Phoenix

Hi Everyone!

Just thought I'd take a quick minute to let you all know that we are safe and sound in Phoenix. One day of the AFHE conference down, one to go! So far the conference side of things have gone just great... other than that they have the sound from all the rooms fed into one room so we can have all our equipment together. Great, right? Well, yesterday they locked us out of the room! Thankfully the guys had gone over a few minutes before the session started and were able to get in and everything going within a couple minutes of the start of the session.

We'll post a bunch of pictures when we get home or later on this trip as I've got to sign off soon and head over to the conference center, but here are a few quick highlights.

Sunday and Monday driving went great. Monday night we stayed at the "legendary" Howard Johnson in Tucumcari. As usual, the proprietor recognized us as we pulled up and had the papers all ready for Josh to sign us into the same rooms as always when he went inside. As Josh checked in, he ducked back into the office behind the counter and said, "Oh, you left a shirt, tie and pair of pants last time you were here. I knew you'd be back..." Sure enough, there was Jonathan's long-lost shirt, slacks, and bow-tie. He had saved it since we had stopped by on our way home from Albuquerque this past April! We all got a good laugh out of that!

Tuesday morning Josiah woke up with a fever. Thankfully, he didn't get any other symptoms, and no one else picked up his fever.

Wednesday morning Josiah still had a mild fever, but we all went over to the Grand Canyon to hike anyway. Just after we pulled into Grand Canyon National Park guess what we saw? A deer jump out in the road in front of us! We just can't get away from them. Jeanine - we didn't quite make it down to those spots with the good acoustics. It was so hot and with Josiah still getting over his fever and Mom wearing a knee brace to start with... Well, we didn't make it quite as far down into the canyon.

Thursday we drove down to Phoenix - deciding reluctantly to bypass the scenic route through Sedona and stick to the highways. They were bad enough. The temperature was 90+ degrees and rising as we drove up out of the Verde Valley. Of course pulling the trailer up an incline like that was a bit much for Josh's Suburban and we were only going about 20 miles an hour by the time we got to the top, and we had the windows down and the heat on... Nothing like it!

Phoenix. I wouldn't have guessed it, but so far Phoenix has the most residue of the Wild West than any other area I've ever driven through. New Mexico has the scenery of the old cowboy movies, but Phoenix... Well, as we entered town we passed road signs for "Horsethief Valley," "Bloody Basin," "Deadman's Wash," "Pioneer Road," "Carefree Highway," and the likes! No, they were not commercialized areas, and Phoenix does not have a "wild west" motif. It's just honestly what the roads and washes, etc. were called! :-)

Well, we've got to sign off here and head over to the Civic Plaza for another day of convention work! Adios!