I just realised that I never gave an update on my recent trip to Phoenix. Rather than re-write everything, here are the postings I put on the family blog:

October 1 - Friday - In Waterton Lakes National Park right now. Much like Waskesiu, but much smaller, and with mountains. Deer are outside our window begging for food. Nice drive here, shorter than I expected. Saw the washed out section of the TransCanada. Unbelievable how deep they're digging to rebuild. Think 30-35 metres. Lethbridge brewery is gone, all condos there now. Lost 30 minutes in Lethbridge when I missed a sign and a turn. Lacking a navigator! Smartened up after that and used the Onstar. Nice old motel that we are in. Had supper at Zum's. Supposed to be known for their chicken, but mine was overdone.

2 - Saturday - Beautiful morning in Waterton, but very windy. Had a good breakfast at Zum's though. Deer are all over town again. Went up to see the Prince of Wales Hotel. The border crossing I wanted to use closed on Thursday, so we had to backtrack to Cardston. Only cost us an extra 20 minutes. Went onto Glacier National Park and drove up to Logan Pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway. Crazy road, no barriers! Magnificent scenery. The pictures don't do it justice. Driving south on 89 and 287 was different. Many different kinds of landscape. Around a place called Choteau we were on a huge, very flat plateau, with mountains visible on the horizon ALL around.Then we hit I-15 north of Helena and it was an amazing trip down into Helena. Think of the Coq near Hope! Now in Bozeman at the Wingate. Place is only 25% full, so we managed a pretty nice room for cheap. Had a great supper at the Montana Ale House and tried out a few of the state beers.

3 - Sunday - Into Pocatello tonight. Got in about 2 hours later than planned. Hotel is okay, but not nearly as nice as last night’s! Lost an hour in the morning... too much relaxing. Slow drive through Yellowstone. Saw Mammoth Hot Springs, Artist’s Paintpots, Fountain Geyser and Paintpots and of course Old Faithful. Good luck on Old Faithful, got there 10 minutes before she blew. Slow driving because the weather is so good and there are more visitors than usual. Exciting drive through the Grand Tetons, seeing the Snake River Canyon, and across to Idaho Falls. Winding mountain passes west of Jackson Wyoming. Jackson is a real tourist trap, all done up to look older than it is. Big enough place, population of 8,000. OnStar quit working properly once I got out of Wyoming. Had supper at the Texas Roadhouse. Good food, but the portions are way too big. Need some rest, long drive tomorrow!

4 - Monday - Loooong day of driving today. But we got away early, so that helped. Had to wash bugs off the front of the car, but it ended up being wasted effort, as we hit rain during the day. And what rain! The first one was the edge of a tornado. The whole freeway slowed down from 75 MPH to 15 MPH in a matter of seconds. This was just north of Salt Lake City. Since we will probably never be back this way, we decided to take a look at the Mormon complex. Amazing place. Unfortunately we could not go into the Tabernacle because of a choir practice. Then we hit at least another 3 or 4 heavy rains. Desert rains are like nothing we've seen before! Very heavy with huge drops lowering visibility to near nothing. We had just come out of the magnificent Virgin River Gorge when we got hit with a torrential downpour. Within a couple of minutes, a little creekbed next to the highway was a raging river! Emergency radio then came and said that there was golf ball size hail in the gorge. Talk about lucky! Got into Vegas a little ahead of schedule. Walked The Strip and looked around. Major shopping for The High Command tomorrow. I get to walk around all day and listen to my iPod.

5 - Tuesday - Not much to report today, but it's been the most tiring day of the trip! We drove 0 miles, but bussed and walked from one end of the Strip to the other, as well as an early trip this morning to the LV Outlet Mall. My feet are sore from following THC around on her shopping! The buffets here are fantastic. One meal a day is enough. Beer is nice and cold, but the price varies from $2 to $7 for the same thing just 2 blocks apart. But drinking on the sidewalk does save time! Smoky casinos though. We have sore throats and smoky clothes without having to buy cigarettes! Time to hit the sack!

6 - Wednesday - Did our gambling this morning before breakfast. THC won $50 and quit. I lost $20. Did a quick walk though the Venetian and then hit the road. Decided that neither of us likes Las Vegas that much and have no desire to come back. Tell our niece that getting married here would not be cool. The wedding chapels all look like funeral homes. Cheaper to get GL to do it at Park Funeral Home. Airport-like security to cross Hoover Dam! The new bridge and highway over the Grand Canyon are not quite ready, but should open by the end of the month. Got into Surprise (Phoenix) and got settled into the condo we're renting from a friend of THC's. Had supper at TGIFridays. Just did salads.

7 - Thursday - Slept a little later than usual after all the hustle of LV. Golfed in the morning. The temp is actually a bit below normal, but the locals are loving it. Hot by our standards though, 32 today! Happy hour at the golf course, fifty cents for a glass of draught! And of course followed by shopping late into the evening! Ended up having supper at the Yardhouse. Great restaurant, think Earl’s, but better.

8 - Friday - Up a bit earlier for another round of golf. This time right in Sun City. Tough to get used to the Bermuda grass. It's really different from what we golf on in Canada. Big roadtrip for shopping today. We're in Surprise, west of Phoenix. We took the 101 Loop over to Scottsdale (PGA Store), Then south into Mesa, Tempe and Chandler for shopping before finally coming back on the I-10 south of Phoenix. Lots of miles! Supper at the Olive Garden. Staying closer to home tomorrow when I try to get THC out looking at real estate! Temp today:31C (Below normal they say!)

9 - Saturday - Harder to get on a golf course today because it's the weekend. Teed off at 10AM at Falcon Golf Course, which is right beside the runways of Luke Air Force Base. Too late in the day, as the heat and sun got to us by about the 14th hole! We got a real good air show yesterday while golfing. Must be training. But because it was a long weekend Saturday, there wasn't one take-off all day. They say that the roar can be deafening when you are trying to tee-off! Then went looking at property, but THC doesn't understand what an asset is compared to 'things' or 'experiences'. Finished off the day at the Olive Garden again. Looking forward to the game tomorrow!

10 - Sunday - Big day at the game (NFL - New Orleans vs Arizona) today. Left early and arrived about 3 hours before the game. Parking was a Brees(!). Wore my Rider T-shirt and had lots of Canadians come up and say ‘hello’, even Albertans! Wandered around looking at the tailgaters. Slow game to start, but ended up being a exciting one. Three uncommon TDs in this too, 2 of them defensive. Took our time getting out, so we didn't end up getting frustrated in traffic. Went to a Mexican restaurant, RioMirage, for supper that was excellent. A change from Olive Garden and TGI-Friday. Busy packing up our purchases and figuring out the total for the border crossing. A really long drive tomorrow.

11 - Monday - Got out of Phoenix 1 1/2 hours late this morning. First there was a townhouse to view. Just happened be right next door to where we are staying. I like it, but THC is indifferent. 1,500 sq. ft. for $80,000US. And that's just the asking price. Then THC remembered that she wanted to do some shopping at the first golf course we played. That just happened to 15 minutes away, in the wrong direction. Drove the last hour here in the dark. Here is Raton, New Mexico. Pronounce that with a French accent. Nice little place of about 8,000 people. Had a great Mexican supper. Quite the drive today. Started at an elevation of 1,200 feet, in the desert, temp of 88F. Within 30 minutes, was up on the high desert, no cactus, elevation 5,000 feet, temp 64F. Another 30 minutes to the upper plateau, elevation 7,000 feet, pine trees, temp of 54F. Then down again to 5,000 and stopped near Meteor Crater. Decided not to go see the hole in the ground for $20US per person! More great scenery until the sun went down. Went through Winslow, Arizona (Take It Easy - Eagles), and Gallup, Albuquerque and Santa Fe, all in New Mexico. Felt like I was in a Western movie! Tomorrow is another major shopping day.

12 - Tuesday - Now sitting in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Once we crossed into Colorado, the geography really changed. All the way to Denver it was mountains to the left and prairie to the right. No foothills. Really amazing. Denver itself is the size of Edmonton, feels like Calgary, but the metropolitan area is about the same population as Toronto. Great freeway system though. Spent the entire day shopping at 3 malls, including 2 outlet malls. Was actually a good day for both of us. THC bought 2 new purses, and I settled for ink jet cartridges. Also went to a Harry & David’s. Sort of a cross between M & M Meats, Laura Secord and a boutique grocery store. Went to a Yardhouse for supper like we did in Glendale. But this time I ran into a company VP and tried to get our beer in to the chain. Great place for beer. Most locations have 150 varieties on tap. No bottles. No shopping planned for tomorrow, just heading north.

13 - Wednesday - I am still being amazed by the different geography that we're driving through, but THC is bored with it. Southern Wyoming had a bit of everything. Start off with rolling hills, and no trees - think the drive west of Hanna AB. Then into a pine forest, and finally into the Badlands. Actually saw more wildlife today than any other day. Antelope and deer all through Wyoming. And I saw my first wild turkeys, as well as prairie chickens. We're in Glendive, Montana now. Had a great supper at a little mom & pop cafe. One thing about American diners, the portions are huge! Even for me. They really seem to waste food as well.

14 - Thursday - Drove all day. Got to see Dog River on the way home! Saw some pheasants near the border and a huge flock of birds near Davidson, the sky was literally black. Got home by mid-afternoon.

Total of 7,000 km in 14 days. Timer said that we were in the vehicle for 79 hours.

I’ve had trucks for 30 years and decided to get something a little nicer before I retire:

So I bought this baby (I call her ‘Precious’!)

Enjoyed every minute of it!