Out and About

It was my day to take Josie to work and run some errands. We left the resort at around 7:30 AM and it was shortly after sunrise so we stopped along the side of the road to take this shot of the rising sun:

It looked like it was going to be another cloudy and wet day, but the sun came out and even though the high for the day was only 56, it was clear and with very little wind.

My first stop after dropping Josie off at work was at the car wash in Surprise. I always went to the TNT Car Wash there as they always did a nice job of hand-washing and hand-waxing the truck for a reasonable price. It takes longer when it is done manually, but that is the best way to do the large truck. Here is a shot of the truck going through the drying stage before moving into the detail area for waxing:

I have to say that I was disappointed with the job they did this year. There were several places inside the vehicle that were totally missed and as I was watching the guy wax the truck I noticed he was only waxing the areas he could reach without any stool or ladder. He was a short guy, so that amounted to a lot of area that was missed. I had a nice tip that I was going to give them for the extra effort involved with the truck, but I changed my mind and only gave them $2 which was probably too much. Of course, that was after they went back and did all the touch up to make it right. With the long term dry forecast, the truck should be clean right through our trip that is planned following Christmas.

I then went to Mario's in Surprise for a haircut and on to Costco for some last minute things - it was a zoo there - and to Office Max to pick up an ink cartridge for our printer. The day went by quickly and I picked up Josie from work at 4 PM.

The air was filled with hot air balloons and we captured this photo of several that had just landed not too far from Lake Pleasant:

One of them is hidden by the balloon on the right.

And then, to complete the trip, we saw several other hang-gliders near the Lake Pleasant Airport:. This one was about to land:

Hardly a day goes by that we don't see these balloons and gliders.

Two more days to go before Christmas, and we are ready. Josie will be happy to see the day arrive as she will finally get a day off...