Arizona, Phoenix: Haircuts in the South Mountain Hood

The cookies and brownies from Dan's friend, Sally, finally arrived when we were in Phoenix! The box was completely smashed, but the plastic zippered bags in which the treats were stored had not opened, so they still retained some of their freshness. However, since the goods travelled across the United States in the extreme heat of summer and inside several different mail trucks over the past couple of weeks, some of the good, fresh-baked taste that they no doubt had when they popped out of Sally's oven was unfortunately lost.

You may wonder why we brought this up at the start of our Phoenix travel journal entry, instead of putting it further down the page. This was because the package was waiting for us as soon as we arrived at Dan's friend Lee's house, where we stayed a couple of nights during our southwest USA road trip in the summer of 2007. Also, we wanted closure on this part of our story, since the package had arrived at one of our earlier destinations (Austin, Texas) the day after we left there, which meant that our friend Brady had to forward the package on to Lee's house for us.

Dan had met Lee several years ago when they both worked together in London. They formed a good friendship whilst working there for three years, sharing many fun pub lunches (yes, pints were consumed) and some good nights out after work, too. It had been a few years since either of us had seen Lee and his wife, Kelly, and we were really looking forward to seeing them in their home town of Phoenix. Kelly, by the way, was American and Lee emigrated to Phoenix after they finally got married. Less than a year ago, Kelly gave birth to their first child, Jack, and it was really great to meet him during our trip.

Most of the 200 mile drive to Phoenix from Petrified Forest National Park was at night in the dark, something that we were quite sad about because the Mazatzal Mountains seemed to be beautiful, or so we thought as we climbed and descended steep, curvy mountain roads that evening. The mountain silhouettes against the full moon night sky were enough for us to let our minds wander about the landscape and scenery that we could not full see, and our minds were still wandering when we missed the small highway exit that would have taken us towards Lee's house.

The highway exit sign was really small and wasn't lit up at all, hence why we missed it; Kyle was also driving really fast, too, which could have been another reason. It probably took us an extra 45 minutes to get to their place because we had to take another road; there was no way to turn around on the one we were driving on, to go back to the exit we missed, because of road construction in the area. When we finally got closer to their house, Dan phoned Lee and made sure we were still going in the right direction, which we were. Before we knew it, we were pulling into The Gardens, the housing development in the Phoenix suburb of Higley, home of Lee, Kelly and Jack.

On the first of the two nights that we stayed at their house, we hung out and talked with them for quite some time about our trip this year and about their lives in Phoenix, as well as how they were adjusting to married and parental life. After a couple of hours chatting, it was past midnight and we decided to call it a night, since Lee had to get up very early for work the next day. Kelly was off work, though, and suggested that we see South Mountain Park, conveniently located in Phoenix near her mother's house, where she wanted to take Jack for a few hours the next day. The idea was great for us so we could see some sights in Phoenix, and Kelly would be navigate us through the city and also guide us to a Taco Bell for lunch, something that she wanted as badly as we did that day.

The next morning, we slept in until 10:00am, tired from all of the previous day's driving and sightseeing, having driven 368 miles and visited Canyon de Chelly, the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Kelly, the new mum, had already been awake for a few hours with Jack and was very happy when we finally got up and around, so we could start our afternoon with her while Lee was at work. We both had a quick breakfast (bowls of cereal) and then showered so we could leave.

The drive to the South Mountain area took about an hour - Phoenix was a large, sprawling metropolis - and we were very happy to finally arrive in Kelly's mother's neighbourhood so we could eat Taco Bell. We picked some food up from there and took it to her mum's house to eat. We must have all looked as though we hadn't eaten for a long time, we were wolfing the food down so quickly! We won't bore you with the items that we ate that day; if you have read any of our previous "US and A" journal entries, you can probably guess what our usual fare was at the fast food Mexican chain.

South Mountain Park, according to the leaflet that Dan is now reading to Kyle, whilst we both sit at a bar overlooking the beautiful lagoon at Aitutaki island in the Cook Islands, "had nearly 17,000 acres of rugged, desert mountain terrain; the park was also a protected preserve with many rocky and steep trails, as well as beautiful vista points overlooking the metropolis of Phoenix." The day we visited South Mountain, the weather was sunny and hot, with the temperature blaring down on us at 110 degrees Fahrenheit (just over 43 degrees Celsius). It was a good thing that we were driving around the mountain summit in an air conditioned SUV, and that we only chose to walk on short, non-steep trails.

When we were eating Taco Bell for lunch at Kelly's mum's house, the hair on our heads was much longer than it was when we were driving up to the summit at South Mountain. Frank's Barbershop was recommended to us by Kelly's mum as a good place to get a haircut; she said that her husband and sons had been getting haircuts there for quite some time. With her reassurance and positive reviews of the barbershop, we thought there would be no harm in trying it out, so we went there, happy to be shorn since we were both a few days overdue for a trim.

Walking into the place reminded us of the time back in March when we walked into a small, local bar in Luang Namtha, Laos, when the music stopped as soon as we were inside, with everyone staring at us, trying to figure out what we were doing in the obviously wrong part of town. Frank's felt a bit like that; all the people inside the place turned their heads to look at us, and everyone that was getting their haircut was Mexican, everyone waiting to get a haircut was Mexican, and all of the people cutting hair were also Mexican. Two white guys walking into the place was an anomaly for them, but we were, of course, greeted with politeness and enthusiasm and were seated in chairs next to each other so the barbers could begin working their magic.

There was no shampoo or head massage for either of us at Frank's (we do miss the haircut service we experienced in China!), unless perhaps they were available upon request, something that wouldn't have been easy to ask for, since our two barbers didn't speak English very well. We had enough trouble trying to explain "short back and sides" without ending up with a mohawk of some kind, or gang symbols shaved into the back of our head, like the two young guys sitting near us were having done. The equipment that the barbers used looked like it needed a wash; all of the combs and clippers were covered with short black hairs. Since there were no obvious glass cleaning jars around to put the used equipment into, it was no surprise to us when they just opened up a drawer full of items and picked up the first ones they touched.

The scariest part of the haircut was the shave afterwards. Kyle looked over at Dan just as his barber finished his haircut, only to see the barber lather up the back of his neck with warm shaving cream before pulling out a sharp, long razor blade. It was hard for Kyle to watch Dan being shaved with a murder weapon, but it was even harder to know that his time would soon come, once his own haircut was finished. Dan ended up really enjoying the close shave experience, but Kyle hated every last second of it; what Dan did hate was the fact that his head was covered with little black hairs afterward, from the unclean barber's equipment.

On South Mountain we saw many unusual cacti, which we only saw in southern Arizona during our road trip across the southwest United States. Most people would recognise the type we saw; the large green plants had what looked like arms sticking out from their sides and were quite straight and tall, almost resembling human stick figures. We saw many different shapes of these cacti, known as saguaro cacti, and were amazed at the height of some of them - check out our photo album to see one towering over Dan as he looks up in awe.

We made three stops on South Mountain during our afternoon drive. First, we went to Dobbin's Lookout, then we moved on to the Gila Valley viewpoint and, lastly, we checked out the Buena Vista overlook. The drive up the mountain from its base only took about 20 minutes and some of the roads were steep and curvy, but once we made it to the lookout points, there were brilliant views of downtown Phoenix as well as Phoenix's many surrounding suburbs and mountains.

Kelly and Jack were waiting for us at her mum's house when we returned from South Mountain; her mum was still there and we also got to meet her dad, who had returned home from work. It was time to go back to Higley, so we loaded Jack into the car and Kelly started guiding us back towards her house. Lee was on his way home then, too, and had planned to cook dinner for us, so we could all hang out and talk again. Since Lee had not yet gotten home, we asked Kelly if she minded us making a stop at a Best Buy to buy an external hard drive that we could use to back up photos and videos from our trip this year.

There was a Best Buy very close to Interstate 10, which we needed to take on our way back to their house. We knew exactly what we wanted so it didn't take long for us to go in and purchase the hard drive. Kelly waited in the car with Jack and we were on the road again after having spent something that ended up costing more than our travel budget for the day. Despite the price, it was nice to have made that stop for another reason than having the ability to back up the data on the laptop we had bought in Hong Kong earlier in the year; that other reason was because we saw another area of Phoenix that was older but quite nice.

After almost another hour's drive to their house in the thick Phoenix traffic, we found Lee in the middle of preparing a deliciously smelling dinner. He made a yummy pasta with sauce filled with sliced sausages and grilled vegetables, served with garlic bread. Both of us went back for second helpings because the food tasted so good. We would have gone for thirds, had we not polished off the rest of the food during our second time back in the kitchen!

During dinner and afterwards, we chatted more with them and watched some reality TV. Kelly got both of us drinking glass after glass of Jack Daniels whisky and Coke as well as Stoli Raspberry vodka and Sprite. She also convinced us all to watch the movie "Grandma's Boy", a silly and dumb American comedy about a middle-aged video game tester who had to move in with his grandmother. There were some funny moments in the movie, but you shouldn't rush out and buy it on account of us mentioning it in this travel journal. Seriously, don't even pick it up at Blockbuster; if you do, don't blame us if you don't enjoy it!

It was time to leave the next morning so we could start making our way north in Arizona. We woke up just as Lee and Kelly were leaving for work at 7:00am and told them goodbye. Then, we got ourselves ready to leave Phoenix and drive to Jerome, a small town that we had planned to visit during our drive to Sedona. We left their place just after 8:00am and started driving and, as we drove into the centre of Phoenix, we both started getting hungry (we hadn't eaten breakfast that morning), so we decided to find a quick bite to eat somewhere off the side of the interstate.

In north Phoenix, an hour later, we pulled over to get gas (that's the same as petrol to our fellow Brits out there, as if YOU didn't know that) since our tank was nearly empty. Driving on fumes, we pulled off the interstate and found a great gas station. The station was great because it was located right next to a Waffle House, which to us meant "Quick Cheap Breakfast Food House". After filling up our rental SUV, we drove the 15 feet required (only in America) to go to the diner and exited our vehicle quicker than you could say "eggs and pancakes, ma'am".

To avoid feeling miserable for the inevitable drive we were going to make after breakfast, we decided to share an American breakfast plate called "The All Star". Hash browns, eggs, bacon and a waffle were served up fresh in front of us a few minutes after we ordered and we ate the food very quickly, satisfied with another good meal in Phoenix. We flushed the food quickly through our systems with some not-so-delicious filtered coffee and both had a quick toilet break before leaving the place. Next stop, Jerome!