Observations

Sometimes I like to sit at bars or coffee shops alone and listen. It is at one of these libationous facilities where I sit now, listening to the clamor of the surrounding, and also inherintley with, humanity of close proximal distance.

Funny enough, Robert Miles' "children" plays in the background.

It is not with human nature that I am ever concerned (as if I could even feign an even shallow conceptual understanding of what that might actually be). It is, perhaps, the current condition of humanity that I find myself drawn to inquiry of.

The instance I find myself compelled to write about is one of the wholly shallow and uninteresting conversations here. It seems to me that the three females are infatuated with a recent addition to the room. Their conversation never leaves the scripted play of the primetime drama: succinct, non inspiring, and wholly without genuine substance.

My questions lie in that of friendship, what is it that makes true friend? It seems to be either escaping us in action and ability in whole, or it remains to be seen what the force that compells, and allows the ability to be a friend.

Ill get back to my beer now.
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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.

Random Scootering on Friday Night

Who says friday night must have plans? I try to stay away from plans as much as possible... makes it more fun that way.

Night started off at the George and Dragon - Scarab meeting - we all had a few pints, a few bits of meals, and a hearty welcome from the owner. We're going to hold the meet and greet there for the scooter rally "Skull Valley Rally" on the 20th of May. I drank from about 5 to 745. Then I went to the movies.

I strapped a friend onto the back seat and took off downtown, hurrying to catch the opening of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." I met Jaime, Shaun, Shaun, Dana, Mike, Sohinee, and Righteous - who was strapped to the back of my scooter. I actually met Mike, Sohinee, and Righteous at the GnD - but what mattered is that we were all there at the Theater - or actually, at the Mexican food restaurant sucking down margaritas before the movie.

The movie was awesome, by the way, and I won't comment on the entirety of it but if you enjoy Douglas Adams' works, you'd enjoy this movie version of Hitchiker's Guide - he wrote the script, so no whining about inconsistencies.

Buzz gone, I hopped back on my Scooter, fired her up and snuck out the parking lot the back way - the line was long and I am impatient - heading up to Nick's. Nick decided he wanted pizza, which sounded good to me, so we went to Slices in Old Town Scottsdale. I had a slice of pesto pizza - really wicked good. But that wasn't the best part about this little pizza place - it was the ridiculously intoxicated Scottsdale kids. It was unreal - the repression was literally leaking onto the floor with some of these kids. If I was a psychologist I'd be recruiting there - these kids need HELP and the last one to their trust fund is a rotten egg!

After the slice o' pie, it was time for the Rogue. Nick and I chatted with a few folks about all sorts of fun things and then, ubenownst to me that it was nearly 2am, headed off to Hot Pink. We arrived at hot pink 2 FREAKIN MINUTES BEFORE 2am - and so, the only thing i could get was a water. Damn. Luckily, a few ladies I knew were an entire linens and things to the wind and were two fistin it. Hence, free drinks. After about 30 minutes we got bored of lookin at retardedly drunk people and rode off into the moonlight.

I'm sure the neighbors are going to hate me, because Nick decided to give me a tour of the entire Camelback Corridor at 3am. My scooter sounds like a pack of wilderbeasts belching after a dinner of bear.... but not as smelly. Think loud, think annoying, think half drunk me that keeps his RPMs up rather than idling through neighborhoods. Oh well. Its a bit quieter than a harley, but not much.

I ended up crashing on Nick's couch - since itll be my couch in about two weeks. I gotta sleep more.

Introductions

I enjoy travel. Thats really the beginning of this concept. Whether its all over the world or all over my own neighborhood, finding new places, meeting new people, and experiencing new things remains my utmost favorite passtime.

The second part of Ten Inches of Travel lies in my other favorite thing, riding - Scooters, that is. My scooter has 10 inch tires on it.

Experiencing the world at a bit slower speed, giving yourself time to look around and smell the air - thats the point of Ten Inches of Travel. I like to find places off the beaten path, and experience what it is that gives that place a home here on earth. Each little speck of the map has stories - history that most people outside of that miniscule landmass forget. None of it is unimportant, none of it inpertinent to the history that we all share together.

Of course, I also enjoy the local delicacies - specifically dessert. In backwoods America one thing makes me happier than all other confectionary concoctions: Pie. Rhubarb, Berry, Apple, Mincemeat, Bananna Cream... the list can go on and on. To me, real homemade American pie remains the defining characteristic of a small town's delicacies. Every town with a Cafe has pie. I intend to try as many as possible. Internationally, I'll go with whatever's great - France has its creperies, Italy their gelaterias, Japan its innumerable fresh candies and cookies.

The world is filled with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and stories that ought to be experienced with more than just the five senses. I hope that if anyone reads this, they will agree - and possibly go out and explore themselves.