Arizona is damn hot

There are a lot of things that are so much different here than at home. For starters, the lanes in road are wider. You don't actually turn in at the business you want, you drive past it an look for the entrance to turn in to the whole strip, that's if you're allowed to turn that direction. There are no suburbs south of Phoenix. The next city is at least 20 minutes away, not just the next town over. It's wierd, but I am getting used to it.

Last weekend Dustin and I drove up Phoenix to see the Diamondbacks play, and to visit his buddy Cervantez. It was great, we left early Saturday, and it didn't take nearly as long as we thought it would, only about 2 1/2 hours. We got there, met Cervantez, who is also know as Alex, and Matt... we went downtown, got some Hooters, got our tickets, and drove over to the capitol building.

A few things about that, we took a picture with a cactus, and Matt looked at us wierd. We forget that these people have been looking at cactus their entire lives. Then we went to the capitol building, which isn't really where any of the work happens. The building on the left is the state senate building, the one on the right is the state HOR building, and the one behind it is the executive building. The capitol building itself is actually just a museum. We were going to go in and check it out, but it was 106 degrees, and we just wanted to go get some water. But before we did that, we stumbled into a sweet military memorial park across the street. It had monuments for each war, for different kinds of servicemen; jewish, catholic, purple heart etc... It was a sweet park that if it weren't nine million degrees we would have spent a lot more time at, it was really a take a picture and read it later kind of thing. But well worth sweating through an entire shirt... heh, it felt like it anyway.

Then we got A LOT of fluids, threw them back and went into the DBacks game. It was a very nice stadium. It reminded me a lot of Houston. It had a retractable roof, thank God. It was 104 outside, but a cool 78 inside, which was especially good since it was a late afternoon game. Ubaldo Jimenez was pitching for Colorado, which means I have now seen all the pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter this season; Dallas Braden, Armando Gallaraga, Edwin Jackson, Roy Halladay, and now Jimenez. We also got some good seats, since they weren't that expensive, and we got free mini stadiums of their spring training stadium opening next spring. It was a good game, the DBacks won 3-1, and it's another cap on the wall. We were going to go to Cooperstown after to get a beer, so walked past the Suns' stadium, and up to Cooperstown. It was quite a letdown. Kinda dirty, small, and not very cool at all. We waited about 5 minutes for a beer before I looked at D and Matt and said, "Bail?" They agreed quickly, and we headed back to Matt's house for some boozing.

We drank all night with Matt, his girlfriend Milly, his sister Kari (who we later found out isn't his sister at all), Koda, Wonky, and Jose. It was awesome, we drank a lot, played some pool, ate a whole box of Cheezits, and just had fun. We woke up in the morning, and hung out for a while before heading back to Sierra Vista, but not before stopping at Whataburger, of course. Another awesome weekend in Arizona.

Good goes to Great.

Last weekend Dustin and I went out drinking on Friday. We went to the bar we bounce at, Dillon's, then we went to the local strip bar, Dusk Till Dawn.

Saturday we went out to Bisbee, which was awesome. We had a tour scheduled at the Queen Mine. It's really involved. You have to put on a hard hat and rain coat and they give you a flashlight. then you get on a little train, and go into the mine. It's one of the world's most successful copper mines, producing over 8 billion pounds of copper until it closed in 1975. So in we go, and at 1400 feet inside, you go into the Southwest mine, and they show you how everything works, from drilling, to blasting to hauling. Interestingly, when they brought mules down to haul the stuff out, the mules stayed in underground stables, but they all died blind. Then they bring you into a large room where you can see all the ore deposits. Then you come back out. It's really an awesome tour, and we both really enjoyed it.

We left the tour and went to the Old Bisbee Brewing Company. They had some really good beers. A belgian whitbier, a good pale ale, and their signature Copper City Ale. They also sell a 64 ounce jug that you can fill with beer to go. Dustin got one, we drank it that night. While we were at the brewery, we met some locals who told us a little about the city, including a water fall that only flows during this time of year just outside of downtown. So, naturally, we went to check that out.

We got there, and it was beautiful. We decided to head up the "trail" to the top. Well, the trail lasts about 100 feet, then you are basically rock climbing. But we did it anyway. We got higher and higher until we reached a point where shoes were doing us no good. So we took them off. There was a point that was not as easy to climb. I lost my footing, and fell about 25 feet. But I caught myself, and kept going. We got to a point where we couldn't go much higher, and enjoyed the view until Dustin realized the sun has started going down, and it was going to be a bitch to get back down. So we found our shoes, and started back down. The rocks were loose in spots, I missed one, and feel into the rock and into the water. That one gave me a mean bruise on my knee. But I made it back down. Everything on both of us was wet. We were, um, not at all prepared to climb it, but we made the best of it. So went back into the city to find the people that told us about it, and were unsuccessful, but we did notice a neat little nightlife in Bisbee. And that's how a random trip to Bisbee for a mine tour turned into an awesome adventure.

Mountains and Mountains

Last weekend was EPIC. But first, Dustin found out he was in fact going to be deployed, probably in the next 6-8 weeks. So, this turns out to be just a long vacation, which I am okay with.

Saturday we went out to Coronado National Park, just north of the Mexico border. We went to the welcome center, got some maps, and flashlights, and went to the climbing point. We started up hill, and ran into something we didn't expect - really thin air. You always hear about that stuff, but man, it's insane how hard it is to breathe. So, we ventured upwards, taking frequent breaks and finally reached the top of Coronado Peak, elevation 6,824 feet. We enjoyed the view of Mexico, and walked around the top a bit. We climbed out to a rock cliff, took a crap ton of pictures, and finally started back down.

We went to visitor center to refill the water bottles before trekking to the cave. It was .75 practically straight up to the cave mouth. It was brutal, almost worse than the mountain, although, we hadn't eaten much, and we were already tired from, you know, climbing a mountain. So after the ridiculous incline to the cave, we climbed down into it. It seemed a lot smaller than it actually was. We shined the flashlights, and saw nothing but wall, but once we got down into it, we saw that it actually went really, really far. We explored, tried to fit into small openings, got really, really dirty, and enjoyed the nice, cool, temperature before heading back to the climb to leave to cave. The walk back saw a few lizards, some strange bugs, and a challenging downhill trek back to the car, and we didn't have much water left after the journey up. But it was worth it, the cave was really cool, and worth the extra work to get there.

It was seriously one of the coolest days of my life. I'm really glad we got to do it. We were staring when we finally left, and got some pizza to recover and rest, because Sunday, we were going to Tucson.

We had high hopes for Tucson, it didn't really deliver. I had three ideas for things to do, first was check out the Mission San Xavier del Bac, and indian church, and an old Spanish mission just south of downtown. We thought it was going to be really cool, and from the outside it was. But the little museum was, well, just a little museum, the inside was small, and it didn't exactly knock out socks off. It was cool because it's one of the things you're supposed to see in Southern Arizona, but we didn't spend more than 30 minutes there I think, including the gift shop. So into downtown we went.

So next our plan was to check out the University of Arizona. We did, it's small, and seemed to have very few distinguishing characteristics that set it apart from other colleges. But we parked and strolled around a bit. Then got back on the road. When we were driving in, we saw a U of A "A" painted on the top of a peak, and thought it was cool. Upon closer inspection, we noticed you could drive up there, and check it out. So we drove around for almost an hour to find the road to the top. After stopping to ask for directions, we found the road to A Mountain, or Sentinel Peak. We got there, took some awesome views of downtown Tucson, and climbed to the top, because we're climbers now.

Then we went to our original purpose, the Tucson Toros game. We drove over to Hi Corbett Field, where the Toros were playing the St. George Roadrunners. It was also dollar hot dog night, so that was exciting. We got a six pack and drank a little in the car before going in. We were sure it was going to rain, but mercifully, it held off for the whole game. We enjoyed the desert night, even watching the Toros lose 5-1. When it was over, we went back to good ole Sierra Vista. Such an incredible weekend. Truly one to remember forever.

The Great Arizona Adventure

Well here I am in Arizona. Sierra Vista to be exact. First things first, details.

Dustin's marriage wasn't working, she went back to Michigan. They didn't get divorced. He has an extra room the Army pays for. I was gonna visit, and that turned into me moving down here for a while.

So, I got off the plane in Tuscon, and the first thing I see is landscaped cactus. Then we went to Whataburger, which is always amazing. I freakin love Whataburger. Then we drove the hourish southeast to Fort Huachuca, he showed me around, then did a loop around Sierra Vista, and finally to the apartment. It's a nice little place, perfect for two single guys. So we just kinda chilled that first night, Dustin had to work, and I didn't adapt very well to the time change.

Friday, we went to Tombstone. We walked the strip there, then went over to see the Shootout at the OK Corral. It was awesome, and loud, and a lot more involved than I expected. Doc Holliday spoke in poems, Virgil Earp was the man, and the people that got shot and killed, you never see get up, which I thought was really neat. Then with the ticket for the gunfight, you get the exact newspaper from the day after the gunfight. Dustin was even nice enough to send his to dad. Then there's also a movie/show things that was kinda neat. There was other stuff we wanted to do, but we decided not to, so we'd have a reason to go back, since it's only 20 minutes away.

Then he signed us up to help people move through an ad he posted on Craigslist. I thought, "Hey, good idea D, make a little extra cash, move a few boxes, good call man." Jesus, it was literally the dirtiest house I've ever seen, I almost couldn't stand the smell... So, we spent the better part of two days helping them. It really wasn't that bad, it was just gross. But we got through it.

We ate both breakfast and lunch at Sunny D's... or Sunny's D, depending on weather you're looking at the sign or the side of the building. It was nice, no D's obviously, but good food.

We shopped, got me settled, went swimming in the pool, and when the pool was closed, we went up to the water park which had a wave pool, diving pool, water slide, all the good stuff. Then D had to get back to work. But we've been playing a lot of Mario Kart, cooking, and planning our next trip; Coronado we think, where you can climb the trail to the top of a mountain and see into Mexico. Or Tuscon... who knows!

Jay Leno's Comedy Stimulus Plan

I had a great time at the Palace tonight. This was the show I waited in line for free tickets for on my birthday. It was a great experience. We got there, and parking was free. We waited in line for about five minutes to get into the show, then as soon as they scanned our tickets, we got a free bag of Doritos and a coupon for a free Coke. Then we went down to find seats. We were right in the middle, facing the stage, maybe 10 rows up. We could have sat on the floor, but we decided we didn't want to try to look through people, and we wanted the elevated seats. Then, we had like an hour and a half to kill. We got there early so we could get nice seats. We chatted about a bunch of different things, just enjoyed passing the time until Jay Leno was to come on. At some point we noticed there was to be an opening act.

The opening act was the Sunshine Messengers; better known as the Palace House Band. They're the guys that play at all the Pistons games. They were awesome, everyone really got into it, and they played a really good 30-40 minutes. It was a pleasant surprise to be sure. Everyone really seemed to enjoy it, toes were a tappin'. Then they introduced a "special guest" to introduce Leno, it was Kid Rock! Everyone jumped to their feet to cheer for the Kid. He said a few cool things about Detroit, then out came Jay.

The first thing he said was, "It's great to be here in Detroit! Oh wait, I mean Auburn Hills, sorry." Already, everyone was rolling. He did jokes about politicians, airplane travel, dogs vs. cats, condoms in schools, getting older, every topic you can think of, he hit it! People were rolling. I was constantly wiping tears away. I could hear mom and dad roaring with laughter next to me. He told a funny story about going to get napkins for his mom for Thanksgiving, and coming home with sanitary napkins. He talked about how the world was changing, he just hit everything he said. It was a hilarious show! I laughed so hard. I'm so glad I got to go.

At the end of the show, he asked to turn on lights, and said a bunch of nice things about Detroit, and why he came here, and how he appreciated our place in history and society. Very from the heart. Then he thanked Coke and Pepsi for sponsoring the event, and of course, the Palace. And then we went home. And just for good measure, they were handing out free Pepsi and Pespi Max outside for everyone on their way home. It was an awesome evening, and we didn't spend a dime! Which, by the way, was the whole point. So, Thank You Jay Leno!! It was perfect!!

Sparty ON!

Had a sweet weekend. Friday went out with TJ, and PJ and the boys again. We went to Pub 13, well, actually, the bar above Pub 13. Had a great time, went to bed in the equipment room at 3:30 am, and woke up at 6:00. I was tired, but at least EMU Football bought a nice breakfast for everyone. That helped with the hangover, or lack of one. The scrimmage went pretty good, that was fun. Then I went home, and took a nappy... and then my phone rang.

Hough was on his way back from Sandusky, Mi. He wanted to know where I was going to watch the Michigan State vs. UConn game. I said I had no plans. So... I met up with him and some friends, and we went downtown. After looking for a place to park for a while, we ended up in Greektown. We watched the game at Malaka's Detroiter Bar, and of course went crazy when State won. Then we went to BDubs for the UNC vs. Nova game, and I was back and in bed by midnight, it was perfect. What a great time in the D/Ypsi.

This is the only picture that has surfaced from Saturday, there were six of us in this car...

Hooray for Ypsi!

I went out to Ypsi Saturday night. I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants, I had such a good time, it was insane. Got to hang out with PJ, TJ, Steve, Fretz, Chad, and a bunch of other football guys. Classic. Also went to the softball house for a while, in the pouring rain, drunk. Yea, that was a crazy ass night. Treppa went through a wall, the "bonfire" was really just them burning their garbage, and we threw a few hundred paint balls at their house. Awesome.

In more creativity, I made a new wallpaper for myself this afternoon. I needed a new one anyway.