Made it to Arizona. We do not have easy internet access so posting is a bit problematic.
We met up with Molly’s bud Ashley in Chandler. This is not a place where I would want to live. Chandler was an independent town at one time but Phoenix sprawl just kind of ate it up. The place really is a study of how not to do urban planning. You must drive everywhere. Nothing can be walked to. Every street seems to be a divided highway and making a left turn is just about impossible. There are a couple old buildings in “historic Chandler” but other than that the place is devoid of any character. I thought Okemos was dreary but sometimes you don’t know how good you have it.
It was great meeting up with Ashley. A great kid. Molly chooses good friends. Ashley went with us to Delaware a couple years ago. A real trooper. She even got up to watch the sunrise with me one morning. Her mother got a job with Intel in Chandler so she packed up and left Okemos for a sunnier climate.
Sunday we explored the Phoenix area. We went to an historic site called Casa Grande. It’s the remains of a civilization that flourished in the area ~1,000 years ago. After visiting Chandler I would say that was the high point of civilization in the area. We did find Tag’s Diner in the town of Coolidge. Tag’s bumped my opinion of the place up a bit. Almost as good as Heisey’s in Lebanon or Triple X in West Lafayette. Breakfast 24 hours a day including scrambled eggs with green chillies but, sadly, no scrapple. 
Tag’s
Sunday afternoon we hiked up Camelback Mountain in Phoenix. A nice little walk. Part of this amounted to rock scrambling. Molly and Ashley were good troopers and did quite well. Molly wore a Yankees hat she borrowed from Ashley. I never thought my daughter would wear apparel that glorifies Satan’s nine in pinstripes.
Ashley and Molly on top of Camelback
Ed and Lise on top of Camelback – holding on for dear life.
Accessing Camelback meant parking at the Paradise police station, about a mile away from the trail head. There is a person that will shuttle you to the trail head for $5 a head. We decided to walk. Walking back after finishing he stopped and chatted. Lise told him it was my 58th birthday. Molly and Ashley were already back at the car waiting for us. He pulled up to them and said something to the effect of, “Your grandfather is a real inspiration. Live right and you can be like him” I wasn’t sure if I should have felt offended or honored.
We celebrated the outing and my birthday with a sushi dinner. Phoenix is in the middle of the desert. Somehow ordering raw tuna in the middle of the desert seemed very wrong. One could only hope they had some really fast transportation to get the stuff there.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 