January 4, 2009. Scottsdale, Arizona (33° 29′ 35″ N, 111° 55′ 34″ W)

Greetings from sunny Arizona! Apparently there is a bubble over the general Phoenix area of Arizona that always keeps the area warm and blue-skyed no matter what is happening in the rest of the country. I have heard from many of you about how cold it is everywhere, including California, Florida, Texas and of course NYC, New Jersey and Connecticut. My brother had to leave us yesterday and return to the cold, harsh Northeast. Now onto a review of our activities in the past week...

Eco-guests : My brother David has continued on with us until the 2nd. We were able to celebrate New Year's together with our friends after a marathon driving trip from Big Sur to Santa Barbara to Los Angeles to San Bernardino to Scottsdale (right near Phoenix). We were in the truck quite a bit while Jay was unfortunately very sick, so Dave had to drive, take the kids to the bathroom and help in all sorts of ways, thanks Uncle Davy Gravy! Hope you can recover from the week and think about joining us again soon!

The truck: We are still in the process of fixing a whole bunch of things. Jay tried very hard to get the truck to Burning Man in September, so most of the systems were put in days (hours?) before he left Michigan for Nevada in late August. This means that although we have a great heating (ESPAR) and air-con system (Sun Power Technologies), best in class fridge (Seafreeze), well-designed water (www.worldwidewater) and amazing bathroom system (Airhead), many of these things are not working properly, and to top it all off, even the cab heat on the F650 has died, the fuel guages don't work, the door handle keeps getting stuck, etc. Jay spent months and in some cases years researching all these components, getting wonderful input from all the experienced Overlanders out there, so we know that we've got great goods, but they sure ain't workin'! We're just adding it all to the list of what needs to be done.

People we've seen, places we've been:
1) Joaquin Suave – a really nice (and brilliant) guy that happens to have an absolutely amazing workshop and projects going on at his place along the California coast. We stopped by Joaquin's place and of course visited with Casa Azul, his blue truck with a Studebaker on top! You have got to check out the pictures: http://www.overlandhardware.com/index.htm and inside is no less impressive, with beautiful hangings and really nice open space. We thanked Joaquin for his custom designed lock clasps for our EcoRoamer truck as they have worked beautifully. Also, Joaquin bought a set of our unused tires during the auction at Overland Expo April 2009 (www.ovexpo.com), the tires are going on his latest project – Libuela ). The money from the tires Jay and I donated on behalf of The Muskoka Foundation to Lance and his amazing group – Disable Explorers (http://www.disabledexplorers.com/).

2) David's friend John from high school lives in Santa Barbara so we popped down after a long drive down from Big Sur. We met John and his two boys, and heard all about John's interesting projects. John's already sent us great emails on the truck, posting a link to our site and recommending places for us to go (the remotest place on earth: .

3) Jay's friend Mark from lighting crew in high school. Lighting crew at Earl Haig Secondary School is basically a legend with all the gang becoming famous or infamous for various reasons, but never boring! We also met Mark's wonderful family and extended family, sharing stories and hanging out together. Thank you for letting us stay in your “Casita” beyond the 3 day guest (and fish freshness) limit, especially while Jay was sick.

YOGA ON THE ROAD (YOTR)

Although Scottsdale and Phoenix have a good selection of yoga studios, I took the opportunity of trying a few new things with Mark's wife, Tina. Specifically, belly-dancing and “Cross-fit.” It is interesting to note that both were easier to do with a yoga background and even more useful to note that both had great lessons to improve my yoga.

Belly-dancing:
Similarities to yoga:
Posture – leading with your heart, keeping your shoulder blades together, not sticking your ribs out, tail bone tucked under.
Lessons for yoga
Moves that engage the bundis, Tina was able to show me ways to move the various bundis in isolation that great belly-dancers can do. I've been trying to do this in front of the mirror in the mornings, but limited luck so far!
Relaxation – it is interesting how yoga drives relaxation through breathing and the asanas, but I found that belly-dancing requires one to really relax the hips while following the music. You really need to be so loose to do it well it seems, reminds me a bit of hip hop or latin dancing, but even looser than that to get the right type of shaking going. I'd really like to try more of it someday! Yoga is so popular these days for the restorative classes, but people should really try belly dancing too.

Cross-fit: Tried the new studio in Scottsdale with Luke as the owner/instructor.
Similarities to yoga:
It was amazing how many Ashtanga moves were used in the cross-fit class that I took. We would go into plank, chataranga, plank, jump through to dandasana (but raised up) and then back to plank. Then, we did these things called burpess that were basically the first sun salutation (Surya Namaskar A) with jump backs. Cross-fit also focuses on handstands and holding the whole body up in dandasana while really building your core. We also spent a good chunk of time on working shoulder flexibility and doing walking lunges and squats. All very similar to many yoga moves.
Lessons for yoga
I have not gone jogging in a long time and I have to say that I really held my own from a cardiovascular point of view. Yoga seems to have really gotten my breathing steady and my heart/lungs healthy enough to do extensive jogging and even jogging while carrying weights. All the other exercises of lifting weights, lunges, squats, push-ups, tricep dips, etc., were extremely comfortable to do with the body that I built up with yoga over the past year. I would say that the only exercise that I had some challenge with and sore muscles the day after was rowing. Interesting – both quadriceps and middle of the back were hurting a bit the next day and I noticed my rowing took more concentration and effort. So, to round out my yoga, do more rowing/boating exercises?