Our First Hiking Trip

This past Sunday we went for a short 3 mile hike in the South Mountains. The South Mountains are the foothills that you see from our backyard. They separate downtown Phoenix from our area of Phoenix (Ahwatukee). The South Mountain Park is the largest city park in the United States. There are about 10-15 different marked hiking paths that can be used for hiking, dog walks, mountain biking, and some for horseback riding. These pictures are from the Telegraph Pass Trail which starts at the base of the mountain about 10 minutes from our house. There is a trail that starts right around the corner from our neighborhood, but we thought this one looked more adventurous. In any event, it was fun and we are looking forward to taking the dogs next time and seeing all the trails. It is just amazing that these things are 5-10 minutes from home. Watch out for mountain bikers though...these guys are freakin' crazy! The paths get really steep and have no dirt towards the top...all rocks, and very uneven. We were looking for rattlesnakes and gila monsters too, but didn't see anything. The trails are pretty heavily travelled and the websites say that most animals or reptiles come out at night. Take a look, the views as you hike up are breathtaking!

More Hiking Pictures

This top picture is a view as we were hiking up the mountains, looking back at part of Ahwatukee and the skyline beyond it.


In this pic below, you can see what most of the trails are like as you hike. They are narrow dirt paths that wind back and forth up the hills. The guys that mountain bike here really know what they are doing. They have very expensive bikes and fly through these trails as if there is no ledge right next to them. Most of the paths are right on the edge of a fairly steep slope.

Here's Tiffany striking a pose as usual:

This pic is a view from the top. Once we hiked to the top of this one particular trail, you are high enough to see to the other side. This view shows the opposite side of Phoenix. This is the side of the mountain that overlooks the city and some of the more poorer parts of Phoenix. The skyline is definitely amazing out here as you can see for miles and miles from in the hills.

Dogs at Peace in the Desert

More Landscape

These are more pictures we took today from the corner of our street. As if we can't rub it in more, it is 85+ everyday and we don't think we have seen a cloud since last weekend. The weather is heavenly.

Friendly Animals

Here are some pictures of our dogs....and the new additions to our backyard....lots of little lizards. They like to sit on the warm walls that surround people's backyards.

Interviews

Tiffany and I ready for interviews...yippee!

Fun on Mill Ave

Here are some pictures of Tiffany and I at Mill Ave on Saturday. The Mill Ave district is close to Arizona State University, about 10 minutes from our house. Lots of shopping, bars, and restaurants. Like High Street at Ohio State, but a little nicer.

The Views

Here are some of the views from around our house. We live in a great location that has some nice views of the city and mountains close by. The picture below is the corner of our backyard with the South Foothills in the background. These hills separate downtown and the part of Phoenix that we are in.


This is the landscape of our front yard:


This is another view out of the backyard looking at the trees and skyline of the other homes on the street:


This is taken from when I went shopping at Target. This is the typical landscaping around our neighborhood. Lots of palm trees and cacti. It makes you feel like you are on permanent vacation. Once we started driving around we really knew we moved to the right place. It is amazing. It took 2 days of being here for Erin to start looking for jobs and rental apts. It is that nice. Well, the weather helps too. We arrived late Friday night. Saturday was sunny and warm. Today was sunny and hot. The forecast for this entire week is about 85 degrees and sunny.

Our New Home

Here are some pictures of the new house now that some things have been unloaded. The house is pretty nice and in a perfect location. We have absolutely everything we could want within 5-10 minutes. We will be renting this home for 6 months before buying.

The Long Drive

These are some pictures of the drive out to Phoenix. The drive was not the most pleasant. Let's just say that Craig and I got to know each other real well seeing as how we had no CD player, no tape deck, etc. Just the loud roar of the rental truck along with some backache. Tiffany and Erin had to ride with 3 pets which was not fun either. After 17 hours of driving on day 1 and 16 more on day 2, we immediately unpacked the truck. We unloaded everything in about an hour. It was nice to see the country, but doing that much driving in a moving truck and with the pets was not something we will want to do again. Here are some pictures of Arizona from the drive. We did not have much power left in the camera, so there aren't too many.

Going Away Parties

Here are some pictures from our going away parties. Thank you all for such a wonderful time. We miss you lots!!!

Our Home and Job News

Well, as you know, we were not able to get the home from James. The house was sold so we had to start looking at other rental opportunities. We recently signed a lease agreement for 6 months for another home in Ahwatukee. This house is in a perfect location. It may be a good thing that we are not renting from people we know, so we won't have to worry as much about the care of the home.

The address is:

4518 E. Alta Mesa Ave.

Phoenix, AZ 85044

We are moving in on the night of the 13th and will have cable guys coming over hopefully Saturday morning. This way I can get immediate access to the internet and email as well as cable for OSU football, even though none of the OSU games are going to be on TV there. I will most likely have to pay for them on Pay Per View.

In other news, Tiffany has about 3 interviews set up for the week after we move in and I have meetings being set up with Chase. They are going to fly me to Chicago to meet with my potential manager next Friday I think. And then they will most likely wait until I move to have me go into their Phoenix facility for final interviews. Keep your fingers crossed.

I am still going to be employed by National City through the month of October. They are going to pay me for an extra week of vaca while we move, then to work from Phoenix the next week. Then the following week I will most likely fly back to work with my replacement manager for several days. That allows us a little more security in savings if the Chase opportunity falls through.

Here are some pictures of the house we are moving into:

Moving Update

All,

Our final move date is going to be October 12th. We have not agreed to a deal with any moving companies or self-move services, but we are pretty sure we will be moving ourselves. My friend Craig is going to go with us and Tiffany is trying to see if Erin will go. Craig can ride with me in the moving truck which will help with the drive. It also gives us another person in case we run into any problems.

We will leave early thursday morning and drive all day and evening with a hotel stay that night probably around Oklahoma City, OK. This should split the drive to Phoenix in about half with 14 hrs the first day and 14 the second. Then we would unload the bare necessities to stay the night Friday night in our new place. We are renting James's home for $1200/month.

In other news, Tiffany has a job interview coming up over the phone with a large downtown based law firm in Phoenix. Jean Hilliard was able to get me a phone conversation with the National Lockbox Manager at Chase bank (2nd biggest bank in the US). He talked with me for about 15 minutes. I then had a 45 minute interview with the hiring manager for Chase Retail Lockbox in Phoenix (Chris Lang). This is the largest retail lockbox site in the country. He has an opening for a 1st shift manager that would be in charge of about 150 people (similar to what I have today). This would be a great opportunity to go into a new company. I would be familiar with the dept and the processes so that I could have some sort of comfort level. Hopefully everything goes well. They are setting up two more interviews for next week with the managers that would be my peers. If that goes well, they would fly me down there. Keep your fingers crossed. In the meantime, I am still looking at many different websites for openings.

We are very excited. I am putting in my notice at National City on Monday or Tuesday night.

Possible Rental

This is James's house for rent. He is the long time friend of Tiffany's mom that I met up with for lunch while I was in Phoenix. He was selling this house and they may offer it up to us for rent for the first 6 months of our stay. It would normally rent for more than we can afford, so they would be giving us an awesome deal. Hopefully this would work out. We would not have to fly out to look for a place, sign a lease, or anything. We could just go out with the movers in October and move right in. May not have to put down a security deposit which would save us tons of money. Obviously its way nicer than what we would ever be able to afford. We are hoping for the best.