'Water, water' that was my first thought of the day, shortly followed by 'Crap food, crap food'. So I went to McDonalds for a sausage and egg McMuffin meal. I can report that the McMuffins are as good as they are in the UK but the hash browns are bigger and better.
It's a beautiful today. I can't imagine any places that are much hotter than here in November. The backdrop to all the buildings is a brilliant blue sky, with the occasional glimpse of the distant red mountains that create the valley that Phoenix is set in. God, that almost sounded poetic. I must go lie down.
You get a real feeling of openness and space which you wouldn't expect from Americas 6th biggest city. There are plenty of green parks and desert trees. There's certainly no place like this back home.
After last nights events I put todays plans on hold and just sat on the free dash bus that takes you round the 'Copper Town' district. After about my third loop I was getting a bit dizzy so I got off and went to sit in the park and listened to some live guitar player. He was awful but we all clapped anyway. I couldn't find a can of tomatos.
It was to my relief when a friendly face said 'Hi'. It was Jake from the hostel who after finishing his first year at college decided to take a year out and cycle and camp around America. Unfortunately he'd had an accident, his bike is knackered so he headed to Phoenix to get repairs. He was of course mistaken in thinking that he could find a bike repair shop in America's 6th busiest city. The closest shop is in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix and where the Arizona State University is, and where the Arizona Cardinals (NFL) play. It's basically a college party town.
We both had reason to go there so we caught the bus. We headed first to the stadium to see if I could get tickets for sundays NFL game. Currently the Cardinals share the college's 70,000 seat stadium. That's how big College football is over here. The games are televised. That's like watching 2 English universities competing every week live on TV with millions watching and in front of a packed 70,000 seat stadium. To show the scale of it the ticket office only sells tickets for the College team. It's only open for Cardinals tickets on game days.
After fetching Jakes' bit for his bike we spent the afternoon in a student bar called 'The Library'. I got Id'd, which isn't unusual over here. On seeing my date of birth (18/8/1975) she said ' There aren't 18 months in the year'. 'Um there are in my world love.'
I also had a very bizarre toilet/restroom moment, but you really need to see the photos. Words can't do it justice.
Jake and I headed back to Phoenix and ate in Friday's again. I then headed to the America West Arena to watch the Ice Hockey. I'd given Clem a call to thank him for looking after me last night. Unfortunately he couldn't make it tonight, he had women problems, so I had to slum it in the cheap seats. He has promised to take me out at the weekend.
On reading the program it turns out that Phoenix are not happy with just your 3 great stadium. The hockey team and football teams are both building brand new, state of the art, stadiums. There is plenty of space. Hopefully they'll remember to put in a box office.
So tonight I'm watching NHL (ice hockey) between the Phoenix Coyotes and the St. Louis Blues. It looked like a tough game on paper. The pre match build up included it's usual arse / ass clenching rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Boy did she overplay her part. At home she would have been drowned out by the crowd. It's a shame because it's a good anthem, when sung properly.
Phoenix scored after 51 seconds having only managed one line change in that time. I've no idea how they keep up with who's on the ice and who isn't. At the end of the 1st period they had a game of musical chairs on ice, which was amusing. The Blues then scored one short handed goal and then another in a powerplay and then added another just for good measure. The Coyotes trailing 3-1 scored 3 goals in the last minutes of the second period to lead 4-3. The Blues then equalized early in the third. That's how it stayed until the Coyotes scored to win it with 1 min 45 seconds left. The Blues pulled the goal tender., but it was to no avail as the Coyotes triumphed 5-4 . It was pretty exciting, but there was no blood or proper fights. Not even when the guy got hit in the head by the puck.
