Tempe Trip

A quick trip, but quite nice as T2 & T1 were along for the ride. We were to fly out of Denver at 8pm on Friday. Southwest. 'A' group. We had never flown Southwest before so we didn't know how the boarding worked, but it seemed to go smoothly enough.

A couple of shots from on the plane:




Heidi's!


This is a great idea. At the Phoenix airport there is one facility for all the rental car companies. You ride one shuttle bus from the terminal, get off here, and then deal with whatever rental agency. Nice new building that opened earlier this year. Las Vegas has one opening soon, and I would think many airports will do this.

I didn't get any photos of it, but T1 endured an incident - a guy on the shuttle was taking antibiotics for something. Right as we got off the bus he suffered a reversal. He tried to hold it in, but it began leaking out of his fingers at first, then he lost it and sent the Jamba Juice he'd consumed earlier projectiling. T1 was in one of his lines of fire. Her blouse felt the brunt as did her new hairy purse. I got a couple drops on me, but nothing in comparison to T1. She went to clean off, and did well at that, but on the way back she was finding some dried stuff in hidden locations on the purse.

We checked-in to the Super 8. Great location. Rooms were not too bad. Big king bed. Very good AC! The Super 8 is a few steps up from the hoe-tel in Las Vegas.




In the rooms there was this interesting thing going on with the drapes. The AC unit was below the window as it is in most hotel rooms. But here this purple drape (which was covering the room-darkening curtains) was not stitched on the bottom to the heavier curtains underneath these. They were stitched on top and on the sides but not at the bottom. So the AC would blow and set this purple drape a fluttering. And the cool air would be trapped in this drape netherworld between the two curtains.


We solved this issue by wedging some hangers in the AC unit.


Saturday morning. It's 10am. You maybe cannot read it on the marquee, but it's 103 degrees. At 10am. Officially the max temp on this day would be 112 degrees. And Sunday would be just as hot. Why are people living here from the end of May through September? It's sort of the same thing as New Orleans - why is a big city below sea level? Here, why?!?

The competition is at the Arizona Mills Mall. We get there at 11:30 or so, and find the venue:




The food court in the mall is pretty big. There are many of the same mall food court places - sbarro, burger king, steak escape, and all. And a Nathan's. There are tables and chairs in the middle of it all, along with a festive merry-go-round.

A little before noon I'm sitting there, with tunes on, just taking it all in. So I'm sitting there and I see Ryan appear - decked out in the suit and hat. THIS NEXT COMMENT IS A DICKHEAD THING TO THINK, BUT I DID, AND I GOT KARMICALLY PAID BACK FOR THIS DICKHEAD THOUGHT. I ONLY PUT IT IN HERE BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT AT THE TIME. PLEASE EVERYONE, DO NOT TAKE IT ANY WAY. I think to myself "who is going to get screwed today". Quite ironic.


The stage was arranged at a spot where the food court and the mall intersect.


Before the main event there was a kids neat eating contest. It was pretty cute. Ryan did great, and the crowd laughed and applauded. In the end, it was a "12 way tie". Good call! Cameo in this picture by Rich.

Shortly after 1 we were introduced. Eleven area contestants, me, Erik, and Rich. 10.. 9.. 8.. Everyone in front of them has two plates with 5 dogs on each. I have always put one plate at the 6 position and the other one at 12. I got through 1 plate in a little over 2:30 (the plate at 6 o'clock). That's right on time for what I want. I'm not clearing as planned, but it's going well. On (the plate at 12 o'clock) dog 9 I raise my hand to signal for more. He's coming. On dog 10 I close my eyes. When 10 is down I open my eyes and there are two more plates of 5 in front of me at positions 6 & 12. HDB 11 goes. 12. G. O. E. S. There's now less than 3 minutes left. No chance for 20. Peas. No. 13. No peas. 30 seconds. Get that dog in! At the ending countdown from 10, stuffed bun 14. Ugh! Still chewing, my first thought is "better than in Vegas" and then "but 6 cans of peas". Ryan comes over to get my total. Through the bun and dog mixture in the mouth I manage to mumble "Fuh-teen". Understandably he probably didn't get that. He checks. Directly in front of me is a plate with one full HDB on it. That one is stacked on top of an empty plate. Above the stack (at 12 o'clock) is another plate I have not eaten from. That plate is stacked on ... the table. Okay. Hopped up on hot dogs I think about it for a second. The outcome of the competition is not affected - Rich had downed 28+. Erik, just shy of 20. And some of the local guys could get some props. And I wasn't close to no peas. It is what it is.


There is an IKEA in Tempe.


Tried to get me and the IKEA sign.



Saturday night we went driving and ate at this Mexican place. Pretty good. I had a light combo of chicken taco, rice, beans. Ate it, but I didn't do my normal eating-out-plate-scraping. Ts had some left on their plates, but no.



That's about it! Later!