Waldo's BBQ

Karen wanted to try a new (to us) nearby restaurant, Waldo's BBQ, so we rode our bikes there for lunch today. The food was very good and the prices were quite reasonable! The owners have a great sense of humor that shows in the decor. Here are a few pictures from Ross & Karen's excellent barbecue adventure.

	Waldo's BBQ on Main in Mesa, AZ.
	Karen enjoying here barbecue lunch (and part of Ross's).
	Mascot outside of the restaurant.
	Sign on the door.
	Reassuring (we think) sign inside of the restaurant.

Just A Nice Trail

When we're in the mood for a quick hike we usually head for Usery Park and hike the Merkle/Vista Trail. It only takes about 30 minutes to do this hike. It starts out on the Merkle Trail, a very flat trail that circles a couple of small hills. After hike half way around the hills we intercept the Vista Trail which takes us up and over both hills with a few hundred feet of elevation gain/loss. Besides the nice views there's a cool bee hive at the top of the second hill that is right next to the trail. This time of year the bees are all dormant but in warmer weather there's a lot of activity there!

Karen starting down the Vista Trail just past the bee hive. This picture was taken a couple of days ago the last time we did this hike.

Cool Free Wifi

That last blog entry (and this one) was created at a McDonalds using their wifi provided by AT&T. Recently I found out that the AT&T wifi is free for iPhone owners - cool!! We like free :) The only problem using our iPhone to create blog entries is that there's no way to add pictures, at least no way we've been able to find so far.

Las Vegas

Last spring we had booked a trip to Las Vegas for the middle of December. We were supposed to have left on Monday but the weather forecast was looking pretty bad when we checked on Sunday morning. So we called New York New York and asked if we could arrive a day early. They said there were plenty of rooms available, so no problem! We threw some clothes in a backpack and hit the road. The weather there on Monday was cold and rainy but we got out of town in time to miss the snow (!) they got mid week. We had a good time playing nickle video poker and eating at the buffets. We may head back at the end of January because the room rates are so cheap right now!

Bike Riding

As readers of our blog know we ride our bikes a lot. Over the last couple of months we've been riding even more. We've taken to riding our bikes instead of driving whenever possible. We ride our bikes to lunch, to the library, to visit Ross's aunt and uncle, to the grocery store, well, you get the idea. When we head out by bike our typical ride is about 10 miles per day and sometimes a lot more. A few weeks ago we rode to Usery Park and back and logged about 22 miles.

The Phoenix metro area is relatively "bike friendly." In our area of Mesa most streets either have bike lanes or are designated bike routes. We try sticking to the quieter streets but we do ride on the major roads if necessary. We also try riding on the sidewalk whenever possible (we checked, and it is legal to ride on the sidewalks here in Mesa.) For additional safety we bought a couple of safety triangles and pinned them to our backpacks but our main defense is being really careful and observant!

	Bike lane on Higley, a major road in Mesa. Note that we're riding on the sidewalk.
	Safety triangle on Karen's backpack.

Sunsets

We don't get many clouds here in the "valley of the sun," but when we do they produce some fantastic sunsets. The pictures below are from two different evenings. Hope you like them!