We Have Arrived in Phoenix

 Phoenix, AZ

Francis is enjoying the warm weather here

But First, The Pinball Meet Up

On our last night in ABQ, I went to the pinball meet up at Sister Bar.  They do it every Tuesday when there isn't a show and I skipped the others but should have gone.  It was really fun.  They had a couple machines on free play, a bunch of people I met in the tournament were there, and the #1 player in New Mexico did a glass off tutorial of Iron Maiden.  He walked us through all of the Multiball and modes.  It was really educational.  I really think Nick Schademann and The New Mexico Pinball group is doing a great job promoting pinball and making it accessible to new players.

After the tutorial we all got to put our newly learned information into practice against each other.  

 

ABQ > Gallup > Flagstaff > Phoenix

Today we checked out of Albuquerque a day early because had have tonight double booked.  We could stay in Albuquerque or in Phoenix tonight and we chose Phoenix.  This wasn't a mistake, this was a money saving decision. Albuquerque has an added tax on short term rentals, which is fine.  We noticed that when we booked 31 days was cheaper than 30 days because 1-30 days in Albuquerque get a short term rental tax added on and 31 days + does not so we saved like $300 by booking an extra night.  Interesting hu?  Anyway, we decided to take the all interstate route to Phoenix so we took I-40 out of New Mexico all the way to Flagstaff and then cut south in Flagstaff on I-17 all the way to Phoenix.  We have now completed I-40 in Arizona and are like 97% done with I-17.  It will be pretty easy to finish I-17 on one of our trips to Tempe for pinball.

On the way out we stopped at ABQ Doughnuts to pick up doughnuts, a breakfast burrito, and a breakfast sandwich to keep us going for our 8 hour drive.  Donna was able to get a shot of the few hot air balloons we saw on our way out.

After blasting through Gallup the landscape started to change.  We made it to Cars Land!

We stopped at the Arizona Welcome Center to pick up a highway map and it was permanently closed.  There was a list of other places we could go to be welcomed.  We were surprised they have abandoned this welcome center because we saw at least 25 different state license plates on our drive on I-40,

I always like signs like this.  I posted this on Facebook and said it made the rest stop even more restful.  I got al sorts of great comments including a fun fact from a friend that has a long history with reptiles, "Venomous snakes not poisonous.  Poison is ingested, venom is injected."  Sue B

When we arrived we unloaded the van and got settled.  While prepping dinner, we noticed that some of the dishes were pretty dirty so we decided to put everything in the dishwasher and run it on sanitize but there was one issue, there was no dishwasher.  Donna scratched her head, and said, "I must have missed that, I check for a lot of things but it never crossed my mind to check that they have a dishwasher."  For our sanity I checked the listing and found this!

Donna didn't miss it!  It was lies!

I contacted the host and nicely said something like, you said there was a dishwasher but there isn't.  This is important info to long term renters.  He apologized and fixed it.  It appears to be an innocent mistake.  Donna and I thought it was weird that there were no reviews talking about the missing dishwasher so maybe it was accidentally added at some point.  These things happen.  It's all a part of the adventure.  

Anyway, we were here for the rest of the year.  We wanted to spend the holidays with my sister and brother in law and see what there is to see here.  There are tons of pinball tournaments to play in so I will be very busy.  There are also a few museums we haven't been to and a few surrounding counties we need to visit.  

That's it for today.  If you missed The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, check it out.