The finale to my travel blitzkreig was this weekend. A flight out to Arizona for my sister’s wedding. A three hour time difference back and forward in a 3 day span whacks out your body clock pretty well so we were tired when we shouldn’t be, hungry when we shouldn’t be and awake when we should be asleep. Crazy.
Our travel day on Friday started at 5:30 am when we left our house and ended at 2:30 Arizona time. The flight out was fine. Our first time flying on Continental and we were impressed by the planes and the service. Every plane we were on (except the Cessna) were very modern and clean. The crew was all very polite. What impressed the most was they gave us an actual donut for breakfast and they brought the drink cart around a SECOND time asking if you would like anything else. Unheard of in todays tight belted airline industry.
Once we landed in Phoenix we got our first taste of “dry” heat. You normally hear people from that area boast of how it is hot but it is a “dry” heat so you don’t mind it. Well I tend to disagree. Ok, instead of fealing like a steamroom like Florida does in the summer it feels like a sauna in Arizona. Either way it’s HOT! It was 100 plus in Phoenix.
The wedding was in Sierra Vista which is south of Tuscon. A 3 hour drive from Phoenix. The drive was very interesting. Lots of beautiful mountains surrounding the flat desert. Cactus are everywhere. I thought they were cool looking. Ali thought less of them and labeled the ones with no side branches as turd-like. We crossed a bridge that said it was over a certain river. There was no river, just a dried river bed. Evidently there is only a river there during their wet, monsoon season. Pretty much eveything at ground level has a coat of dirt or dust on it. The speed limit on the interstate was 75 mph so we were able to chew up the 180 miles in sub 3 hour time.
Friday evening we got to meet up with my mom, my dad, step mom, and my brothers and sister. We were all staying at the same hotel. The hotel was fine. We got together a caravan and headed over to meet my sister and brother-in-law to be. We got to his parents house for the rehearsal cookout. Their house was like 95% of the others we saw in that they have rock lawns. Instead of grass, their yard is all pebbles. Instead of plants for landscape pieces they use bigger rocks. Not something I would like but I guess in AZ you have little choice. We got to meet Damon (groom) and his family. They are Canadian and very friendly. Damon is very outgoing and seems to be a great guy. We had a nice dinner but bagged out at about 8:30 local time as the time difference was hitting us hard.
The wedding day was a hectic, sweaty affair. The wedding was at 11 am OUTDOORS. To be fair, Sierra Vista is not as hot as Phoenix due to it’s higher elevation. It was probably ONLY in the the low to mid 90’s. 🙂 We showed up at 9 to do pictures a full 2 hours before the ceremony. My sis looked great in her wedding gown. I assumed my sis didn’t care about that bad luck thing if you see the groom before the wedding. After pictures we had to set up some decoration on the chairs that were set up outside by a practice putting green. The ceremony was a bit disjointed but thankfully it was quick and a well timed cloud and breeze gave a brief reprieve from the heat. The reception itself was indoors. But the DJ and dance floor was OUTDOORS on a covered pavilion. By the time it was over, anyone that stayed for the dancing part was a sweaty rag. The entire event was over by 3:30. Afterwards, we went to the new house Damon and Torrin were moving into. He built it, as he is a building contractor. It’s a great place and I’m sure they will be very happy there. Torrin had the bathroom decked out in her favorite color, purple. We then went back to Damons parents house to watch them open gifts. An odd thing to me as I don’t remember having or wanting to have anyone watch me open wedding gifts after either of my weddings but maybe it is a Canadian thing. About 6pm, we said our good byes, wished everyone well and left with a 3 hour drive back to Phoenix ahead of us.
The drive again was very scenic. We saw the fires in the Tuscon area first hand. At one point we saw 5 or 6 separate paths of smoke burning down the mountainside. Kind of freaky to see. As we got to Phoenix we were navigating towards our hotel. Since we booked it, we were worried that the hotel we reserved would be a dive. It was one of the lowest priced options on Expedia.com and it was a Days Inn so I hoped it would be ok. As we approached, we passed several adult stores. Shortly afterwards, we passed what appeared to be several prostitutes walking the streets. It wasn’t looking good. I pulled up and went in looking around to see if our hotel had any “per hour” rates posted. Thankfully they didn’t and it wound up being fine. It was clean enough and everything in the room worked. Another early morning followed. 4:45 am the alarm went off.
We returned the rental car after mistakingly going to the wrong lot. As I returned it, the clerk came back into the desk after inspecting the vehicle and asked me how the side mirror got damaged. “What”? I said, and went out to look at it myself. The plastic casing of the mirror had a big crack in it. I came back in and said I had no idea how it got there. In the meantime, he found out that the crack was preexisting. Crisis averted. We got to the airport and hopped our plane. The travel was fine but we had 2 layovers this time. Both of them were in the 2 hour range. Blah. All this layover time gave me a chance to finally try to beat the computer on my Palm Zire chess game. No luck. In total I played over 20 games and got spanked everytime. Damn it I used to be good at chess.
The last leg of our flights was a CESSNA from Tampa to Fort Myers. Neither of us had ever flown on a commercial cessna before and we both had been dreading this last leg. It was a 10 seat plane. Ali actually got to sit right next to the pilot in the front seat! It wound up being way cool and the best flight of the trip. The experience was unique as well as the viewpoint. We could see everything. Our top speed was 180 mph and our top elevation was somewhere around 9000 feet. I was surprised with how little stick work is done by the pilot. He basically sets a heading and the plane goes there without his input. Ali wound up really enjoying the flight as well. We landed safely and headed back to Naples. After picking up the puppy, I dropped both Ali and the puppy off at home. I had to head BACK to the airport to pick up my mom from her flight! I was able to hit bed around midnight.
Thankfully we had Monday off to recuperate. Of course, I did little recuperation and instead attacked home chores. I knocked out a bunch of stuff and rested afterwards. I am very much looking forward to having nowhere to go for the next few months. Now my blog entries can go back to be being little short dumb ones!
