Rattlesnakes, Tarantulas and Venomous Lizards

Posted on July 4, 2015 by jo

We left all the tourists behind and went for a lovely hike in the Mesa Verde National Park. We were all alone as we wound our way down through Sheers Canyon, admiring the scenery while trying not to think about mountain lions and bears.

We reached the bottom of the canyon and the trail became very overgrown and we were walking through really long grass. All I could think about was rattlesnakes, tarantulas and venomous lizards waiting to jump our and bite me.

All of a sudden something grabbed my arm. I screamed and was paralysed by fear. Mike turns around an seeing the panic on my face he says “what is it, what’s happened”.

My fear faded fast as realisation dawned on me. My fitbit picked a real fine time to vibrate the hell out of my wrist. “I’ve just done my 10,000 steps” I reply to Mike.

Globe to Sedona

Posted on July 2, 2015 by jo

We were on the road this morning before 8am. It is best to try and get an early start to avoid the heat.

We stopped at some ancient cave dwellings built into the rocks in Tonto National Forest.

The tools they used to make flour.

The view from the top was pretty cool.

We saw a coyote as we walked down but he moved too fast to get a photo of him.

We then went to see a natural bridge, also in the Tonto NF.

natural bridge in Tonto Nationl Forest

Wild Boar

We were going to camp, but the radio kept interrupting with a siren and warnings about a severe thunderstorm in the area. So we booked into a hotel with this stunning view from our deck.

View from our hotel in Sedona

Day 7 – Tombstone Arizona and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (30 June 2015)

Posted on July 1, 2015 by jo

Today we visited Tombstone, Arizona. This is a historic gold mining town from around 1880. It kinda reminded me a bit of Thames. We watched the re-enactment of the gunfight at the O.K Corral with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and the bad guys. Still 40 degrees here, but it was pretty cool.

Day 6 – Aeroplanes, missiles and a hike (29 June 2016)

Posted on June 30, 2015 by jo

First thing this morning we went for a hike in the Sabino Canyon. This was about a 30 minute drive from Tucson.

It was crazy hot already. The lady in the tourist office warned us about rattlesnakes, The venomous Gila Monster (big lizard) and mountain lions. Luckily we didn’t see any of these. We did see cute little chipmonks, some lizards and a roadrunner.

hot

big cactus

cute chipmond

large lizard

We looked around the Pima Aircraft and Space museum. Was really hot.

Air Force One used by JFK and Johnson

My plane 🙂

Then we checked out the Titan 2 missile from the Cold war. There were 54 of these around the country, sitting ready to nuke the rest of the world if prompted. The control centre and the missile have been left exactly as they were in the 60’s (minus the nuclear warhead of course).

Control room at Titan missile silo

at Titan missile silo

The Titan missile without warhead

Titan missile

Day 5 – Yuma to Tucson (28th June 2015)

Posted on June 29, 2015 by jo

It was still really hot when we left the hotel this morning (about 40 degrees Celcius)

We visisted Yuma State Territorial Prison. This was a prison from 1875 until 1909.

We then headed on to Tucson. We found a nice hotel for only $50 per night and it includes hot buffet breakfast and two free drinks each for social hour in the evening.

Nice hotel with Pool

We went out for an awesome Mexican dinner at El Charro Cafe. Being so close to the Mexican border – the Mexican food is excellent here.

Mexican for dinner

Mike’s Food

My Food

Day 4 – San Diego to Yuma, Arizona (27 June 2015)

Posted on June 28, 2015 by jo

We spent the morning looking around the San Diego.

We wandered around the old town and had some mexican food for lunch.

Old Town San Diego

Then we ventured into the Gaslamp quarter. We weren’t going to stop, but I saw a Sketchers store and really wanted to buy some new trainers. They are very cheap here, over half the price from NZ.

Driving in to San Diego

After San Diego we navigated to a Walmart (like The Warehouse) as we needed so get some camping supplies (Tent, pot, blanket etc). Just a few blocks from the gaslamp quarter were all the homeless people. They had there tents set up on a bridge. It was a bit like a gypsy community. The Walmart was right next to this lot so we decided to lock the car doors and drive on.

The drive to Yuma, Arizona was like driving through a massive quarry. There were mountains of rocks, wind turbines and Sand dunes.

Heading towards the mountains of rock

Mountains of rocks

Wind Turbines everywhere

We are right on the Mexican border. We didn’t exit though,

We arrived in Yuma, Arizona at around 5.30pm, got out of our airconditioned car and we were struck by the heat. It was HOT. We had gone from low 20’s in San Diego to 37 degrees! We went out to sit by the Pool at 9pm and it was still just as hot.

We stayed at the Radisson and got a really good price. It was about a third of the price of San Diego and even had free washing machines and dryers. So our clothes got a well deserved wash 🙂

We were just in time for happy hour, so we had a couple of budweisers at the bar.

Days 1 to 3 – Southern California (24th June to 26th June)

Posted on June 27, 2015 by jo

Day One – 24 June 2015 – Los Angeles

We arrived refreshedin LA, having been upgraded to business class on our flight.

Upgraded to business class

We picked up our rental car which smelled of smoke, so we swapped it 3 more times until we found one which would have to do. The seats fold down flat so hopefully we can sleep in it.

Day Two – 25 June 2015 – Los Angeles to La Jolla (near San Diego)

We were up at the crack of 5am and on the road by about 6am. I’ve heard bad things about LA traffic and wanted to avoid it at all costs! We stopped for breakfast at Wilma’s Cafe on Balboa Island near Newport in Orange County.

Wilma’s for Breakfast

Mike’s horrendously big breakfast at Wilma’s cafe.

Mike and I had a little walk around Balboa Island to walk off our giant breakfast.

Balboa Island

Our next stop was Oceanside. There was a nice pier here with weird lifeguards.

Weird looking lifeguards at Oceanside.

Pier at Oceanside

A couple of stoned guys played us a really bad version of Hotel California.

Stoned aged surfer dudes playing Hotel California really badly

We stayed for two nights at La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) and found an amazing beachside hotel with a studio apartment overlooking the sea.

Stunning sunsets from hour hotel at La Jolla

Day Three – 26 June 2015 – La Jolla and Mission Beach, San Diego

We hired some weird looking bikes which they call “Beach Cruisers” and cycled along Mission Beach.

Cycling along Mission Beach in San Diego

The Charade

Posted on April 28, 2013 by jo

“Chew-ma-chew” says Jenny.

Mike is standing there gesticulating with encouragement.

“Chew-ma-chew” repeats Jenny.

Mike continues to gesticulate with encouragement.

I decide to join in – “chew-ma-chew” I say.

Mike is still gesticulating but with frustration now.

“Chew-MA-chew” – says Jenny emphasising the middle syllable as if that might help.

“Try saying it fast” says Lynda who already knows the answer.

“chewmachew” Jenny and I say in unison.

“That’s it” says Lynda.

Mike is looking really frustrated at this stage and decides to go on to the second word. Two syllables, second syllable sounds like…..Mike is gesturing a bowl and eating out of it.

“DISH” yells out Mum. Somehow we manage to narrow down the second syllable to being ISH.

“So” says Barry – “We have chewmachew something ish”.

By this stage Mike looks like he’s about to leave the room in frustration, Lynda is pissing herself laughing, Jenny and I are chanting “chewmachew something ish“, Mum clearly knows the answer but is afraid to answer in fear of having to stand up and do a charade, and Dad is fast asleep.

“Tomato Relish” shouts Barry out of the middle of nowhere.

“WTF” says Jenny and I – how do you get Tomato Relish from chewmachew something ish!

The Office Smells

Posted on April 23, 2013 by jo

“POO! It smells like fish in here”.

I turn to Roy who is eating a subway sandwich.

“Roy? What’s in your sandwich? Fish?”

“No, it’s pork, but I can smell fish too, it’s pretty gross.” He replies.

I wander off in a hunt for the fishy smelling culprit. As I near the kitchen the fish smell gets stronger. The team who sit outside the kitchen all have their noses blocked and one lady is even spraying her perfume around. I walk into the kitchen and I’m almost bowled over by the putrid smell. There are many people eating their lunch in there, so it is very hard to pinpoint who is eating the fish. I wander back to my desk in disgust.

I work in a team full of blokes. There is constant burping, farting and swearing going on. It’s pretty hard to put up with, but they should be used to me by now.

But seriously, we have had a few issues with smells in the office. Yesterday there was a strong BO smell floating around. Roy reckons there was a workman crawling around in the ducting with bad BO, and this was the cause of the smell wafting around the office. This could possibly also explain the farty smells we had the other day. Maybe that same workman is up there eating fish today.

The Office – All By My Self

Posted on April 20, 2013 by jo

It’s Friday. I’m sitting at my desk eating my lunch. I glance to my left and am confronted with screen full of testicles.

“What the hell are you looking at Roy? Testicles?”.

“It’s the inside of a nose” replies Roy.

I’m not sure which is worse. Now for some reason I can’t stop glancing at Roy’s computer. This is really putting me off my lunch. Roy is a young Asian guy with a kiwi accent who sits next to me. He is in my team, but works on other systems to me. I politely ask him to refrain from looking at noses and testicles until I have finished my lunch.

Speaking of young asian guys with kiwi accents, a chat pops up on my screen

“Hi Jo, how’s it going?”

“OMG, Kevin!” I type back.

Kevin is an old workmate from my previous job in Auckland, and he is now working for the same company as me, but in Auckland. We chat for about 30 mins, catching up on gossip etc. I’m glad he finally got away from our old firm – he was way too good for that place. When I finish chatting to Kevin, I realise I am all alone in the office. Mark has gone for a 2 hour lunch to play board games with his mates. Yes – you heard me right – I said board games. Visions of the guys in Big Bang Theory springs to mind.

I’m not sure where everyone else is. Antony is no doubt in a meeting, Brian and Evan are no doubt in the pub, and Thomas is in Argentina. I was friends with Thomas before I started work, so I get to read about all his travel adventures on facebook – how he got upgraded to business class, cycled around Dubai, photos of him drinking pints in London, and this morning he just landed in Buenos Aires. The fruit is rotting in his drawer as we speak.

At 1.30pm an email pops up on my screen.

You have won tickets to tonights rugby – Hurricanes vs Force.

“I’ve won tickets!” I announce to the empty office.

They have a ballot at work for spare tickets whenever there is a sporting event on in Wellington. I decide to walk up to the 10th floor to pick up my tickets. By the time I get to the 7th floor, my legs are like jelly. I struggle up the remaining 3 flights and am wheezing by the time I make it to reception. Note to self: I must do more stair walking (or take the lift next time).

By the time I get back to my desk everyone is back in the office so I wave my free tickets around to gloat. Mark spoils my thunder by saying “They are having trouble getting people to go, they are practically giving tickets away”. I look on the internet to see if this is true. It’s not.

The afternoon drags on a bit. I was planning to finish early, but now I have to wait around to 5pm as we are going to the game. Mark is busy concentrating on something. I see he has an earphone in one ear – which means he is either watching a movie, a Manchester united game, or something on youtube. There is a fornightly meeting downstairs at 4pm, which we are allowed to take beer to, so I drag Mark along with me. Mark doesn’t drink though. He’s a diabetic vegetarian who doesn’t drink. So that basically rules out any of the good stuff for him.

The meeting was ridiculously boring, but by the time it finished, I had time for another beer before Mike arrived to pick me up.

The End.