Today is the longest segment on our drive back home.
Over an hour driving through extremely dense fog.
5:31a MT Left Moriarty, New Mexico as of on Central Time.
5:55a Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show. 🎶
8:55a CT Entered Texas.
9:58a Gas stop at Loves with crazy wind.
11:49a Enter Oklahoma.
4:19p Enter Kansas.
8:10p Drive-thru at Culver’s in Liberty, MO.
8:15p Check-in at Home2 Suites in Liberty.
Long day! One final jaunt tomorrow to home!
I can’t wait to sing Wonderwall with my fellow MN United fans soon! ⚽️🎉
Today we end our Arizona Escapades and start the long trip back home to Minnesota! We have had a great time here. 🤩 445 miles today.
Honda Pilot is packed!
9:48a Left Scottsdale.
Kids doing classes on Google Meet while driving.
1:55p Entered New Mexico.
2:30p Stop for gas in Gallup, NM.
5:00p Dinner at Green Jeans with Amore Neapolitan Pizza and Nitro Fog ice cream. 🍕🍦
6:30p Check into Best Western in Moriarty, NM.
Vecina
For our final dinner in Phoenix we went to Vecina and had an incredible meal. The food was so flavorful and incredibly presented. We shared everything and did a tasting dinner. We started with the SalsaTrio which had an incredible Habanero salsa. We also had the Karaage which tasted amazing. For a salad we had the Shaved Brussel which tasted amazing and was super finely sliced. We also tried the Mesquite Grilled Cauliflower which was packed with flavor and a little kick. For mains we had the Skirt Steak Tacos, Carnitas Empanada, and the Tylauda. We were honestly expecting the portions to be smaller. We simply had too much food but it was all so delicious. Challenged with stomach capacity we still wanted to try the famous Banana Bread which is served warm with a sauce and a peanut butter ganache. Wow. 🤤
Nemesis Club: Evil Robots
For our final day in Arizona we decided add an Escape Room to the agenda. Tammy researched this and she wasn’t planning on doing one, but the Evil Robot room at the Nemesis Club seemed too good to pass up. She was totally right! 🤩
The Nemesis Club was the most well done escape room experience we have ever done. Everything was extremely well done, even the entrance and how they welcomed you was special. The room itself was so intricate and immersive that you really felt like you were there. The electronics were flawless. There were a lot of screens and videos and everything was exceptional. We also loved that the puzzles were not the same run of the mill digits to a lock but were more creative, yet solvable.
We solved the room with 31 seconds to spare! This is a “must do” experience! 👏 Room 34!
Hiking Camelback Mountain
Today was our final day for hiking in Arizona and we decided to end with the big one, Camelback Mountain! The Cholla Trail is closed right now, so it was easy to pick the Echo Canyon Trail. This was the hardest hike I’ve ever done by a pretty big margin. In fact, both Tammy and I felt most of the hike was really more of a scramble over boulders. We took a steady pace up. Tammy would get ahead of me and wait for me to catch up. The hike up took 73 minutes, ascending 1,317 feet over 1.37 miles.
I always feel like going down on steep trails is harder than going up, but for Camelback you are going down such a steep rate that it is more like climbing down rocks so you are using your hands to brace. I found going down easier than I expected. I did slip on loose gravel at one point and fell down. I was fine, but it was cool to see my Apple Watch accurately detect the fall. It took me 68 minutes to descend.
The trail has two sections with handrails installed to help you get up and down.
Second section of handrail with Tammy hanging out for me to arrive.
This gives some sense of what the ascent is like.
Looking back and seeing other hikers coming up the trail.
The trail curves around and climbs up on the ridgeline.
Looking back along the trail.
More hikers ascending up the steep boulders.
The trail just goes up for as long as you can see.
Tammy and I at the Summit of Camelback! 🏆
Selfie with Phoenix way below me.
Techies who Peloton First Ride
When Minnestar decided to launch these “Techies who …” communities I was really excited to get a Peloton group setup! As if by design, Peloton also just launched their brand new scheduled session feature that works perfect for this. So we are getting our very first ride scheduled, and I thought it would be fun to do it on St. Patrick’s day!
If you are a Peloton Cyclist join our first Techies Who Peloton ride! 🚴
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Let’s do our very first ride on St. Patricks Day at 5:30pm with a 30-minute EDM ride with Jess King! 🎉 Join the class! 🗓 If that link doesn’t work please try another device or another time. It should open into the Peloton iOS app and allow you to sign up for the scheduled session. If it opens in a browser it will give you a beta feature message.
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Tag yourself to join our community and add the MInnestar tag to your Peloton profile! 🏷
UTV in The Rolls
We have always thought it would be fun to rent a UTV and go out for some trail riding. We gave American Powersport Rentals a call and Duke got us all set up. We rented for a half day and were complete newbies but had a great time. We drove to the Rolls OHV Area in the Tonto National Forest. We didn’t have the electrical hookup for the trailer so I was happy it was only 15 miles of straight driving.
Here is our route for the day, you can also see the official trail map.
We got the Teryx4 out in the Pobrecito staging area and took off.
Before taking off with our helmets, goggles and masks on for dust.
The dust wasn’t too bad so we ditched the masks.
Me having a lot of fun.
Navigating and figuring out where we are heading.
Trails were awesome. Some fast, some really rocky, and a lot of pebbles you could tear around in.
Our stop at Palo Fierro for a break.
On 1863 at Stop 2 taking the wheel after Tammy gave it a go.
Family selfie! Mazie is having more fun than she looks in the picture.
Pinnacle Peak
Every Wednesday that we have been in Arizona, Tammy has been able to meet up with her Mom and hike Pinnacle Peak. Most of the time Mazie has been able to join her, but I was working so I couldn’t join. This week I’m on vacation and Tammy and I got to hike it together. It is a great route and the trail was impeccably maintained. They even have volunteers that are there to call for help if anyone needs it.
Tammy and I hiked from the trailhead to the end which was 2 miles. We went all the way to the end and touched the gate at marker 101. 436 feet of climbing that way. On the way back Tammy and I went at our own pace, and we both decided to push it.
She quickly left me in the dust. On the way back, the trail immediately climbs steadily for a half-mile and I was “redlined” at 170+ bpm the entire way up. You also get to climb more on the way back with 732 feet of elevation in the 2 mile return route. It turns out the end of the trail is about 300 feet lower than the trailhead!
View of Pinnacle Peak from the beginning of the trail. You never do get to the peak.
Can’t get enough of the Saguaro cactus all around the trail.
You can see Scottsdale and the surrounding Phoenix area very well from here.
Golf courses really stand out in the desert landscape. As do the incredible houses in this area.
You climb and descend twice on this trail. Here you can see the trail on the other side climbing up the second mountain.
Stairs in the trail on the descent toward the end of the trail.
Strenuous indeed. 💦
Drive-in movie at West Wind in Glendale, AZ! There must be 10 screens here. 🤩 Seeing Tom & Jerry. 🍿
Chelsea’s Kitchen
Tammy and I had a delicious lunch today at Chelsea’s Kitchen! We started with Prickly Pear Margaritas, one of our favorites. The New Mexico Hatch Chili Queso let the Hatch Chili’s shine. The Green Chile Cornbread was delicious with a touch of heat and sweetness. We finished with the LGO Reserve Short Rib Tacos. Thanks to my brother Isaiah and his wife Tiffany for the recommendation!
Trail panorama on Infinity Loop Hike.
Infinity Loop Hike
This morning Tammy and I hiked the Infinity Loop trail in Dreamy Draw. We were looking for a longer hike without much elevation today, so this 5 mile loop with just 500 feet of elevation worked well. Plus, we got to make an Infinity Loop ♾ with our tracks!
It was a good hike but we would have lost the trail a dozen times if we weren’t tracking it with the All Trails app. There are no markers and there are dozens of intersecting trails.
Recognizing International Women’s Day 2021 and Choosing to Challenge! We will advocate for and support the women in our lives. #ChooseToChallenge #IWD2021
See IWD 2024, 2021, 2020, 2020 @ SPS, and 2018.
Silver King Smokehouse
We took a drive today and for lunch stopped at Silver King Smokehouse in Superior. It was a spectacular lunch most centered around brisket. Their brisket was phenomenal and they had a great outdoor area with picnic tables. If you find yourself in the area, get yourself some delicious barbecue.
It was family movie night and we watched Flora & Ulysses. It is a fun story about a squirrel with superpowers. 🍿
Desert Botanical Garden
Wanting to experience even more desert plant life we visited the Desert Botanical Garden today and it was incredible. Everywhere you looked there were great displays. It was a great day to walk around and take in the great scenery and learn more about various cactus and plants.
A dense field of various cactus.
I loved the red needles on these cactus.
Saguaro cactus with Cholla cactus in the foreground.
At first we thought these giants were Saguaro but they are actually Cardon cactus that grow even bigger. They are less resilient to cold so they do not grow native in Arizona.
Very rare Crested Saguaro cactus.
These Chihuly glass sculptures were incredible.
Music Instrument Museum
We visited the Music Instrument Museum today. This place was absolutely incredible. You could spend an entire day here pretty easily. They had an amazing breadth of musical instruments and musician specific content. You got a wireless headphone that you wore and as you approached various displays you would start hearing the sound, automatically.
We could have used more time to explore. They also did very good with COVID-19 precautions. They sold only timed tickets and only allowed a limited number of people. Everyone wore masks all the time. It felt very safe. This is the only indoor thing we have done here in Arizona.
Mazie posing in front of the Music Instrument Museum.
Giant string instrument.
They many of these artist displays and the sound would just start in your headphones as you approached.
The video that went with this about how a Steinway piano is created was amazing.
There were displays for various countries and their specific music. They had a well populated section on Ukraine.
Family selfie in front of a variety of guitars.
I’m trying to mint an NFT on Zora.co and am shocked by the variability in the network fee. I’ve checked multiple times and the price has ranged 500% in one day. The gwei price moves a lot each day, but closer to 200% difference.
Observation about the Phoenix area — everything is a 30 minute drive away. No matter where you are or where you are going. It is such a sprawling area.