For once, I'd managed to plan adequately ahead gift-wise and had bought and IOU'd some PIU stuff from our friend Phil Arrington. Since Phil lives in Socal, I'd had him bring the items to the Cupid Is Stupid! PIU tournament in San Diego when we went down for that. He'd brought a PIU t-shirt, USB, and NX2 hard drive and dongle. (I still owe him for the last of those!) Sean's dad and Pat had sent him £100 and his mom had sent some great gifts as well. One of the packages she'd sent hadn't arrived yet (stupid mail service!) but the other, which consisted of the most delicious bacon and bacon-related items had! At midnight, it was time for Sean to open some gifts!
A little later, I poured us a warm, candlelit bath with a side of beer and chocolate. ^_^
At 4am, we put some Red Dwarf on as background noise and finally went to bed.
Day 1 - 2/23/16 (Birthday!):
We pulled ourselves reluctantly out of bed at 9am, finished the last few work-related things we needed to, had delicious bacon sandwiches while sitting on the porch swing in the front yard, and got on the road around 11:30am!
We stopped in Flagstaff to fill the gas up at Maverik. With a Nitro card, it was only $1.49/gallon of 87 at the time!
A little later, we stopped in some random cafe and gift shop for a pee. Restrooms were for customers only so we got me a coffee.
I think we were drinking too many caffeinated drinks along the way because when we got to Wickenburg, I think it was, we had to stop for yet another pee at an odd-looking Mobil gas station.
It was 6pm when we finally made it to the Quality Inn hotel we'd booked at Metro Center in Phoenix for Sean's birthday. We usually cheap out on trips snd just sleep in the car but this occasion definitely warranted a little extra. Unfortunately, the hotel was far below expectations in countless ways. The customer service left something to be desired. When we arrived, there was a customer waiting in the lobby to check in, the phone was ringing incessantly without being answered, there was no one at the desk, and the only indication of consideration towards these matters was a sign on the registration desk stating that someone would return in 15 minutes. 15 minutes from when? Apparently from 5 minutes after we arrived. Who knows how long the lobby was actually left unattended, the gentleman ahead of us was actually left waiting, and the phone was left ringing. Anyway, we waited over 20 minutes to be helped and were finally assigned room 302. We got settled in and then got dressed for the main reason we'd chosen to not only book a hotel but pay a little extra to stay at this particular hotel: the 24 hour fitness center! This ended up being the biggest disappointment of our stay, however. The first thing we noticed was that the fitness center would actually be closing at 10pm, though the listing for the hotel on Hotels.com stated it would be open 24 hours. Oh well. We assumed the information there was out of date, which wasn't necessarily the hotel's fault. Didn't matter too much. Though we're usually night owls and had wanted another go later in the night, we still had a couple of hours left then to enjoy the gym, which we soon discovered was more than enough time. The next thing we saw was that there were only two machines in the so-called fitness center: an elliptical and a treadmill. There weren't even any weights or ANYTHING else. Not a yoga mat, not a dumbell, not a pull up bar, NOTHING. We were in high spirits though and the main thing we were after was the treadmill anyway. We'd just take turns...or so we thought. I tried the elliptical first but it turned out the power cord for it needed replacing so programs, the display, workout info, and added resistance were all unavailable. Whatever. I'd just use it as it was. Don't need technology to work out! Sean tried the treadmill then though and not only was it a lower end and outdated model but the belt kept sticking underneath him. He's only 180 or 190 pounds, which isn't too much when you consider the types of people who SHOULD be using a treadmill, but the weight of his every step was causing the belt to stick underneath him. He couldn't even try to run on it. He was just tripping and nearly falling with every step. We have two treadmills in our house about as old as the one here too and run on treadmills at the gym regularly these days so it wasn't him not knowing how to operate it. It was just a pile of crap. With the gym - our main reason for our stay here - out of the question, we were disappointed but still in high spirits. We decided to move on to the next best reason for booking this hotel: swimming laps in the heated pool! Only problem was that when we got to it not only was the pool extremely cold and definitely NOT heated AT ALL but it was dirty and even had cigarette butts floating in it. Wtf?!! We ended up just giving up and using the "whirlpool" hot tub instead but even that was a let down. The control to turn the jets on was nowhere to be found (we thoroughly looked everywhere imaginable in the entire pool area), the ground up to and around the hot tub was cracked and gross-looking, there were unexplainable piles of sand all in the bottom of the hot tub, and there were tons of tiles missing from inside the hot tub. On the bright side, at least THAT was actually heated AND usable. The area was a little gross by normal peoples' standards. There was a mountain of trash in trash cans, in trash bags, and on the ground next to the door to and from the pool area. It truly looked like they'd set all the trash from a day's cleanup of the entire hotel right there beside that public entrance, rather than taking it to a dumpster, for some reason which I can't imagine is anything other than them just not giving a crap. Several times throughout the evening, we passed through the lobby and spotted the "return in 15 mins" sign up again. We were convinced the staff really did NOT want to be there and definitely didn't help us. The employee working at the time actually really gave us the impression she wasn't happy to help us at all when we tried to tell her about the very first problem we noticed there so we didn't even bother discussing the rest with her. There was so much wrong there.. I can't possibly even mention it all! To relay a few more of the hilariously negative surprises that awaited us throughout the night: When we got to our room again, we found that our kitchen trash can had writing and pictures in pink marker on it, probably left by another guest. The edge of the carpet adjacent to the tile floor in the kitchen area was ripped up and frayed. Noticing this the hard way, I ripped my toe open on an exposed staple where the edge of the carpet had gone missing. There were a few broken things like missing control dials on toasters, gross things like stagnant water near a broken item in the kitchen, and other minor things like cigarette hole in the curtains but let's not be too petty. After all, we were only paying about $60 for the night. Besides, some of the things, such as an open beer can left on the stairs and a very broken vending machine that had "out of order" written in marker on the glass as well as a paper stating "no refunds" taped to the front, were actually pretty comical! Were both really positive people and managed to have a really fun time anyway! Our room did offer a lot of amenities for the price (fridge, microwave, dishwasher, etc). I just would've preferred to have the things we booked the place for actually there and working.
To make up for all the funny issues around the hotel, we took advantage of the free 24 hour tea and coffee (at least they actually had that!), took some festive beverages we'd brought into the hot tub with us when we went for a dip, got fantastic use out of the bed... In fact, back in the room, I put on some porn for Sean while I gave him a birthday bj!! After that, we watched Ridiculousness on tv and I had him hold me while I busted out my vibrator. (Always come prepared!)
Being free grand slam day for Sean, we couldn't NOT go to Denny's so we went to one just across the freeway, which ran right by our hotel, from us by Castles N' Coasters after that and got his free meal and a $2 quesadilla to share. I think our tip was more than our food! Lol
We were gonna stop in Castles N' Coasters then but it was already closed for the night when we arrived.
Back to hotel after foods, we spent the rest of the night playing phone and computer games and watching TONS of funny YouTube vids. At 1:20am, we climbed into bed, watched Happy Gilmore on tv, and tried to sleep. Sean's restless leg syndrome was acting up though so we didn't actually end up getting to sleep til maybe 3am.
Day 2 - 2/24/16:
We were up again at 8:15am so that we could go down and get plenty of their "hot breakfast" (sausages, boiled eggs, packages pastries, bananas, oranges, cereal and milk, yogurt, juice, etc) for both then and later. We took our leftovers back to the room and then got back into bed to relax for an hour while cuddling and watching House reruns on tv. Then we tried our some Astroglide waterplay lube we'd brought in the shower for more sexy fun before bathing it all back off and checking out at 11am.
Our visit to the Valley Golf Center driving range last time we were in the area was really fun so we'd brought the golf clubs we'd bought during that trip and booked another Groupon to go again. We headed there from the hotel.
On the way, we stopped in a bowling alley called AMF Peoria Lanes to check for dance games. The name sounded familiar but we weren't sure whether that was because we'd passed it or checked it before but it wasn't currently listed on ddrfreak and they definitely didn't have a dance game, let alone room in their tiny gaming area for one, now.
It was a nice, sunny day just like last time we were at Valley Golf Center and, though we still sucked (especially me), we had just as much fun as before!
We went back to Main Event in Tempe next to use one of a few $10 game cards we had.
Then we popped in Ikea briefly for free beverages..
And then drove up to a place called O.H.S.O Distillery in Scottsdale to take Sean to some February birthdays event we'd found on the MeetUps app. When we arrived though, the place looked interesting but the company looked a lot more mature then us so we snapped a few pics of the place but decided to bail.
There was a Dave & Buster's location we didn't think we'd visited before not far from us (near Scottsdale, thought technically in Phoenix) so we went there in search of dance games next.
Dave & Buster's
21001 Tatum Blvd #44
Phoenix, AZ
Inside, the arcade was upstairs and had a Guitar Hero and a PIU Fiesta EX DX cab with a nicely replaced screen, terrible pads (impossible to pass easy stuff on and not raised), and the bars on backwards. The PIU machine was 3 credits per game. Lucky for us, there was a credit in when we arrived so we got to play without having to pay to find out how poorly maintained it was.
The gym we'd booked a month-long membership, which was still valid, before our last trip there wasn't far from there so that was our next destination. There, we both hopped on the treadmills for awhile, played in the pool together for a bit, enjoyed the hot tubs, showered. We'd brought tennis and racquetball equipment but I didn't have the energy to make use of it tonight. We did notice they had basketball setup on one of the racquetball courts. Maybe we could try that sometime.
We drove to a nearby Cane's after that to use a birthday coupon Sean had for a free drink.
Then we found a QuikTrip on the way to the next morning's first major destination to spend the night at! Sean had an offer for a free energy drink there so we picked that up for later and got a couple of $0.25 mini bags of fruit snacks before setting up for the night in the car, watching movies, and finally getting some much needed sleep.
Day 3 - 2/25/16:
At 9:25am, we woke up, freshened up a bit in the restrooms there, and got more fruit snacks.
We drove to a nearby Tropical Smoothie then to use another birthday voucher Sean had for a free smoothie. Sean bought me a smoothie too so we had one each!
Then we got some deals at a 99 Cent Store across the street before driving to a ghost town called Goldfield in Apache Junction, AZ in the Superstition Wilderness area to explore the ghost town and use a Groupon deal we'd bought for a ride on the zipline there!
Back towards civilization, we used another Groupon we'd booked for 8 tickets for "rides" in giant, inflatable, clear, bubble-like balls with hollow insides at a place called Monster Bubbles in the Superstition Shopping Center in Mesa. The 8 tickets were actually good at both Monster Bubbles locations (there and in Phoenix) so we used 1 each this time and saved the other 6 for other times. This location had a small assortment of arcade games at the front and a smaller-than-expected floor for the bubbles to roll around in behind. It was plenty of space for us though and the guy working there was really nice. It was pretty quiet at the time (no music or anything) and it was just Sean and me in the bubbles at first joined by two others later. We got a mini workout, Sean got really sweaty, I got a tiny bit of motion sickness, but we both had fun!
We got gas at AMPM next. It was $1.30/gallon of 87!
Then we used more free drink coupons we had for a soda at Cane's and an orange coolatta at Dunkin Donuts.
Since it was only about half a mile out of the way, we made a pitstop at the Dave & Buster's in Tempe again for a quick couple of credits on their PIU NX machine. Someone had left a couple of credits in it so we played through them and then got back on our way.
We went to the gym again for a short workout then. I did my fastest mile on a treadmill to date (not really fast, actually 7 mins 19 secs, but decent for me for a treadmill and I wasn't really even out of breath after) before working out my arms a little and even benching with Sean for a few minutes. Then we showered and hurried on to our next activity.
We had yet another Groupon to use next, this time for batting cages and mini golf at a place called Casey's Sportsworld in Phoenix, maybe 10 mins away. I completely sucked at both activities, especially mini golf. Sean was probably pretty mediocre at both for a beginner. We had too much fun trying though. I was so bad at mini golf was hilarious! We spent our whole time there laughing our heads off.
Hungry after that, we drove to a QuikTrip to buy a couple of roller grill things and use their microwave to make a couple of our own things. Then we ate and watched movies in the car before getting a few hours of car sleep in.
Day 4 - 2/26/16:
It was hard but we woke up at 6:25am to make our way to Fort McDowell. After planning this trip, we'd discovered there would be a Spartan sprint race the last day of the trip on the same day as another race (the 5kColorFest) we'd already booked. There was time for more than one race in the day though and volunteering to help out at the Spartan race would earn us free registration and other goodies so why not? Well, maybe because it meant waking up in the buttcrack of the morning today! Lol Oh well, it was worth it. We drove over to the race location and started helping with race setup at 7:30am. Our efforts were rewarded with plenty of snacks, drinks, and a volunteer t-shirt and free race entry each. We actually would've gotten lunch, a second race entry, and maybe other perks if we'd stayed longer but we had places to be, things to do and since we were only doing a half day of volunteering we got to leave at 1pm.
Leaving the area, we stopped to use another of Sean's coupons to get me a coffee Coolatta at Dunkin Donuts.
Then we drove back to Main Event in Tempe to play some Pump with another of our $10 game cards plus 3 credits someone had left in the machine when we arrived.
At a nearby Epic Thrift store after that, we got me some shoes for the Spartan race the next day for a few dollars. (Didn't want to get my other pair muddy because I needed them for the 5kColorFest afterward.)
Practically across the street from there was a Goodwill thrift store where we found a few more small bits.
We drove from there to use a coupon to get a free meal, which we shared and barely finished, at Genghis Grill.
Since Genghis Grill was in the same mall as the Dave & Buster's in Tempe, we had another peek in Dave & Buster's just to get a quick vid of the place.
With about an hour to kill til it was time to use our next Groupon deal, we found a place called Riverview Park not far from us. It was a nice park with a pretty lake in it. We made a mental note that we hoped to remember to return sometime so we could jog around the lake.
Then we got a quick drink at QuikTrip.
Finally, for the big event of the day, we drove to the Arizona Events Center to use a LivingSocial deal we'd bought to watch "Lucha Libre" (a staged masked wrestling event there)! Not really my thing at all but it was surprisingly pretty exciting, entertaining, and fun to watch! We even got a couple of $2 ciders to enjoy while there.
It was getting late and we needed to be up early so after the wrestling thing we drove to a QuikTrip to watch some movies for a bit in the car together before going to sleep.
Day 5- 2/27/16 (Spartan Sprint & 5kColorFest):
In the morning, we were reluctantly up at 6:40am. We stopped in McDonald's across the street for internet and then drove back to the Spartan race location to use the free race we'd earned the day before and run our first Spartan race of the year (4th ever)! For some reason, I'd been under the impression this race would be about 3 miles long but when I got to the start line I found out otherwise.. 5 miles, they announced! Realistically, I think it was just 4 but imagine how a short distance "runner" (hardly a runner) like me felt getting that news on the start line while staring at steep, rolling hills ahead. Haha Anyway, Sean and I wished each other luck and were each then on our way! I struggled with the hills a little and there were some obstacles we both struggled with but we got nearly all of them and both wound up doing well! I finished in 1 hour 9 mins 0 secs, placed 1st in my age group out of 494, was the 8th female overall out of 2,593, and placed 207 out of 6,962 total people! Sean finished in 55 mins 21 secs, placed 4th in his age group out of 801, was the 25th male overall out of 4,370, and placed 25th out of 6,962 total people! After the race, it took awhile for us to get our heads on straight but we got our finishers medals and shirts, collected the various freebies including a cup of beer each, and decided to try a couple of the challenges some of the sponsors(?)/vendors(?) had going on there. Sean did some tire flipping challenge and we both did some high wall jumping challenge. We were at a slight disadvantage compared to the people there who hadn't run the race yet (starting in a later heat) and those who maybe weren't running and were just there for moral support but I'm sure we would've done worse in the race if we'd tried the challenges first. Regardless, Sean did 26 tire flips, which was one less than the current record of 27 that'd been set so far that day, and I beat the female wall-jumping record by doing 10 wall jumps, though another girl tied my score not long after and I'm sure a few other people beat us by more later in the day as well.
Driving into civilization once more, we got a big drink refill at Circle K on the way before stopping in the gym for a quick session to try out some racquetball rackets for the first time before showering the race all off..
And driving to another race just to get dirty again! (I'm writing the rest of this way later now so bear with me..) This second and final race of the day was the 5kColorFest. I believe it was at the Scottsdale Sports Complex or something similarly named. It wasn't a serious run but we got dog tags for medals, t-shirts, and other treats for running probably closer to 2.5 miles worth of laps around the complex while having colored powder thrown over us! Not our favorite race ever but fun enough for the price and we got a mini workout from it! Got ourselves and the car pretty colorful too! Lol
We devoured as couple of cheeseburgers from a McDonald's down the road and quenched our thirst with some QuikTrip drink refills after the race. Then we got even more food at the closest Genghis Grill using a free food coupon we had and went to the Goodwill Clearance center for a final shopping session before gassing up at Flying J for the drive home.
We made one last stop before heading back to Vegas though:
Main Event
10315 W McDowell Rd
Avondale, AZ 85392
We'd found this Main Event online, I think, probably while searching for info on the Tempe one so we went for a look and found a Grand Piano Keys, a Guitar Hero, and a PIU Infinity TX cab inside! We tried the PIU, of course. I can't remember everything but I remember that the volume could've been a bit higher but that it was pretty good, if not great, to play on otherwise!
Finally, that was it. Mission accomplished. We drove home from there for some much needed rest and recuperation!
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