#5BDA The Phoenix Rises

When going from Las Vegas to Phoenix the problem is there is no major highway that takes you right there.  So it was like a five hour drive on small highways through the last bit of Nevada and most of Arizona.  It was a real scenic drive but kind of annoying that it took like the whole fucking day.

My extended stay motel was in Scottsdale in a pretty nice area.  I decided to stay for a week to hopefully solve my debit card problem and refill prescriptions and since I'd put a lot of miles on the car it seemed like a good idea to get her an oil change.

Like the broken crown in Portland there was another problem I didn't really need to fix:  there was a crack in the center console of the car.  I probably should have waited to fix it since it cost like $300 and took hours, but again when I see a problem I like to solve the problem.

I went to a local Comerica branch but they couldn't do shit about getting me a new card, but fortunately my family got the new one and could FedEx it to me at the motel.  So at least that nightmare was over.

Otherwise I explored Scottsdale a little but didn't do tons of other stuff like go to museums and such because I'd already been there in 2008.  Which was the same reason I didn't go to the Grand Canyon.  I mean the Grand Canyon probably hadn't changed a lot in 6 years, right?

I found a decent local Chinese buffet, got some supplies, and did some writing.  The last day before I left for a sort of spa weekend I even had a job interview.  If I'd actually got that job a lot of things might have been different, but of course I didn't.

So I went slightly northeast to the more upscale suburb of Fountain Hills.  I'd been there in 2008 and it was really nice and the hotel wasn't too expensive.  It was still not too expensive and pretty nice except for the Internet not working great and at one point I accidentally locked myself out without any shoes on so I had to walk to the office barefoot.

As you might expect there's a big fountain in Fountain Hills.  It only goes off at the top of an hour but I managed to catch it a few times over the course of a day.

I finished my first tour of Arizona with a really shitty night in Tuscon.  The Red Roof Inn there was such a dump.  The door handle was falling off and the bathroom light didn't work until I cannibalized one from the bedroom and the office was absolutely no help about any of it.  The Waffle House across the street was OK though.

From there it was into New Mexico, where I spent most of the next two weeks...