Feasts, Phase 10 and Football - E16

Clancy Denton  0:00  
Welcome to the loud quiet. Ooh, empty nester. Okay. What does that mean?

Rick Denton  0:06  
I think that actually probably is the theme of the test. What are we doing? Let's do this. Let's do this thing. is this Recording. Okay, yeah

Clancy Denton  0:15  
great. Sans, children just us we need to tissue box up here. Follow along on our journey and maybe you know we can learn from others.

Rick Denton  0:23  
I don't have a clue how to be empty nesters this is the loud quiet, living the empty nest

Clancy Denton  0:31  
Hey, stop messing with stuff. Hey. All right. Welcome back to Episode 16 of the loud quiet sorry, we are laughing at the cat. We haven't been in here in a couple of weeks. And he's well he's interested in chords for some reason. I

Rick Denton  0:50  
don't know why she is just suddenly out.

Clancy Denton  0:53  
I don't know why he's into all the cords today because nothing has changed in here. Dude. It's fine. So anyways, so yeah, so we're back. We're gonna try to get this recording banged out real quick. We've got an event to go to tonight. But yeah,

Rick Denton  1:09  
let's peel the curtain back just a little bit. As I was driving home today we are this afternoon it was oh, you know, we probably it's good to do an episode. Yeah. And we realized we really do have about 2025 minutes before an event which feels very empty nester, hey, let's just try to get this done before we go to our next thing, right.

Clancy Denton  1:25  
Well, and I would have waited till tomorrow, but I'm having my face plastered. I don't know how good I'll look on camera. For the next few days blur out. I could just wear like a face covering or something. Veil. So anyway,

Rick Denton  1:41  
I do want to see an episode with you wearing a veil. That would be a lot of fun.

Clancy Denton  1:46  
So yeah, so we'll do our post Thanksgiving recap. This is you know, everybody's back are buddies in the routine. The

Rick Denton  1:54  
title of the episode before was taking turkey day to Tempe right? Yeah. So we took Turkey dating.

Clancy Denton  2:03  
And unfortunately the turkey was not good yeah,

Rick Denton  2:10  
don't let that be. We can. Yeah,

Clancy Denton  2:13  
we got we were there. Yeah. Yeah, so and we all at the end we're like man, it feels like we've been here for like two and a half weeks so pack something in every day. Yeah, it was I was good. We all the airplane. Gods shined on us everything. I mean, we cruised through the TSA line there was no one while the TSA line was actually longer than the regular line. Oh but you know we had to wait four minutes one whites were on time flights or early getting in it was you know we had glorious weather not leaving here it was cold but when we landed and Tucson it was beautiful.

Rick Denton  2:52  
It again southwest if you're listening please please Dallas to Tucson nonstop. Oh my gosh, it was

Clancy Denton  2:57  
now going out was not full but coming home was completely full. So crossing the fingers that maybe they will Yeah.

Rick Denton  3:05  
It was. We did get there were some hiccups with Ricardo that aren't even worth dealing with. But yeah, of course it's going to be something like that. But we had the time. And then again, glorious weather. I even said to you when we were dealing with the rental cars, I will at least we're driving around. It's a beautiful day. So yeah,

Clancy Denton  3:20  
but the first thing when we land you're like you know what? They sell liquor. Their Costco is can we hit the Costco and I looked at us like, Are you freaking kidding me? It's Wednesday before or no, sorry. This was Tuesday. Right? So yeah, Tuesday, yeah, Tuesday before Thanksgiving. And you want me to step foot and a Costco.

Rick Denton  3:37  
Remember, it wasn't just liquor, it was liquor and pie, get the pie. But

Clancy Denton  3:40  
oh my gosh, I was just like, No way. I mean, we couldn't even find a spot in the regular parking lot. But

Rick Denton  3:48  
then there was a dirt overflow. We almost got stuck in however it worked out. But

Clancy Denton  3:53  
yes, it was actually not. It actually was not as chaotic as our Costco on a regular day. So it was it was not bad. It was fine.

Rick Denton  4:00  
And if you haven't gone and seen the video, it's a viral video of all the pies that get taken away at Costco go go find it, maybe show notes. It is stunning to see this time lapse video of all the pies going back because we had the expensive show up. I didn't know if there were going to be any left and there were but it was amazing to see how 1000s upon 1000s of pies get sold at an individual location.

Clancy Denton  4:22  
And it was you know, it was good Tegan. Tegan critiqued it, she didn't like it as much as when she makes Well, you know why? Because it didn't have the anger.

Rick Denton  4:31  
Her best pies are when she's angry. So say

Clancy Denton  4:34  
I bet so we did a little shopping and then we, you know, checked into our hotel, had time to grab a quick quick drink before we pick Tegan and her crew up for dinner.

Rick Denton  4:45  
And that was it. It is always enjoyable to see her, her friends and his friends, right.

Clancy Denton  4:52  
It's just your kids friends at school that they've made and to

Rick Denton  4:55  
see and to at moments to engage with them. You And at moments to just kick back and kind of watch them engage with each other. It's a lot of fun,

Clancy Denton  5:05  
and that we're parents that both of our kids feel comfortable bringing their friends around, you know, they are generally you know, excited when we come into town. I know it's for a free meal and that kind of thing, but they're also just all really, you know, on both sides, Tanner and Tegan, good kids, everybody seems to have great relationships with their families. So we ate at a really good Chinese restaurant. The food was really good. That night, so yeah, that was just fun. And it's

Rick Denton  5:37  
an old school old feeling. And that's something about Tucson that I like, there's a lot of stuff that feels very old. And sometimes when you drive by that it doesn't maybe look as nice or shiny as a Frisco or even places in Phoenix or Scottsdale. This had some authenticity to

Clancy Denton  5:55  
and they've grown there. Yeah. And they been there for a long time. They've they've stood up. It's not Cheney. It's not. You know, so yeah, it's been. We've had Yeah, phenomenal meals there. So yeah. So then, you know, she still had class on Wednesday. So we got up and went to on we went on the other side.

Rick Denton  6:18  
Yeah. So this was Laurie Soro National Park. It's a breeding con or whatever they have to the National Park is split into their 20 minutes outside of the city. Man I could get well, I am I'm so used to it. I hate coming home because it's so nice to just have access to something. And we did. We got out there. And we were on trails again, by ourselves. There was occasionally No, not occasionally, we saw maybe what five, six people in the hour and a half. We were hiking,

Clancy Denton  6:47  
coming when we were coming back, because we probably got out there earlier than most because we knew we had other things to do. But yeah, when we got back there, the parking lot was full at our little Trailhead. So yeah, there were definitely more people on before we came out. Oh, yeah, I forgot to there's our picture of our. And

Rick Denton  7:09  
so just imagine that expanse. And there's just no one there. Yes. Towards the end. And we saw in a distance, because we heard him talking. Yeah. Part of what's so neat about this is the silence. It's so quiet. And we heard some talking and you look off in the distance, you see people riding horseback throughout the park, and so well,

Clancy Denton  7:29  
and it was interesting seeing because this side looked completely different from the other side. The other side was the mountain completely covered. Yeah. And it was an up you know, this one was more mostly

Rick Denton  7:40  
flat and only a couple of washes. Yeah. So

Clancy Denton  7:43  
but no, it was yeah, it was a really nice, good way to kick off Wednesday.

Rick Denton  7:48  
That was probably our last moment of tranquility. No.

Clancy Denton  7:55  
We did, yes. Then we picked up the child and she wanted to get used to that. Okay, I need to go. She had one class. And then she wanted to hit the gym. And then say goodbye to her friends. And then we grabbed her grabbed a quick lunch and then got on the road often.

Rick Denton  8:12  
Yeah. And of course, what do we do when we Well, first we great Airbnb. If folks are looking for a place in Tempe, I would I would recommend it. I'm not going to put anything in the show notes. But you can hit us up on an email or something. I'll point you to the one that we were in. And so got quickly settled there. And then we were that family that went grocery shopping on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Clancy Denton  8:39  
Yeah. But again, it was empty. And I had been in traders and I had been in Trader Joe's in Tucson as well to get a gift card for someone. Yeah. Empty. And then yeah, we were in the Albertsons in a busy part of town. Hey, and is light shaking. And yeah, it was so it was just so not anything like I've experienced in just a regular day. I don't know if people just had their stuff delivered this year. I don't know if they did the pickup. Maybe that makes a difference. I don't know. That's great. Yeah, it was so nice.

Rick Denton  9:19  
You did have you said it was so you sent Tegan and me a little missions? Yes. I don't know if that was actually to help us get things done faster or for us to get out of your hair. But

Clancy Denton  9:31  
But yeah, so we got done again, great. Customer service. And grocery store. I mean, of all places, the grocery store, just the nice, super nice. And I think we all kind of had an aha moment of I think it's just because the weather is so nice. They're all the time. I mean that they're just in a good mood. I mean, it's just, it is good for your mental health and just physical health. And yeah, it's just crazy.

Rick Denton  10:02  
And I will tell those of you that are, you know, Bourbon hunters are looking for that kind of stuff. It floored me. I found a bourbon that is not a fancy when you're saying it, but Buffalo Trace is just sitting there and Albertsons, which is one that you can't, incredibly difficult to find here. And then I guess, angels envy was there, which is not one that I know that name, but I sent it to my, my, my bourbon friends, and they're like, oh, my gosh, there it is. And look at the price and all that. So yeah, lots of reasons to move to Arizona. Good weather and easy access to good bourbon. Wow.

Clancy Denton  10:33  
Yeah. So then we took our stuff picked up, Tanner and Franz took them out to a great one of our favorite Italian places, which we hadn't been to in a while. So that was nice to go back there. Again. Phenomenal waiter. It was just a nice fun evening. Lots of laughing Yes. And it is so nice to see Tegan now interact with it's different than the first time she went out there. And she wasn't in college. Now she's in college. So they're more on the same level. And so she definitely more interactive than Oh,

Rick Denton  11:07  
yeah, I mean, we had Yeah, we didn't, it wasn't like, you know, oh, Tegan, you try to pump the story or something. The kids would be talking not our kids, the teacher and his friends, all of them. And again, we kind of could sit back and watch it. It

Clancy Denton  11:18  
was nice. It was nice. And then I forgot. I totally forgot we went. We dropped Tegan off. And then we went out with the kids to Casey Moore's Well, again, is your one of your favorites now. And really, we were the median age there probably it skewed a lot older, I guess. Because most of the kids were gone for Thanksgiving. But yeah, we do. We just I love that it's outside bar. It's just really in a neighborhood that you

Rick Denton  11:45  
know, it would be as if the house and your neighbor know if you live next to it, you might hate it. But if your visit, it's like if the house in your neighborhood had a massive wraparound porch. And then you also added servers in a bar there in a casual environment to just hang out and enjoy conversation. Yeah,

Clancy Denton  12:00  
and another just fun, fun evening. With you know, Tanner's friends who are all about to have some are graduating December the rest will graduate in May and say yeah, it was just a nice, enjoyable evening. And then then it's Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving. Yeah. And you, you know, got up and picked my parents up from the airport. Yeah.

Rick Denton  12:22  
And that was some of that was kind of neat. Is that your parents? Because yes, we were going to enjoy being a family of four out there, but your parents opted to come join as well. And so it made it where it was this nice. Family kind of extended family it made it feel even more Thanksgiving II. Now what didn't feel as Thanksgiving

Clancy Denton  12:40  
everyone has their eyes closed in that picture of what No, we're

Rick Denton  12:43  
just squinting. We're, we're just squinting. But yeah, we went and got them and brought them over to the house. And then we collected everybody over there. And it was it was just now we'll talk about the food but the environment of being over at this house. Yes. This is some pictures of the backyard. We were able to just enjoy and even this picture had a little bit of clouds in it. This day was spectacularly Sunny. And I mean, you just sat out on the porch.

Clancy Denton  13:09  
Yeah, well, yeah, but people they were they Oh, Tegan was passed out in the in the on the turf grass before we even ate dinner. So it's just

Rick Denton  13:19  
enjoying life and relaxing. And I think I think your dad and I got caught in a little napping mode. Oh, yeah, I did that before because the sun felt so

Clancy Denton  13:30  
good. It was so nice. And again, it was just nice. Yes to have a big enough table for everyone. We weren't like cramming in somewhere to try to you know, and you know, the there were certain elements of the catered dinner that were not so great that we're not gonna shake but there were certain but there were certain things that were very, very good that but yeah, it having to throw out four pounds of turkey meat because it was seriously inedible. And I Yes, okay, I am super picky about Turkey. But when you wouldn't even eat it then I knew there was a it was it was bad and it wasn't rancid it just bad. Yeah, it wasn't it something was just wrong with it but they have since

Rick Denton  14:15  
the mac and cheese was great. The biscuits were good. We got some rolls on the side. Yeah,

Clancy Denton  14:19  
everything. Yeah, it was good. All the desserts were good. Everything was just especially their Costco

Rick Denton  14:24  
pie. Pie was good.

Clancy Denton  14:28  
Yeah, so it was just a nice enjoyable the Cowboys one to get and I went for a walk through the neighborhood after dinner to digest a little bit and it

Rick Denton  14:38  
kind of took Thanksgiving and moved it so it gave us all the adventure of a travel a trip. combining it with all of the comfort of your trip isn't traditional with an asterick family way of doing

Clancy Denton  14:52  
and we played phase 10 which is one of our family's favorites and BB BB always cheats So actually, my brother texted me that he's like, watch her she cheats. I was like, I know, she got called out. And then two of Tanner's friends came over, because one of them is crazy phase 10 person. And so we added them in. And yeah, it was just another fun. Just enjoyable. Just, yeah, just an enjoyable time. And again, you know, a time it was a different Thanksgiving because we our entire family wasn't together. But, you know, we, and I, you know, we just don't know what next year is even going to look like. So

Rick Denton  15:35  
you say? Yeah, absolutely. Would you say? Because everything about Thanksgiving, a lot of times the family part of the great, but there's can be a lot of work and a lot of preparation. And there can be a lot of comments and commentary about the effort that goes into it. So thinking about just Thanksgiving Day, how do you feel I

Clancy Denton  15:53  
had to do a lot more than I thought I was going to have to do because I didn't realize the food we were picking up was cold. Yeah, like that. It had to be everything had to be cooked, which I didn't have to make any of it but I had to schedule you know, thank goodness this. Airbnb had two ovens because, yeah, I had to like sit down and like go, Okay, this needs to go in at this time. This needs to go in at this time, which I wasn't expecting to have to do. And just again, you know, getting out all the appetizers getting out, you know, it was still probably actually probably more work than I normally do. Because we're usually at my mom's house and I usually just bring stuff over there. So

Rick Denton  16:36  
because I know we're doing a restaurant, which is near zero effort. Yeah, you're getting going. I

Clancy Denton  16:42  
liked this. I just didn't realize that I was going to have to do as much and but it was fine. It was in the house game was on it wasn't a big deal. It was just I did have to do a little bit more than I thought. Yeah, anticipated. But again, it was fine. So but yeah, that was that was just a nice. Yeah, it was a nice evening. Afternoon day, all day. And then the next day we did took a little adventure out to Goldfield Ghost Town. Big, big kudos. Well, yeah, it was this was fun. This was just I mean, we like to do just kitschy silly stuff. Every now and then. And this was just a fun. You know, it's an old mining town.

Rick Denton  17:30  
And it actually was Yeah. Yeah, it was an actual mining town at one point.

Clancy Denton  17:36  
Yes. And so you know, you can ride the mine train, and then you can go down in the mine. And then they had the what was that? The Mystery Shack, which if anyone remembers the old and sick Six Flags, the slanted house. This is what this was. So that was it was fun. It was just and we ate in the saloon and

Rick Denton  17:59  
yet had all those saloon I guess, girl, saloon women kind of dressed up that way. And I was singing music. Yeah, it was.

Clancy Denton  18:06  
It was it was again another just beautiful weather. I mean, weather was clearly Yeah, tell you just can't be being outside doing something in Arizona when the weather is just awesome. And again, you know, it was just fun. And we had a fun time. There was a gun fight. You know, it was just, it was just fun. And we I mean, we spent, you know, four out oops, we spent, you know, almost four hours there. So it took up a big chunk of the day, which was nice. So yeah, that was that was just a fun little it's about 30 minutes outside of Phoenix and yeah,

Rick Denton  18:43  
and exactly that it was it was a way because sometimes the Friday after Thanksgiving, especially if you don't have an activity to do well then what are you doing sitting around bored it was just a simple way to spend time together as a family laugh a little be entertained a little and just enjoy life together.

Clancy Denton  19:02  
And my parents weren't with us they just weren't in that picture but they weren't with us and and I guess it's by Superstition Mountain which is a mountain that none of us had ever even well we didn't ever say yeah, it's

Rick Denton  19:16  
the second most photographed mountain right in Arizona, which I did not know. And when you see it, you realize oh, it's that one.

Clancy Denton  19:23  
Yeah. So that was kind of cool to be out. Right next to it. I didn't put the picture and

Rick Denton  19:28  
I flipped one up for those of y'all that are watching it.

Clancy Denton  19:31  
But the one we put the one I'm I have one of my parents I think that so yeah, they're just another and we just then went back to the house and just had we had so much leftover so we just went back and Texas Game was

Rick Denton  19:44  
victory for those of us that are Longhorn fans. Yeah. Did not eat any leftover turkey

Clancy Denton  19:47  
and chickens. I guess that was on Wednesday or Thursday. Her basketball team Yeah.

Rick Denton  19:54  
Be that Michigan State that day. That was that was on Thanksgiving. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  19:57  
Tanner's very upset that she is having this Sports here.

Rick Denton  20:02  
She kind of needs last full day. So

Clancy Denton  20:06  
this was our Saturday. And

Rick Denton  20:09  
for those that listeners, you know, but we've got kids at Arizona and they are Rival Schools. This is Texas versus Oklahoma. This is Carolina versus Duke. This is Michigan, Ohio State. These two schools do not like each other. And they're only an hour and a half away from each other. This is a real rivalry. Alumni bases commingle in the major cities there. This is this is the real deal. Yeah. So here

Clancy Denton  20:31  
are the kids during their school signs and our chickens. So you as us as forks up that's what they say. Well, her shirt says we have no forks. And I love and, and she loved the one she didn't like all of the because all the ASU ones I have you know, no pity for the kitty and all she she liked all the cat litter boys. Yeah. So so yeah. So we started off, we went to lunch and then we, you know, got my parents went to lunch and then went over to the girls Tanner's friends have a really nice house. So we ran over there real quick to see them and took a couple there's our and all the adults have on our house divided shirts. So yeah, it was this was a fun you know, this is the last time unless Tanner ends up at law school out there which grad versus Yeah, this was just a fun we lucked out to have some overlap like app to end and again, beautiful. I mean, gorgeous weather. We rode the train over to the game so that we could just walk right up to the stadium.

Rick Denton  21:42  
This is sunscreen weather literally. I was putting on sunscreen. I don't know many outside of skiing. Were you doing suns? Right? Yeah, yeah, we are at the stadium. The stadium. Really, really filled it. Yeah, it was full. It was

Clancy Denton  21:52  
it was it was beautiful. And Tegan was very excited because there were lots of Arizona fans around us. Tanner left before halftime to go to Costco. He was like I'm out. The game was so bad. You

Rick Denton  22:04  
don't know what costs it is go back a few episodes. And you'll hear about Clancy and Miguel. And so

Clancy Denton  22:10  
yeah, it was just another

Rick Denton  22:11  
and the reason there's a reason why Tanner left. Oh, that's

Clancy Denton  22:14  
why I said the game was yeah, not going because this was

Rick Denton  22:17  
a drubbing by Arizona over here is out of state which Arizona has not historically been a good football team. They were actually really good last year. Which much to Tanner chagrin.

Clancy Denton  22:27  
Yes. So. So yeah, it was just another good family now. Yeah, it was so beautiful that when that sun went behind, whoo, we were all cold. And we were ready.

Rick Denton  22:38  
Yeah, I'm a little glad that the game didn't get to something. Overtime. Because it definitely got chilly

Clancy Denton  22:45  
that chilly. So yeah, so yeah, we just you know, enjoy the game and then went to one of our other favorites for Peaks Brewery for dinner with Tanner's friends came with again. And yeah, it was just a nice again, another just nice. There's a recovery day, a nice day now, keep using that word, but it was just very even though there were tons of activities, and there was lots of planning, it was pretty chill. For the most part, I

Rick Denton  23:16  
think it shows that there was a because of what you said, the planning is what made it shut the thoughtfulness ahead of time of okay, here's how we're going to do that these were the tickets are going to be this is that play you choosing where we're catering it ahead of time, all of that. The logistic complexity of this putting it together was strong, but then we got to just enjoy. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  23:37  
And, you know, then Sunday, you took my parents to the airport. We took the kids to breakfast. It's news and

Rick Denton  23:49  
good. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  23:50  
And then we did a target run, which of course, yeah, but I'm looking at you know, Tegan had two things that she needed or wanted. And then, Tanner's, you know, I was like, Are you moving? Yeah. What's going on? I was like, why are we buying a lamp and a new one?

Rick Denton  24:10  
And then, you know, the ginormous candles? Yeah, that sort of stuff. Oh, yeah.

Clancy Denton  24:13  
They, they were both they spent 15 minutes down the candle aisle. And I went over to Rick and I said Never did I think when they were eight and five that they would be smelling every candle and getting so excited about the candles down the candle. Yeah. Target. But yeah, so we I was like, yeah, so anyways, but yeah, so we did that dropped him off and then headed back to Tucson to drop her off so she could hit her gym and go meet up with her friends and

Rick Denton  24:46  
something that I liked about that. She he was done with us. Not in a negative way. But just like every kid has done with their parents. He was done. So we dropped him off. She was ready to move back to her kind of college experience and be done with us. Well, we have A lot of time left before the airport. And I've commented on episodes before that I wanted to get used to Tucson and know the campus. Well, what did we do? We've started to get used to it. We're like, let's just walk around campus. And it was, again, we'll use the word, just a nice day to walk around. And, and that was, again, a kind of quiet because the kids hadn't necessarily come back yet. And that was a treat to walk around there. I think we don't need to talk about we had definitely kind of come to almost we've used all of our words a limit. And so once we finally got to Tucson, again, the glory that's the smallness of the Tucson airport, as compared to going into sky harbor, and I love sky harbor. Yeah.

Clancy Denton  25:41  
So it was so simple. Yeah, there were seats up at the airport, little lounge bar, you know, up down by our gate. And you

Rick Denton  25:51  
felt like you almost had to whisper but it was it it was exactly because we're sitting there and I think we sat at the one Yeah, we talked a little but there was a little bit of, we just kind of watched the football well, a little during

Clancy Denton  26:00  
for our flight to be completely I mean, completely full. And for it to not to be because I in Phoenix were crammed down in that corner. And it is you can even move. I mean, and so I would imagine that's how it was. Yeah. On Sunday. So yeah, it was, again, like you said, the Tucson airport doesn't have as much as the Phoenix Airport does. But man, it was the right way to end. Thanksgiving. And

Rick Denton  26:27  
because we had we used our words, and it was it was time to just chill. Yeah. And that was good. Yeah. We made it back.

Clancy Denton  26:35  
I know. And I mean, it's crazy. She'll be home two weeks from today. Yeah, she was telling us today, you know, she's doubt she had her Spanish conversation final. And so I mean, it is winding down.

Rick Denton  26:50  
Just like just like this episode kind of coming to It's winding down. Now I do want to offer a little tease. Clancy has found something that's going to be fun for us to go to if it's not going to be in the next episode, but

Clancy Denton  27:01  
it will probably be in the next step in

Rick Denton  27:03  
the next one. Yeah, it may be so I get it. We've talked a lot about our kids and that's probably what a lot of empty nesters do in that first semester for lack of a better term of being empty nesters. But there's a reality of we're a couple to and we've enjoyed, you know coupling well. There's some there's some ideas out there on what to do as an empty nester. And so this

Clancy Denton  27:24  
was a dating it was dates, empty nester dates and some of them I was reading I was like, Oh yeah, no way.

Rick Denton  27:30  
So let's have a look

Clancy Denton  27:33  
at some of them we've already done so we'll see where and ones that we might want to do there was nothing crazy. It was just some of them was like okay, is that really like something?

Rick Denton  27:43  
So you'll all get to hear about it. Actually, I haven't even looked at it. Yeah, we kind of fun to get through. Now we're back. Yeah, Tempe Tucson, Turkey. It's all done back to real world back to real life.

Clancy Denton  27:57  
It's been another episode of the loud quiet, living the empty nest. You continue to get that's been another episode of the loud quiet living the empty nest.

Rick Denton  28:13  
I want to leave the first one in there.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai