DAY SEVEN: Thursday,
21 August 2008
Day’s Starting Pedometer Mileage: 843.
I knew this would be somewhat of a
short day. I flight leaves at 7.35 pm,
and thanks to all the fricking regulations, figure an hour or so to go through
check-in (if it’s good), add perhaps about 30 minutes to return the rental car
and take the shuttle bus back to the airport.
And with the rush-hour traffic to deal with, meant I wanted to be at the
airport at 5 pm or even 4.30. I would
rather be a little early and loiter in the airport, than be late and rushing
through check-in wondering if I was going to get to my plane in time.
Once I had breakfast, Doug dropped
Sierra off at school and he went on to work.
I spent an hour or so chatting with Deana and showing her the pictures I
had taken. Doug likes things brief and
too the point, Deana wants all the description you can give. About 10 am I worked my way over to nearby Peoria to the Challenger
Space Memorial. It took about 30 minutes
for a tour, and I wandered around the grounds a bit taking pictures. The place wasn’t very big, and there were rooms
for “hands-on” learning, but they weren’t open on the tour as this place also
was a training facility. The mural at
the center of the building was really cool, as it wrapped around almost 360
degrees, and was painted by a 70 year old man zipping around on
scaffolding. All I could think of was
DiVinci painting the Sistine Chapel.
While the main purpose of the
center was to commemorate the 1986 Challenger Disaster, it did also have
plaques for the Apollo 1 crew that died in the launch pad fire in 1967, and the
2003 Columbia Disaster. Much of the
memorial aspect of the center focused on Christa McAuliffe. Ok, while her family was one of the major
organizers on having this center put together, there were six other astronauts
on Challenger that deserve as much recognition.
Space travel is a dangerous business, accidents will happen, and
astronauts will die. Let’s at least each
astronaut who gave their lives in the exploration of space the remembrance they
deserve. Let’s not just focus on one
because she was the “common person.” All
astronauts are common people, except they just get to go boldly where no one
has gone before.
Once done there, I followed
directions Doug had given me to lead to this sandwich shop that he knew about. It was called Miracle Mile Deli. It was about noon time, so the place was
pretty packed, but the line moved quickly.
I had a nice thick roast beast sandwich with a thick bowl of chicken
noodle soup. Doug could spend as much
time as necessary at lunch, so we took our time as we ate and chatted. Once I again I thanked Doug for putting me up
for the night, and gave him and open invite for him and Deana to come out to
Austin. As I had already put my bags in
the car because I hadn’t known exactly where I was going to end up in my
travels around Phoenix today, and it made it easier than back-tracking from
wherever to Doug’s house and fighting my way to the airport.
Doug had mentioned an exhibit about
the Phoenix Mars Lander being at a museum downtown the previous night. And as it seemed fairly close to the airport,
it made sense to check that out. Having
looked around the area rather quickly, I didn’t see anything that immediately
jumped out at me (but I’m sure there were things I would like, and I’ll just
find those on the next trip). I figured
the museum would fill my time nicely before my departing flight.
The museum was attached to the
Capitol building, and it was just a matter of following the 101 around the
western side of the city, and then taking I-10 right into the heart of the
city. The western edge of Phoenix had a lot of
warehouses and distribution centers.
Even from the below-street level freeway there wasn’t much to see. I was hoping to see a sign for a place nearby
for a decent bite to eat so I wouldn’t be forced to eat food in the airport.
Driving on I-10 into the heart of Phoenix was like driving
through the hood. If it wasn’t the
low-rent district, then it was an area that wasn’t well-maintained. I saw one or two stop-and-robs on the way
that I did not want to stop at. And the
only food that you could get at a stop-and-rob was not the quality of food I
wanted to eat before being on a plane ride.
Oh, well, I wasn’t too hungry yet.
There were a few one-way streets in
downtown Phoenix ,
and it was a little confusing when trying to find the parking lot for the
Capitol building. I could see it, I just
couldn’t figure out how to get into it.
I pulled into one parking lot nearby figuring I could stop and get my
bearings. The lot turned out to be
government employees only, and each spot had a name and number on it. A security guard in the lot started heading
up to me. Her concerned expression
turned cheerful when my asking for directions just showed I was a stupid
tourist, not a potential security threat.
She told me how to navigate through the maze of streets to get to the
parking lot entrance.
Once I was parked, I worked my way
into the museum. The museum covered many
aspects of the state. It had information
on the Phoenix Mars Lander and its mission, even though the Lander itself had
been removed from the exhibit two weeks ago (to go to another exhibit somewhere
else). There was information about
Indian basket-weavers, the dams that provided hydro-power and irrigation water
to the state, the copper mines, the Buffalo Soldiers, the Navajo Code Talkers, and
wildlife and fauna of the various parts of the state. The exhibit I liked the best was about the USS Arizona. There was a scale model, pictures of the ship
(before and during the Pearl Harbor attack),
and there was a piece of the damaged hull that was on display. I found that pretty interesting, as I
thought the entire ship was still sitting underwater in Hawaii .
While there were many exhibits, it
was a small museum and it took a lot shorter than I had expected to go thru
everything. I wandered through a section
of the museum that brought me to the Capitol building proper. Once the security guard told me there were
only offices beyond this point (which had a metal detector), I saw no reason to
go that way. I ended up standing there
for about a half-hour talking gaming to the guard (who was a big Marvel Super
Heroes fan), and he mentioned some underground tunnels that he had heard of in
western Phoenix . Apparently in case of bad weather and/or
Indian attack, these tunnels had been constructed in the late 1800s to tap into
a natural spring to provide water for anything that was stabled down
there. As the tunnels were privately
owned, according to the guard, they were now used for private storage and not
in any shape for visitors. The guard
seemed rather miffed that something historical was not in the position to be
shared by all.
Leaving the museum, I wandered
about the grounds a bit looking at the statues and monuments. I took pictures of the Viet Nam memorial and the Code
Talkers memorial. There were a number of
other interesting things, like a replica of the Liberty Bell, but I only
stopped briefly at each one. It was like
110 degrees, and I didn’t want to get all hot and sweaty before my flight. It was interesting that while out in the sun
(which my sunburn wasn’t enjoying), you felt every degree of the 110
temperature, but I could take a step or two sideways into the shade and
immediately be cool. I now know
first-hand what the term “dry heat” means, as there was no humidity to make it
sticky. There was a rather neat cactus I
took a shot of that looked like an upturned octopus (which a slew of other
arms) that was probably about twelve feet high.
There was a decent-sized rock sitting next to it that you could clearly
see the copper in it. As the pyramid was
safely packed away in my bags, I didn’t have anything handy to use as a size
reference.
It was getting nearer to the time I
needed to work my way to the airport, and wanted to get there ahead of any
potential rush hour traffic. I went back
out I-10 to the 101 and followed that to where I-17 branches off from that, and
went right back into the bus depot. The
rental car was turned in, and you realize what a “great deal” you had for the
weekly rate isn’t that great of a deal once taxes and other surcharges are
dropped on. If the rental car companies
are going to screw you over with all these charges, at least they could by me
dinner first. I was able to get the
camera out to take pictures of the mountains around Phoenix before hopping on the bus that would
take me back to the airport terminal.
There wouldn’t be any other chance to take shots after this point.
The bus dropped me off at the
airport, and I was still a little early.
The television monitor on the bus had mentioned there was a small museum
inside the airport itself, so that would be another target to do once I got through
security check-point. I also had the
notebook that I was hand-writing this journal in my carry-on, figuring I would
work on parts of that in the terminal and on the plane ride. It was starting to get busy, so I headed
towards the security check-point. I
passed a number of nice, sit-down restaurants of the local variety that
beckoned to me, and I would just catch those on the other side of
“customs.” It didn’t take too long to go
through the security check-point, mainly because I wear the proper shoes that I
can slip on and off. I’m still amazed at
the number of people who get up to the baggage screening machines, and then
realize they have to unlace their shoes and take them off.
Once through the check-point, I saw
that the number of eating establishments near the actually far fewer than there
was on the outside. I stayed near my
boarding gate and was checking around, but the only “local” restaurants that
had any seating were all filled with loud people having cocktails before their
flights. I wandered around a bit from
one gate area to another, as my feet were feeling a bit better than they had
before. I turned around so I wouldn’t
get too far away from where I was suppose to be, and had to make the decision
to actually eat something. I ended up
having a chicken sandwich at Wendy’s, the only place I ate the entire week that
was someplace I could eat at home. Fast
food is not great food, but it’s filling food.
I found a place to sit down after
eating (as I stood at a counter), and worked on some of this journal. I knew it was going to me midnight when I
arrived in Austin ,
so while I liked the idea of having the rum and Dr. Pepper at 32,000 feet, I
didn’t want the caffeine to keep me up.
The plane was on time, and the flight was smooth, and I got caught up on
many pages in the journal, but the flight home just seemed a lot longer than
the flight out. I don’t know if I was
just anxious to get home at the point, but I was a little antsy on the flight
home. I was sitting in the fourth or
fifth row, so I was about the twelfth one off the plane.
Ever since those old Roadrunner
cartoons and Ansell Adams pictures, I have been drawn to the Arizona desert. My three favorite terrains are forested
mountains, tropical beaches, and rocky desert.
I was able to experience two of those terrains this week. I will return to Arizona , and I would like to do that every
other year. When the return trip happens,
expect more entries in this journal.
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