We drove over to Mesa one day and saw an Arizona Fall League baseball game at Cub's Parks then had a very nice dinner at Four Peaks Brewery. The trip over to Mesa took 45 minutes but the return trip took an hour and forty minutes with the rush hour traffic and accidents. Traffic congestion and aggressive drivers are some of the worst we have ever seen. Another day we drove out to Desert Mountain and watched the first round of the PGA Senior Tour Charles Schwab Cup.
I flew to Kansas City and our route took us right over Albuquerque New Mexico where we attended the Balloon Fiesta just a few weeks ago. I had a short visit with my mother, then early the next morning my brother Tom and I took off on a road trip to El Paso, Texas and Las Cruses, New Mexico to see the Sprint Cars races. Along the way we stopped in Amarillo, Texas and I tried to talk my brother into taking the 72 ounce steak challenge at the Big Texan Steak House. We did not attempt the challenge but did have a great steak dinner. We drove over 800 miles that first day and spent the night in Roswell, New Mexico. The next morning we visited Carlsbad Caverns then drove on to El Paso for the races that night. The next day we visited White Sands National Monument before checking into our hotel the Big Chili Inn and then attending the races that evening. We then drove to Phoenix where my brother stayed with high school friends he had not seen in many years. While here in the Phoenix area we visited the Roger Penske Racing Museum, saw a couple of Arizona Fall League games and attended a Coyotes hockey game. But the main reason for his visit was to take in two more weekends of dirt track racing. Tom is 7 years younger than I, so growing up we did not do much together. But the one thing we did do together was go to dirt track races with our dad. Our father loved open wheel dirt track racing so Tom and I are glad to keep that tradition alive. We know a lot of the people who attend the races but only by their racetrack names. In the pictures below you will see California George and Midget Mike. My brother is known as Kansas Tom and I am Kansas Tom's brother. Josie and Tom's friend Janet (whose last name is also Jenkins) joined us for one of the races. The next day we drove over to Janet's home located in Fountain Hills and had a lunch at a local Mexican restaurant where even in late November you can sit out on the patio in shorts. We then visited the cities namesake the Great Fountain. The fountain show is every hour on the hour and lasts for 15 minutes. It reaches a height of 330 feet using two of its three pumps. On special occasions they use all three pumps and it will reach over 500 feet.
It has been great visiting with my brother the past three weeks. Unfortunately he has to head back to cold KC.