Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
The temperature at 6:07AM was 60.8F that felt like 60.8F under a mostly cloudy sky. It was a beautiful sunrise.
John and Liz left for home at Thornhill, Ontario this morning.
It was overcast when we came home from Apache Junction. We were over to Wal-Mart and created a little inflation. We topped up the diesel tank at Fry's on the way home.
When we arrived home I finished part 126 on the Grand Canyon and then had to take the large awning in. It was overcast with rain forecasted and quite windy.
The temperature at 11:30AM was 78.3F that felt like 77F and the weather station was recording mostly cloudy. We will stick with overcast.
Once I had part 126 on the Grand Canyon finished I started on part 127 the Superstition Mountain we visited yesterday.
Around about 2PM Nancy phoned and said they were going to LON's Restaurant 5532 N Palo Cristi Road, Paradise Valley for supper. They were leaving at 3:30PM. We got ready and left at 3PM and we pulled into the parking lot a few minutes before 4PM right behind them. Nancy and Oscar did not come. Oscar claimed he was not feeling well enough. He has a bad cough and spent some time in the hospital getting help, when we returned from the Grand Canyon trip.
This is the sign to LON's Restaurant.
This is the parking lot at LON's Restaurant.
These are the photographs around the restaurant. We soon learned the restaurant was not open so the girls made a reservation for 5:45PM and we left for the Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 N. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix.
What these photographs do not show are the tables at LON's. The tables were outdoors on the other side of the fence.
This is a photograph of a mountain on the way to the garden. There were a number of these mountains like this in the area.
We tried following Sean but were soon lost when he ducked over a lane or two and it was impossible for me to move the truck over. Dick was with Joan and I and we did not know the address of the garden. We could not find it on the map and GPS could not find it. I finally called On Star and they gave me the address but the GPS still did not have it. So we started driving. Dick said he saw a sign for the Botanical Garden so I turned around in heavy traffic of about eight lanes, and started back in the opposite direction in the other lanes.
As luck would have it we found the signs and followed them into the garden.
This is the ticket booth where one gets their ticket to enter the garden.
This is the entry sign embedded into the walkway.
This is a map of the garden.
This is not Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This is Dick and Donna in the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona.
This is a bridge rail on the way out that I felt was rather neat.
We went back to LON's for the supper appointment. Joan and I took a leisurely run back via GPS and Dick went with the others. When we arrived at LON's the parking lot was covered in cones and it was full. They had valet parking set-up. I expected them to ask me to leave but they opened the doors, let Joan and I out and welcomed us as though it were a Cadillac, Beamer or some other fancy top of the line car. They did mention that they had no idea where they would park it.
The tables, with linen table cloths, were set-up outside behind the fence with a real wood burning fireplace near ours. Our clothes smelled of smoke on the way home. The six of us sat around a large round table built for six near the fireplace. One waiter kept throwing the wood on with usually four good sized sticks burning at a time. The fireplace was fairly large with a mesh screen over the front to prevent sparks from escaping.
There was no electric lighting. Each table had an oil lantern sitting in the middle. It was rather cozy when it got dark.
The waiters and waitresses wore dungarees, shirt and jeans, with long black aprons covering them. Needless to say they were busy and every table was full including one with two sitting more or less in the walkway between the flower gardens growing within.
One waiters sole job was simply wandering around filling each water glass. It sprinkled rain while we ate and they brought over a large umbrella to provide some shelter. The umbrella was for the sun and not rain no doubt.
When we came out we said good bye to everyone, the valet brought the old diesel from out back some where. Joan had home programmed into the GPS and we had heavy traffic all the way back to the trailer.
When we left it was thunder and lightning and we had heavy rain at times. Once we passed Mesa the rain stopped. They had rain at the RV park because there were puddles around.
At 8:45 PM when we arrived home the temperature was 67.7F that felt like 67.7F and mostly cloudy skies.
I spent the evening transmitting part 127, our visit to the museum. When I finished at 11:20PM the temperature was 66.8F that felt like 66.8F under a clear sky.
That was the day and an interesting one it was.