Arizona

Made the drive from Holbrook to Scottsdale on Wednesday morning, following the "Hashknife Pony Express Route". It starts in high desert plains, where they're putting up an array of huge wind generators, made in Spain from what I could tell. The land is chaparral interspersed with low shrubs and occasional stands of trees near depressions still holding water. Over about 50 miles, it transitions to a forest with dense pine trees. Stopped in Heber for gas and coffee; it's a little village that's popular with the retirement set, developed but not ruined by it. Started a long descent through Tonto National Forest, which suddenly opens onto a vista with huge mountains. Down, down, down and finally get to the desert floor with tons of Saguaro cacti and before you know it, you're in Scottsdale. Nice drive that went by too fast, would be a really nice bike ride...


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In Scottsdale I met up with Mark Johnson and Alex Oliver, who were taking a product knowledge class at the BSH gallery and training center (BSH is the Bosch Siemens marketing group in the US). Mark is there to prepare for an NKBA class he's going to be teaching. Now you'd think this isn't anything to write about, and a strange stop to make on a road trip. But this place is a bit different. It's an architectural experience that creates a narrative about each of three brands (Bosch, Thermador and Gaggenau). Bosch is a company with a fascinating story and significant historical role that's really worth learning about. Although he's too humble to say so, the place is largely the result of the efforts of Ric Coggins. The place is designed to create a memorable learning experience for their customers, and I'd have to say, it succeeds most delightfully. More about Bosch and Ric later...

I crashed their course and sat with a group of 20 or so Ferguson sales people from around the country, all there to learn about Thermador appliances. This could be pretty dry stuff, but the staff there did a great job to make it a fun and truly useful learning experience. Afterwards, we retired to a huge demonstration kitchen where we cooked our dinner for each other. It was an embarrassment of riches: rib eye, roast lamb, chicken fajitas, grilled trout, ceviche, mango salad, mushrooms, potatos etc. Fantastic meal, although wine was conspicuously absent: the place is on a reservation. It was great fun getting to know this crew of folks, all of whom were women except one. Mark said it reminded him of a dance class he took in college. He's smarter than your average bear...

Also learned a key concept: Sabbath Mode. You can program your appliances so that you don't have to touch them on the Sabbath. We all need a Sabbath Mode. Mark is way ahead of us on this too.

After dinner I drove up to meet my friend Don Shultz at his place in north Scottsdale. Don's the CEO of a franchise company that finishes people's home garages. We kicked back a couple beers, talked shop and went to bed. Ah, it's nice to be free of business responsibilities for a bit!