed though that the FYE on Broadway has now a bigger vinyl selection which might mean that they be the last FYE standing when all is said and done.   But I also see a lot of the old stores gone whose signs are still up.  Memory Lane on University in Tempe has been gone for four years but the sign still remains.  So does Rockaway Records at the old strip mall off Alma School/Baseline.  Used to be that there was about 30 great music stores to go to 20 years ago, nowadays it's about a tenth of them still around.  A further reminder that the CD era is over and from here on out, it's the internet to find the decent and hard to find.

Sad part of life is how much things have changed in the 25 years gone and removed than when I was down there.  No more Long Wongs on Mill in Tempe.  I remember getting the cheap dollar plate of spaghetti when I lived down there and lived fairly well on a daily plate of it.  Zia's still is open till midnight in Tempe but not in Chandler to which they close shop at 10 oclock, thus robbing me of another change to buy them out.  Tempe replaced the rubber dam that made Tempe Town Lake and unlike last year when it was dry, there's now a nice little lake on the outskirts of downtown Tempe. 

In some ways, this trip wasn't supposed to happen.  But it did.  But even as I paid the whole day by Allegiant Airlines plane problems, the trip turned out to be  fast moving week that went by way too soon.  Certainly I would love to return once again next year to make up what I couldn't do and maybe a return to Kingman isn't out of the question. Time flies much faster then it did twenty five years ago or even twenty or ten. 

So here we are again.  Trying to remember and trying to document the highlights of AZ 25.  And maybe return if things fall into place, or if they can get an airplane that doesn't fall apart on the way there...