QUICK TRIP TO PHOENIX

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Greg and Niki and their kids have been in town a few days picking out carpet etc for the house they are buying in Herriman. Saturday or was it Friday, Niki called and asked if I would drive to their house in Queen Creek with Greg on Sunday, fill up our van with their big TV, her computer and other potentially breakable stuff and some of her clothes and bring it back to Salt Lake leaving Greg there to pack up the rest of the house for their move. I took the seats out of the van Saturday night and Sunday I picked up Greg at his folks house at just after 7:00 in the morning and off we went. We had a nice visit talking at least half the way there. I drove to Beaver and Greg drove the rest of the way which was nice making me less fatigued for the return trip the next day. Going down we ate lunch at Nedra’s too in Kanab. The “too” is part of their name. In Phoenix off the 60 we stopped at Fuddruckers were I ate the patty off a small burger. We got to their house just as it was getting dark. We put the large TV in the van first. It is so big that we had to tip it slightly sideways to get it through the opening but were able to set it upright once inside the van. We then put in the larger pictures and the large metal clock that hung on the wall on their staircase. At that point Greg sent me off to bed via the shower and he bagged up a bunch of Niki’s clothes and loaded them and other odds and ends then backed the van into their garage. At about 6:20 Sunday morning I was off. By leaving that early I saved at least a half hour in rush-hour traffic delays. As it was, the Valley of the Sun is so spread out that it took around an hour and a half to get to Anthem, the extreme north end of greater Phoenix. In Flagstaff I took the business district route which cost me perhaps ten minutes but I wanted to see it. I bought gas and a bottle of apple juice and a bottle of water downtown rather than on 89 at the north end of town like I usually do. I stopped at Jacob Lake and stretched my legs and got a beef stick and some grapefruit juice. I fueled up again in Beaver. When we got on the freeway in Salt Lake I noticed there was a shimmy at around 75 miles an hour. Farther into the trip it was doing it at around 70 mph. By the time I got to Beaver on the return trip, it was getting worse. I thought it was probably the front end but “Wheels”; the guy who cleaned my windshield in Beaver looked at my tires a said they were in bad shape. He was right; all four of them. By providence I had pulled into a gas station with a tire shop attached. I had them put on four new tires then asked them to check the oil level. It was low and they topped it off for free. They also added some coolant and didn’t charge me though the tires were $599.96 after all the taxes and fees. I couldn’t believe how much smoother and nicer the van runs with new tires. Wow! I was home at around 7:30 ; twelve hours on the road for two days in a row…good thing I love driving.