Hello Everyone! What a difference a week makes, especially when there are planes involved. I’m writing to you this week from sunny San Francisco, where I’ve been since Sunday as I begin my new guiding job with Incredible Adventures. It’s definitely been a transition, but a good one and one I’m excited about, especially as temperatures climb and the days get longer. Summer’s creeping in and I’m thrilled to be back in the saddle and showing international tourists around our beautiful country. It’s a job that suits me and one that, while stressful and intense, is something I truly enjoy doing. While I’m starting with a new company, my manager from my old company is my manager here and many other guides have come over as well which means there are a lot of familiar faces around. It’s been wonderful to be back in a big city as well and to not have to worry about parking and sleeping and the stresses of van life for a few days. My company has put me up in a nice hotel here for the last few days and that alone has been a sort of vacation for me. On another note, I found it amusing that while filling out my paperwork I have been writing the year as 2021 and felt surprised yesterday to look down and remember it is actually 2022. I guess my mind has been focused on other things since the New Year. All in all, it’s been a great week and while this will be a short recap this week, I want to keep my newsletter coming out as regularly as possible through the coming work season. It will be difficult at times because this job is pretty full on and runs seven days a week, but I will do my best.
When I wrote this post last week, I was in tiny Camp Verde and had a very quiet night when I wrapped it up. Thursday morning I was up early and off to Prescott which was less than an hour away. I had a lot of things I needed to get done when I got there – unexciting things like laundry and a tire rotation, but things which were quite necessary. I did manage to spend a few hours in the Sharlot Hall Museum, a central museum complex named for the lady who founded it. It was a fascinating place which included several original town buildings and a few purpose-built exhibit halls. It was a good day to be there as there were several school groups at the museum on field trips so there were interpretive volunteers stationed in several of the historic buildings around the museum. In the evening, I went for a nice prime rib dinner to celebrate a successful winter and spring on the road and to look ahead to a great summer back at work. Then I headed downtown to Whiskey Row, once a notorious Old West entertainment district and now just a fun stretch of bars and restaurants. Prescott seemed to have a nice mix of students, hippies and cowboys and there were plenty of people out enjoying themselves on a Thursday evening. I especially enjoyed the open-mic night at the Birdcage and the history of The Palace, Arizona’s oldest standing saloon which once served the likes of Doc Hollywood and the Earp brothers.
I spent Friday morning packing for my flight and cleaning my van – both of which were easier in the cool Prescott morning at 5000’ than they would be in lower and warmer elevations. Around noon I headed over to visit a very old friend of mine who was finishing up his work week at a popular bronze sculpture workshop there in town. I met Jefferson back in 1992 between my junior and senior years in high school when I worked at a summer camp in Virginia. He was in his twenties at that point and had been working at the camp for several summers and was one of the camp rangers. It was my first summer there (of two) and I helped run a high ropes course that summer. It was quite a formative experience in my life and I still remember how much I enjoyed working there and looking up to Jefferson (who we knew as “Slim” back then). He admitted when I saw him that he didn’t really remember me, but when I showed him a picture of me at 16 he remembered that guy and we could certainly reminisce about mutual acquaintances from camp. He showed me around the shop and explained the process of creating the bronze sculptures they were working on. The artists create the molds, but when they are cast they are far from a finished product. Jefferson’s shop assembles the different pieces, touches them up, grinds and polishes them and then adds color and texture using chemicals, fire and specialized tools. It was quite a fascinating process and one I had no idea was so complicated. The finished products they were turning out were magnificent and their shop is apparently in very high demand which is always a good thing.
Jefferson knocked off for the week and we headed over to Bill’s Pizza on the main courthouse square for a delicious pie and a long conversation. When we finished our lunch, he invited me out for a hike and we headed up to the beautiful granite mountains outside of town where we embarked on a pleasant 3 mile loop through the woods. Jefferson knew a lot about the plants and trees and insects and I appreciated learning from him as we went as we continued to catch up on the thirty years since we last met. After the sun went down, he invited me to spend the night at his place and have dinner with him and his partner, Colette. They had a lovely home and we sat up chatting about all kinds of things into the night.
Our conversation continued in the morning over breakfast, but the day was heating up and I had to head on down the road so I said my goodbyes and promised to look in on them when I’m in the area next. From Prescott I headed down wonderful, winding highway 89 to Wickenburg which is a small town with a very western feel to it. Even the light posts are wearing cowboy hats. I spent some time wandering around and taking some photos and then headed into the interesting Desert Caballeros Museum. The first floor of the museum had some beautiful paintings and sculptures on display from female western artists. Several of the sculptures I recognized from Jefferson’s shop which put a big smile on my face. The lower level had some great recreated buildings from old Wickenburg and some great historical dioramas as well. I was probably there for about an hour and I thought it was a really neat little museum. From there I headed on down the hill and back through Phoenix to Mesa where it was almost a hundred degrees in the cool of the evening. I was pleasantly surprised to find Gus’s Fried Chicken in Mesa, a small franchised restaurant which I’ve never seen outside of the Deep South and which has some of my favorite fried chicken in the country. I was thrilled when I saw the neon sign and when I found that it was indeed a real Gus’s, I tucked into a delicious three piece dinner with a slice of pecan pie for dessert. From there I popped around the corner for a quick beer and then called it an early night.
I was up at 5:30 the next morning and headed down to my friend John’s house to drop off my van as he had graciously offered to watch it while I was away. Despite the fact that it was 6:30 on a Sunday morning, he greeted me with a cup of coffee and a smile which was really kind of him and much appreciated. I caught an Uber to the airport which was only about 15 minutes from his house and had plenty of time to catch my flight to Oakland. When I landed I hopped on a BART train and headed on into San Francisco and got to my hotel at Union Square just after 11. I was very happy to be able to check in that early and get a little bit of work done and then took a long afternoon nap in a cool, clean bed. Later that afternoon I headed up the hill to Chinatown and caught a great cultural show in the street which was being put on by a local youth group. From there I wandered around Chinatown and the Financial District having a drink here and a snack there and remembering all the good times I’ve had in this city over the years. It was very nice to be back and it was a nice afternoon and evening. That night I went to a comedy show at a little club just around the corner from my hotel and had a blast. I laughed until I cried which was such a wonderful feeling.
I was up early and off across the city to work on Monday morning and it was fun to join the downtown morning commute and catch the bus down to the office. That novelty has faded after a couple of days, but it was definitely cool in the moment. It was great to step into the office and see some familiar faces from my old company and I felt very welcome there. It was a day of training modules and learning a different system, but it wasn’t too painful. After work I headed back to my hotel and then off to the gym and out for a few beers at some of the little bars around the neighborhood.
Yesterday was much the same although I did make it out to a great little tiki bar called Pagan Idol last night which was a lot of fun. The bartender liked that I was headed to Hawaii this week and we had a great conversation over a few tropical cocktails. I stopped off for a big bowl of udon on my way home and spent the rest of the evening catching up on some of my Hawaiian history notes. Today was my last day in the office and I was very happy to be done with my training. I stepped out this evening for s massive bowl of Pho and a quick cocktail at another tiki bar, the Zombie Village, before coming back to my hotel. I still have plenty of work to do to prepare for this upcoming trip and I wanted to get this out before I headed to bed.
I’ll get some work done during the day tomorrow and then I will fly out to Honolulu tomorrow night. I’m definitely excited to get back to Hawaii and I’ll have a little bit of time there to myself before my trip starts. My group is a small one, just five people, and I will meet them on Friday evening. We’ll spend Saturday morning at Pearl Harbor and the rest of the day cruising around Oahu and then head off to the Big Island on Sunday for 4 days. This time next week we’ll be finishing up our time on the Big Island and getting ready to fly to Maui for the rest of our short island-hopping adventure. I do hope to be able to write this post next week, but it’s going to be a really busy week so we’ll just have to wait and see. Know that I’ll be out enjoying the islands though, and I’ll have my camera close at hand as I go so hopefully I’ll have some nice photos to share with you in the near future. Have a great week out there and I’ll see you when I see you. Aloha.
-Mike