Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon, Tesla, 8.2k Run Fore Cancer, Global Energy 10k, Dance Super Station,..
Day 1 - 9/20/16:
We woke up at 8am today to get packed and ready. Amongst other things we'd planned, we'd booked a concert for this evening awhile back. The concert: Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon, and Tesla in Phoenix! We got loaded up and headed out around 2:20pm today to get to the 7pm concert, listening to Def Leppard and REO Speedwagon in the car the whole way there! (Well, actually we spent a short while listening to some Spanish learning lessons we'd downloaded but only for a bit.) When we arrived, parking was free but took an hour so we completely missed Tesla. We made it in time for REO Speedwagon though and got to hear some of their hits before Def Leppard came on to completely dominate the night! We did some quick pre-gaming with brandy we'd brought from home before leaving the car. We'd just bought the cheap tickets for the lawn area at the back but we had more fun there than we possibly could've in any other seat in the place. We had so much more freedom to dance wildly and wrestle there and, of course, we did! The weather was great too! We'd brought a beach towel so I gave Sean a massage and relaxed with him on it til Def Leppard came on and rocked so hard we HAD to get up! So amazing getting to hear some of the most epic songs I'd grown up with live and even getting to see their guitarist shirtless! Lol
After the concert, we were hungry and tired so we found a Love's with a Subway attached, got a sandwich and free cookies (yay receipt surveys!), ate while watching South Park on Sean's laptop, and eventually went to sleep.
Day 2 - 9/21/16:
In the morning, we drove to Starbucks to use some credit we had there from a deal we'd booked and get Sean a tea. We did some work there for quite a few hours before heading out.
Then we got a big, cold drink at QuikTrip and headed to the Goodwill Clearance Center to spend a few hours and only $45 getting LOTS of amazing stuff that was worth way more than that.
Since we were in the area, we drove to the Main Event there in Avondale and used $10 in free credit we had to play PIU Infinity for an hour.
We were super hungry then and the food we'd brought from Vegas just wasn't cutting it so we drove to Tempe, AZ to use a Groupon deal we'd bought for an Indian buffet called Kohinoor Cuisine of India. The place was small and humble with a very down-home-cooking type feel about it but the food was great! We had to buy an additional item to "activate" our all-you-can-eat buffet for two Groupon but we just got some delicious mango drink, somewhere between a juice drink and a smoothie, to share and then filled a plate each with a colorful assortment of entrees - vegetarian, chicken, and more - and a few desserts and sides too! We left feeling absolutely stuffed and satisfied, having tried both familiarly tasty and lots of new things!
We found an openly accessible pool area at a Super 8 Motel around the corner and went for a dip in the pool and hot tub there.
We got a message we'd been waiting for from someone who'd booked a shipment with us through Uship then. We'd brought an exercise bike from Vegas for them and they'd just gotten home for us to drop it off. We headed over to deliver it and then drove to the nearest QuikTrip to watch some South Park reruns on Sean's laptop til we fell asleep in the car.
Day 3 - 9/22/16:
We had a Walmart gift card we'd gotten awhile back as a reward for booking two nights at Choice Hotels locations (like Econo Lodge) so we used that to get various essentials, some new Captain Morgan Cannon Blast bottle (35%, shaped like a cannon ball), and some 2 for $1 egg rolls from the deli section.
Our egg rolls were cold and we needed caffeine so we drove to Ikea to get free tea and coffee, use their microwave, and borrow some outlets and WiFi to get work done. We figured we'd get lots of meatballs there to pay them back next time.
We ended up spending our whole day working at Ikea. We got lots done but when evening came we were absolutely starving! Fortunately, we had another Groupon deal for a place called YZ's Hot Pot & BBQ there in Tempe so we drove over and got a beef hot pot order each! It came with TONS of veggies and meats, including some very strange but yummy seafood items, as well as a side of rice and a scoop of strawberry ice cream for dessert. There was so much that we only finished about half but we took the rest with us for later!
We had some vouchers for free Redbox movie rentals so we picked up a movie called Now You See Me 2 at a Redbox location next to Safeway across the street and then drove a couple of buildings down to a QuikTrip to park for the night, watch the movie, and cuddle up to sleep.
Day 4 - 9/23/16:
In the morning, we ate some of our hot pot leftovers. A little weird for breakfast but very yummy! We donated what we couldn't finish to local animals. Lol
We took the Redbox video back to Safeway then and took care of some work and errands before our first fun activity of the day:
Tilt Studio (at Arizona Mills Mall)
5000 S Arizona Mills Cir
Tempe, AZ
Not too long ago, Tilt Studio had been Gameworks. I guess the location had been leased out to Tilt once Gameworks left? We'd visited several times when it was Gameworks and had even passed it a few times in recent trips since it'd become Tilt but hadn't yet stopped in to see the changes. Well, today was the day! We went in and found that the place still looked pretty much the same but with some different games. As for music games, they had Guitar Hero, some drum game (maybe MTV Drumscape whatever it's called thing?), Grand Piano Keys, DDR Extreme with a replaced screen that was vertically way too small and a Max 2 marquee with a little sign mentioning that it was actually now Extreme, and an up-to-date but offline PIU Prime back to back with, most importantly, Dance Super Station (Dance Master?). The last of these was a super rare machine, at least in the USA, which neither of us had seen anywhere but online before. I'd always wanted to see it though and was so excited to finally get to! Unfortunately, it was out of order when we arrived. It'd just gone down the day before and apparently wouldn't be fixed for at least 3 or 4 days. Wow, what terrible luck! Still, just seeing it was definitely better than nothing and it's lights still came on even though it's screen didn't. Anyway, prices there were really high and without Dance Super Station nothing was worth paying for. A technician gave us a free credit on PIU, which was cool, and we got pics and videos of the place and the games and played a free credit we found left in a Ghostbusters pinball machine. Then we moved on to see what else we could do with our day.
Down the street from there was a QuikTrip. We stopped in and used a couple of phone app deals we had to get 2 roller grill items, a fountain drink, and two cans of energy drink for about $5 total.
Coming and going from Phoenix so much lately, we decided it was probably a good idea to check out more gym options. We got in touch with a gym called Fitness Works who offered us a free day pass to go see one of their many locations in the area. We decided on:
Fitness Works
1668 N Higley Rd
Gilbert, AZ 85234
There, they had a pool, hot tub, sauna, steam room, cardio equipment, weights,... And we spent a good couple of hours trying out most of it before using their showers to get fresh and clean again! We only jogged a slow 1 to 1.5 miles or so on the treadmills to loosen our legs up for our upcoming races. We actually spent most of our time in the water, relaxing and practicing some swimming. The pool bottom was pretty grimy and some of the things about the place we're somewhat old, dirty, or damaged but they had lots of cool things and so much to do. Besides, can't complain about a free day!
Finally leaving the gym, we went to packet pickup for our race the next day. It was the Run Fore Cancer race and packet pick up was at:
Road Runner Sports
7077 E Mayo Blvd #150
Phoenix, AZ 85054
Actually, we had upcoming races two days in a row, each with it's packet pickup the day prior and both at the same location. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the second race's packets the same day as the first but we got our Run Fore Cancer packets as well as info on some other upcoming races in the area.
We were a little hungry then so we went to McDonald's to take advantage of their recent "free fry Friday" promotion. We got a burger and free medium fries each.
Across the street from McDonald's, we went to the mall where the Phoenix Monster Bubbles' location had been to use some of the many Monster Bubbles vouchers we'd gotten through Groupon awhile back. Sadly, that Monster bubbles location had closed down, leaving only the one in Mesa. We did find an arcade in the food court called Zap Arcade but they didn't have any music games or much of anything in general really.
Driving to a QuikTrip to spend the night, we stopped by another McDonald's to get more deals. Then we took our junk food with us to QuikTrip, parked up, got a fountain drink refill, and ate and sipped some festive beverages in the car while watching movies on the laptop til sleep time.
Day 5 - 9/24/16 (8.2k Run Fore Cancer):
It was tough but we got up at 6am or so to get ready for our morning race at the Silverado Golf Club in Scottsdale, AZ about 20 minutes away. The 8k (or 8.2k, I think?) race was starting at 7:30am so we had to hurry over. There was also a 5k distance that just went around the front 9 holes at the golf course but we were both doing the 8k/5 mile distance around the full 18. We got there, got lined up, and got started! We both ran intentionally semi-easy, comfy races as to not burn ourselves out before the following day's race but I did push a little for the last few hundred meters when I saw the finish line. Sean was there waiting with water for me when I got back. I took a few minutes to catch my breath and then we walked around a bit to collect some post race food a freebies. Around 9am, they announced awards. I'd gotten 1st place in my 5 year age group and Sean had gotten 2nd in his so we each got one of the StartLine Racing trademark medal attachments with our places to add onto the bottom of our finishers medals. Then we snapped some last photos and got out of there! Later though, we had a look online and got our results:
Sean's:
Chip Time: 00:35:46
Overall Finish: 6/124
Gender Finish: 5/46
Age Group Finish: 2/12
Average Pace: 7:09/mile
Mine: Chip Time: 00:41:14
Overall Finish: 16/124
Gender Finish: 4/78
Age Group Finish: 1/14
Average Pace: 8:14/mile
We saw some yard sale signs as we left the race location so we stopped and did some mini shopping at a couple.
We each had a coupon for $2 off anything at Tropical Smoothie so we went there next and got a smoothie each.
It was almost time for the next day's race's packet pickup then but we had other things we wanted to do so we decided to leave our packets til the next morning and instead drove to:
Monster Bubbles (at Superstition Springs Center)
6555 E Southern Ave, Fl 2
Mesa, AZ 85206
We each used one of our tickets for a session of rolling around in their giant inflatable bubble balls there. Second time there and still a kind of fun way to get sweaty in minutes! Lol
There was another Zap Arcade location in that mall as well but their game selection wasn't really any better than the previous one.
Driving back to Goodwill Clearance Center for another few hours, we stopped in Tilt Studio again on the way just to check the hadn't yet fixed Dance Super Station. They hadn't. :(
So we got to Goodwill, did another few hours of shopping, and left with a big bag of awesome stuff including a DS, an Atari, and TONS more for only $23 total!
We refueled ourselves at QuikTrip with $1 sausages and a big drink refill then before driving across the street to Travelers Inn to revisit their pool and hot tub. There was a Mexican guy in the hot tub when we got there so we had a good chat with him while enjoying the water til Sean and I finally had to get going to:
Sanctum of Horror
6555 E Southern Ave
Mesa, AZ
We had a Groupon I'd bought for the place and, though it was still September, I figured it was never too early to start celebrating Halloween! We drove over, had a quick couple of shots each, and went to see how badly they could scare us at the two haunted houses there! They did a pretty decent job with one and an average job with the other but we were happy. I was screaming my head off and Sean was laughing at me the whole time! Lol
We decided to keep the party going after that so we drove to a QuikTrip to watch some Red Dwarf on the laptop while eating car food and sipping some more alcohol til we finally decided to call it a night.
Day 6 - 9/25/16 (Global Energy 10k):
Reluctantly, we got up at 5:20am to get dressed and ready for yet another race. This time, it was the Global Energy 10k. We were tired and, unsurprisingly, I had a headache but it was alright. Worth it!
So we made our way to:
Scottsdale Sports Complex
8081 E Princess Dr
Scottsdale, AZ
There, we got to the start line (where StartLine Racing was setup to do the timing again), smiled for a few cameras at thus much bigger race today, wished each other luck, and started running at 7am. There was also a 3k distance there that I'd wanted to do but it was really just a fun run/walk and not meant to be competitive so we were both in the 10k. The last race had a handful of small, mild hills but this one was a little tougher. Not super steep for any extended time but I guess it could be referred to as undulating, seemingly particularly between mile 4 and 5. I took the race a bit easy but still didn't do too badly. There were only prizes for top 3 overall in each gender (no age groups or anything else) but there were far too many people for us to win anyway. Nevertheless, we both did alright, got cool finisher's medals, got lots of bread-related and other freebies (as the race was sponsored by Bimbo), and got to be a part of another Guinness World Record! The race was, in fact, being run in 20-something cities on the same day in an attempt to break the record for the most number of cities participating in one single race on one single day which they successfully accomplished! Very cool. Here are Sean's and my results:
Sean's:
Chip Time: 00:43:41
Overall Finish: 26/487
Gender Finish: 23/201
Average Pace: 7:02/mile
Mine:
Chip Time: 00:52:03
Overall Finish: 74/487
Gender Finish: 22/286
Average Pace: 8:23/mile
Right after we finished the race, we managed to get a hold of another Uship customer about a chair we needed to pick up. They said we could get it then so we headed to the pick up location and loaded it up.
Driving away, we saw signs for more yard sales and stopped to have a look and get some goodies.
It was time to start heading home then but on the way out we made a couple last stops, first at a QuikTrip for some last sausages and drink refills and then at a place near Phoenix Zoo. At the second of these, we did a mini hike up to something called Hole-in-the-Rock, where we got great views, pics, and vids of the awesome surroundings and overlooking the city. Then we walked over to see some little lakes/ponds there. It was so peaceful and such a nice day! There were fish in the water, ducks swimming and resting in nearby shade, picnic benches surrounding the water.. Would definitely an awesome place for a picnic sometime!
Aside from getting gas at Maverik in Kingman, as usual, we didn't stop again until we reached Chloride, AZ. I'd been wanting to stop and see the little community of 352 people for a long time but hadn't had time til now. Well, after driving several miles from the highway to get to it, I wasn't disappointed! There were lots of random things to see in the tiny place, namely the oddly decorated homes, buildings, belongings, and one particular vehicle that really stood out. I didn't see a gas station there at all but Sean thought he spotted a cafe. It was mostly homes there but there were a couple of little shops selling antiques and miscellaneous as well as a post office and a few other buildings. A few people shouted for us to stop and have a look around. Cute place though and we'd definitely have to go back sometime, maybe when they do one of the festivals there that we'd seen flyers for. On the way out, we spotted a tarantula crossing the street! It was the first wild tarantula Sean had seen. I'd only seen two before, both in Oklahoma. We pulled over for a look. The cute, scrawny thing was missing two limbs. :( Sean had to really talk me out of taking it home and feeding it up. Lol While looking at the tarantula, a guy living in the closest house mentioned to us that they get tarantulas walking around there all the time, helping them keep bug populations there under control. So cool!
When we got to Lake Mead, we stopped at the Hoover Dam lodge for some free Coke. They'd opened up a big room with lots of cool arcade games, a big ticket redemption counter, pool tables, a bar, and slot machines. No music games there but it still looked like a pretty fun place to visit sometime when we just needed a mini break from Vegas.
We finnnnally made it home just after that and got rested and ready for our next trip a couple of days later.
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