I may be AWOL for a few weeks.

It's Friday morning. I didn't get on the 'puter last night because we met Joint Custody for dinner then came back to the hotel to watch the Seahawks hand the game to a high school team. Oh, wait, it wasn't a high school team it was the Rams. Go Seahawks. Go back to training camp and get your defense in gear. While you're at it, get your offense in gear also.

Anyway, it was nice meeting JC. That's one of the best things about being on CSR...when you 'get to know someone' online then get to meet them and talk boats, it makes for a special evening. Thanks JC for a great time.

We're outa here for our longest drive day. 5 hours and 40 minutes to Henderson, NV. It's raining a bit so that's going to slow things down a bit. Idaho and Utah have 80mph speed limits on the freeways but with GW's anxiety I limit my speed to about 75. She's OK with that but when it gets much above 75 she gets nervous.

I'm outa here. We're getting an earlier than normal start today due to the long drive.
 
It's Friday morning. I didn't get on the 'puter last night because we met Joint Custody for dinner then came back to the hotel to watch the Seahawks hand the game to a high school team. Oh, wait, it wasn't a high school team it was the Rams. Go Seahawks. Go back to training camp and get your defense in gear. While you're at it, get your offense in gear also.

Anyway, it was nice meeting JC. That's one of the best things about being on CSR...when you 'get to know someone' online then get to meet them and talk boats, it makes for a special evening. Thanks JC for a great time.

We're outa here for our longest drive day. 5 hours and 40 minutes to Henderson, NV. It's raining a bit so that's going to slow things down a bit. Idaho and Utah have 80mph speed limits on the freeways but with GW's anxiety I limit my speed to about 75. She's OK with that but when it gets much above 75 she gets nervous.

I'm outa here. We're getting an earlier than normal start today due to the long drive.
Mike is was great to meet the two of you and swap some boat talk.
Safe travels.

Oh and next time remember to check if they serve wine!
 
Will do!

Today was a real driving experience. We left Provo in a bit of a steady sprinkle. It soon turned into a steady ran and then into a downpour. We drove in the rain all the way to St. George where we got off the freeway to grab some lunch.

Speaking of St. George, just south of there the freeway cuts across the NW corner of Arizona and passes through one of the most beautiful scenic drives I've ever seen. I was planning on taking some photos or videos but it was still raining and the photos wouldn't have come out well. Maybe on the way back north.

We stopped at Larson's Frost Stop in St. George because it looked like it was a drive in straight out of the 50's. The only think lacking was servers on roller skates and the trays that hang on the side of the car. What was NOT lacking were great burgers. We both agreed this was the best meal we've had so far on this trip.

After lunch we got back on the road and headed to the hotel. If you have never driven in Las Vegas consider yourself lucky. Traffic here is so f'd up I couldn't describe it if I tried. It even had our Garmin slightly confused (or the Garmin had me confused) but we finally made it.

Speaking of Garmin, this is the most intelligent thing I've ever seen. We stopped at two different Costco's today for gas, one this morning in Provo and one in Henderson. In both Costco parking lots Ms. Garmin knew exactly where we had to turn to get in line for the gas and then how to get back through the parking lots to get back to the freeways.

Think about that for a minute--they have mapped every turn and every parking lot aisle in probably every Costco. Freakin' Amazing.

We're getting ready to head out for dinner and do a little gambling. Wish us luck.
 
Please look us up on your way back through the Boise valley. Give us a day's notice, and we'll whip up some smoked ribs for you.
 
Nathan, not sure when we'll be headed back or if we'll go that way. We have a long term friend who lives in Gold Beach, OR who is having some serious health issues. We may head back via that direction. We'll see.

Tonight, I won some, GW lost about the same amount.
 
Well we arrived in Sun City West about 4:30. Unloaded the SUV at the condo, put some stuff away then headed right for the grocery store and dropped about $280 on a month's worth of groceries, beer, wine, etc.

It sure feels good to be here. Blue skies, palm trees, wide clean streets with little traffic and 86* with a light breeze at 5:00. It's now 7:19 and still 84*. Life is good.

The trip down was a whisper over 1400 miles. We left home with a full tank, filled up 3 times and will fill it again tomorrow when we hit Costco. Then I can figure out the mileage.

We stayed each night at a Best Western Plus except for the Riverside Inn in Boise which is a BW property but a much nicer hotel the standard BW. The BW we stayed at in Provo, UT was, quite frankly, a dump. My review of that property was VERY to the point so I'm expecting I'll hear from them. The BW in Henderson, NV was a much nicer property. Not to the level of the Riverside Inn, but very nice.

One of the highlights of the trip was meeting JC for dinner. It's always nice to talk boats with someone who is like you in personality. JC and I could be brothers.

I'm going to sign off now. It's only 7:50 but I have some stuff to do before we hit the sack. More tomorrow.

GFC
 
Too bad I didn't catch that you were going through Blase' or I would have directed you to what are arguably the best finger steaks. West Side Drive-in. https://westsidedrivein.com/ down on State Street.

Love and miss that place. Featured on Diner, Drive ins and Dives. Great food. My wife loved it because she could sit facing the big photo of Guy and look at him while she ate. The diner with the good looking girls on roller skates was down by the airport. Another good Boise place. Another great place is an old gas station on the east end of Parma. A dive with low prices and great food.

Hey Mike! Don't forget a stop at PIMA when in Tucson. They are wheeling out new stuff about every two weeks. Looks like they are making a great place greater.
 
Holy cow! You just never know how a thread will get derailed and what one can learn. Here, I'm from the Boise valley, and I just learned something. From Wikipedia: "Finger steaks are purported to have been first served in a restaurant setting at Boise, Idaho’s “Milo’s Torch Lounge” (aka The Torch) in 1957." I think y'all ought to head my way soon and try them out. Don't go to the Torch, though. It was sold and turned into a stripper bar.
Back to you, Mike...


LOL, I was going to say that. The Torch being a strip club. Can't miss it with the black paint on the exterior.
 
It's Sunday a.m., football on TV, got a charger on the Explorer we keep down here 'cause the battery is deader than a rock. It's 11:00, 80*, bright, sunny skies that are about the bluest blue I've seen since the last time we were down here. Oh, and did I mention there isn't even a hint of a breeze?

We're off to Costco to gas up, pick up a few things then home to watch more football. At home we're Seahawk fans. Down here we morph over to Cardinal fans. Imagine that!
 
OK, mileage numbers are:
1426 miles
64.06 gallons
22.26mpg

That's not too bad for 75mph up and down all the hills.

Total cost for all of that gas is $219.44. The lowest price for gas is here in AZ at 3.299 and the highest was 3.66 at Boise.

Highlight of the trip thus far--we went to In N Out Burger for lunch today. For those of you who are lucky enough to get to eat them any time you want, you know what I'm talking about. Double Double Animal Style. YUMMMM.

I almost forgot..GW picked up tickets for a Doobie Brothers concert next Saturday night at the Ak Chen Pavilion.
 
I haven't seen $3.66 in about five months. Mid grade is at $4.05 locally. Diesel is down to $3.75. So we have been driving the pick up more. And at over 25mpg, I'm not complaining. The car with mid grade is running between 28 to 37mpg. I truly do miss the better fuel in the SW. I parked the burb just after moving back to the NW because we went from 18 to 20mpg to the first fill up in Burns resulted in less than 10mpg. BTW, anybody want a burb cheap? I'll trade it for boat parts.:cool:
 
I almost forgot..GW picked up tickets for a Doobie Brothers concert next Saturday night at the Ak Chen Pavilion.
I was blessed with seeing both The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan in the same concert a couple of years ago. I was impressed at just how good they still sound live.
 
Haven't been doing much the past few days 'cept spending money like there's no tomorrow. When we got down here the Exploder wouldn't start so I had it towed ($50) to a local garage that has done the maintenance on it. They said it sounded like a bad fuel pump.

Then we decided to put down new flooring in the condo. Strolled thru Home Depot and picked out one we like. Had the condo measured (nutha $50) and today went back to HD for the bad news. ($5K)

We got tired of spending money so we went to a Doobie Brothers concert ($200) that was great. The concert was at the Ak Chin Pavilion and the Doobies were joined by Michael MacDonald. This was our first concert there and what a great place for a concert. Outdoors, covered, no bad seats in the whole place, overhead fans to keep the air moving.


Before we went to the concert we stopped at "Gus's New York Style Pizza" for dinner. Now get this...we're on the way to a Doobie Brothers concert, stopped for pizza at a New York style place and got rocked by extremely loud Mexican music. Go figure, it's Arizona. Nutha $50.

When we got to the concert venue we got some wine ($30) to take to our seats to enjoy and it was actually good wine. And I'm not a wine drinker. Needless to say, a good time was had by both of us.

Tuesday we're taking off for Sedona. We rented an Airbnb for a 3 day stay. That area is very scenic so I'm sure I'll have some videos and photos to share.

Adios amigos!
 
That is actually a stop on the Doobie bros. 50th anniversary tour. We've had tickets for the Nashville show since the day the musioc stopped in Nashville, which was when Covid stopped all live performances. This concert has turned out to be historic since Michadel Mcdonald has only joined the Doobies for 2-3 award shows since he left the band. I think the Nashville Show at the end of the month will be the last of the tour. It has already been rescheduled 3 times, but I am a die-hard fan so we have been sitting on the tickets for about 18 months…..so far!
 
Frank, obviously you're a Doobies fan so I know you will enjoy the concert. The concert here had numerous empty seats, possibly as much as 25% vacant. I don't know if that was due to the concert being rescheduled or not. There are a lot of "snowbirds" down here, including us, who might have purchased tickets for the original date but then couldn't go because they were back north when the concert was actually held.
 

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