Crash and Burn in Phoenix

As we left Prescott we were delighted to finally find another Trader Joe's, our favourite grocery store which we haven't seen since we left the east coast, so we stocked up on good stuff. It wasn't a hard decision to avoid the Interstate and take the winding mountain road, as these will be our last for a while. We even found BBC World Service News on the radio at one point (presumably there was a British base around?). We spent the night at a little dispersed campsite up high and drove on down into Phoenix the next morning.

We met up with Jo's family: Chris, Barb and their son Nick who was in town for his dad's poker night. We parked up overnight at their mums house in town and went for a delicious tasting menu at a fancy restaurant, which was a bit of a (v welcome) culture shock compared to campground cooking! (PS thanks again Chris - best meal we've had). We had a lazy morning watching the English footy, and then stupidly decided to go out for a run in the midday heat (we are now in the desert which is still v hot after several months in the hills where things are cooling down rapidly). We then headed up to the May house to help prep for their 'real men wear pink' breast cancer fundraiser poker night. Some 21 players, varying from an ex-Vegas dealer (unsurprisingly the eventual winner) to complete novices. Despite only playing once or twice with mates I threw my hat into the ring and amazingly made it through to the final table, and eventually holing out in 4th place, just outside the money :( It was a fun night but we made a rather dubious decision to get up in 4 hours time for the north London derby, as Chris & Nick are both ardent Spurs supporters. It was surprisingly busy for 5am and the game didn't disappoint, neither did the full Irish breakfast and pint of Guinness!

It was really nice seeing so many family and friends over the past few weeks, but we had to tear ourselves away to get to Joshua Tree NP and on over the border.Read more