Phoenix/Scottsdale Tuesday Jan 20 2026

Quick trip to Scottsdale to get some SUN and spend a day at the Barrett Jackson Auction. The weather in Boise has been awful. Cold, gray, inversion and still no snow.

We've been to BJ twice before, in Las Vegas. So much fun! But Scottsdale is the Grand Daddy of them all.

Our flight this morning was one of those horrible oh dark thirty...leaving at 6:00. As per normal, we got an Uber ride to the airport and left on time. We arrived in PHX by 8:45 with still the whole day ahead of us. We wouldn't be able to get into our Vrbo condo until 4:00.

Sky Harbor is huge! But beautiful. It took us one hour to get from the terminal to the rental car complex.

The weather is awesome! Sunny and 75 by mid afternoon!

We arranged with Andy and Helen to meet us for brunch at the Cracker Barrell in Casa Grande, halfway between their home in Tucson and Scottsdale. It was a nice visit; we hadn't seen them in a long time.

Back in Scottsdale, we found our condo and got settled. We did some shopping Old Town. Sam bought a nice bracelet at Silver Kiva. We enjoyed a great Italian dinner at "Jimmy V's".'

Tomorrow we'll go exploring; maybe go to the Botanical Garden.

Jake has one of his Safety Audit jobs in LA this week. He'll hop over to Scottsdale and play with us for a couple of days. We'll go rthe BJ on Thursday.

Condo is here

Wednesday to the Garden

Today we went went to the Desert Botanical Garden. Large place with loops and trails all through a wide variety of cacti. The garden and the Zoo are located within Papago Park.

Nice late lunch at Gertrude's where we were introduced to "Avacado Fries". 

A quick hike up to the "Hole in the Rock"!

We picked Jake up at the airport at about 8:00PM, stopped at Panera for a late dinner. Its great to see him!

This guy wouldn't move

Friday Jan 23 Tonto Attempt

Our goal today was to drive to Tonto National Monument, the site of some ancient Indian cliff dwellings. We would see a dam and Roosevelt Lake.

While my GPS wouldn't show the road, I knew from the map that there was a secondary road through a place called Tortilla Flat.  Great twisty road off into the mountains. There we found the Superstition Salloon. It was a little early for lunch so we just had coffee and a snack. This place is amazing! Its a popular spot for motor bikers, coming along that windy road. Live music on the patio, dollar bills plastered over all the walls!

So we continued on our way with beautiful, mountainous, cacti views. After about ten miles we came to where the road turns to gravel with signs warning that to proceed one must have 4WD or OHV. A fellow came by on a jeep. We flagged him down and asked if we might proceed. "I wouldn't" he said. So, out of an abundance of caution, we turned around and headed back to Apache Junction. So we never got to Tonta N.M.

From there we drove north up to Payson, on a curvey four lane road through the mountains. In Payson, we had a late lunch at Culver's.

Back to the condo, we discovered NO Water!

 

Saturday Emergency Move then Home

 We we got back to the condo late yesterday afternoon there was NO water now! Seems the whole building has a problem. We notified Sally, the owner, that this wouldn't work so we'd pack up and go to a hotel by the airport, since we're leaving in the morning anyway.

Worked out better, actually. Jake was able to take the airport shuttle for his 5:00AM flight. We didn't leave until 1:00PM.

Home uneventfully. It was a fun few days!

Vintage 1971 Livery