Warrior Dash - Florence, AZ

Let's get it on!

Today I participated in the AZ Warrior Dash. It was a great time and a lot of fun.

Stats:

Course length - 3.4 miles
Obstacles - 12
Elapsed time - 46 min 03 sec.
Pace - 13.53 min/mile
Face Paint - in honor of my Apache brothers, who have lived for centuries in the beautiful and rugged desert Southwest. (And David Puddy)

Berserker!! That's my Metal face. (Olaf, Metal!)

Straw bale obstacle

Cargo net obstacle

Mud pit obstacle. Almost there...

Finish line

Post race

And he did feast upon the fowl

This group had Charlie Sheen "Winning" t-shirts. FTW

Just wrong

Railroad Revival Tour - Tempe, AZ

Time for some music

Saturday night, I attended the Railroad Revival Tour concert in Tempe with Krista, Jeremi and Amanda. Mild, breezy weather made it perfect for an evening, outdoor concert. This tour consists of 3 bands traveling to 6 venues by vintage rail cars. This was a great show. Not only were the bands eclectic, but so was the crowd. Senior citizens, teenagers, college students, couples with young children, the whole gamut. Everyone was having a great time.

Act 1 - Old Crow Medicine Show

These guys started the show off with rip-roaring bluegrass. They got on it from the start and energized the crowd.

Act 2 - Edward Sharp and The Magnetic Zeros

This group had the shortest set, but their eclectic brand of folk/Americana kept the energy going. They had at least 10 people in the group and bodies were flying everywhere. They had the crowd whistling when they played "Home," their bringing-down-the-house song.

Act 3 - Mumford & Sons

Classic British folk music from the UK. Their recent CD, Sigh No More, is one of the best I've heard in years. Top to bottom a great album. They also played two new songs and, if they were any indication, the next album is gonna be good, too. These guys are good - good musicians and good lyricists.

Waiting in line

Crossing the tracks

The stage is set

Old Crow Medicine Show

Dusk descends on Tempe

Edward Sharp and The Magnetic Zeros on the simulcast big screen

On the roof above the California Zephyr

Old school Pullman car

Troubadours outside the concert

Food

More food

Cool ticket - flexible plastic with a 3D image towards the bottom. Like the old baseball cards

Bonus Video (shout out to TT in EGR)

The Chuckbox - Tempe, AZ

The Chuckbox in Tempe

In my continuing search for the best burger in the Phoenix metro area, I sampled the fare at The Chuckbox in Tempe for lunch today. After you step inside, you place your order at the beginning of a cafeteria-style line, under the Bill of Fare sign. The wood-fired grill is right in front of you as you place your order. The person taking your order is working the grill and yells down the line with any orders for the deep fryers.

Inside, there was seating for about 60, plus additional seating on two separate patios.

This was a good burger and it's rare to find char-broiled burgers these days, so I'm giving this a thumbs up and moving it to position 2b on my list of best burgers. I'm going back to check consistency, but I can see this place taking over the number 2 spot.

1. Five Guys
2a. In N Out
2b. The Chuckbox
3. Feeney's Pub

What you gonna have?

One of those burgers is mine

The warm, soft glow of the wood fire

Bacon cheeseburger with deep fried mushrooms

Take heed, ladies. No boozin' when preggers!

The condiment island

11:00 am and half full already

Corner of University Dr. and Forest Ave, on the edge of the ASU campus

Reds Spring Training

Home of the Reds and Indians

Last Sunday, I went to Goodyear, AZ to watch the Reds play the Diamondbacks in a spring training game. This complex is only a couple years old, so it's a pretty nice field. However, the grandstand was butt-ugly, so whoever designed it is dead to me.

The Reds won 9-6.

The scoreboard in left field

Play ball!

Future All-Star, Drew Stubbs, after his first of two hits

RBI time!

View down the left field line

Kind of steep

Fans hanging out on the left field berm

Bonus: While walking around the mezzanine, I noticed an impressive looking man behind a table. It was none other than George Foster. He was a key cog in the Big Red Machine of the mid- to late 70s, had awesome sideburns and was one of the first players to use a black bat, otherwise known as Black Beauty. His MVP year of 1977 was one of the most impressive of all time - .320 BA, 52 HRs and 149 RBIs. For a donation to his foundation, I got his autograph on my ticket stub.

The autograph

George Foster, back in the day