The conference lasted two days. It was a good meeting for me. I learned a lot about the growing multisite/DSO dental business and rubbed shoulders with some of the people who are making it happen.
On Thursday night, Randy and I parked in this garage at Scottsdale's Fashion Square Mall, ate dinner, and watched "Captain America: Civil War." Great movie. Very expensive: $14, but nice recliner seats.
By the way, Scottsdale is a really nice place. This is only the second time I've been to this part of Arizona, and I decided that if I had to live in Arizona, which I prefer not to, I'd live in Scottsdale. Actually, Flagstaff would be my first choice, but in the Phoenix area I'd pick Scottsdale.
On Friday Nate (my coworker) and I tore down our little booth at the show, and I was out of there by 3 p.m. I had told Randy I'd be back around 3:30, and he wasn't in the room when I returned, so I took a little bike ride about 10 miles up the Arizona Canal, which was close to the Doubletree, where we stayed. Scottsdale was 105 degrees on Friday afternoon. The most interesting thing I saw on the ride was this sign for Botox Happy Hour. It made me smile, which is more than the customers of this establishment can do.
Nate's dad lives in Phoenix and has a lemon tree in his yard. He and Nate picked about 40 lemons on Thursday evening, and I took them back to American Fork for Nate. Of course, I also got a few. These things are huge. Like the size of grapefruit. And sweet.
On Friday evening Randy and I visited Scottsdale's Old Town, where we ate at a smokehouse restaurant. I had the smoked prime rib with goat cheese mashed potatoes and broccoli rabe. Yum. We then wandered to another place for some mango and roasted pistachio gelato.
Old Town is an interesting mix of old buildings with restaurants, bars, art shops and golf cart taxis everywhere. Didn't seem like many people for a Friday night.
Just some Old Town art.
Cactus moon.
On Saturday morning we got up about 5:30 and headed for a bike ride on the Indian Bend Wash multiuse trail. We started at the Westworld of Scottsdale parking lot, north of the hotel several miles--and wandered down a bunch of meaningless roads. We finally caught the trail near Cholla Street and rode 18 miles past golf courses and pretty little lakes to Tempe Town Lake Marina. The ride and trail were really nice. Tempe Town Lake was disappointing, not nearly as nice as the rest of the trail. I then headed back to find the car, but the battery on my phone/GPS was about dead, and I had no idea where the car was. Luckily the path passed the Doubletree, so I was able to stop and pick up an extended phone battery. With that I was able to find the car. Total bike ride was about 42 miles. Randy took a more leisurely ride from the lake back to hotel, where I met him. I discovered that quite a few people were on the trail when we went south, but hardly anybody was on the trail when I went back to the north. I assume everyone around Phoenix does their outdoor stuff between 6 and 8 a.m. Then it's inside, where there's air conditioning. All in all, hauling the bikes all the way to Scottsdale and back was worth it. I really enjoyed the ride.
After the ride we showered, checked out of the hotel and ate lunch at Waffle House--who knew Arizona had Waffle Houses. Then we headed to Apache Junction (kind of a sad little town) and Lost Dutchman State Park in the Superstition Mountains. The "Lost Dutchman" was a German miner who supposedly found a valuable gold mine, but no one knows where it is. Several people have died looking for it.
This place is rich with cactus.
Lots of cactus.
This is called Jumping Cactus, because people believe the cactus balls jump off the tree and latch onto your body. The cactus balls don't really jump, I don't think, but if you barely brush one you'll have several spines stick to your skin. Not deep, but very securely, and painfully anchored. I know. And if you pick up a cactus ball by the part that doesn't have spines, you'll find it does have spines. They're just so small and fine that you can't see them. But you can feel them. I know this, too.
I was hoping to see a lot of cactus flowers, but this was about it. Well, this and some in planters in Old Town.
Looking out from the Superstition Mountains.
We hiked a trail that looped about 2-1/2 miles and climbed 500 feet for a pretty good view of the valley and a test of our bike-ride-wearied legs.
I think this sheriff is looking for another Lost Dutchman Mine seeker. Or something else.
Looking toward the Superstition Mountains.
This is the view from a bench at the top of the trail. A family was planting a couple of tiny pecan trees here to see if they'd grow. Good luck. This place is very dry, and I think it has hungry cottontail rabbits.
The Superstitions at sunset.
The mountains to the west of the Superstitions. I'm not sure, but this may be the Usery Mountains.
On Saturday night we stayed at the Chaparral Suites Hotel, which is being remodeled into the Embassy Suites. The rooms have all been redone, but the office and other areas are still under construction, so we got a very nice room with great a breakfast for a great price, a nicer room at half the price of the Doubletree (which was plenty nice, with a patio and lawn).
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