The Phoenix Traveler

NEW YEAR’S EVE: If it weren’t for the blogs I follow, I’d likely miss really important news. For instance, I just found out from RailLife.com that Metro Light Rail is extending its service on New Year’s Eve. That means if you had plans to use the rail line for your safe ride home after celebrating the New Year arrival, but thought you couldn’t, now you can.
The last light rail service is regularly scheduled to end at 11 p.m. nightly; however, the schedule’s been extended on New Year’s Eve to 2 a.m. I have plans to go to Mesa that evening, …read more

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Reuters announces the opening of the new light rail line in Phoenix. The question on people’s minds is whether or not it will catch hold, if people will actually use it. Phoenix is not a city known for its convenient public transportation system. I’m hoping it will become more of just a novelty that wears off.
A day pass to ride on the new light rail costs $2.50. That’s a lot cheaper than driving a car to work, and it’s a safe alternative to getting around if you want to visit the bar scene in Tempe or downtown Phoenix.
The Arizona …read more

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After my boyfriend finished his 8-mile run this morning, I had a surprise for him. Instead of going to our usual spot for Saturday morning breakfast, I told him I wanted to ride the light rail. It’s the grand opening day celebration, and I thought we could try to find a spot somewhere on the rail line.
At first he resisted–it was pretty cold outside this morning, 50 degrees, probably less, and he was still in his running clothes. But he relented, and we headed off to what used to be called the Christown Mall at Montebello and 19th Avenue. It’s …read more

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A fellow blogger here at b5media recently posted at Traveling the Green Way a how-to on greening your Christmas travels. She shared tips she learned at Responsible Travel. I thought I’d localize her post and let you know how you can follow those tips in Phoenix:
1)  Buy local. The blog post referred to produce, but you can extend that further to buy local produce as well as purchase gifts, services and other products sold right here in the Valley of the Sun by small business owners who live here. Look for the red symbol you see pictured above, or find …read more

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A new friend, Quinn McDonald, wrote in her blog yesterday about something in Phoenix that carries a unique past dating back to the Hohokam Indians–our irrigation system. They left their legacy, a canal system, for us to find when they abandoned the area around 1450 A.D. Quinn is new to the Valley, having moved here from Virginia, and I could sense her intrigue by what must have been an odd site to her at first. I had never thought how others might perceive the flooding of yards in Phoenix by this “water bubbling up from the ground” process that now …read more

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