With Jackson loaded in the car, and our bikes strapped to the Mini we headed north for Flagstaff among a minor windstorm. Is there really a better time to be driving a small car with large, light weight items attached to the back?
I've been told, when it comes to cycling, its not if you're going to get a flat in Arizona, its when you're going to get a flat. Jonathan's pierced tire "when" just so happened to be a hilly 14 miles away from our car. Thanks to the advice of a friendly fellow cyclist, and some ingenuity with a piece of hammer gel wrapper we were able to get back on the road and finish our 31 ride in record time. (A piece of the gel wrapper was placed on the inside of the tire wall, held in place by a freshly inflated tube. This piece helped protect the semi-vulnerable new tube... or so my understanding goes.)
Post ride/shower and pup pick up, we headed into town for what I was expecting to be a relatively easy breakfast/shopping trip. Not so much. Turns out the Flagstaff dinning scene, outdoor areas included, really isn't as dog friendly as anticipated. After being turned away from two places, and with blood sugar at ragetasticly low levels we opted for lunch at The Black Bean, a tasty burrito shop. Had we not had Mr. Jackson I would have much preferred breakfast, but since it was now starting to rain and the Black Bean offered not only food, but a place for Mr. J-bone and an umbrella, we took turns ordering our food while the other stood under an umbrella with Jackson. With my umbrella safely packed back at the house I came to realize what a curiously strong aversion I have to getting wet. A strange thing considering my 14+ years of competitive swimming, but the reality is, I don't even like stepping out of the shower without being completely drip free.
Sporadic showers, made for a bit of a rough down town experience, but we were quite happy with Jackson's behavior amid showers and a wide variety of adults, children, pets and the constant stranger pettings. We dropped Jackson back at the house for a little R&R and headed out to the Museum of Northern Arizona to see an exhibit by Ed Mell - Paintings of the New West. It was awesome. He is a local Phoenician and does spectacular work. Had we more money it would be something we would invest in, but since we prefer to enjoy daily meals for the rest of the year we will not be investing in any of his paintings in the near future. Check his stuff out: http://www.medicinemangallery.
For dinner we ordered pizza from New Jersey Pizza Co. After being told "45" minutes we waited an hour then attempted to pick up our pizza. We should have waited another 30 minutes. In the true fashion of making friends wherever I go, standing behind the counter with the kitchen in full view I asked if anyone was from Jersey. Turns out the owner/chef was a Garden State Native and his brother and father were fellow Scarlet Knights. In addition, the owner used to be a swimmer and swam for the Jersey Wahoos which is the club team of many an RU teammate. As we continued to chat we discovered that a fellow waiting patron was also a Jersey boy. Talk about small world. I can't say that NJ was my favorite state to call home, but I do enjoy the privilege of saying I lived there seeing that no matter where you go, you're pretty much destined to run into one or more.
Despite a rouge teenage golfer who almost took out Jonathan and a window with his wild shot, only to drive away without apologizing or finishing the hole, we enjoyed one of the best NY style pizzas in the west!
Sunday we started our day off at Brandy's, a restaurant featured on Drive Ins, Dinners and Dives. Awesome food, great prices and some of the best pancakes Jonathan's ever had. We attempted to go to the Celtic Fare but at $12 a head we opted instead for a fee free hike. Since Mr. Jackson's hiking booties were not in-stock we kept to a relatively smooth terrain. On our way back to the house we were greeted by a rather robust little vole who showed now shyness in peaking out of his hole mid day with people and dogs standing nearby. Despite cutting it short due to a rather toasty unobstructed sun we enjoyed our nature experience, which may not be reflected by Jackson in the picture below.
Luckily, by the time we returned to the valley the temps were only a mere 108.
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