Arizona Triangle Fish
Day 1
Canyons & Wigwams
Day 2
Canyons & Artwork
Day 3
Fly Away Home
September 7, 2003
Breakfast in Wickenburg then a leisurely drive on US-60 to the heart
of Phoenix and an appointment with an airplane. Home to Cincinnati
with the business end of the trip being successful and the pleasure
end of the trip being pleasurable.
September 6, 2003
I have a phone (in Wickenburg) so I'm finally catching up. Saturday
brought a taste of Route 66, some pueblo ruins, and lots and lots of
great scenery. Clues are Holbrook, to Flagstaff, to Prescott, to
Wickenburg.
September 5, 2003
The morning's success went beyond even my most optimistic dreams of
last night. Things did not look all that promising on arrival in
that nothing had yet been heard from those folks back east and the
first call ended up with the desired party's voice mail. But
shortly thereafter, an email containing the potential fix started
to arrive and it was installed and verified before too much more
time had passed. I was relieved and surprised when I found myself
actually pulling onto I-10 at just a few ticks past 9:30 AM. By 10,
I was passing Mesa and on my way to at least part of that
"Triangle Adventure". Phenomenal scenery and some at
least passable pictures of that scenery but my luck with time has
led to a minor set-back in communication capabilities. My good
fortune in getting a reasonably early start enabled me to reach
Holbrook without even cutting off the fish's tail. I am, of course,
staying at the Wigwam Motel which does not, as I'm sure some readers
are aware, have telephones in the Tee Pees. I am preparing this in
anticipation of John allowing me use of the office phone for a brief
connection but the day's story & pictures will have to wait.
September 4, 2003
For much of the day, things looked quite promising for getting on
the road even earlier than I hoped. There was only one thing
lacking from the intended testing and that involved a problem with
another vendor's product. The people dealing with that problem are
in the EST zone and the end of their work day approached with no
hint of a fix. It looked like I might not only be on my own on
Friday but would actually have a chance to get beyond the city
congestion before Thursday ended. Then, around 6 PM EST, the word
came through that they thought they would have a fix -- tomorrow.
Torn between seeing scenery and seeing the testing completed, I
opted for the latter and checked back into the motel I had vacated
earlier in the day. But I'm full of hope. Hope that the fix
materializes, hope that it does so early, hope that testing is quick
and positive, and hope that the Phoenix city limit is far behind me
when the sun sets Friday.
Prelude
Once upon a time there were three possible locations for some required
software testing. One was about 15 miles away, another a bit over 500, and
the third just under 1500. Almost predictably, the first two didn't work
out so I'm flying 1500 miles to get the job done. That 1500 miles will
take me to Phoenix, Arizona.
Almost as soon as the destination became known, I started angling for some advantage and found it by including a weekend in the schedule so that I would have some free time away from home. Then I posted a message to a web group and received some wonderful suggestions on what I might do with that time. Ken was the first and he said that, if he had a few days in the area, he would head north-east on 60, connect with old 66 and head west, then south through Sedona and Prescott. He called it a "Triangle Adventure Trip". When I plotted out the proposed route, I saw a fish and Ken agreed. I figure that covering the whole fish is a minimum of three days without lots of "look & wave" style sight seeing. If I can manage that much time, great. If not, I may have to settle for just a fillet or two.