These Children Cannot Be Trusted

Okay, yes, they are cute... 

But they are tricksters!

Sunrise on the Border

 

My Favorite Days of the Year, Part 1 of 5: Championship Sunday

I am interrupting my road trip adventures to feature one of my five favorite days of the year: Championship Sunday. 

Two games. The final four remaining teams. Six straight hours of great football (usually). 

These shrimp were exactly what I expected: not spicy. Not particularly good, either, but I ate all of them. 

I also made a teriyaki chicken lavash during the first game. This was much better.

Neither game went the way I wanted it to. Oh well. 

Mikado Sushi

 

Not the best Asian meal of the trip, but still delicious. And lots of fun. 

Two Drinks

 

Jonas mentioned a Roy Rogers to me and that suddenly sounded really good, so we went to the store and bought grenadine and coke. It hit the spot. I drank two in less than five minutes. 

I also bought some Coors Light at the market and drank a few on the patio.

The Perch Brewery

 

This place was a lot of fun. 

Some notes: 

1) I had one of their beers: American Weenie. It's a pale wheat ale brewed for weenies like me who would rather enjoy a smooth pint on a cool January morning than one of the overhopped beers sucked down by 29-year-old hipsters. 

2) Jonas had their IPA because he is a 29-year-old hipster who loves to suck down overhopped beers. 

3) This was my first sip of alcohol in 49 days. I'm not entirely sure the last time I went that long without a drink. It's possible that is the longest stretch I have gone this century. 

4) The birds are all rescue birds that have been abused or abandoned. 

5) Jonas had the lobster pasta that he said was good, but he didn't eat very much of it because he had a hangover. But he still finished his beer. He reminds me of another 29-year-old I once knew. 

6) The Korean Short Rib Pizza sounded like it could go either way. Amazing or disgusting. It was amazing. I had a lot of great food on this trip but this was the single best item, and it was my first meal. 

One of the Great Lesser-Known Drives in the West

My family and I took multiple vacations per year when I was a child, but not one of them were by airplane until I was 17 years old. 

We drove.  

Sometimes as far as Canada. Once all the way to Boston. 

We drove a lot. 

And then I started taking out-of-state road trips on my own at the age of 19. I have always loved the open road in the West. 

But until 12 months ago, I had never driven the above route from Holbrook to Phoenix.

(To be honest, until 12 months ago, I had only been to Phoenix once in my entire adult life - and that was just driving through. I didn't even get out of the car. It never held much allure to me: If I were going to visit someplace hot and crowded, why not just stay in Los Angeles or go to Las Vegas?)

The drive starts just outside the Petrified Forest National Park and ascends into the Tonto National Forest, full of aspens, pines, and bears. It cuts through Payson, a mountain town I promise to visit this spring or summer. It then descends several thousand feet down through the low mountains that surround Phoenix, into the heart of the Sonoran desert. 

And like all of my favorite drives, you do not see nearly as many cars as you do on the interstate. 

Er, Make That 37

Road Trip: The Beginning

Heading West

No more posts for 10 days or so.

See you soon.

 

Hopefully. 

I Am Drunk With Power

I took over as General Manager on January 1st and immediately began treating this rule as a suggestion rather than set in stone. 

Here are some of our furry friends: 

Marlon

Ruddy

Simon

Malcolm X

Poop Dog