Selling Books on Amazon

Times are tough for many people these days. However,
there are always people out there with money and willing
to spend it. Now, before reading further, take a look around
you. Do you have any books in your room? Any books in
your house? Any books you're willing to part with that you
haven't read for a very long time...if ever?

Over the last 36 hours I've made almost $25 selling three
books on Amazon.com in their used book section. I just
have to make a little effort of posting them online at a
reasonable price, packing them to send at the Post Office
to the customer (Amazon pays for the shipping) and
then Amazon deposits the payment into your bank account.
It's that easy. Sure, I probably won't sell this many books
this quickly all the time and yes, it's not a ton of money,
but in these times, every little bit counts.

Leaving Las Vegas

We are now officially carless. At least for a few days.
We had been borrowing Lynn's sister's 4-Runner for
the last six weeks and we met her in Las Vegas where
she was returning the Eurovan campervan she had been
renting. As a result, we looked for a one way ticket
from LAS to GJT. Not an easy task when you're looking
for something inexpensive. We were able to find a
great deal on Allegiant Air...one of the newish low
cost carriers that now crosses the country. I had also
never flown out of Las Vegas before so I got to add it
to my list of airports flown through (57 total). Allegiant
is not a bad airline at all. Much better than I expected.
The seats were comfortable, the service friendly and
even though there was a charge for everything, we both
flew, including taxes for $100 one way. I'd fly them again.

Vegas Baby!

One can do Las Vegas cheaply...well, at least more economically.
We've had a great time seeing the sights, but boy are our legs
and feet tired. Vegas is definitely not a place for the weak of
heart or stamina. We're staying in the Excalibur, which is not
the fanciest of hotels/casinos but it's very nice and family
friendly (not sure if that's good or bad).


It amazes me how much electricity and water is used in this
place. A lot of the water is recycled and used over and over
again but the power usage has to be phenomenal! I really
do like all the bright lights though and it's something that
everyone should see at least once in their lives. Plus, now
we've seen BOTH Eiffel Towers!


We both have our favorite things about Las Vegas. Lynn
likes Caesar's Palace the best and I like the Bellagio. I think
we both agree though that the coolest thing is the fountain
at the Bellagio that plays in conjunction with music every
15 minutes. Very moving.

Vegas!

We're going to be in Las Vegas for the next three nights.
We're looking forward to it since neither of us have been
here before. Unfortunately, there's no internet at our hotel
so we'll be out of touch web-wise for the next few days.
We will however have our cell phone with us. I'll post lots
of photos when we get home on Friday.

The East Valley

We've been driving around a bit since we've been in Phoenix
and most of it has been spent in the East Valley since that's
where I used to live and we know the area better. We went to
a yarn store and this was outside of it. I doubt it's the world's
largest chair, but it's probably the world's largest "Pink" chair!


No Cub fan would feel that a trip to Arizona was complete
without driving past HoHoKam Park in Mesa. HoHoKam is
the Spring Training site for the Cubs. I drove around the
entire park and couldn't find anyone that might be able to
open up the gates so that I could look around, but at least
it was interesting to see even if the team is playing badly
back home in Chicago.


There was a pretty good view of the field from past the
outfield fence.


At the entrance to the field there were round batting circles
for each of the players that have had their numbers retired
by the team...including my favorite, Ryne Sandberg.


We drove to Chandler and took a look at the condo I used to
rent. Surprisingly, very little had changed in almost 14 years!


One of my favorite flowers is the Bougainvilla. The state Department
of Transportation has chosen to use it on the sides of many of its
freeways. It brings a lot of color to an otherwise tan landscape.

Saguaros

We drove up the Beeline Highway today to look at the
Saguaro cacti. We've been to Saguaro National Park in
Tucson before, but this is much closer to where we're
staying, only about a half hour away. Literally thousands
of Saguaros lined both sides of the highway. The only
thing that could have made it nicer was if they were in
bloom, but we're many months too late for that

Time on Our Hands

Combine the fact that it was a cloudy morning with the fact that
my back was almost as red as my Oklahoma t-shirt (too much
pool), it was a perfect day to drive around the Valley and see
some things that needed to be seen. In our case that means
things that are cheap (free?) and what we might stumble upon.
Finding the Desert Botanical Gardens ($15 admission each) and
the Frank Lloyd Wright House ($30 admission each) a bit beyond
our price range, we opted for old standbys. Lynn wanted to visit
a yarn store in Mesa called the Fiber Factory. No, not the place
where Metamucil is made, although that might be an interesting
trip for another time...but one of the "best" yarn stores in the
Southwest. I have to admit that it was pretty nice if you're into
that sort of place, which Lynn is and the people working there
seemed very knowledgeable about Antarctica and Colorado.
However, they thought Colorado was cold all the time...shhhh...
don't tell them it's not!


While I was waiting for Lynn to peruse the yarn store from top to
bottom, I sat on the "man couch" and read a small newspaper
distributed by the Downtown Mesa Association. In it, they talked
about a "favorite" local Mexican restaurant just down the street
named Mangos Mexican Cafe & Bakery. In a word, it was
AWESOME! Lynn had the Chimichanga and I had Enchiladas and
even the chips and salsa beforehand were great. I found out later
that it had received 5 stars on several internet sites. I especially
liked having to walk through the kitchen to use the restroom.
All very authentic and real comfort food. As much as I love Mexican
food, we hadn't had any real Mexican food in a restaurant since
we came back from Ecuador. I love Taco Bell, but that doesn't
really count...neither does our new discovery, El Pollo Loco.


One of the main goals as we headed out the door was to
visit some used bookstores. We've visited both Bookman's
in Phoenix already, so we wanted something less commercial.
We found it walking back to the car from Mangos. The Book
Gallery. A really nice used bookstore, all of the books are
in good condition and don't smell of mildew. Something we've
run across quite a bit in used book stores. Lynn found a few
knitting books and I found a good book on Colorado
geography and then I stumbled across the "Flag section". Yes,
they actually had a small section of flag books. In it, I found
"Flags Through the Ages and Across the World" by Whitney
Smith. He is the man who coined the term "Vexillology".
I used to check this book out of the Naperville and Denver
Libraries and have seen battered versions of it for sale over
the years but never found a really good copy of it. Here it
was. Only problem...$35...Ouch! However, since the book is
already 34 years old and has been out of print forever...plus
the fact that this copy was in pristine condition...I had to bite
the bullet and buy it. Maybe I can sell some plasma or
something down the road to afford it. Later on, I looked it
up on Amazon and the cheapest copy is available for $106.
Definitely not a price I would pay for a book. I definitely
made a good purchase.


I drove by my old condo in Chandler and took a few pictures
since I didn't have any digital copies (yes, that sounds weird to
me as well) and even past the place where I wrecked Lynn's
Camry leaving the Dairy Queen in 1995 (no photos here
however). Afterwards, we were driving up I-10 toward
downtown Phoenix when there appeared an IKEA in Tempe
on the right hand side of the highway. We'd never been to
an IKEA before and we felt like browsing. For those who
don't know, IKEA is a huge (store size) Swedish-owned
household goods store that has locations around the world.
Everything in the store is VERY reasonable and affordable.
We're looking at making some updates to our house in the
next five years so we were really encouraged that we could
shop at IKEA and make some of the changes we want down
the road without bankrupting ourselves. Only trouble is, the
closest location to us is in Salt Lake City. Not very convenient,
but maybe someday.


Lastly, we stopped at the Barnes and Noble (sorry Ben) at
the Chandler Fashion Mall. Mainly because they have free
internet! They've made a deal with AT&T (boo) for free
internet access in all of their store cafes around the country
and if we get a small coffee, I don't feel so bad about
abusing their bandwidth. I'm finding that more and more
places are offering free Wi-Fi although here's the part of
this post where I complain. Our hotel only offers it in the
lobby for free, not in the rooms. If you want access in your
room you have to pay $9.95 per day. How is it that
seemingly every Motel 6 or Super 8 across every interstate
highway in America can offer "free" Wi-Fi access in their
motels, but a "resort" charging much more charges a
ridiculous price to do so. There...that's been bothering me
for the last 4 days and it's off my chest! And yes, I'm
smiling as I type this!

Swim Time

One of the reasons we came to the Doubletree Resort in
the first place was because of the pool. It's not the biggest
or best in the area, but we like it anyway. There are actually
two pools here but we tend to use the rear pool the most
and since it's mid-summer, we practically have it all to
ourselves. When I lived in Chandler, the condo complex
had to spray the pool down continuously in the summer
to keep it cool. Not so here. I'm not sure if it's because
it's larger or they have some way to cool down the water.
Kind of like an anti-pool-heater. Regardless, it's very
refreshing.

Wide World of Maps

After spending the morning at the pool, we went to one of
my favorite get my geek on places. Wide World of Maps!
I've been going here since the early 90's when I first started
visiting Arizona but I had never been to the Scottsdale store.
This place has everything for a cartography or geography nut!
I could have spend thousands of dollars here, but alas, left
with a new Phoenix highway map.

Staying in Arizona

In Arizona, we're staying at the Doubletree Resort in Paradise
Valley. It's not the most oppulent resort in the Valley, but it's
not a Motel 6 either. We like it though. We've stayed here off
and on since 1995 when Greg won a weekend here but he and
Nancy couldn't use it because they were busy moving from
Phoenix to Oklahoma. They gave it to us and we've been
enjoying it here ever since.


It's been a few years since we've been back and they've changed
the decor a bit, but it's still very nice and comfortable. Especially
since it's about 110 degrees outside. The great thing about
staying in Phoenix during the summer months is that the resorts
are very reasonable. You can stay at the nicest places for a
fraction of the cost during peak season during the winter.
I'll post more photos of the resort in the next few days.


Of course, Bruno moved right in and became very comfortable!

Driving to Arizona

We drove back home to Grand Junction before heading to our
planned stop in Arizona because we had so much stuff in the car,
we wanted to get rid of it and not haul it around for 10 days. It
made for a bit more driving, but was definitely worth it.

I love driving through this part of the country. Miles and miles of
empty lands, with beautiful rock formations, interesting people
and tons of scenery! About 3 hours south of our house is a formation
called Mexican Hat. Yes...an upside down sombrero. Not exactly
politically correct, but apparently the name has stuck


The northern border of the Navajo Nation is the San Juan River. it
eventually flows into Lake Powell, a few miles to the west, but at this
point, it acts as an oasis in a very dry land.


An iconic view and one I never seem to tire of is on the highway just
north of Monument Valley. It was pretty hazy today so it's not tour
guide photo ready, but pretty nonetheless. We skipped visiting
Monument Valley today (the actual park) because we've been there
many times and had lots of other things to see in a short amount of
time.


Just north of the Utah/Arizona border, we came across these folks from
California that were driving the southwest in their homemade choppers.
Very cool.


The other chopper.


On the southwestern edge of the Navajo Nation is the Cameron
trading post. It's very commercial, but always fun to visit.



Traffic through Flagstaff is always miserable. It seems like it
takes forever to drive through, no matter what time of year it is.
I wish they'd come up with a solution to the problem. We took
advantage of being in Flagstaff to visit one of our favorite
bookstore chains...Bookman's. A great used bookstore, we always
seem to leave there, purchasing something. After 90 minutes or
so there, we needed to continue south to the Phoenix area.
The lights had started to come on in Flagstaff and as the first
International Dark Sky city, it's refreshing to see how little light
pollution there is in the city. We continued the two hour drive
to Phoenix and it definitely is NOT a Dark Sky City! It's glow
can be seen from just south of Flagstaff!

Driving Back to Colorado

We left Altus before sunrise and had a long day's drive ahead of us.
One of our first stops was in the panhandle of Texas, east of Amarillo.
Most of this country looks exactly like this photo. Miles and miles of...
nothing! Of course, this area is famous for tornadoes, as the bathrooms
at the restrooms double as tornado shelters according to the posted
signs.


Much of the country in the Southern Plains is agricultural and with
it come lots of large grain elevators. I like to photograph elevators...
probably because I grew up near several of them and they always
seem very noble and fortress-like since they are usually surrounded
by miles of open and flat land.


We felt that driving as far north as Denver, fighting the traffic there and
in Colorado Springs, before making the long journey on I-70 through the
mountains wasn't worth the time or effort, so we took a southern route
we hadn't taken before. We travelled on US 50 across south central
Colorado, through Pueblo, Salida, Gunnison and Montrose. We hadn't
traveled part of this route before and we came upon Monarch Pass half
way through. A really pretty area, crossing the Continental Divide.


We also drove past the Dillon Pinnacles overlooking Blue Mesa Reservoir.
Blue Mesa is the largest body of water in Colorado and part of the
Curecanti National Recreation Area. A nice finish to a very long drive.
16 hours in the car today!

Altus

We spent two really nice days at Nancy and Greg's. The weather was
very hot and a little humid, but there was a hot wind blowing most of
the time that made it tolerable. I was taking these pictures of clouds
outside their front door and Nancy told me that I was easily impressed
because they have much nastier weather than these clouds much of the
time.


Nancy and Greg are babysitting Otis, my nephew Josh's bulldog.
A great dog, but he's way too affectionate and slobbers on you
constantly. I'm not a slobber dog person, but he was fun to be
around. Nancy and Greg have four other dogs and a cat as well...


Nellie


Molly


Trixie


Sadie


Scooter


Greg picked up a bushel of peaches that they had ordered previously,
and although the peaches came from Arkansas (who knew that Arkansas
grew peaches?), they made a great peach pie!



Of course, Nancy shook her head as I took pictures of the pie!

Driving to Oklahoma

We left my Mom's pretty early in the morning and set off for
my sister Nancy's house in Altus, Oklahoma. You can make it
in one day, but it's a pretty long drive, so we split it up into two.
We decided to go a bit of a different route from the Chicago area
to southwest Oklahoma via the boot heel of Missouri and through
Arkansas. Instead of crossing the Mississippi River near St. Louis,
we crossed it near Cairo Illinois. We stopped briefly in New Madrid
Missouri and I was very disappointed. New Madrid was the site of
one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. In the early 1800's
it made the Mississippi River run backwards and rang church bells
in Boston. A pretty big deal. However, no mention of it...not even a
sign near the courthouse could be found!


I was very impressed by the rest stops in Arkansas. The buildings
themselves were nothing to write home about but the grounds were
very nicely landscaped, with tons of flowers everywhere. It was very
pretty.


We spent the night in Little Rock and made it there just in time to
see this really pretty sunset as we rounded a bend in the highway.


Today, when entering Oklahoma, we stopped at a visitor center and
they had this painting on the wall. It's a copy of a famous painting of
the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears is a infamous journey made by
the Cherokee as they were forced from their homelands in the east
and sent to Oklahoma. Many died along the way. Descendants of
these same Cherokee live in this area of Oklahoma today.


I am always please that Oklahoma recognizes that it was once
"Indian Territory". This is reflected on it's license plates, state flag,
and even it's rest stops as we enjoyed these picnic areas where we
ate our lunch.

Our Last Day at Mom's

Today is our last day at Mom's house and we've had a
wonderful time! Mom makes us feel so welcome and
wants us to make ourselves at home. It's been a great
visit, seeing family, visiting close friends and enjoying
great weather. I can't wait until our next visit!