Monday’s flight out of Indy’s new airport was a very early 6a, which meant leaving Mexlerwerks corporate HQ at 4a, which meant a VERY early 3:30a wake time. I did get an hour of sleep in on the plane plus about 90 minutes worth of laptop time, so things worked out OK. Once my plane landed in Phoenix I got the rental and made my way out to Globe, AZ to some stunning scenery along the way.
Upon arrival at the mine site I opened my suitcase to retrieve hard hat and steel toed boots inside only to find the gorillas in baggage had not only broken my plastic container of miscellaneous in-room eating supplies, but also broken open my tub of oatmeal, spilling about 4 cups worth all over my clothes. Sweet.
Anyway, work got done around 6p (8 body time) then we headed out for local Mexican (of course!) cuisine. After getting back to the hotel room at 10p (again, 12a body time) my computer finally decided to connect to the interweb so I felt obligated to catch up on email - being days behind email is not fun. I think I finally passed out around 11:30p for a grand total of 21 hours of wake including the hour kipper on the plane. Crash indeed.
Day two at the mine was more of the same, and when we got done at 7p I jumped in the car and headed south to Tucson since 7a start times are better when you wake at 6a, not 3a. A quick stop somewhere for Subway and gas I was back on the road, enjoying the 75mph speed limits Arizona has to offer. The last 15 minutes of the trip were rough, so loud music and rolled down windows had to be used. Another day, another crash.
Wednesday and Thursday had me at my customer’s testing Proving Grounds south of Tucson, but we managed to get done at a reasonable hour on Thursday, so I was able to start my vacation proper a little early. A quick stop at Fairwheel Bikes at the suggestion of my friend Todd Wells (if he only knew we were friends, it would probably work out better) for a water bottle and drool over two Wilier Triestinas and a couple Parlees, plus scads of S Works and Addicts racked up... very nice.
Coping with the idiot drivers of Arizona, I made my way up to Phoenix to stay with my friends on Thursday night. The first task for Friday was to retrieve my bike from FedEx since the 15 minutes Heather stepped out for errands on Thursday was when FedEx showed up. Of course FedEx was all the way across town which meant 45 minutes each way. A key piece of info that would have been nice to know before hand (and was not told on the phone when I called them) was that they would not allow me to pick up a package sent by me because I didn’t put myself as a ‘in care of’ in the Recipient box. Thanks FedEx phone support! I again used my gift of gab, or maybe my disheveled look, to convince the gal I was not trying to steal my bike from myself and I was on my way.
After I assembled my bike, I was on my way!
stay tuned for part 2
-the ATM
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