havecarryonwilltravel

We do the architectural tour of Phoenix today. Our day starts at Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and “architectural laboratory”. We drive up the road to the site, noticing how the buildings and grounds blend in with the surroundings. The complex sits part way up the slope towards the McDowell Mountains.

Taliesin West

Our tour is led by Jim, a very knowledgeable ex history professor who volunteers to give folks like us an insight into Frank Lloyd Wright. As we sit in the famous living room, it is just like the photographs that we have seen in magazines. The chairs and fabrics are unchanged. The room is long and would have accommodated many people in small groups discussing world topics.

Jim talks about “Mr. Wright” and his idea of organic, which in the 1920’s would have been an outrageous concept. Organic to Wright meant to work with the environment, to blend into the natural surroundings. Although he accomplished this, we notice that he also used a grid and square corners and shapes. His windows framed views of the desert and mountains. Water fountains graced the gardens with their tinkling sounds and freshness.

Taliesin West

Next stop, Cosanti. The home and handcrafted bell workshop of Paolo Soleri. Mr. Soleri was an Architect, craftsman and philosopher who founded Arcosanti in 1970. We will be visiting Arcosanti tomorrow as it is located 65 miles north of Phoenix.

Cosanti

We notice immediately that Soleri’s concept of organic is much different than Wright’s. Soleri’s mimics nature using forms that are rounded, domed, flowing. More towards the modern idea of what organic might be.

Pouring molten copper to create windbells

After our stop at Cosanti, we are both looking forward to visiting Arcosanti to see what it is all about and get a hint of Soleri’s vision.

Then it is off to visit the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, designed by Wright. The buildings and grounds are immaculate and highlight Wright’s designs in the furniture, carpets, gardens, lighting and wall features. We wander the grounds and enjoy the ambiance.

Arizona Biltmore

We also make a quick stop at the Gammage Memorial Auditorium, said to be Frank Lloyd Wright’s last public commission. To me it looks like a huge wedding cake with sculpted icing sides.

Gammage Memorial Auditorium

Our travels to these architectural spots has us navigating throughout Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale. We are surprised at how easy it is. Although the map looks quite intimidating, the distances are traversed quickly and smoothly.

Tomorrow we head out of Phoenix, to Arcosanti and north to Sedona. We will combine man made and natural architecture.

Short and sweet. Get on the plane, get off the plane. Get on the shuttle, get off the shuttle. Check into the hotel.

Traveling in North America is a breeze. Everything is in English, except for a few cursory French words at the federal government controlled security section. All the instructions are easy to understand and all the signs are readable.

Hi-lite was the Super Shuttle, a door to door shuttle service, sort of like a shared cab. We meet the contact person at the shuttle stop just outside the exit doors. He coordinates our location with the next van going in our direction, it arrives, we toss our stuff in the back and zoom….we are transported to the hotel. It is less expensive than cab fare but no less effective, more expensive than the local bus but much easier to figure out and much less travel time. The folks employed by the Super Shuttle are friendly and super helpful. They have the customer service idea down.

We arrive in Phoenix in the dark. What we can see looks much the same as any city but there are shadows. Shadows of very tall pointed hills. Odd things and the ‘desert’ landscape is visible in the darkness at the side of the highway. It is different to us and even the little we see will be worth exploring.

Tomorrow we get to drive in a city of 7 million. Probably won’t be so short and sweet.

I have been truly negligent in keeping up my end of the blog, so here it goes.

Arizona, our next destination. We had thought to go in September when we had a large stretch of time available. We intended to drive and see some territory neither of us have visited but that option evaporated and we are now flying. It is a minor change in some ways but it does require preparation not necessary had we driven. Renting a car, for instance.

We don’t rent many cars so it is time to learn something new. Big lesson; DON’T rent a car from an airport location. I spend the better part of week checking out what it would cost to rent a car for 10 days in Arizona. The logical place to pick up the car would be at the Phoenix airport where we are going to land. It would also be convenient to drop it off there since that is where our plane leaves from. I look at all the possibilities and they seem, at least to me, to be quite expense but also something did not sit right. First off, car rental prices change like airfares. Also, like airfares, there does not seem to any rhyme or reason to the change in costs. Really is it worth the time to have some employee or even a computer figuring out which particular model of car is worth how much at this or that instance in time. Come on! it’s a car!

The cost to rent a compact car from the airport location today, October 13,2014, is (I’ll work in Canadian funds where I can) $449.37 plus $246.46 in taxes and surcharges to total $695.84. Like I said, seems a little excessive. There is a discount to ‘pay now’ on the website. It amounts to about 10%. $404.44 plus $232.21 in taxes totaling $636.65. These taxes are “concession recovery, facility maintenance, ENERGY RECOVERY FEE (caps are used on the website price breakdown???), county surcharge, customer facility, and taxes”. Except for the taxes, all of the charges are airport specific and account for a significant portion of what the car is being tendered for.

Simply by using a little bit of lateral thinking I am able to save a large percentage by renting from a location not on airport property . What if I rent the car from a Scottsdale location? Bingo. The cost drops over $300, less that 50% of what I was originally quoted. If I want to book the car it will cost $299.92 plus $56.22 in taxes equaling $356.15, but by paying immediately the cost drops to $269.93 + $51.37 = $321.30. (As I mentioned the prices change and I actually paid $293.62 a couple of days ago.) These savings are a bit greater due to the fact that we do not really need a car on the evening we arrive and we save one day’s rental by not booking the car until the next morning. Just by the by, the car rental agency is directly across the street from our hotel but some agencies will pick you up from the hotel on the day you rent and drop you off after you return the car.

We now have another problem. How to get to the hotel on the night we arrive and how to return to the airport on the day we are to leave. Before I pay for the car rental I check out the cost of a cab ride with the hotel front desk. The fellow tells me it is around $50 US ($56 Cad). So even with the expense of a taxi we save over $200 on the cost of renting a car from the airport and I will have the luxury of being chauffeured to my hotel. Upon further investigation I found the SuperShuttle which provides airport to hotel door service for the two of us costing $84 US ($94.22 Cad) return fare.

By not renting at the airport we save over $200 about 1/3 of the cost of renting a car.
I am beginning to dislike airports as much as I generally dislike airlines. They seem be in business solely for the purpose of making money. Unfortunately, both are missing the same point. They are in the customer service industry and by taking care of the customer, the bottom line will take care of itself. A leap of faith is required to adopt this idea and make it a company cornerstone but as best as I can make, neither the airports or the airlines are willing to take that leap and because they have a market with little or no choice they chose the ‘safe’ route and dictate cost and quality of service to their users.

Airports that charge stupid high fees to the car rental companies and have them pass the cost onto the potential customers caused me to look for alternatives. I will do my best to spread the word. It may only cost airports a few nickels but it is a few nickels they could have had. More important they will loose customers. Customers that could have been loyal customers. Ones that would tout the benefits of using airport services and how valuable they are to travelers rather than spew off blogging about how they are self centered, egocentric, bloated organizations.

PS. The car rental companies should not get off scott free either. You will note that the base cost of the car from the Scottsdale location is lower than the cost of the car from the airport. An instance of supply and demand I am sure but supply and demand to a rental company is sort of a mute point as they shuffle cars around from site to site to meet demand.