No matter how great any road trip is, they all have one thing in common: they must at some point come to an end. The last day for Bob and me to be on the road was Friday, April 1, 2011. We woke up in our motel in Phoenix, Arizona, wished each other a happy birthday for the fourth year in a row, and headed out on our last day’s adventures. I was rather excited for our first stop, mostly because it involved eating breakfast. We had stopped by here the night before, but they had been closed – so we decided to come back for our morning meal to Mel’s Diner. Yes, this was the location (exterior only) that was featured in the TV series Alice.
We got there about 8:45am and took our photos of the outside and the famous sign, featured prominently in the show’s lead-in. The interior was similar to the set that you see on TV, but was actually quite a bit larger. The name had remained Mel’s while the show was in production, but it was eventually changed to Pat’s Family Restaurant. Recently though, the diner has embraced its roots and the name is now Mel’s Diner again – and showcases many references to the show inside. But as much as I wanted it to happen, no waitress told Bob to ‘kiss her grits’.
The Mel’s Diner sign as seen on the TV series Alice
The Mel’s Diner sign today
Exterior of the diner
They are now embracing their past with appropriate menus and autographed photos of the cast members adorning the walls
I should have gotten grits, but the eggs, hash browns, and corn beef hash looked better
As you can see, the diner looked very similar to the one on the show
After the hearty meal, we headed over to Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. We got there around 10am in order to take a tour of the facilities. This would be the 13th baseball park that I have visited. The tour wasn’t scheduled to begin until 10:30am, so I had about a half-hour to stand around and stare at an amazing Rube Goldberg style contraption whereby several balls made their way through mazes and tunnels and all sorts of fun stuff.
Arrival at Chase Field
Under the standard ballpark bat structure
Rube Goldberg would have been proud
Eventually we entered the park, under the strict direction of our tour guide Walt. Walt was there to make sure that we didn’t wander off from the group. Walt had us photographed when we first entered and Walt kept constant surveillance on us. If any of us roamed off a step or two, Walt made sure that we were corralled back into the group. I’m not sure why there was such strict and ridiculous security at this ballpark, but it made it difficult to get many fun and silly photos after the group had walked away. After all, the Diamondbacks weren’t even around. They were in Denver playing the Rockies at Coors Field, which would be the next baseball park that I would visit.
The first thing I found inside. I’m like a magnet to the Mickey.
The Commissioner’s Trophy for the Diamondbacks 2001 victory
Sneaking away from Walt for a quick pic of the ball field
The tour was almost an hour and a half, although I felt like we didn’t see as many areas as we normally do on ballpark tours. We checked out the swimming pool (from above) that is located in right-center field, one of the suites, the visiting team’s clubhouse (and saw a short film about the home team’s clubhouse), and the visiting team’s dugout. We didn’t even get close enough to the field for me to pose in my patented ‘I’m going to step on the grass’ pose. It was about noon when we finished up our tour.
Walt
So far, only one home run ball has been hit into the pool. I would have thrown something in if Walt hadn’t been watching.
Tomfoolery while Walt was distracted
Walt made everyone sit up straight and tall in the suite seats. The boy in the green shirt reminded me of Creed.
You see that line going from home plate to the pitcher’s mound? This strip, known as the ‘keyhole’, was common in older parks, but will only be found in two of them today.
Okay, I really did get yelled out by Walt for walking ten paces away from the group to pose for a picture in the Visitors Clubhouse
Great day for a ball game – as taken from the Visitors Dugout
The next four hours of our trip were comprised of driving across Arizona in the blazing heat that reached 100 degrees. It was hard to believe that we were in the snows of Utah just days earlier. We beat the heat by stopping at a Dairy Queen for a milkshake.
A milkshake interlude in hot and dry Arizona
Bob had agreed to take me considerably out of the way of our path back to San Bernardino to see the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona – which was right on the border of California. After seeing the current London Bridge a year earlier, I was curious whatever had become of the bridge of lore – the one sang about in the nursery rhyme London Bridge Is Falling Down. Well, there are many theories as to what bridge was being referred to in that song, but it most certainly wasn’t the one in Lake Havasu City either. This one had spanned the River Thames in London from 1831-1967. It was purchased with the notion of transporting it – marked brick by marked brick – to Lake Havasu as a tourist attraction.
Apparently it worked. Not only were Bob and I silly enough to travel so far out of the way to see it, but it is actually the second most visited tourist attraction (after the Grand Canyon) in Arizona. When we got there, we found it. It was still a bridge. We drove over it. We stood next to it. And we walked on it. Then we were done with our road trip adventures.
Bob excitedly drives over the London Bridge
I am pleased to just be a passenger
That’s the London Bridge, local tourist attraction
And in case, you didn’t believe me before…
Getting a little bit of exercise by walking twenty paces over the bridge. What would Walt have thought?
It took about four hours to get from Lake Havasu to the city of San Bernardino where Bob lived. We did make a pit stop at Peggy Sue’s in Yermo, just to browse for a bit. It was about 8:30 when we arrived in town. Now famished and ready for our traditional sushi, we first tried Miyagi Sushi – but there were huge crowds there, so we moved on to Sushi Mac for their lesser all-you-can-eat buffet. It was good sushi, but not as good as Miyagi typically was. Bob waited for nearly a half hour for one particular roll before they told him that they were out of them. Nevertheless, it was sushi and it was a great way to end our road trip.
Sushi madness. Bob’s disgusted look came about because his sushi roll was falling apart and he tried in vain to get the waitress to wait on taking the photo. I opted for the much easier scallop.
We went back to Bob’s house and stayed up chatting much later than we should have. Although the road trip itself was over, we had a very full day planned for Saturday and it would begin in the wee hours of the morning.
My vacation will conclude with one last day in California…
Perhaps, Walt was there to make sure you didn’t jump the fence and sneak into Mexico.
Dave Chasteen
September 7th, 2011