06-16NOV10 - Phoenix, AZ (& red stick, la)

Saturday, 06NOV, we finally drove into Phoenix, AZ, & checked into the Good Life RV Resort. Why did we drive so many miles in so few days (as described in the proceeding BLOG entry) to get from the Seattle area to Phoenix? First reason was to get the RV serviced/repaired (more on that later). Secondly was to have Corrie located in a major city with good weather, while Dan was gone for another “consulting” job. So the city of choice became Phoenix; & since Dan had to fly on Monday the 8th, that meant little time to enjoy the sites on the drive south from Washington.

Corrie did some RV research & chose Good Life RV Resort to stay in. This is an over 55 community that is primarily made up of “snowbirds” (many of them from Canada). Although still about half empty, the activities are in full swing & include bingo, shuffle board, coffee socials, billiards, bocce ball, bowling, bunco, ceramics, clogging, euchre, texas hold’em, golf, geocaching, wood shop, silversmith shop, line dancing, hiking, whist, tennis, biking, numerous musical & singing groups, etc, etc. Sunday night it was off to Chino Bandido for dinner. This is an establishment featured on TV food shows that combines Chinese & Mexican cuisines. Dan liked it, Corrie was less than impressed.
http://www.cal-am.com/resorts/resorts_details.php?resorts_id=26

http://www.chinobandido.com/

Early Monday morning Dan flew off for a conference at NCBRT in Baton Rouge (aka Red Stick), LA. NCBRT is a non-academic part of LSU that Dan has done some work for over the last five years. If interested in who & what they are, just do an internet search of “LSU NCBRT”. After checking into the hotel, Dan called Corrie back in Phoenix only to discover she had fallen in with a bunch of Canadian snowbirds & was attending the weekly “block party” before heading off to a casino. So much for sitting at home, missing Dan!

Wednesday night Dan had dinner with other NCBRT staff at TJ Ribs, a shrine to LSU football. TJs is a combination BBQ restaurant/sports bar full of original LSU football memorabilia, including the only Heisman won by a LSU player (Billy Cannon, 1959). Turns out that we were there for Coach Les Miles weekly radio show & it was his birthday! People were even wearing shirts that said “Eat Grass, Take Names” because the coach was caught on national TV chewing on a blade of grass during their victory over their hated rival, Alabama. We didn’t think we would get seated, but got the last table. Several other NCBRT people have been associated with other major college football programs throughout the USA & their coaches; & stated that Miles appeared to be one of the friendliest & approachable they had seen. He showed up early, stayed late, & during every free minute he was mingling with the fans, signing autographs & getting photos taken (of course it helps when you are 7&1, coming off a great victory against Alabama & ex LSU coach Nick Saban).

https://www.tjribs.com/

Friday afternoon, 12NOV, Dan finally returned to Phoenix. After doing very little on Saturday morning, we headed to the Mesa Market Place Swap Meet. This is very large flea market the runs Friday to Sunday, October to April. It is over 1600 stalls selling the usual “stuff” you see at any other so called swap meet or flea market elsewhere. A couple of differences we noted, other than the size, were live entertainment & free raffles every couple of hours.

http://www.mesamarket.com/

We departed the “Good Life” Sunday morning & headed to Freightliner of Arizona located in Tolleson, a suburb of Phoenix. We have previously discussed in this BLOG the difficulty of getting the engine, transmission and/or chassis of an RV serviced. Basically, there are very few RV dealers that can do this & you learn to rely on truck service centers. Also in this BLOG we have detailed our less than satisfactory experiences at several truck facilities. Talking to other RVs we received several recommendations for Freightliner of Arizona & tried them on our trip north in April of this year (see below BLOG entry). We were very pleased with their service & the cleanliness of their facility & waiting area; so we made an appointment (appointments are something most truck facilities will NOT make!!!) for our trip south. The staff personnel you deal with only deal with RV’ers & fully understand you are living in the RV & almost always have pets. Their estimates are almost always slightly higher than the bill & best of all they deal totally with you “after market” warranty insurance!!! (The proceeding was a paid commercial endorsement.)

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2010/04/10-13apr10-willcox-phoenix-az.html

After parking in the Freightliner service yard, we headed off to Thee Pitts Again for some BBQ. In addition to the standard BBQ items, Dan had to order the pull pork sundae! This is BBQ beans, coleslaw, & pulled pork layered in a sundae dish & obviously topped in BBQ sauce. Things accomplished on our RV Monday & Tuesday were: a routine M2 maintenance, replace the exhaust manifold, & replace the radiator surge tank. Although it was pretty boring sitting around the waiting room with Gumbo; everything we needed done, & a couple of unexpected items, were completed in less than the two days scheduled & we were ready to go.

http://www.theepittsagain.com/

Rather than hit the road that afternoon during rush hour, we decided to stay at Freightliner overnight & have a dinner at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. Pizzeria Bianco is known far & wide outside of Phoenix for their very simple but gourmet pizzas. We arrived at 6:30pm & were told we had a one & 1/2 hour wait. Having heard great things about their simple pizzas we impatiently waited for almost two hours to be seated. After our appetizer we split a half-&-half pizza of Pizza Margherita & Pizza Rosa; most excellent & well worth the wait! Note, they are only open until 10pm; when we left a little after 9pm, there were still people that had an hour wait left standing outside.

http://www.pizzeriabianco.com/