Yuma - historic prisons and retro motels

Less than 12 hours after getting home from Boston, I was back on the road. This time to Yuma.

I thought the first stop should be the courthouse to get my sentence overturned. I certainly wouldn't go there on my own volition.

Unfortunately, there would be no such luck. My sentence wasn't overturned.

(Pictures of Yuma Territorial Prison - taken during a previous trip)

The best I could hope for was early release for good behavior.

Or Death!
Luckily, I wasn't held up too long before I was set free and could get back on the road again.

Oh darn! I had to drive back to Phoenix the same day. No luxurious stay at the Yuma Cabana for me.

Boston

View of Boston skyline from my room at the Seaport Hotel - 15th floorAnother view from my room. The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is the white building in the middle right of the picture. The Boston World Trade Center is in the foreground.
I had about an hour to explore between meetings. View of the city from the pier by the ICA.

I had hoped to visit the ICA, but it was closing just as I was arriving.

I liked how they displayed this poem over the waves of the harbor. (Click to picture to see it better)

The World Trade Center was connected to the Seaport Hotel.

Fishing boats on the harbor.

There was a little park just past my hotel.

I've always associated Boston with seafood, but not specifically with lobster.
That's all of Boston I got to see. Maybe more next trip.

Take it Easy ...in Winslow AZ

Well, I’m a standing on a corner
In Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see

It’s a girl, my lord,
in a flatbed Ford
slowin’ down to take a look at me

Come on, baby, don’t say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me

We may lose and we may win

though we will never be here again
So open up, I’m climbin’ in,
So take it easy

Thanks to the Eagles, Winslow is on the map (sort of).


Sitting along historic Route 66, Winslow was a major hub of the Burlington Northern Sante Fe (BNSF) Railroad. Train enthusiasts can watch the engines roar into town all day long and celebrate Railroad Days on April 21-27.


Winslow is home to one of the Whispering Giants created by renowned wood carver, Peter Wolf Toth.

His Whispering Giants public art sculptures depict Native Americans and Canadian First People. He donated a sculpture to each U.S. state and Canadian Province with a few donated outside North America.

Just south of Winslow is nearby Clear Creek, which supports canoeing, fishing, swimming and picnicking.

McHood Park is located along the waters of Clear Creek, and is the perfect spot for swimming or having a picnic at the park’s ramadas. McHood Park is located five miles outside of downtown Winslow. From Winslow, take Rt. 87 South to Highway 99 and turn left.

Camp Verde AZ

Camp Verde is about 95 miles north of Phoenix, on I-17. I had to take a day trip on Saturday for work. To my delight, I received a warm welcome by seeing that they named a street after me! Right next to the turn onto Lacey Lane was a rather rickety looking pedestrian suspension bridge.

I heeded the Keep Off, Private Property sign. I'm not sure if the water it spanned was part of the Verde River or if it was over Beaver Creek. I think this was still Beaver Creek. There were a couple similar bridges as you drove closer into town.

These are pictures of Beaver Creek.

Since I had an hour to kill during lunch, I drove the 3 miles to Montezuma Castle National Monument for a quick visit.
From a distance, it just looks like a dent or cave in the side of the cliff.

As you get closer, you can see the castle.

It's amazing that the Sinagua culture could build something like this into a cliff over 1,000 years ago.

Ruins of another neighboring castle.

On the other side of I-17 just outside of Camp Verde is the Out of Africa Wildlife Park. I didn't visit there during this trip, but did stop by about 3 years ago - right after they moved from the east Phoenix area to Camp Verde.

When I visted, they only had the Serengeti Safari open. You climbed into a cage on top of a Hummer and drove through the big fenced area that had zebras, gnus, ostriches, giraffes, and other African animals (not the big cats). I think they have now changed from Hummers to other types of vehicles.

Below are a few pictures that I took of the animals.

They provided you with giraffe food, so the giraffes would come up and stick their head in the people cage and take food from you. It was pretty fun. You can see more pictures here.

Washington DC (Jan 24-26)

I made a quick trip to Washington DC this week. I left Phoenix on Thursday morning and my plane landed at 4:10 in the afternoon - about 15 minutes early! This gave me just enough time to catch a cab to my hotel, check-in, take my bag to my room and run downstairs to my 5:00 pm meeting. I even had 2 minutes to spare!

Between the working dinner and meetings, my evening lasted until about 9 pm. I was tired, it was cold out, and I hadn't unpacked, so I headed up to the room to watch some tv and relax. Most of Friday was full of meetings, but we were released around 6:00 pm. A colleague and I headed to dinner. The first restaurant had an hour and half wait, and we were hungry, so we walked a bit further from the hotel. We eventually decided on Rosa Mexicano. The chips were a bit too salty, but the guacamole was delicious. Both of us enjoyed our meals.

After dinner, we wandered through Chinatown on the way back to the hotel.

The night was still early, so I met up with a couple more colleagues and we took a walk to the mall and to view the capitol at night, before heading back to the hotel.

U.S. Capitol building at night

Washington monument at night

On Saturday, I had to get up early in the morning for my day of meetings. I had about an hour to spare between the time my meetings ended and I had to head to the airport. I thought about trying to do a bit of sightseeing, but it was cold out and I wasn't particularly motivated. Instead, I picked up a copy of Michael Crichton's book Next and started reading that. By the time my flight back to Phoenix landed, I was done with the book. It was ok, but not one of his best works. I thought State of Fear was better.