irrelevancy

Woke up very early, wasn’t excited about getting back to Chicago. Fought through some traffic, returned the car, and had plenty of time to wait for our plane to board. Ate the turkey sandwiches my grandmother made us. You’d think we’d be sick to death of turkey by now.

Boarded the plane and was a little disappointed we were in the first row. While it was also Economy Plus, there was wall in front of us, instead of a seat that I could slide my feet under. Thankfully, there was an Asian women sitting next us with a cute little baby. Her husband and other child were placed a few seats behind across the isle. The child refused to sit across the aisle from his father, so the plane couldn’t take off. We gladly switched seats so they could sit together and I could have some more leg room. They were very appreciative and thanked me a few times before exiting the plane.

We saw ‘Hot Rod’ on way back. It was okay, a little silly. Walked out of the airport and was disappointed it was a grim 30 degrees. I instantly missed the warm weather. Got home and had to buy some batteries for my dead camera for the picture upload to my PC. Instead of the crappy alkaline batteries, I went for the Ni-MH and some fancy charger. Used the excellent Digikam to upload the photos and F-Spot to make the nice static gallery here: Thanksgiving in Arizona.

We planned to take the scenic route to Sedona, so we left as early as we could. We drove through some little towns, some pretty isolated from civilization. Ventured through some beautiful mountains.

Stopped in Prescott, AZ to find something to eat. Picked a small locally-owned pizzeria, Tastebud’s Pizza While it was a small place, they seemed to take a lot of pride in their work. All the names had an art reference. We chose the “Veggie Picasso”. It was the best damn pizza I’ve ever had. Vegetables were very fresh. Even my mom, who doesn’t typically eat pizza, felt compelled to eat her half.

We drove through more mountains to reach Jerome, AZ. It was a cute little town in the mountains, with narrow winding streets filled with little shops. There was a large hotel there where my grandparents were married.

I guess there was lots of development on the way to Sedona, as the towns were pretty busy and had just about everything else a civilized town would have. Sedona was beautiful even if it was filled with tourists. Stopped at a shopping complex to browse around and snap some pictures. I bought a small necklace.

It had been a long day, as we took the long way to Sedona were exhausted by the time we arrived back at my grandparents’ house. Went to bed early because we also had to get started early to return the car and catch a flight back.

Woke up to another big breakfast. Hung around for a while before we left to see some of the sights. We drove through the neighborhood we lived in when I was a child and I could see why we left. Drove to and through Camelback Mountain. Saw some beautiful houses.

Drove over to Papago Mountain, which wasn’t very far away. Had a nice park area with a lagoon and lots of palm trees. Walked up Papago to the “Hole in the Rock”. Which is, as you could guess, a hole in the rock. You walk through and can see the park on the other side. There were a handful of people up here taking pictures and I guess we got there on a light day, as there were many more people expected.

Next, we set out to find the nearest Pancho’s Mexican Restaurant. While I prefer eating at locally-owned establishment’s, Pancho’s was my favorite place to go as a child and haven’t eaten there in at least 20 years. I expected to not like it as much as I did. I figured that it was just better in my memory, but everything was very good. I took a little much on the first time through, so I didn’t get a chance to raise the flag and have the waitress bring me another plate of whatever I wanted.

We get back and I figured I should get to work fixing my grandmother’s PC. She runs Windows XP, finally got rid of AOL, and uses the most obnoxious software. Cleaned up spyware and the registry. Installed Firefox and imported her Internet Explorer settings. Installed Thunderbird and imported her Outlook Express settings. Installed OpenOffice as she only had the pre-installed MS Works. Replaced the annoying AOL Instant Messenger with Pidgin. Fixing printer issues and other hardware issues was a nightmare. I’m so spoiled as an Ubuntu user. I unfortunately forgot to bring an Ubuntu live CD.

I spent most of the night attempting to show my grandmother around with the new programs. She did fine, but just freaked out a bit at something new. Also, it was difficult as all she wanted to do was create Elf Yourself animations. Sigh.

I woke up early and decided to just get out of bed since it wasn’t my own. We ate a fairly big breakfast. I couldn’t eat that much as I don’t usually eat that early and rarely ever have an appetite that soon after I wake up. We ran some errands and it was the first time I got to see the place in the sunlight. I really loved all the natural landscape. I don’t know why people prefer grass on their lawns. It’s just a weed that you have to mow once a week.

We ate lunch with a friend of the family, her daughter, and her daughter’s daughter. The baby was adorable and very well-mannered. It wasn’t long after the meal that the women got to talking about the casinos and went off gambling. I really don’t see the appeal. I’ve never been gambling and can think of many more fun ways to drain money.

After they left, my grandfather offered to take me to the recreational center to shoot some pool. They were giving me my late Uncle’s pool cue and it was better than sitting around watching TV or killing time on the PC. We get there and it was pretty empty, although it was filled with old pool sharks and holiday-makers before long. Had a huge bowling alley, a large pool hall, and supposedly some other stuff; but I didn’t really look around.

We didn’t play by any official rules, nor even ones I would usually use with anyone else. It was pretty heavily in my grandfather’s favor. We played for an exhausting four hours. I don’t think I’ve ever played for that long, but I figured if he’s still going, who am I to complain? By the end of the night, I had won twelve games, he had won five.

We got back and found out the ladies hadn’t been out gambling that long as they lost pretty quickly. We ate some more Thanksgiving leftovers, which wouldn’t be the last time either. I was pretty tired. Even though pool is not an extremely active game, we were still on our feet for four hours and there’s walking around and stretching and that. The next day, my grandfather complained he was very sore.

Slept in late Thursday, as the flight didn’t take off until the middle of the afternoon. Pretty much had everything packed as I just got back from Michigan and only had to swap out some clothes. Left about noon to get there a couple hours early to get through security and all that. We got there and I talked with my mom, a veteran traveler, about what I had to do and what to expect.

We were prepared with pre-printed tickets, and the only thing I had to do was put my deodorant in a clear plastic bag. Although it was the “Smooth Blast” scent, I don’t think it posed any danger. You’re supposed to put the clear plastic bag on the outside of your carry-on luggage to make it easier to sift through. I didn’t bother, and there was no problem. I imagine their awesome x-ray machine was good enough to know there just wasn’t much in there. After putting my shoes back on, we realized it only took about 3 minutes to get through security. The day before was a huge travel day, with something like 30 million people traveling for Thanksgiving, but we picked Thursday to avoid the crowd.

So we walked around a bit and stopped to eat at the Chili’s. Nothing like having a big lunch on Thanksgiving, but we weren’t going to be sitting down for dinner for some time. We boarded the plane and found it was good that my mom sprung for “Economy Plus”. They give you an extra 5 inches of leg room and when I sat down, my knees came right up to the seat in front of me. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it would have been in a regular seat.

I haven’t flown since I was about 4 years old, which I don’t remember, so I was surprised at how much they do for you. I read so many complaints about how they used to do so much but now they’re cutting back costs. Good, my mom reasoned that it was because flying used to be quite expensive and it was the more well-to-do citizens that would fly. Now the plebeians want to pay less and get the same amount. They don’t serve food but do sell these decent snack boxes and serve different kinds of drinks. I wasn’t expecting a movie, but I guess it’s standard for any flight that’s more than a couple hours long. We saw ‘Transformers’ on way there, which was awesome, and they had a handful of satellite radio channels.

We land in Phoenix and shuttle over to the car rental emporium. It went very smooth and even my mom was impressed at the company for not coming up with little reasons to annoy and frustrate you. I’m really spoiled by this trip. The first thing I notice is that I’m a little over-dressed. I wore a heavy shirt as it was about 30 degrees in Chicago, it was about 70 in Phoenix.

We drove the thirty miles or so to the retirement community where my grandparents live. It was a pretty nice place. Big, empty roads; palm trees; and just about everything you would want is pretty close by. They have a lot of recreational centers and all keep busy with volunteering and other groups. A lot of them ride around in golf carts, and even have a Sheriff’s Posse as there is no real police force.

We get to my grandparents’ house and unwind a bit. Warm up some Thanksgiving dinner, eat some dessert, and talk for a while. We were pretty tired and they go to bed kind of early anyway, which began the strange sleeping arrangements. My Great Aunt was also visiting, so she stayed in the guest bedroom, sleeping on a futon. My mom and grandmother slept in the front room, on a leaky air mattress that would be flat by morning. I had the privilege of sleeping with my grandfather in their marital bed. I did not sleep well that night.