Small town living suits me just fine

CONGRATS TO THE great state of Kansas for winning the Super Bowl! At least that was what the guy in charge said in a tweet yesterday. I only watched the final quarter, and as it turned out, it was the only quarter that really mattered. Too bad I missed all the lip-syncing and practically naked entertainment at halftime.

I was coming back from an amazing weekend in Phoenix, hanging out with family, going to the Phoenix Open golf tournament and reveling in the Arizona sun. We barely handled the 70-degree sunshine, and it appears some of the warmer weather came back with me. It was rough.

The boys and their NHL teams in PHX.

I like Arizona, and I love my brother Steve and his wife Stephanie, and my two brothers-in-law. But after driving around and about the greater Phoenix area for three days, I'm not sure I could live in the big city.

Phoenix is the fourth-largest metropolitan city in the county, with more than 6 million residents. Most of them were at the Phoenix Open Friday with us, and most had too much to drink, but the weather and the golf and the whole vibe more than made up for it. So we drank more. NOT. Especially not at $13 for a beer.

Steve actually lives in Chandler, a suburb of only 250,000. It's quaint and clean and it only takes 20 minutes to get to Sky Harbor Airport, so it's not bad. I mean, it's not like us being forced to go all the way to Sam's Club on Sunday afternoon. Geesh. Thankfully Sheryl did that on Saturday night!

I guess you can get used to the traffic and the searing summer heat, and it balances with Utopia in February, when you can play golf with the sun on your back and gentle breeze in the air. But I like the slower pace of little old Quincy, Illinois, the quirky people here and the forward-thinking in many areas, and the potential of more.

As always, the visit was amazing. And it's good to be home.