Travels with Kris

Reports on weather for Flagstaff on Saturday Dec 28 were bad.   Temperature forecast bounced back and forth between 5 degrees and -3.   Regardless, I thought it would be nice to go somewhere warmer for the night.   Snow hit hard on Thursday and Friday and the roads were pretty bad.   I decided to spend the night in Flagstaff and head out early in the morning towards Camp Verde.   Camp Verde was going to be roughly 20 degrees warmer than Flagstaff, had both a casino and rest area where I could sleep and had a library open on Saturday until 5pm.   I would have preferred to find somewhere that had a library open both Saturday and Sunday that was in the 20-degree range, but Camp Verde was as close as I could get.   Plus, I had missed the hike at Montezuma’s Well National Monument the last time I was in the area.   This would give me a chance to check out the ancient well and structures around it.   I had also planned on doing a restructuri...

No work today and I rented a room at the Monte Vista Hotel which is a historic hotel in downtown Flagstaff.  It was built in 1922 and embraces its historical self and hasn’t modernized too much other than tv and WIFI.  I rented a traditional hotel room there with a shared bathroom and shower.  This is how hotels used to be back in the day.  The more expensive rooms have the bathroom en suite but that isn’t how the original hotel was built.  I like the history.  I was fairly happy that the bathroom was very close, and the shower was right next to it.  I had a nice little spa day planned and having access to the shower was necessary because I was going to color my hair.  I also was going to enjoy some nice adult beverages, so a quick easy access to the toilet was necessary.   I knew that these would be issues when I booked the room, and I debated the convenience vs the historical sig...

Short work week with Xmas being on Wednesday.  Being a temp, I don’t get vacation or holiday pay, so I lose 20% of my paycheck for not working Xmas.  I’m not all that thrilled, I’d rather work.  But the office boss lady let me know on Friday that I can work extra hours to make up the time I’m missing on Wednesday.  So, I come in at 7:30am (I’m always here by then anyway, might as well come inside rather than sit in my car).  And I’m working until 6:30pm.  10-hour shifts for 4 days will give me a complete paycheck.  Its weird being the only one in the office though.  I’m a temp and I’m unsupervised in a government office.  Coming from my security background, my inner auditor is screaming about all the things that could go wrong if I wasn’t a trustable, hardworking adult.  But deep down, I’m happy they trust me to be in the office alone and figure their conversation with Melissa at ...

  Sunday morning was quieter than the day before on the Strip.  I had debated hitting one of the cheap breakfast places for breakfast but decided to head out.  I’d been in the same parking spot since Friday night and it was finally time to move off the Strip.  There were a number of off-strip activities that I had wanted to check out, but I also wanted to get back to Flagstaff early.  I had photo calendars at CVS waiting for pickup and an Amazon order at Whole Foods waiting for pickup.   And I needed to hit the gym before it got too late.  I checked my list and the Anderson Dairy Farm was closed on Sundays…understandable but I had looked forward to this tour and was sad to miss it.  There were two activities on Fremont I had on my list but decided to skip these too.  More traffic/parking issues and I wasn’t in the mood.  The Shelby Museum and Showroom opened at 10am on Sunday a...

Woke up around 8:30am in a much quieter parking garage than I fell asleep in.  I woke up slowly and enjoyed the morning before my bladder finally demanded that I get up.  Luckily, due to Fridays adventures, I knew where both bathrooms in the Miracle Mile were located.  If there is one major complaint about the Strip, it would be the lack of bathrooms.  They have places selling alcohol every 10 feet and they should have as many bathrooms.  I had seen some advertisements the day before about breakfast specials and finally found one at the PBR Rockers & Grill restaurant.  They had a nice outside seating area with fire pits and heaters, and it was a nice position for people watching.  Got a full breakfast for less than $5 and a hot chocolate full of booze and a souvenir cup for $15.   I missed that the drink came in a souvenir cup and was initially irked, but over the weekend it came in very hand...

I head to Las Vegas after 8 hours of work in Flagstaff.  It’s a 4-hour drive but thanks to a time change, I arrived in LV at 8:30pm instead of 9:30pm.  I was really tired for the last hour of the drive and considered stopping, but I’m glad I didn’t.  I was able to knock out a few things on my list before I went to bed.  I’ve heard that Las Vegas pumps oxygen into the casinos to keep people awake and I believe it.  The strip is so well lit its practically daytime and even though I was sleep at 7pm, within 20 minutes of walking around the strip I had a second wind. I parked at the Miracle Mile/Planet Hollywood Hotel parking garage and started with a stroll through Miracle Mile.  I’d been there before, I recognized it from when I took a stripper class there about 7 years ago.  Its basically just a shopping mall with a casino and a few theaters.  I didn’t spend to much time here.  I had a list ...

Third week of work.  The trainer girl and I had a nice conversation this week.  I don’t think she means to be unapproachable; I think she’s just socially awkward and not trained to be a trainer.  Jennifer (our direct supervisor) has announced that she has pulled herself out of the grand jury rotation so she can spend more time training.  Initially, I was grateful.  But it’s the holidays and she’s out a lot the next few weeks.  When I brought her a question, she critizied the way I was doing it and apparently my trainer girl is doing it incorrectly or Jennifer doesn’t actually know that much about the intake process.  I’m sticking with the way trainer girl taught me.  If its wrong, it doesn’t hurt anything.  But if the extra steps she has me doing are correct, not doing it could cause problems.  Friday night, left on time and headed to Vegas. 

Left Friday night and headed south down to the Sedona/Camp Verde area.  I was planning on crashing at the casino, but I was happy to find a rest area in the area.  I crashed early and enjoyed an early night.  Up early on Saturday morning and headed to the Tuzigoot National Monument.  The weather was pretty good, and I enjoyed some light hiking around the monument.  There was the remnants of an old civilization there, very similar to many others I’d seen in Arizona.  There were supposedly lots of birds in the area, but this time of year the birds are limited.  I really need to come back here in the spring.  Next on the list was the Montezuma Castle National Monument.  The walking path to the site here wasn’t very long and was paved.  Easy on the knees and feet.  This was one of the most interesting sites I’d seen in a while.  It was carved into the side of mountain a...

Second week of work and I made friends this week.  Some of the girls invited me out to lunch!  They also invited me to a movie this upcoming weekend, but I already have plans to go explore a few National Monuments around the Sedona area.  I’m so happy to have friends here.  I’m fine hanging by myself most of the time, us introverts usually are, but its always nice to have friends, especially when you are going to be at a place for a couple of months.  I panicked this week when I realize I hadn’t ordered my calendars yet and I was running out of time.  So skipped the gym on Wednesday and headed to the library to go through all my Africa photos and picked 12 to use for the calendars.  But the libraries internet was down so I wasn’t able to order them.  The hard part is over, just coming up with the right photos, so tomorrow will be faster.  Thursday, I went back to the library and uploaded the pho...

I spent an entire weekend at the library downloading and sorting my photos.   It was nice to just chill and get things caught up on.  I started updating the blog but didn’t get as caught up as I wanted too.  Early to bed, lots of sleep and lots of computer work all done.

First week working for the Coconino County Attorney’s Office. My official title is Intake Specialist.  The girl that is training me obviously has no training experience and she doesn’t know how to provide information in a cohesive manner.  Its driving me crazy.  I’m trying to take notes, but she’ll jump around and I have no confidence that I’m doing anything correctly.  There is also a lot of down time, so I’m anxious just sitting here doing nothing.  The trainer girl is also blaming me for weird things that I haven’t done.  Some mistakes are mine and I own them, but others were done days before I got here, but she assumes they are my mistakes, even when I show her the log.  By the third day, she’s put on her headphones and doesn’t interact with me much.  I feel abandoned.  This job isn’t that hard, but there are a lot of things you need to know.  There is no manual, no written refere...

One more day to finish off Route 66 and I was hoping to get back to Flagstaff early enough to hit the gym and take a nice shower and get to bed early.   I also didn’t want to miss out on anything too major on Route 66.   But Needles is only 3 hours away from Flagstaff on the expressway and Needles to Kingman is only 1 hour on the expressway.   Figured I’d take the Route 66 portion to Kingman and take the expressway from there.   I’d already done all the Route 66 stuff between Kingman and Flagstaff, so I can make up some time.   Needles had a number of list items I was able to take care of pretty early.   There were a few things around the California/Arizona border and Colorado River.   Route 66 lead me through the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge and I got some great pictures of the Colorado River and wild donkeys.   Apparently, there are bighorn sheep here and I might come back and spend a few days looking for interesting wildlife.   T...

Victorville is another one of those towns that embraces Route 66 culture.   They have a museum and historical lcoations and murals and signs.   It was too early in the morning for much to be open, so I took my photos and moved on.   Spent a little time at the famous Elmers Bottle Tree Ranch and a few old restaurants that are still kicking.   I explored Daggett a teeny tiny town that has a few surviving structures from the 1800’s.   There is an old Pioneer Cemetery I found interesting and the train runs through the town.   Actually, there are multiple tracks and there are lots of trains.   North of Daggett I discovered an old ghost town.   There were a number of signs directing people to it, but once I got there, I found a line of cars and a required admission fee.   Not exactly the ghost town I’d expected.   Later I Googled Calico Ghost Town and it really is a historical old mining town.   Some of the structures are still or...

Route 66 backwards!  I had followed Route 66 from Chicago to Kingman AZ.  I still needed to do the portion from Kingman to Santa Monica.  But I w as going to do Santa Monica to Kingman instead.  It took me 7 hours on the expressway, so hopefully I could do it slow and steady and enjoy what was left of the route in 3 days.  There were a few things I missed because they were closed when I got there, but I was able to do quite a few things and I can always fill in the missing its after my Flagstaff assignment is complete. Santa Monica was easy enough to get to, and I found the “Route 66 Begins” sign.  I should have looked on the back part to see if it said “Route 66 Ends” but I didn’t.  There were several old, iconic restaurants in this area, and I wished I hadn’t eaten breakfast before I started.  But I’ll be back.  The route led through Beverly Hills and Los Angeles.  I’m pretty sure I missed a pretty big part of it when I wa...