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- Denny's #1977
- Mesa, Arizona
- 13 May 2000
- 2:00pm MST
- 1210 E. Main
- (480) 962-4457
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- Attendees: P7A77, Amie
- Wait-person(s): Joshua
- What we ate: P7A77 - Mushroom Garlic Swiss (w/ Garden Patty), French Fries (with unordered chili and cheese), Water; Amie - Turkeyburger, Chili Cheese Fries, Iced Tea w/ Lemon
- On a whim we decided to drive up to Sedona, Arizona, and take a balloon ride. Rather than take I-10 all the way to I-17, we took the back way from Tucson to Phoenix, which means we got on Rt. 60 east of Mesa. I knew there were plenty of Denny's in Mesa, so I expected to have a nice bundle of entries. Well, it seems Mesa is against the idea of the outside world seeing their town, as the stretch of highway that runs through it has rather tall levee-type piles of dirt on either side. There were also no signs to indicate what sort of dining establishments were at any particular exit. Well, we were getting pretty damn hungry, so we just picked an exit that looked somewhat promising. We stopped at a gas station and asked for directions to the nearest Denny's, which included having us drive through some rather nasty construction and traffic. Hunger increasing. Patience wearing thin. Tempers rising. Finally... Denny's
- It looked like a retro-fit Denny's Diner, however instead of the new Diner text style, they had the angled Denny's text inside of the Diner logo. Nothing terribly exciting, but I gotta find something to talk about.
- Plenty of new seasonal items on the menu, including the Dagwood and the Triple Decker. I noticed that they now gave the option of substituting a gardenburger patty on any hamburger, which is rather nice. I mean, vegetarians aren't necessarily that way because of health reasons. They should have more options than bean sprouts and low-fat honeymustard. So in an attempt to be at least moderately healthy, I had them make the substitution on my mushroom swiss burger. Unfortunately, when Amie was asking for chili and cheese on her fries, the waiter thought she meant on my fries, too, so my efforts were thwarted. Blast.
- Our hand-shaking head-hurting low blood sugar moods we were in while waiting for our food was in no way helped by the people in the booth next to us. I was sitting with my back to them, but Amie could see what they were doing. At first I thought they were just cycling through the various ring modes on a cell phone, but Amie told me that not only were they doing that, they were calling each other on their individual phones. A guess some people are still amused and distracted with the sparkly lights and beeping sounds of 20-30 year old technology.
- Finally they stopped and I was able to concentrate enough to get some shots of some of the retro menus and advertisements they had on the wall. (It was a Denny's Diner, after all). The food arrived promptly and was rather tasty (except for my chili cheese fries, cuz I hate beans). The manager on duty, Jeff, secured my Free Stuff for the visit. He didn't seem terribly amused.
- WAY: no
- Free Stuff: Hashbrowns Smothered & Covered Pin
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- Denny's #6454
- Camp Verde, Arizona
- 13 May 2000
- 4:35pm MST
- I-17 and State Highway 260
- (520) 567-9505
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- Attendees: P7A77
- Wait-person(s): Shawn, Kelly, and Aaron
- What we ate: nothing
- Amie decided to visit the Montezuma's Castle gift shop, so she doesn't get credit for this one.
- We finally got out of Mesa, and were met by construction on I-17. They had signs indicating that people would be wise to take an alternate route, and even pointed towards a different highway. However, once on said highway, there was no indication as to how to get back going north on I-17. Sure, the locals might know such things, but not out-of-towners like us. Fortunately, we had a road atlas, so all was good, though filled with traffic lights.
- As it turns out, this Denny's was conveniently located at the exit we were planning on taking to get to Sedona. Fancy that. The kind folks inside were all rather amused, and gave me a good bit of free stuff.
- WAY: no
- Free Stuff: Hanging Wishbone Plush Toy Display
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- Denny's #6741
- Sedona, Arizona
- 13 May 2000
- 7:00pm MST
- 1950 W. Highway 89A
- (520) 282-5481
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- Attendees: P7A77, Amie
- Wait-person(s): Tamala
- What we ate: P7A77 - Water; Amie - Silk Chocolate Mousse Pie
- We got to Sedona during a beautiful time of the day and found a side street that took us to a great place to walk around. To prove it, here's a photo of the drive up. And one while hiking around. And of a wild dalmatian. And of my shoes afterwards. We walked around a bit, getting some nice photos, but not worrying too much about what we got, as we were planning on spending the night and getting some good morning shots the following day. So after we climbed around a bit, we went to a motel. Full. Went to another. Full. What the hell's going on? Jazzfest. Gol-dangit. So we went to Denny's, and noticed several "no vacancy" signs on the way.
- The Denny's (as all establishments in town) had to conform to the local building and style codes, which is an attempt to prevent the city from being raped by strip malls. A decision that has some merit, however covering everything with orange stucco isn't the way to do it.
- To add insult to injury, they didn't have the delicious-looking strawberry desserts that we saw advertised at the Mesa location. And on top of that, they were out of keylime pie! What sort of madhouse was this?!
- Since our plans in Sedona were shot (it looked like we needed way advance notice for the balloon ride anyway), we thought of somewhere else we could go. Amie thought of Monument Valley, so we asked our waitress if she knew where it was. She didn't, so she went to ask someone else. She came back and told us that the person she asked thought it was in Egypt. We went to get the atlas.
- Monument Valley turned out to not be in Egypt after all, but it was still a little too far to drive that night. We toyed with the idea of the Grand Canyon, but decided that we wanted to be able to spend more time than just one day there. Besides, it was on fire at the time. So we decided to try our luck for a hotel in Cottonwood.
- WAY: no
- Free Stuff: Menu, "Cody" Name Tag
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- Denny's #6755
- Cottonwood, Arizona
- 13 May 2000
- 8:10pm MST
- 2211 E. Highway 89A
- (520) 639-3805
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- Attendees: P7A77
- Wait-person(s): Vyvyan
- What we ate: nothing
- Cottonwood was full, too.
- Vyvyan (the manager) was rather nonplussed to talk to me. She wasn't willing to give me anything, but finally she went to get a business card. Thanks for nothin'.
- WAY: no
- Free Stuff: Business Card
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- Denny's #2045
- Flagstaff, Arizona
- 14 May 2000
- 10:20am MST
- 2122 S. Milton
- (520) 779-1371
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- Attendees: P7A77, Amie
- Wait-person(s): Kathleen
- What we ate: P7A77 - Dagwood Breakfast Slam (w/ Hashbrowns Covered and Smothered), Large Orange Juice, Water; Amie - Sunshine Slam (w/ Eggs Over Easy and Hashbrowns), Large Orange Juice, Water
- After Cottonwood we decided to just go back home to Tucson, but when we got back to I-17 we figured why not go to Flagstaff. And by now you probably know that we did. Cuz otherwise there wouldn't be an entry for it.
- The first hotel we went to was full. Uh-oh. Their reasoning was that it was graduation weekend. Thankfully, they pointed us to one that had a vacancy. After a nice night's sleep we asked the folks at the front desk what there was to do in Flagstaff. They told us we should go to Sedona. We opted for Denny's.
- The Dagwood Breakfast Slam sure is a lot of food. The sandwich included ham, eggs, sausage, bacon, and three cheeses on boule (boule, gramma!) bread. I could only eat half of it. Amie thought the waitress was one of the most attractive she's seen in a while. Granted, that's not a difficult feat at Denny's, but our waitress was quite handsome. I decided that I absolutely needed to have some Zoobs, so I bought four packs. The Texaco next door had a nice display of southwestern tourist shit, of which I felt obligated to take a photo.
- After breakfast we wandered around Flagstaff for a bit (they apparently have doggie tow trucks). On the way back home we stopped at Montezuma Castle (which is neither a castle nor was it ever inhabited by Montezuma) and had a beautiful time. And I know these photos would be more appropriate for the Camp Verde entry, but we didn't visit it then.
- So not much time spent in Sedona, but a nice short impromptu weekend trip nonetheless. Maybe next time I can figure out where all the Mesa Denny's are.
- WAY: no
- Free Stuff: nothing
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