Trip to Phoenix

We decided to forgo the desert run today to head into the Phoenix area. We looked up a Nikon authorized repair place and saw that the town of Chandler (suburb of Phoenix) had one. There were also a couple of other stops that we wanted to make.

It was a nice drive so I am told as I dozed off for a while. Traffic wasn't bad coming in to town but it was getting heavy when we left around 2:30 p.m. We got to the camera repair location and was told that it definitely was our lens and not the camera. We were given an estimate of $220. A new lens would cost about $300. We decided that as the lens worked on manual but not automatic, we would just deal with it until a later date. The girl at the front desk suggested that we go to Ritz Camera to take a look at a lens 28-300 that would give us the range for which we were looking. What the heck, we were close by the store. We went in and talked to a disinterested salesman (I abhor that attitude). We were shown a lens that was suppose to work with our camera but it did not. We asked him a question and he said "I don't know" and didn't bother to ask anyone else. That pretty much did it for me . . . you aren't making a sale even if the lens was cents on the dollar with that kind of attitude. We thanked him and walked out the door. Maybe unemployment would be more interesting for him.

We headed for lunch - Famous Dave's BBQ. Yum. Then we headed to REI in Tempe where I got me a pair of hiking pants (jeans just get too warm). John and I were impressed with how clean the areas of Phoenix we were in were and enjoyed our time there. One thing is for certain, they patrol their freeway's heavily and use a lot of camera enforcement. You do not want to speed. or you will be ticketed.

We got home a little before 5 p.m. and sat outside to enjoy the evening until the cool breeze forced us in. John was very happy as the truck got better than 16 mpg's which is a record for us.

It was a nice day and we look forward going back to Phoenix some time.