Grumpy Bulldog Does America Day 45: Welcome to Fountain Hills

I got up at 6:15 this morning to get some pictures of the sunrise.  It was still a little dark at first but then once the sun started to come up it came up pretty fast:

I was back in bed before 7am and then slept in until 10:30.  After eating breakfast and stuff, I left at 11:30ish for the town of Fountain Hills.  I was there for pretty much seven hours, though about four of that was writing at a Starbucks.  I got there at about 12:05 and was afraid I'd missed seeing the fountain going off, but it goes for 15 minutes at the top of every hour, so I managed to park and get some pictures:

This is how far away you can see the fountain when it sprays

Then I walked down the main street for some pictures.  It's not really as good as Scottsdale Old Town.  For one thing it seems like most of it is real estate offices.  It seems like the last time I was here in 2008 they were working on the median thing.  They don't seem to have accomplished much in 6 years. 

I went to lunch at the All American Grill (which for some reason has an M as its logo--for 'Merica?) and ate inside to cool off.  I got to watch part of the MSU-Indiana game, so that was nice.  Though of course I missed when the Sparties really started to blow them out.  I wasn't sure what to get until I saw they had a chicken wrap with black olives.  Problem solved.  The service was really sloooow, so they only got about a 10% tip.  So there.

As I mentioned, I went to a Starbucks to write for a few hours.  The clientele there skewed a lot older than at the one in Tempe yesterday.  I hadn't realized they had soda now and also a new XL size--trenta--only for tea and soda.  I got an iced tea and the bigger size lasted a while.

Since it was 5:45 I figured I might as well go back by the fountain to get some pictures of the fountain when the sun was going down:

After that I told the GPS to guide me to Wendy's and it took me on this long, terrifying route through the Ft. McDowell countryside.  The problem is they don't believe in lighting the streets at all in this area so you're in the pitch blackness and other than the GPS I had no idea where I was, so I start getting visions of horror movies, like The Hills Have Eyes and stuff.  That and worry about deer or coyote or something running across the road.

I made it to Wendy's and by the time I got my food it was 6:45 so I figured why not go back a third time to the fountain when it was totally dark:

Tomorrow I'll probably just laze around and not do a lot.  Last time I was here I got pizza from some New York style place.  I'm not sure where I'll go this time.  I'll have to look around.