Snake!

We were hiking in Usery Park last week with Ross's sister Lee who was in town for a visit. Karen spotted a rattlesnake crossing the trail in front of us! This was the first rattlesnake we've ever seen here in Arizona. A couple of days later we were hiking in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Lee had turned back early so we were alone on the trail. Ross was behind Karen when he spotted a rattlesnake crossing the trail only about 20' ahead of us! He shouted "stop, stop, stop" and Karen stopped in time. The snake was moving fairly slowly most likely because it had just "woken up" from hibernating. The snake must not have felt threatened because it never shook it's rattle. Ross got a few pictures of it with a spare point and shoot camera he carries in his pack. Unfortunately he didn't have his DSLR camera with him. He didn't get any closer than about 10' from the snake. This snake, a western diamondback rattlesnake, was about 3' long.

	The snake crossing the trail.
	Closeup of the snake with it's head raised from about 10' away. That was more than close enough!

And Now For Something Completely Different

We like trying new things in life and recently we felt it was time for something new! Friends here at Sun Life told us about working at the concession stands at a local stadium during spring training. As baseball fans know Phoenix is the home of the "Cactus League" with over a dozen teams doing their spring training here. Our friends work at the Tempe Diablo Stadium where the LA Angels train so we applied for jobs there. We were accepted and went through the training. In order to work as "food handlers" we had to take a test and get licensed to work in food services in Maricopa County. We both studied the test material and passed the test on the first try. These are short term jobs as spring training only runs a little over one month. We have now worked at 3 of the games. Both of us were assigned to be cooks. We make hot dogs, french fries, corn dogs, pretzels and nachos. It's a hectic but fun job!

	Tempe Diablo Stadium.
	Karen in the kitchen at Concession Stand #3, our workplace at the stadium. We are 2 of the 3 cooks in the stand.
	Gary, the head cook in our concession stand. Besides being a great guy he taught us everything we know. Thanks Gary!
	Vicki, our stand leader. She and her husband Ed are the friends who told us about these jobs. Ed is in charge of several stands. Yes, we do have friends in high places.
	French fries cooking. Healthy? No. Tasty? You bet!

Tennis Tournament

Today was the Cal-Am tennis tournament. Unlike the poker tournament (see prior posting) there was no qualifying. Anyone who plays tennis was welcome to attend. This was a real low key event. The only scoring was on games (no sets) and they even said that you could switch partners if the teams weren't even. This was a just for fun tournament. Like the poker tournament Cal-Am provided a nice breakfast and lunch free for all players. We both had a lot of fun and we were successful in not embarrassing ourselves too much on the court.

Karen on the court at the Cal-Am tennis tournament.

Poker Tournament

We play Texas hold em poker twice a week here at Sun Life. A couple weeks ago they held a playoff to determine who would represent Sun Life in the Cal-Am tournament. Cal-Am owns several parks in the Phoenix area and each park got to send 8 players to the tournament. Luck was with us on the qualifying night and we both made the top 8. The tournament was held on February 20 at the Canyon Vista park. Cal-Am put on a nice tournament providing free breakfast and lunch to all the players. Ross went out early but Karen hung in there and made it to the final table. All 7 players at the final table got nice shirts. The top 3 players received prize money but unfortunately Karen went out 4th. She was the top player from Sun Life. Everyone had a great time!

The final table at the Cal-Am Texas hold em tournament. Karen is to the right of the lady in pink at the table wearing her winner's shirt.

Today's Hike

There was rain in the forecast for today so we decided to do a quick hike and hopefully not get caught in it. We hiked the Merkle/Vista Trail and stayed dry. The rain earlier had cleared the air so the views were pretty good from the top of the hill.

	The Superstition Mountains in the distance.
	Something we don't see very often here in the Valley of the Sun - clouds!
	The ocotillos have started getting leaves and will soon be in bloom. We'll make sure to get pictures when they do.

s/v Attitudes Original Blog

When we were traveling around in our sailboat, Attitudes, and then in our first RV we created a site at geocities to track our adventure. We didn't know it at the time but we had created an early blog although we don't think the term existed then. Ross spent several hours this evening posting a copy of that original blog to a blogspot blog. The problem with geocities is that they limit bandwidth so you could only look at a few pages before they cut you off. Now it can be viewed whenever desired. We hope you get a chance to look at it if you haven't seen it before, and if you have then we hope you enjoy it again!

Original s/v Attitudes blog

Minute Clinic

Last week Karen came down with a sinus infection. She's had a lot of them over the years so she knew exactly what it was. All she needed was a prescription for some antibiotics. Rather than try to get in to see her doctor, and pay several hundred dollars for that privilege, we decided to try the Minute Clinic at CVS. It was only $59 to see a nurse practitioner and get the prescription. All in all a good value, the only problem was that we were there for 2 1/2 hours! "Several Hour Clinic" would have been a more honest name. Ross waited outside (how long can you look around in a CVS?) and read. When sitting on the concrete got too cold he stood. At one point he was leaning against a trash can when a guy who had just left CVS came up to him and asked "how are you doing?" Ross replied "Fine" and then the guy told said "there's a half-way house near here where you can get a bed and they can fix you up with a job." Apparently he thought Ross was homeless! Too funny! The really funny part was that he was playing with his iPhone when the guy approached him. Guess lots of homeless people have iPhones.

"You're Sick...We're Quick!" Not this time you weren't!

End Of An Era

The problems of the US auto industry have trickled down to us. Last week I found out that Visteon was not renewing my contract. For the past almost 8 years I've provided Unix, web and programming support to the Utica Plant remotely. Before that I worked there on site for several years. It's pretty amazing to recall all the different locations from which I have worked. Literally coast to coast to coast and even offshore of some of those coasts on our sailboats. I've connected using telephone lines, cell phones, DSL, cable modems, wifi and wireless broadband cards. I've done my work while sitting in our boat's cockpit, at picnic tables in RV parks and in hotel rooms all around the country and even traveling down the highway at 60+ mph. It's been a real "trip" :) I'm sad that it's over but all good things must eventually come to an end. And I've always kept in mind that my original agreement to provide remote support was supposed to only last for 9 months. That stretched into almost 8 years so I can't complain!

Ross

Today's Hike

We've had some really great weather here in Mesa the last few days, sunny and low to mid 70's. Today we went to Usery Park and hiked the Cat Peaks/Pass Trail. This trail is a loop about 3 miles long that's fairly flat with several wash crossings and one short but steep section to the top of the pass. We can tell that the desert is getting ready to bloom. The ocotillos have leaves on them and the ground is covered with small green plants that look like grass. We'll make sure to get out and take some pictures when the bloom begins and post them. The trail was crowded today. Of course on this trail that means we saw about a dozen other hikers, 3 mountain bikers and 6 people on horseback. A regular traffic jam it was ;)

Karen and an ocotillo. You can see people on horseback rounding a bend behind her. Click here to read about the ocotillo.

New Hike

Today we did a new hike in a new area. In the city of Scottsdale is the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. There are several trails in the Preserve with the longest almost 5 miles each way. We parked at the Lost Dog Wash Access Area and hiked up the Lost Dog Wash Trail to the intersection with the Ringtail Trail. From there we hiked up to the Lost Dog Overlook. In all the hike was about 3 miles with about 300' of elevation gain. Next time there we'll probably try one of the more aggressive trails.

	Karen leaving the Lost Dog Overlook and continuing a short way up the Ringtail Trail.
	Teddy Bear or Jumping Cholla. You don't want to mess with any cactus but these are particularly nasty! Ross knows this from a couple of too-close encounters over the years. Click here to read about Teddy Bear Cholla.

Apple Does It Again!

Another success (in my humble opinion) for Apple! On Saturday I finally got around to updating the firmware on my iPhone. OK, the upgrade came out several months ago - I've been busy. Besides taking a LONG time, almost 1 1/2 hours, the upgrade went smoothly. After the phone rebooted I had a new icon - the App Store. This is an online store where you can buy applications for the iPhone. They have tons of games and applications that you can download instantly to your iPhone. And many of the applications are free! I've downloaded several free applications and actually paid for 2 others - 99 cents each. The variety of offerings is impressive! Strangely, given this universe of offerings, currently the most popular application is one called iFart which is described as "The world's most popular digital fart machine!" That aside, the App Store makes the arguably best smart phone even better!

Ross

Disclaimer: I don't get anything for saying nice things about Apple and their products :)

Movie Theater

Good and bad news to report. Our favorite movie theater, the Super Saver Cinemas at the Superstition Springs mall, is gone! Their listings quit showing up online a couple of days ago and when we called their phone number it just rang and rang. Yesterday we went to the mall to see what was going on. The marquee was empty and there was a "thanks for the business but we're gone" sign hanging in the box office window. It was our favorite because they only charged $2.00 general admission with $1.50 Tuesdays. Yes, they showed second run movies but we've gotten used to waiting to see most movies. $4 to see a movie second run is much more attractive to us than $14 for a first run movie... in most cases.

Now the good news. We found another second run movie theater in Tempe (that didn't take very long, did it?) It's more expensive ($3.00 general admission and $2.00 Tuesdays) and it's almost a 20 minute drive but the seats are MUCH more comfortable! To say the seats at the Super Saver were "uncomfortable" is being very charitable! A good imitation of a medieval torture device is a better description.

Our sadly departed former favorite movie theater.

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!

DTV

Unless you've been living in a cave or just got back from Neptune you know that as of February 17, 2009 all TV broadcasts must be digital instead of analog. If you get your TV signal via cable or satellite then you don't need to worry about the switch. We're currently getting our TV from DirecTV (satellite). Our monthly bill is over $80!! We decided to see if we could "live" with the new DTV (digital TV), dump our DirecTV and save $80 per month. Our first step was applying for the government converter box coupon. You get 2 $40 coupons towards the purchase of converter boxes. Click here for more info and to apply for your coupons. It took a couple of weeks for the coupons to arrive and what we actually got looked more like credit cards than "coupons". We took one of them to Best Buy and bought an Insignia converter box. Based on our research it was one of the best boxes for the money. It rang up at $65 total so we had to pay $25 out of pocket for it. We rushed home (not really) and hooked it up. The installation is very straight forward and the box is very easy to use. After it scans for channels we found that we can receive about 30 digital channels! The best surprise was the picture quality. It's OUTSTANDING! And you even get a guide like you do on cable or satellite except it only shows what's currently playing and what's on next. Today we bought another Insignia converter box with our second coupon. On Monday we're going to cancel our DirecTV service. Based on the comments we read while researching converter boxes a lot of people are canceling their cable or satellite services.

We're very happy with DTV, but after dealing with all this digital/analog/satellite/converters/etc stuff we found ourselves wondering "when did TV get so freaking complicated?!?"

New DTV converter box on the top right. Under it is the DirecTV box that will soon be leaving us. Note the old "rabbit ears" antenna on the left on top of the cable modem and wireless router. Yup, you need an external antenna with the DTV converter box!

Zion National Park

One of the reasons we bought our Casita was so we could take off whenever we wanted and see the sights. At the end of September we decided to give it a try and visit Zion National Park. You can get to Zion by driving straight north from Phoenix, but we decided to detour a bit and visit Las Vegas. We stayed at the Sam's Town RV Park. While not as nice as being on "the strip" we enjoyed Sam's Town. The buffet was as good as any we had tried and a lot cheaper. The nickle video poker machines cost the same (hahaha).

From Las Vegas it was only about 3 hours of driving to get to Zion National Park. We stayed in the Watchman Campground. It's unusual for a national park campground in that it had electricity. That was most welcome as the week that we were there the highs were in the mid 90's! Running the A/C during the day prevented coming home to baked kitty. The Virgin River, the force responsible for creating Zion Canyon, flowed a few hundred feet behind our campsite.

Zion has a free shuttle bus system that we made good use of. During the prime season (about May - October) the road into the canyon is closed to all private vehicles. Before the shuttle system was introduced it was common to have several thousand vehicles in the canyon fighting for about 400 parking spaces. Needless to say they had to do something. The shuttle system is a great way to get around! There's a bus once every 5-10 minutes so you never have to wait long.

We did several hikes while at Zion and were constantly amazed by the scenery! We said "WOW!" a lot. There really aren't that many hikes to do at Zion and most of them are either very short or very long. 3 of the hikes that we particularly enjoyed were the Watchman Trial, the Emerald Pools and the Canyon Overlook Trail.

The Watchman Trial leaves right from the visitor center which is next to the campground. It climbs up and around a small canyon and leads to a great overview. From the end of the trail you get good views looking up into Zion Canyon.

The Canyon Overlook Trail starts right after the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel. Click here for info on this interesting tunnel. It's only about a 1/2 mile hike to the overlook but shear drop offs make it not for those with fear of heights. The view from the overlook into part of Zion Canyon was amazing!

The Emerald Pools are a series of 3 pools formed by the north fork of the Virgin River. They are the lower, middle and upper pools. The name comes from the fact that algae growing in the water tints it green. By taking a wrong turn at the start of the trail we managed to visit all 3 of the pools. The lower pools are easy to get to but the middle and especially the upper require a lot more effort. It was well worth it! Seeing standing water in the desert is pretty amazing. Seeing waterfalls is even more so.

Next time we're at Zion we'll try some of the harder hikes. This trip was a good introduction and definitely left us wanting more.

On the way home we sent another couple of days in Las Vegas at the same RV park.

	Looking up into Zion Canyon from the Watchman Trail.
	View from the end of the Watchman Trail looking down in the campground. The vehicle and trailer at the top of the picture are our Casita and Xterra (Hi Jake!) This picture was taken with a 300mm zoom lens.
	The park road and shuttle bus end at the Temple of Sinawava. We did the 2 mile walk that takes you up to the start of the Narrows. Next time we'll get the right kind of footwear so we can hike up the river.
	Zion Canyon from the end of the Canyon Overlook Trial.
	Karen at the Upper Emerald Pool.
	Fun and helpful sign at the start of the Emerald Pools Trail.
	Zion shuttle bus.