Day 76 - Tucson AZ - 9100 Miles

Happy anniversary to us. Thirty-nine years. I started the day's celebrations off at a laundromat in Phoenix. (I think 39 is fabric softener). I finished starting my second washer and looked back at my first machine in time to see water flowing from the bottom. I opened the lid and could see that, although the washer was full, it had decided an unending flow of water would be in order. There were two other men there doing their laundry - losers like me who do laundry at 7am on a Saturday morning. We all looked for an emergency contact number but there was none.

One guy, who was clearly much better in a crisis than I, wrestled the machine to tilt it forward exposing the plumbing and wiring in the back. Ho told me to turn off the water valve. I looked behind the machine at a filthy maze of piping and valves. I couldn't tell which one was the offending line so I picked one more or less at random. It wouldn't budge. Then he said to pull the plug. This time I looked at the filthy maze of electrical cords and again couldn't tell which was the right one. I was also standing in an ever-deepening pool of water and had little desire to start grabbing electrical lines.

At this point I think my laundry buddy realized how useless I was so he had me hold the washer which was now tilted and resting on one edge. Good! I can do this! Then he reached back and pulled a plug which stopped the flow of water. Fortunately he survived. I moved my first load to a new machine to complete the wash process and was able to dry without further incident, although the three of us had to slosh through the place to finish our tasks.

The next part of the celebration was the two hour drive from Phoenix to Tucson. That's a short day even by my standards and got us into town a good three hours before check-in time. We continued to celebrate by killing time with such revelry as going to Target and splitting a popcorn and medium soda combo. Be still my beating heart.

After checking in we went to one of our favorite five-star restaurants for dinner.

Finally was a gourmet dessert at McDonalds. Now I'm in for the night and it's not 6 o'clock yet. Life is good. Can't wait for the next 39.