My Walks Around the Neighborhood

Part of my every morning is to take a 2.3. mile walk around the neighborhood for exercise, it's more of a combination jogging and walking. I used to walk around my workplace every year and stop walking when summer came as it gets to hot to bear. That was only a 2-mile walk. I started walking as suggested by my doctor, she said I needed to exercise to keep my blood pressure down. Once I started I have not stopped, I truly enjoy walking and only miss a day here or there but for the most part I am committed to my walk.

Of course walking is always more enjoyable when the sights are like this:

The community I live in has a series of lakes and most homes have a lake front view. However these are really not lakes but actually they are "treatment cells" complete with "working fish". So this is in fact a Natural Water Treatment System consisting of 21 separate lakes or "cells"  covering 72 acres with the purpose of creating aquatic wildlife habitat and a water purification system.

So as you can imagine visually it is a very beautiful and well planned community and it's easy to get used to the surrounding. Bird sanctuaries, ducks all over the place, plenty of fish in the lakes, a jogging or running track around every lake, every back yard has easy access to the lake and the running tracks and just around the corner a complete shopping plaza with plenty of stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and parks.

Having an association really sucks but at the same time it makes complete sense to have it as the landscaping around the neighborhood is always we ll kept and very clean. Yes they are tought but in the end it is for our best interest if we want to live in a beautiful community.

So here are some pics I took during one of my recent walks, hope you like them.

 

 

The Firehouse Open House

Walking over to the Fire Station.
The little neighborhood event that we seem to catch year after year. Once a year the Avondale Fire Department has it's open house and it's ususally a blast. From the singing fire man to the free hot dogs and ice cream, kids and grownups enjoy this event.

The firestation is withing walking distance from my house so at around ten in the morning we headed that way, I made sure to take my appetite with me.


I'll have to of those and two of the other ones please. Thank you very much!

After food we went out and admired those always very clean fire trucks. Some more picture taking took place.


Something about those ladder trucks that just captivate me specially when they have the ladders extended in a way that it almost seem they can reach the sky.

Avondle is the home of PIR - Phoenix Internationl Raceway.




Then I asked if I could take Diego and Ducky to the movies and Junior asked which movie was I taking them to, I said "Real Steel" looked like a fun movie for them and it turned out he wanted to watch it too so we asked Loyiel if he wanted to join and he said yes. So we all headed to the 2:00 p.m. show.



The movie was violent in a non violent way, after all the fights were fought by machines and somehow it feels like it doesn't count. The kids and enjoyed it and so did I.

After the movie these two cute little robots were ready to rumble.

Saturday

So, this morning I woke up at 7:30 and normally I would have gone back to bed, as many of you may have heard Saturday for me was my "sleep late" day, and when I say late I mean like 12:00 or 1:00 p.m. But the day seemed so nice that I decided against going back to bed and headed for the kitchen instead.

First things first, ummmm can you smell it? Yep, I nice warm cup of coffee to wake up. Let's see make the bed, turn on the computer and check my emails, my facebook, and my blogs, a comment here and a comment there and I was done. What to do now?

I resumed my lunch time walks while at work so why don't I just take my trusty steed and take a ride? It will be good exercise. So I did and I took off. Sweat pants and a sweat shirt was all I needed. Sorry back east friends but even though I know we'll pay for it soon when it gets hot, our weather here in Phoenix is just plane gorgeous. I can't even relate to what you guys are going through with the cold, the now, the wind chill etc.

Image captured at around 9:00 a.m. notice how clear and wonderful the sky is and how awesome my trusty steed looks.

I kept going and a few blocks past the freeway is the Avondale Autoplex. I rode up and down the long street looking at all the cars. It saddens me to see how much the dealers are struggling to stay alive. There are already about three or four dealers that had to close as they did not survive the bad economy last year.

Still it was fun taking pictures while riding around the area.

Ahhh! a steed of a different breed.
Gotta love it. Reduced to $14,000+, convertible and with 20" custom wheels. Sweeeeeeet!
Then I saw this and I thought it would make for an interesting capture.
Then I swung by Coyote Honda hoping to see some bikes and to my surprise they only had ATVs in there, I guess the motorcycle sales were down and now they will concentrate on the all terrain vehicles. I truly hope this bad economy that has been very unkind to many will finally turn around.

The freeway was widened so the bridge had to be reinforced, it took many months to complete this but it's finally done. It looks great and it proudly shows our town's name and our State.

So, I am heading home now and it's still early. Wow, waking up early gives you a chance to do many things. Back home I took the next hour to continue cleaning my garage, another couple of bags filled with garbage and some box shuffling but nothing major there. I will continue to do this regularly, sooner or later I will have that garage the way I want it.

Next I went out to the back yard and decided to water it down. It really needed it and after I was done it really looked nice. The day kept getting nicer and nicer and to prove it I give you these two shots.

A cleaner backyard.
Gorgeous weather.
The floor looked great after it was watered down.
At this time my pictorial will end as my camera decided to stop working. I've had it for over three years and have carried it with me daily, and it's captured thousands of images but I think it's about to finally and completely quit.

I have a $50.00 gift card to a Harley Davidson dealership that was given to me on my birthday so I decided to go to Arrowhead Harley Davidson. I spent a couple of hours there as the sales rep that sold me my bike ten years ago still works there. I had not seen him in over four years so we talked for nearly the two hours I was there. The I walked around the store twice hoping to see something I would like to buy but found nothing so I came home with my gift card still intact.

After all I had done all day I was a little tired so I took a nap but woke up in time to go to my daughter's for enchiladas. Good food, and great company made it for a fabulous ending to a busy and fun Saturday.

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Local Car Show

There's a small church right around the corner from where I live and for three consecutive years they have thrown a Hot Rod Car Show. For one reason or another I had never been able to go see the cars but last night told mi chica to wake me up early on Saturday so I could go.

Saturday is my day to sleep late but I had plans for this particular Saturday. Not only was the Hot Rod show going on but the Thunderbirds were in town and there was going to be a huge air show over at Luke's Air Force Base. Our "Ducky" is at his four years of age a huge Hairplaine aficionado and so Nikki thought taking him would be a must. But more on this later on a different post.

Now, back to the car show. I got up and took a refreshing shower so I could wake up. Then I headed to the car show which was about two minutes away from me. Yeap if you guessed that I drove instead of walked you are right. Walking would have taken me abut ten minutes to get there and it was already hot. There was plenty of parking at the church and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a great turnout for the event. Both in cars being displayed and in spectators walking around enjoying the show cars.

There was a little bit for everyone, plenty of Chevy's and Fords and some Buicks and Oldsmobiles, Cadilacs, a DeLorean, and even a few custom bikes. I of course concentrated on the Blue Oval kind of machinery but I squeezed a couple of Bow Ties for my son.


Just a small portion of the car on display this morning. It was a little hot but hey it was a HOT ROD show after all.

There were even a couple of old Datsun 240Z, and to my surprise a 59 BMW. Now 59 wow, that is as old as I am. I never stopped to check what a 59 BMW would look like and today there it was right in front of me. Funky little thing isn't it? But sure enough, look closely and there it is right on the front center. The BMW propeller.


This little red BMW just happened to be a '59. How about that. I didn't even know they had BMW back then.

It was hot and sunny and not one cloud on the sky. Many of the people displaying their cars sat there but I am sure it had to be very uncomfortable and sticky. Next Saturday my car club, the Copperstate Mustang Club will be having our Spring Car Show and let me tell you we are pretty smart because we are having the show in the afternoon. So at that time we should only get a short time of heat and then nothing but nice afternoon shade and breeze.

Again there will be more on that show in some upcoming posts.






This are some more shots of the cars on display. From the Datsuns to the Ford to the boney driver on this hot rod. All in all a good show with close to sixty awesome looking cars on display.

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Karaoke Night

I've been going to Manny's Mexican Restaurant here in Avondale every Friday afternoon for little over a month now. The reason is that every Friday afternoon is karaoke night. Now that the temperature is not over triple digits anymore it makes for a real nice afternoon in their patio.

As you can imagine within two weeks of going there we already made new friends, now as soon as I come in and right after the "hellos" and "how are yous" the next question is "What are you singing tonight?" I never know what I am going to sing, I look through the books or simply think of a song and ask if they have it which 98% of the time they do. Abe, our karaoke MC uses a computer instead of discs and I believe his archives are stocked with well over 2000 songs.

Some of the regulars there sing the very same song every week, specially the older singers. Me, I come up with new songs each week and I haven't even scratched the surface, I think I can go a very, very long time without repeating. The only reason for me to repeat a song is by request.

Well, tonight is Halloween so some people came in dressed in costume, including mi chica. Since I am too old to be walking around the streets trick or treating I let my kids take their kids. In the meantime we scored a lot of good candy for them at Manny's. Can anybody say cavities?


Mi chica meets me there and after she eats she starts lip-synking along. Here she is looking very much like a not so mean witch as she was smiling for the parparazzi.

Mi chica meets me there every Friday an hour after I get there. She doesn't karaoke but I noticed that she is really good at lip-syncing, but who knows maybe one day she will surprise us all.

Even my Bud light came dressed in its best Dracula costume. I called it my Budcula. And just for kicks here is one of the songs I sang tonight, except I changed the version a little bit.

Silver Wings

Firehouse Open House

This is the third year in a row that we happen to catch our local fire station open house. The fire station is just a five minute walk from my house or a one minute drive if we are feeling lazy. Well, this morning my daughter and her husband along with their three kids and I, we all walked to the station.

The first thing we noticed this time was the ladder 172. This is an impressive truck. Firemen are known for the pride they display in keeping their fire engines and all their equipment clean and in good working condition. Some city workers that attended the event got treated to a ride in the cage as they erected the ladder some 90 feet up in the air. Unfortunately due to liability issues they could not allow for regular people like us to ride.



This is Diego posing by one of the small fire trucks. I took this picture as we got there, he was ready to start going up and down the fire trucks. He really enjoys seeing them and making believe that he is a fireman.




This is "Ducky", my grandson number two. He too loves to go see the fire trucks and enjoys spending a couple of hours at the open house. I am sure the imagination of these kids goes free as they pretend to be firemen.





For the past three years the entertainment is handled by "The Singing Fireman". A real fireman that happens to play a synthesizer and signs songs about safety for the kids. Each time he is going to do a song he asks for volunteers to help him carry the safety message. Kids line up next to him and dance ala "Wiggles" as he sings. The kids have a great time performing for the audience and then when the song ends they are entitled to go and pick a gift.



They usually serve hamburgers and hot dogs, chips actually this year they had pretzels instead, and bottle water or sodas, and once you ate all the good food they serve they treat you to a choice of ice cream, with six different kinds in their popsicles menu I think it's safe to say the kids and grown ups alike were all happy.

For the kids but specially for Diego the highlight of the event is when he gets to dress as a fireman. This is a slow process as kids are shown how many things firemen have to wear while on duty. They start with the pants, then the boots, next come the jacket, then the cloth mask, followed by the gas mask, a pair of gloves, and like icing on the cake, to top it all off a fireman hat. They even get a radio so they can keep in contact with their team mates. This is just such an awesome experience. Last year all the clothes were big on Diego, this year it all fit perfectly. What a difference a year makes.



So, it is our experience that sometimes the best times are had in the most simplest ways. Take a neighborhood event like this and invite as many family members as possible and a good time is guaranteed each time. There were fourteen of us in attendance, and to me it was priceless to see the kids pretending and or wanting to be firemen. If your neighborhood has such events, make sure to go and visit and you will have a really good time.


The Duckworth clan.

Subway Fresh Fit 500

Phoenix International Raceway (PIR)
I really didn't want Kristy to go but that is another story. In contrast with the outing on Friday with my son, on Saturday I had four tickets for NASCAR. These sponsored by DLP High Definition Televisions and Texas Instruments. We opted to again drive on our own as opposed to driving to the WigWam Resort where I bus was going to take us to the truck. On Friday my tickets came with a parking pass, and when you have a pass you park right at the entrance of PIR. DLP did not have a parking pass so we had to park in the general admission and then we had to walk about a mile or a mile and a half to get to the race track.

So what that the bus had an escort that took them all the way down to PIR without stopping for red lights and dropped them right in front of the door, for us walking from the parking to the race track is half the fun because you have to walk through vendor row. A highlight was going into all those RVs that were on display and dreaming that we could own one, but a quarter of a million and up they are definitely just a dream.


"Mi Chica" and I sizing up a bed in one of the RVs.

While the UPS suite was almost empty all afternoon the day before, the DLP suite was super busy, we just got there a few minutes before J.J. Yealey driver of the 96 DLP car was to come and visit us. We found sits and J.J. got there right away. He spoke about his career for about 20 minutes or so and then he had a questions and answers session.

When he finished it was up to the suite lobby for pictures. He gave us his autograph and a photographer took a picture of us with him. I gave him my program and he signed the cover, but "mi chica" wanted his autograph by his picture. So he spent the next five minutes trying to find a page with his picture in it. I suggested that he sign the book as we were taking a lot of his time and the line was long but he only said "They can wait. I will find a page with my picture, I like to take care of my fans". He got my immediate respect just based on that answer.


J.J. Yealy, driver of the DLP #96 car.

After he left we went down to the DLP Experience Display. Again, everybody got a kick of the preview of next year Voyage to the Center of the Earth which will be in 3
D and is totally wicked.

We went back to the suite and we were asked if we were ready to go down to the pits and garage area. We were still eating so we told them we would take the second tour. They were taking 16 guests at a time and in order to follow the strict directions you must follow while down there they all wore headsets.

An hour an a half later our guide asked us if we were ready, which we were. She said we won't be needing the headsets because it's only you four and me. Wow, we had our personal guide. How sweet was that?



DLP's -- Texas Instruments #96 racing car and pit stop equipment and crew.

I had never been to the pit and garage area so that was the biggest highlight of the day. We learned so many things that I still wouldn't know if wasn't for that opportunity. There were little details like for example, their hauler cost $250,000.00 but in it's current state was worth close to three million. They only have one driver, and he logs over 100,000 miles a year. The racing tires are worth $460.00 each and they had 16 rows of four layed on the floor ready for the race. They use as many as they can but whatever goes unused is bought back by their supplier except they only pay them $100.00 per each unused tire.

















Our guide was really good at pointing out the interesting moments of the tour. She asked us if we knew who (and then she said the name) was? We all said no we don't, then she says "Well he is just the president of NASCAR and he is standing right behind you" as we turn around, we see how people mobs him trying to get pictures and autographs. She then asked any Jr's fans here, we all said "not really" well you guys are touching his car. I mean she really gave us a lot of information.





We went up to the suite because Saturday was hot and we needed to drink some beers, so we went up and waited for the race to start. I had never been to the big race and was pretty entertained with the pre-race show. The fly over on Saturday consists of four jets as opposed to only two on Friday and finally we scored passes to go up to the terrace. The terrace will show you the whole track and you'll be almost were all the driver's spotters are.

We had a terrific time and my sister in law's husband and I got pretty drunk, we were not falling or anything like that and we did have designated drivers but boy did we drink.

All in all, we had a great time. I wish you all were there. Oh and that picture the photographer took earlier, they gave it to us already framed and boxed.


We didn't have a marker, but if we did have one we could have written any good wishes to any driver on the finish line. Note how many people had already left a message there. You can always write over the faded messages.