Gadget’s Airstream Chronicles

Slim posting, once more. Sorry all, yesterday was a busy one!

My friend Kesley flew in from CA yesterday, so I took a ride down to Phoenix to pick her up. The ride into town was once again uneventful. Ha, so much for the horrible traffic of Phoenix…… so I thought!  Along the way I stopped off at a nice rest area to try and slow down (I always get places early).  Snapped a few photos while there.  Love the signs reminding me there are many poisonous things lurking here in Arizona!

Since I’m always way too early, I had the opportunity to head by the Phoenix Mac store. Ah, basking in the Mac store once more. So wonderful. Of course, I looked around the shop for a while, and realized I’d been meaning to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe’s design suite. Sure enough, they had the upgrade version available, so I jumped on it. Didn’t expect that, but walking into the Mac store is always financially dangerous!

After my micro shopping spree I headed over to the airport. Easy enough to navigate there now after only a few trips.

The plane was on time, and Kes was out by 7:45. We hit the baggage area, rounded up her bag, and were on the road. Back home by 9:15, that was the plan…. or so I thought!

As we started making our way out of Phoenix we saw several traffic signs about an accident ahead.  Ok, an accident, but they must be clearing it.  Well, we were wrong about it being cleared.

Well over an hour stuck in a traffic jam.  Worse than any other I’ve ever experienced.  The arrival back in Prescott came a little after midnight!  It was that bad.

As it turns out, there was a fatal car wreck on Route 17 yesterday.  Multiple deaths.  The wreck occurred somewhere in the rush hour frame.  Along with the wreck, a pole in the middle of the highway was taken out, and needed to be replaced.  Several exits worth of Route 17 were completely closed to traffic.  We were all routed off on to the side streets.  4 laned of traffic routed off one exit.  Yeah, we were stuck for a while!

During that time I found myself quite uncomfortable.  Stomach issues again.  Phoenix was a tad polluted yesterday, and I really felt it fast.  By the time we were heading home I really became uncomfortable.  Survived it, but still some residual discomfort today.

After such a ride, what did we choose to do today???  How about a little more riding?  Oh, no, seriously?  Yes, seriously!  Today’s ride was much calmer, led to a few fun walks, and no fatal accidents along the way.

Today’s ride took us over Mingus Mountain, to the town of Jerome once again.  Along the way we took a side trip to the Mingus rec area to see where the hang-gliders launch.  I’ve noticed them on several trips now, and Granny J was kind enough to suggest checking the area out as well.  Thanks Granny J, wonderful side trip today.  A little chilly there though (of course, over 7,000 feet).

The sky was a little hazy, so the views we had while up there were slightly muted.  But still, take a look for yourself, and imagine launching off with a glider!

So, today started off with wonderful views, and kept improving over all.  Yes, there are going to be many more photos in this post, so all of you pining away for photos, this is the entry you’d been waiting for.

After Mingus we continued on to Jerome.  This time there was a great surprise for me there.  Parking!  We could actually park in Jerome.  So I jumped on the chance to really look around town and see what’s what.

One of the first stores we walked into was kaleidescope store.  Apparently, the biggest kaleidescope store there is.  Also one of the folks who works there (not in today) is an Airstream owner several times over!  I’ll return and see if I can learn more about the trailers she has. 

The store was cute, and had more kaleidoscopes than I thought possible!  Check out the photo.

We continued browsing around Jerome, and finally headed on to Sedona.  But before we left, several more fun photos were taken!

Ok, whew, I’m tired of typing and loading photos.  So, I’ll take five, and come back later to finish up on today’s activities.  What do you have to look forward to?  Doe Mesa, cool lizards, nice views, the “Life Is Good” store, camera store temptations, gatorade, and Zantac…….keep your eyes open for the next entry!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 5:47 pm and is filed under Arizona, On the road, airstream.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.