Wow

Had a very wierd experience in prescott hope I get reminded to explain it more
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Cinco de sleepo

The last 48 have been rough. Phoenix to sacramento and round the clock work to get a presentation done. Its not that the work is tough, I love travel work - presents a he'll of a challenge, which I enjoy - but I have a wicked neckache and I haven't slept right for a few days.

I just watched my plane pull into the terminal so I'm going to finish my 11 dollar margarita (didn't know before I ordered it) and get over to the gate.

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Good pizza, good friends.

Last night I met up with an old friend in oldtown Scottsdale. Usually I'd hate to drive my Scooter during rush hour down into Scottsdale, because a) most people in Scottsdale drive badly b) they drive big vehicles, and c) they drive fast. Becuase I left early and went through a bit of exploring, I found out that 64th street bends and curves its way down to McDonald - or at least I found my way down there pretty well nonetheless.

I travelled down to the fashion square mall to meet Kelly, who didn't know where to go for dinner. When she arrived I craved pizza, and so we headed out to Grimaldis, because they supposedly had the best pizza in old town.

Right north of main on Scottsdale, grimaldis is a great traditional pizza place, with a big wood fired oven in the back. They had the details down, from the simple menu to the checkered red and white tablecloths. The constant references to the mob in their menus are a little campy, but all in good fun.

We ordered a small garlic and fresh tomato pizza and a Fulton street salad. The Fulton Street Salad was a cucumber, tomato, feta cheese salad - Almost greek, but not quite. The small pizza is something like 16" wide. We finished about half of each between the two of us. The food was excellent, the cucumbers were English, the tomatoes were perfect, and the cheese wasn't oily, and very tasty.

Great place for a big meal without killing the wallet, food plus two drinks was less than $30.
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Lunchalicious

I met up with a friend and a few of her girlfriends for lunch today. We ate at Hawaiian ono barbeque, I believe it was called. Frank Lloyd Wright just easy of the 101. Super tasty food.

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Heber, Arizona

This weekend I travelled up to Payson to visit my mother. She was excited to see me - I don't get up there too often with all the work, master's degree homework, travelling, and other distractions that happen on a regular basis.

Payson is a medium sized town about an hour and a half north by northeast of Phoenix. It mostly consists of two roads - Highway 86, which runs north-south, and Highway 260 - which runs east-west. Surrounded on all sides by BLM land - the Tonto national forest, and ever so slightly caressed by the immense Mogollon Rim - hundreds of miles long and rising upwards of 7000 feet above sea level. Truly incredible scenery.

I'd been out with my friend Jersey the night before riding around Phoenix until 3am so I wasn't all too energetic - but I was craving a snack. Since I'm not all too fond of sitting in front of the television as a family activity - I informed my mother I was really in the mood for some pie and, since my scooter was strapped into the back of my truck, I'd like to go somewhere small and out of the way to get it.

Since she thought that pie sounded like a great idea, she decided to follow me in my truck in case I was sort of tired when I got there and didn't want to ride all the way back. That was a good choice, since four hours of sleep + 7% downgrades + ridiculously fast cars that like to pass scooters already doing 60mph seem to be a nasty combination - and coffee only gets you so far.

I set off around 2pm eastbound on the 260 - and I'm sure anyone travelling around that time probably could complain about the little scooter that could because I must have blocked traffic going 40mph up a hill - oh well, patience is a virtue and most people remain horrible unvirtuous lately. It probably helped them become more excellent.

Through lush forests and looking over the mogollon rim onto immense spanses of green valleys as far as the eye can see, my scoot pulled me the 55 miles or so from Star Valley (just east of Payson) to Heber, Arizona.

I literally blinked and missed the town. I pulled over on the other side of town and motioned to my support truck and asked "anyone see where I can get some pie?" Turns out there was a cafe about a mile back. Boy was I in for a suprise.

The Rim Cafe is a prototypical podunk cafe. From the waitress, to the booths, to the regulars - its about as "normal America" as it gets. Fantasticly plain - I was in heaven.


Rim Cafe and "Problem Child" - the Scooter


I was handed a plain menu by the ever-so-pleasant plain waitress in my plain seat and ordered some plain coffee. The next-booth neighbors decided to chime in on our conversation immediately and it made me smile from ear to ear.

They had a pie named "very berry" - which, according to the waitress, had all sorts of berries, and RHUBARB in it. Now, Rhubarb is anything BUT a berry, but it happens to be my favorite type of pie - so it was imperative that I have a piece of this magnificent-sounding concoction.

Although we were informed post-ordering that they were out of the la mode part of the pie a-la mode, the wonderful waitress brought out a steaming piece of "very berry" for my devouring. And devour I promptly did. It was truly fantastic - really homemade pie style - flaky crust that was obviously created by hand, with love. The imperfections made it fantastic - slightly undercooked rhubarb, crust that wasn't quite stuck together from the side to the top - just like home. It was truly incredible pie.


Very Berry Pie 

I loaded up the bike and allowed my mom's husband to drive us back - i was about to crash. Coffee and red bull only powers you for so long before you must take a nap.