Jeff Gordon

Could you imagine being a person who really couldn't care less about NASCAR, but your name is Jeff Gordon? That's the irritating reality that this poor guy lives.
I met Jeff nearly 5 years ago, when he was in Havasu as a Coast Guard rep during the Jet Ski World Finals. His job was to make sure all the Coast Guard regulations were being followed by the racers and the promoters. This was something he did on the side, on his days off from the Phoenix Police Dept. I didn't know about the cop part, it was probably a couple of years before I learned much about Jeff. Most of the time we spent together was goofing off and cracking each other up. He could be my brother, if my brother was funny. And part Hispanic.

Jeff's dad is a well-known person, with absolutely nothing to do with NASCAR. He's Phil Gordon, the Mayor of Phoenix. That's kind of a big deal. I also took a couple of years before I learned that little tidbit.

There are times when Jeff will be driving along just listening to the radio, and suddenly one of those songs come on that reminds him of goofing off in Havasu. Then he'll send a text to me saying, "Damn! I miss you guys in Havasu!" He stopped working for the Coast Guard a while ago, and hasn't been able to come up and socialize at all.

We miss you too, Jeff. Time to stop working as a po po for a little while so you can come up to Havasu and have fun.

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Steve wanted to take the plane to nearby Kingman (one hour drive, typically) on Sunday morning so we could have some sub-par food in their airport cafe. The food was so SUB-PAR that I didn't take photos of it. Ick.

As we left Havasu, we flew over a place called Havasu Heights. It is out in the County, so people have fewer building restrictions. For a while there, builders were putting in tons of underground homes. I think it's AWESOME. I visited one of the underground homes and because of the construction into the ground there was no need for an air conditioner. REALLY! The house was cooled by a series of pipes that went down under the house into the ground. That's substantial when you think about the 120 degree average we have in the summer. Cooling a home around here is usually $400 a month. And to solar-power a house would be about $100 grand. Yikes.

Here's a photo of an underground house. Lucky ducks.

I'm jealous. I want my own undergroud lair. It would be my fortress of solitude.

We continued on to Kingman, passing over what used to be the Ford Proving Grounds. Ford recently sold it to Chrysler, but I think Harley Davidson is using a portion of the Grounds for their desert testing of vehicles, also. We got in to see the Proving Grounds once, when Ford decided to have a 50th anniversary party. They'd been testing Fords there for 50 years. Top secret!!!


The most interesting thing about the Kingman Airport is the really expensive bone yard. Many retired commercial airliners are stored there, all lined up:

There were a bunch of TWA and Pan Am ones on the other side of the airport.

But not nearly as interesting as that is the bone yard that is just outside the Kingman Airport.
Need a car part? I know a guy:


On the flight home we took a detour and flew over my mom's place. It's 20 minutes from nowhere in the mountains.
Here's the house:

Tea Party Video

Here's the link to the YouTube video of our little event last week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6hdH27yvwo&feature=player_embedded