Road Trip: Phoenix

Mandatory Dress Code for the Greater Phoenix Area

Big boys weekend and with our google-doc based fantasy basketball draft taking up almost all of my free time I haven’t been able to blog it.  Until now.  That’s right, folks-it’s update time.  And sorry, I’m too much of an emotional wreck to write anything about the Dodgers…I just can’t do it.  I have opinions and I have thoughts, I just can’t put them down.  Oh, ok last thing: I don’t have DVR.  I have a VCR that I seriously don’t even know how to use anymore so if I don’t catch an event live I’m basically screwed but everybody that has DVR always tells me how amazing it is for sports, will change the way you live your life, etc etc etc.  So the two times I have ventured into the DVR-sporting world have both ended badly though, the first being Super Bowl XXXwhatever when we were watching the game on tape and thinking it was live and ended up missing the Patriot’s last second (and thankfully futile) drive against the Giants and then this last weekend where Game 3 of the Cards-Dodgers didn’t tape due to some mysto-error.  So whatever, that’s where I stand on DVR.

Now, back to last weekend-Greenie and I drove from his place in Irvine out to hellhole paradise on Earth Blythe to visit G Slim and take in the sight.  And yes, that was “sight” singular and not “sights”.  THESE PLACES ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. The highlight of Blythe was going on an extended “Deliverance” style float down the Colorado River which ended with me huddled around a cooler of beer in a rubber raft trying to fight off the shivers.  After a lovely (and that is not sarcastic, the place is good) dinner in Quartzsite at Grubstake (less scary at night it turns out) the three of us got our game faces on for the much anticipated Cardinals game the next day.  University of Phoenix Stadium is, just like everything else in Phoenix, impossibly new.  Since I forgot my camera I was forced to take some images with my phone which didn’t really do justice to the niceness of the environment or the number of food options available.  Our seats were fairly pure, unobstructed views and a nice little escape aisle right behind our seats so we could exit behind our aisle rather than have to fight through people to get to the concessions.

It's Nice

The game itself was solid…slow first half but as fantasy owners of both Larry Fitzgerald and Owen Daniels it was a points bonanza (sadly we were going against Andre Johnson who might be the best receiver in all of football, in fantasy at least).  I was all ready to complain about the parking situation there which essentially consists of parking (for free) at a high school about a mile and a half away and then being bussed to the Stadium Friday-Night-Lights-style but the total wait time round trip was maybe five minutes which is outstanding.  No traffic whatsoever either there or back (coming from the other direction might be a different story though) and a mere ten hours later I was comfortably back in my bed in Santa Barbara.  Obviously you can’t put a price on hanging out with two of your best friends for a weekend but if you were to do so you’d be looking at about $80 for the tickets, $50 in gas and then a few bucks for food as well (food is cheap in those parts).  Good times.

This weekend: Vegas for Silver’s bachelor party.  Any tales from the sports books will be passed along at will.  As I type this Ryan Howard has just gone deep to put Philly up 1-0.  Dammit all to hell.

**UPDATE**

Much rejoicing.