Hello from Phoenix

Hi everyone, from sunny Phoenix. When we last updated you, we were planning our Japanese dinner out to celebrate Miranda's birthday. We had chosen a well rated place with a good deal that week for happy hour. So, we drove across town to Takamatsu restaurant, only to find it closed down, boarded up. We were disappointed, but luckily there were several other Japanese restaurants in the area, and we chose one that looked interesting called Sachiko. It was a very plain, simple place, but with some very neat fresh fish deals. Marlene ordered a bento box with soup, salad, tempura, california roll, teriyaki chicken and of course, rice, served in a wooden sushi boat. I had a futomaki roll, and a barbecued black mackerel with soup, salad, rice, california roll. We also had a flask of sake, and green tea too. Food was excellent, service OK, and it was only $48.40.

After dinner, we stopped in to Trader Joe's, and picked up some Italian red wine for just $1.99 a bottle, complete with a real cork! Then we went home and tried it, and liked it. Amazing value! All in all, great celebration for Miranda's birthday, and of our one year on the road anniversary.

We also had told you that we were looking at houses in Phoenix. We found one, and made an offer, only to find out that there were now two offers ahead of us! Too bad, because it was in a decent neighborhood, and in reasonable condition for a foreclosure. We offered $16,750 against a list price of $19,900.

We went to Target to buy some shirts for embroidering, because we had a Halloween job booked in Tucson. Shirts were $50 and embroidery with the logo was $21. A good deal. Then our job at Tucson Raceway Park was canceled the next day because no drivers had registered to race. (read all about it at: www.tucsonracewaypark.com).

Sunday the 24th. we went to check out Kennedy Lake, an "urban fishing reserve" in Tucson. There are 4 of these little "lakes" that are stocked with game fish. In Alberta we would call these ponds, but here in the desert they are lakes. Anyway, we had a nice walk, and Ben enjoyed it immensely. The only complaint: The loud honking of the geese!

Sunday afternoon Marlene and I went downtown to the Jewish History Museum for the opening of the time capsule from 1910. They had promoted a street fair, but there were just four mangy booths set up by synagogues to sell memberships and paraphernalia. Worst of all, there was NO FOOD!!! How can you have a Jewish fair with no food?? We strolled up and down the street, but the sun was high and the temperature was soaring. We wanted to watch them open the capsule, but it was being done down in a dip where you couldn't see anything, so we left. We read online that there were mostly documents that had faded and fallen apart. We did learn that the next weekend they were having a Jewish food fair, complete with an attempt for the Guinness Book of Records entry for the World's Largest Matzo Ball, which is supposed to weigh over 200 pounds, and will be cooked in a specially made 1500 gallon soup pot. It would take 36 hours to make. Too bad we will miss it, but I will make some soup of our own.

This week we stocked up with groceries and liquor, including some matzo ball mix so I could make my matzo ball soup. We also renewed our PO box, and we researched and located a storage facility for our trailer. The soup turned out very well. We also did 4 loads of laundry.

Wednesday night we didn't feel like cooking, so we ordered from Pizza Hut. A Super Supreme Big Italian. This is a GIANT pizza, over 2 ft. long, won't even fit in a box. Total price including delivery: $19.99. It was delicious.

Today we dropped off the trailer in storage, then picked up the Tracker and headed north. This was the first time towing the Tracker, and it towed well. We arrived at our spot at Phoenix Metro RV Park in the north of Phoenix at around 1:30, and by 2:00 we were all set up. This place is different from Desert Pueblo in Tucson. It is mostly RV's, with some mobile homes too. It is clean, and the spots are large, so it is quite nice, and it was priced $100 a month less than others we checked out.

Tuesday we are meeting our realtor to look at some more properties. Still no word on the place we made an offer on 2 weeks ago!

Pictures above are Japanese birthday meal, Kennedy Lake, and our giant pizza (with a beer can for scale reference!). Stay tuned, things are going to happen now!

Tucson cools off

Hi everyone, we're finally back blogging. We've endured 105 degree days since we arrived here, and the last few days we've had seasonal temps of high 80's. We were walking Ben at 6 am every day, and then again after sundown, otherwise he would burn his feet. Now we can wait until 7 or even 8 before he has to go out!

Because of the heat, we really hadn't been doing a lot, but we were out house hunting. We found a nice mobile home in a 55 and over park, and made an offer on it. It was listed for $12000, but we offered what we thought it was worth: $5000. Unfortunately the owner lives in Washington, and was traveling and couldn't be reached. It took two weeks to find out our offer was turned down. Kinda strange, since the owner is paying $500 a month to have it sit there, and its been like that for over a year!

Anyway, after that frustrating wait, we decided to look further afield, and also to look for a house on a property, not a mobile home park. There are few such homes in our low price range in Tucson, but lots of them in Phoenix. So, on Saturday we drove to Phoenix, and did drive-by's of listings we'd looked up online. We met up with a realtor, and we're going to look at 5 of them with him tomorrow.

Yesterday we went to the Tucson Meet Yourself fair downtown. This is a multi-cultural fair, spread around several venues in Tucson Centro. We sampled a nice Thai combination dish: Chicken satay, Pad Thai, yellow curry chicken and rice for $6. We also tried sweet potato pie at a native booth. A lot like pumpkin pie. Then we had to have some of the Afghan lamb kabobs wrapped in nan bread, also $6. That was very tasty.

We watched quite few classes from a local Latino dance school performing on a big stage. We also demolished a huge Mexican fruit cocktail. Giant pieces of melon, apple, mango, orange, strawberry and cucumber. We heard a nice blues band at one of the venues, too. We went into St. Augustine's Cathedral, and sat for a few minutes of the service. Also in attendance at the fair were the local lowrider clubs. Some really well prepared cars were on display. I don't get the lowrider thing, but it is very big down here.

After we'd had enough of the crowds at the fair, we went to the Jewish Cultural Museum. It is housed in the original synagogue built in Tucson in 1908. Jews started coming to southern Arizona in the early 1800's. Many of them were from Germany, originally going to California to serve the miners of the gold rush, then moving east to Arizona to set up businesses to serve the military and the ranchers. By the time Arizona became a state in 1912, some of the Jewish businessmen had become powerful in the community. There were many more Jewish men than women in Tucson, so men would often marry local Mexican ladies. Today, Tucson has a large Jewish population, and is served by 13 synagogues.

Next week we plan to go out for a celebration dinner. First, we are celebrating the 21st birthday of our daughter Miranda, and we are thrilled for her! Second, this will mark the anniversary of our first year on the road. We are still hoping to do a couple more jobs before shutting down jet car operations for the winter.

We've attached pictures of the Tucson Meet Yourself activities. Stay tuned...