The Sawdust Review

We went to Phoenix to see some Spring Training Chicago Cubs games.

We arrived late Friday night. We took no paper maps and trusted to Waze (Nagigator available on iPhone) to get us where we needed to go. Getting to Lancaster the day we left was no problem - almost drove right to the hotel. We were close but I had not properly entered the street name on the address. I entered "J" street but the motel was on "J 12" street. We were correctly positioned on the x axis but not on the y axis. A quick call to the hotel put us on the right track. We ate dinner at a quaint little restaurant in Lancaster. The next morning we got up and told Waze to nagigate (we grew to hate Waze's voice) to David's house.

Well.... That didn't work out so well. She took us on the most indirect route possible and added probably more than an hour to the trip. We got paper maps at AAA in Mesa so we could check up on what she was telling us to do.

Got to David's late. Had a good dinner then went to our time share reservation with Christianne who stayed 2 nights with us.

Saturday we got up and went to a Cubs game in Scottsdale at the SF Giants park. The Cubs lost. I had 2 gluten free beers.

Sunday we went to church and then to dinner.

By now I am getting the idea I should take some pictures of what we were doing so I could build this blog.

Tuesday we got out the tickets to the Cubs game we were going to. But the date on the tickets was for Monday. The Cubs lost the Monday game. We decided to go to the park where the Cubs were playing Tuesday and see if we could get in to see the game. The Cubs were going to play the Diamond Backs.

Waze took us directly to the park - very nice park. Parking was $5.00 and because we were early we got to park in the first row next to the road. We were going to go to the ticket booth and get whatever we could. As we got out of the car someone approached your mother and offered to sell his tickets to her for $25 each. Your mother bought the tickets. They were very nice ticket right behind third base and the Cubs dugout. Here is what the park looked like:

And from the other direction:

You can tell how close we are to the dugout - just count the rows.

Just to prove we didn't steal these photos from someone else:

And this is how I spent my time at the game:

There was even a Blimp:

The Cubs Lost. But there was a guy at the park wearing a T Shirt that put it all in perspective. The T Shirt said "National Champions 1908".

On Thursday we went to the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM). A surprisingly large place. It was billed as having a very large number of instruments from all over the world. I thought: now how many can that be? After being there 2 hours ( we had to go meet Tatiana for lunch) we still had lots to see. Really a stunning place. On the wall behind many of the displays there was a video flat screen monitor that showed some one playing native music on one of the displayed instruments. Very enlightening.

There was an area displaying instruments donated or loaned to the museum by popular artists. Of course there was also the flat screen playing a recording of the artist playing that instrument. We saw things from Elvis, Roy Orbison, John Denver, and John Lennon. Very cool.

MIM wanted to give the people going through the museum an opportunity to experience some of the cooler instruments. They have an "experience" room.

David, Luis Carlos and your mother were taken by variations on "The Gong Show" theme:

David:

Luis Carlos:

Your mother:

You can count on me to march to the beat of a different drummer:

Friday morning we were off to "Death Valley Scottie's Castle" which, of course is in Death Valley:

We took the scenic path into the park. It is surprisingly beautiful:

We had the opportunity of learning about Alluvial Fans:

So that may not be so readable. Here is the picture about which is being written:

The "Alluvial Fan" is the accumulation of debris at the bottom of the mountain that looks like it was washed off the mountain by rain resulting it what looks like a mud slide happened. Of course this happens not after one or two rains but over the course of eons. When you fly over a mountain range these things are every where and very obvious. You especially get the idea that this accumulation was washed off the mountain. Very Interestingk.

On down the road to "Scotty's Castle":

You can just see is off to the left at the end of the road.

It's Scotty's Castle Clock Tower.

At the end of the road (above) off to the left you get the first sighting of the castle.

Then we come around the bend into the parking lot and begin to see why they call it a castle.

But there's more:

So by now I am beginning to realize my memories of my visit here circa 1959 have nothing to do with the reality of the castle. The only memory that is accurate is that it seemed to be cool inside the house. Well...we were there in July when the temperature could have been in the neighborhood of 120 degrees F. Nice and toasty warm.

Panning around the property:
The pit at the left was intended to be a swimming pool. This is one half the other is beyond the "bridge".

The unfinished swimming pool:

The structure in the background is the garage and gas station for the property. It now contains the National Park Service Guest Center.

Behind the door at the bottom of the tower is the circular stair way that exits from the music room above. It is not the entrance to the castle.

In the corner behind the brown structure (above) we have:

I didn't get a picture of the garage and gas station that is yet to the right of all this. The garage is now the park service's guest center.

Here is the picture your mother took of me by the tower door:

Here is the picture I took of your mother by the tower door:

To the left of the tower is the entry into the "breeze way" between the two buildings comprising the main house. The building to the left of the "breeze way" is the main living quarters the building to the right is the guest quarters.

The front of the castle:

The entry way to the "breeze way" is through the 3 arched portals on the right, to the left of the tower door.

Follow the mat in and turn to the left and we find the breeze way between the two parts of the main house.

Views of the "breeze way":

Toward the back:

Toward the front:

The area off to the right is where they kept the car:

The lady was our guide. The car could have been better focused but even in this shot it is impressive.

Across from the car port is the entrance to the main house:

Note "Death Valley Ranch". This is where we get introduced to the main characters involved. While everyone calls the place "Death Valley Scotty's Castle" it wasn't his. He is the reason the place was built but he had no money invested in the place. I saw a book in a Phoenix book store entitled: Scotty's Castle, The house that lies built. That's probably not accurate (name of the book) but the idea is there.

Albert Johnson built the place with more than 3 million circa 1930 dollars. That is estimated to be about $37 million in today's money.

See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Scott
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotty's_Castle
http://www.nps.gov/deva/historyculture/albert-johnson.htm
https://www.google.com/searchq=scotty+castle+floor+plan&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=CXlDUdOSDIz8yAGPtoHYBA&ved=0CD8QsAQ&biw=1440&bih=712

When you walk in this is what you see:

Here it is facing the other direction:

This used to be a cooling device with water running down the rocks into the pool below. There is a problem with the plumbing to this now and so the park service turned the water off. The park service says that when it is 120 degrees out it will be 100 degrees in the house and the evaporative coolers that were around the house cooled it to about 80 degrees.

I have shots of the inside but there is difficulty with the lighting. See number 4 above for lots more pictures.

We took the underground tour as well. We saw the tunnels beneath the house and saw the power house and how power was distributed and saved.

Here is the solar hot water heater:

The boiler that produced the steam used for heat in radiators placed around the house:

In the tunnels:

Many tunnels store tile that was intended to be used around the house and in the pool:

Tiles were made for a particular use and place. Sometimes the installed location of the tile was written on the back of the tile in Spanish.

Tile for the pool:

Gutter tile for the pool:

Electricity was generated using a water wheel and a generator. Generator was later diesel powered:

Electricity was stored in batteries:

Not just any batteries; they were Thomas Edison Batteries

A power distribution panel was used in the Power Room:

The building sequence on the property:

Now we go to Las Vegas. We saw two shows:

"Human Nature" which is 4 white Aussies singing Motown tunes. The show was excellent. They sang virtually back to back tunes for over an hour. Lots of excitement and intensity.
"The Million Dollar Quartet"a musical play about the meeting of Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins. Music was good when it was played. Did not compare well with "Human Nature".

We did the buffet at Harrahs, Palms and Paris. I had two encounters of the gluten kind. We stayed at this amazing place called The Palms.

I guess we knew the place offered suited not rooms but we were not prepared for the quality of the suite. So I have to show some pictures. It was a dimly lit place so the pictures are dark.

Kitchen View: