Show day

Nice day today, temp got to about 70F/21C. Went to the Mesa market and exchanged my pocket books, then stopped at Safeway to get the 3 bottles of Crown Royal rye on Marg's raincheck. It was worthwhile - $12.60 per 750 mil bottle. Drove all the way over to the stadium in Glendale [the opposite side of Phoenix]. When I say all the way over, I mean a trip of more than an hour at 65 mph on the freeway. Went to the international sportsman show that was mainly about hunting & fishing. This was in an amazing stadium & you can see why the Edm Oilers are hung up about a new arena. The team here is almost as bad, but the stadium is huge. There were some really neat booths, displays and activities. There was a tank full of bass and a guy casting various lures in the tank to demonstrate technique. There was a kids fishing tank, a fly casting lesson place, dog retriever demos, just to name a few. Sat through a demo and show on calling elk, pretty impressive. There were some Canadian fishing/hunting guys there, one from McLennan, by home. The most expensive hunt I saw was $25,000 for a trophy elephant hunt someplace on the African contintent. There some great deals on deep sea fishing in Mexico, one was $350 for the day & they get shark, marlin, bill fish, el dorado, tuna, etc. Looked pretty good except for the Mexico part. We spent about 4 hours there and left at 3:30 to try and beat the traffic back. Well as it turns out that wasn't early enough on a Friday. This would seem normal for those accustomed to heavy traffic, but for us GP'ers it was not good - bumper to bumper for about 20 miles. Oh yeh, mostly 3 or 4 lanes across, try changing lanes when your exit comes up. Blasting along at 65mph until you see brake lights everywhere and then coming to a dead stop. Needless to say, it took a bit longer to get home. You never see road rage here; I think it has something to do with the abundance of handguns & concern about who may have one. A BBQ rounded off the day. Marg said something about another Dday, but I think she really liked it; especially the camo ladies wear, even though she never bought any.