Leg 5 - Phoenix, Day 4

March 26, 2012

Today was the day I was suppose to leave Phoenix and drive to El Paso for the day and then start making my way back to the east coast. However, that is not how the day went. I made it to the auto shop just about when they had opened. I had to call in to make sure they were not too busy to take me in and work on my car. While they were changing my oil, they found my radiator was just about shot. Fantastic! Now, I have to get a new radiator. They had to wait for it to be delivered by their supplier and then install it. It took over half the day. I was quite unhappy and quite skeptical. The cost was a little higher than I had it would have been. The labor time seemed a little high but what could I do. So finally, the radiator arrives at like 3:00pm. I have been there since 9:00am. Clearly, I was not in a good mood. I got about 15-20 minutes on the road and tried to use my cruise control. It didn't work. Things were just not going my way that day. I called the shop and asked if it was something they could have caused. They just responded by bring it back in and to take a look at it, so I drove back. After 3 hours, it turns out it wasn't them and that the solenoid that activates the cruise control was shot. Well, I had no interest in getting it fixed and was ready to get out of there.

Throughout this time, I was texting Kurt to figure out what he was up to in the evening and hoped I could stay with him to avoid staying another night in a hotel room. He had no problem with it at all. He was actually going to be house/dog sitting for a friend and that we would sleep over there. It sounded good to me. So I grabbed dinner with him and another buddy of his. When I met up with Kurt at his apartment, Molly was making food and was about to sit down and Skype with her boyfriend Sam. Of course, I had to sit down and say hello to my fellow Flyer Alumn and give him a little bit of a hard time for ditching me in Los Angeles. We had a good laugh.

At dinner, the conversation was out of this world. I don't remember exactly all that was said (It was a awhile ago now.), but I remember saying "wow" a lot. The waitress was fun, too. It was a good ending to a bad day. I followed Kurt out to the house after dinner. The girls that live there have a labradoodle. Now, I have only met one labradoodle once before in my life, and he is a pretty most awesome dog. Their labradoodle was very much quite the same, very fun-loving and full of energy. Also, the dog was quite an attention-whore, a lot like my family's dog at home.

Tomorrow, I would finally get out of Phoenix, AZ.

Go Big or Go Home

Photos of the Trip:
NONE