Tuesday, August 2nd:

I made it to Chandler, AZ alright. This is monsoon season here in Chandler. I stopped for Dinner at Jilly's American Grill for dinner (http://www.azjillys.com). It's a decent place, their niche is that each booth has it's own TV with channel and volume control.

On my way to the Sheraton Wild Horse Resort and Spa (http://www.wildhorsepassresort.com) I encountered the start of the Monsoon. The wind kicked up gusts of 50+ mph, then the rain, thunder, and lightning began. It was pretty thrilling to watch a storm like this from my window. It was directly overhead and was picking up steam (this storm was news worthy). The wind, thunder and lightning was so severe that it knocked out power to the resort and supposedly 1/3 of Phoenix. Power was restored at 1:40AM. Though I was exhausted from my travels, part of me was used to staying up that late coming from Alaska... that coupled with my desire to have the lights back on. Maybe I should've brought my headlamp and flashlight with me?