Friday 21st November 2003, Day 69/273 - Phoenix, Arizona

Having an easy day today to rest my feet (which are killing me after so much walking) and catch up on my admin. Of course that didn't last very long as I'm a fidget.

I'm not entirely sure how they came to the fact that Phoenix is the 6th largest City in the US, because to look at the downtown you wouldn't believe it. It certainly doesn't have the feel of a large city, until you try and get anywhere. The bus service is pretty good and at $1.25 for 2.5 hours and as many transfers as you can manage is good value.

The only clue that this is a big city is given by the number of planes that come in and out of the cities 2 runways. They're not big planes, in fact they are nearly all America West as Pheonix is their hub.  When I fly America West from San Francisco to Denver in a few weeks, it's via Pheonix.

As I look at the downtown sky line all I can see is 6 towers, all banks.

The hostel, located at 1026 North 9th Street, is nice. It's small, but friendly and only $15 a night. No one seems to stop long. They are always on their way somewhere else.

So far in the dorm I've met the Slovenian guy that I bumped into in Miami and Atlanta.

There's a Polish guy who was a stock broker, but now keeps coming back to the US (this is his 5th 6 month trip). He's just bought a car, about which he says 'De man did not tell me all dat waz wrong with it.'

There's also a Hungarian who I didn't get a chance to speak to before he scappered.

There's Jake from Minnesota whose bike broke.

There's Jake's mate who's come to pick him up.

There's Connecticut man who's on his way back from Mexico to see his folks for Thanksgiving.

There's the Jap who I can only converse with by way of Japanese footballers. I say 'Toda', he say 'Inamota' and that's about as far as we get.

There's nocturnal man who sleeps all day and then gets up when we go to bed and sits in the back garden smoking all night. When I get up he goes to bed.

There's the gay mexican who insists on walking around in his boxers and nothing else showing off his pierced lunch box. 'I worked in Soho' he says to me. Like I couldn't have guessed. He only stayed one night.

We've also got Beadle hands. No explanation needed there.

Finally there's fresh air man whose doctors have diagnosed exercise induced asthma and told him that he needs fresh air. So 'Joey' insists on leaving the outside door open. I wouldn't mind but we're in the middle of the desert. It gets to about 80 during the day and 30 during the night. It's cold enough with the door closed and once you're cold you can never get warm again. It's the sort of cold where you don't want to get out of bed in the morning. I think Dukies can relate to that. Remember that wood flooring? Anyway it turns out that 'Joey' is a nice guy, as all the guys are. There are no girls staying. Joey is 45, from New York and has just split from his wife who he met at college. He's just trying to get his wheels back on the track . I can relate to that although I feel I am slighty further down the line than he is.

I do find it depressing the lack of imagination shown by the Americans in naming roads. Phoenix, as with most cities, is based on a grid system. The centre street is called Central (ingenious) and all the roads running north to south are called streets.  The roads running east to west are avenues each increase numerically as you get further away from central. They go to about 90 in each direction, but I got bored whilst looking.

I can understand the logic behind the numbers. It's so easy for directions. The cross streets are all named after presidents or famous people. So the main roads are Roosevelt, Washington, Van Buren and Garfield (I thought he was a cat) just as they are in any other city.

If this is the 6th largest city in America why is there no passenger train service here?

In the evening I continued the ritual of eating and drinking at Friday's before heading over to the America West Arena. Tonight its ice hockey again. The Phoenix Coyotes are playing the San Jose Sharks. The Coyotes have W6, L6, T6 and the Sharks have W3, L6, T10.

Prematch reading was the local paper, which tells the story of the 13 year old amateur sufer who had her arm bitten off whilst surfing in Hawaii. Bugger, I was going to learn to surf there. Maybe not now.

Pre game we had the best rendition yet of the star spangled banner. He sung it with no harmonies and he was good. I've recorded it on my new woozy do camera. When I've worked out how to download it you can see for yourself.

The game was a bit of a disaster for the Coyotes. After giving away too many fouls they found themselves 3-0 down after 13 minutes. They then did what all good hockey players do and had a scrap. It was very amusing to watch. The crowd loved it. A couple of players got sent to the sin bin whilst all the other players collect all the helmets, gloves, sticks etc. that has been strewn across the ice.

They play 3 20 minute periods, but have 20 minute breaks between each period. The game ended 5-0 and with a series of other fights. The Sharks goalie had a great night. In the end the shot count was 41 - 33 in favour of the Coyotes. It was great fun.