[Steve Barcak]

We had a great time at the Central Cruise with about 20 members showing up and a dozen or so Pontiacs.

[Steve Barcak]

The Arizona Pontiac Power Group has 3 upcoming meet ups in the next few days-

1. attending the Pontiac Buick Olds FALL FEST at Speedworld, over 20 members are signed up to attend.
2. Sunday morning is an auto swap meet at Glendale community college.
3. Monday, we are taking an exploratory road trip to parts north and west of the Phx area including- Wickenburg, Yarnell, Mingus mountain, Prescott, Cottonwood, Sedona, etc.

You are welcome to join us.

[Formulajones]

This sounds like alot of fun. I don't check in here much and just caught this thread, very cool that pontiac guys get together to do more than just shows. I'll have to sign up and join the group.

We also love to explore the surrounding mountains. Sunday I will be back at Speedworld for an F-body club track day.

Your Monday outing sounds like fun. I live in Prescott Valley so you'll be close by. You have alot of small towns listed to visit in one day. Sounds like you'll be busy.

[virgil381]

Great thread!

Thanks for the pics and updates. post pics of the swamp meet, drags, and cruise please.
me and a couple buddies are thinking of coming to some of your shows.
Traveling from Colorado.

[Steve Barcak]

Originally Posted by virgil381

Great thread!

Thanks for the pics and updates. post pics of the swamp meet, drags, and cruise please.
me and a couple buddies are thinking of coming to some of your shows.
Traveling from Colorado.

Sure! We'll get some pics up there and we always enjoy meeting fellow Pontiac fans from around the country and the world for that matter

[Steve Barcak]

I am offering to the Arizona Pontiac Power Group classes in Pontiac engine building, 400thm and 700 trans building, welding and bodywork/paint prep over the winter and into the spring.
We now have 106 members and lots of things going on.
This weekend is the Good Guys show and swap and cruise night at the Scottsdale Pavillions.

Promoting Pontiac power in every way I can!

[mechanickeith]

108 members & counting!!!

[Cerberus]

Damn! I gotta get a job in Arizona..................anyone hiring?

[mechanickeith]

Depends on what you are looking for. Phx craigs list is pretty active. http://phoenix.craigslist.org/jjj/

[Cerberus]

Thanks, Keith!
My wife and I are in the pharmaceutical manufacturing field. We love Az, got married in Sedona a couple yearrs ago. Have been searching for jobs down there for ~ 10 years. I have property in the bootheel of NM.

[mechanickeith]

Lots of stuff opening up here. Lots of companys have been moving here from Cali. Keep looking!!

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by Cerberus

Thanks, Keith!
My wife and I are in the pharmaceutical manufacturing field. We love Az, got married in Sedona a couple yearrs ago. Have been searching for jobs down there for ~ 10 years. I have property in the bootheel of NM.

Sedona is beautiful, about 45 minutes from where I live.

Jobs are hit and miss here. Depends on the salary range you want/need. I can tell you we played the job interview game here for the last 5 years and finally hit something good up here in Prescott. Yeah it's that slow.

Most of your good paying jobs will be in the Phoenix and Tuscon areas. Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the country, so there are alot of suburbs. Most of your good jobs will be in the East and North East valley like Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale etc...with some over towards the West side in the Glendale area etc...

My wife worked and drove to Scottsdale everday from Prescott (200 mile round trip daily) because that's where the decent paying jobs were, and even that wasn't easy to get with the market being flooded with the unemployed. She has finally landed a good paying job here in Prescott for an Aerospace company after 5 years of searching. Just not alot up this way. I can tell you it has appeared much easier if you already have a job, that seems to be the pattern with companies unfortunately as they don't seem to consider unemployed if it's been any length of time.

The trend seems to be that about this time every year the hiring slows way down with the holidays coming and all that. With this being an election year (and just now happened) it will be even slower. 4 years ago when Obama was first elected, the hiring practically stopped for a few months until companies got a feel for what was going to happen. It's been a very slow pickup since then. Now with this election over, and holidays coming, plus tax season, I suspect it will be like it's always been and hiring won't pick back up until next spring possibly. I suspect that alot of the country is this way however and not just Arizona.

With all that said, your salary range and willingness to drive (or not) will probably dictate where you live/buy a house.

Hope that helps. Best of luck.

[Formulajones]

Forgot to mention, it also depends alot on whether you want a permanent position or a contract/temporary position.

Most of what's out there (I'd say as much as 75%) is contract work. Companies now are using temp agencies and hiring for temporary short term positions. Some have the chance to go permanent but most of them we came accross had no chance of perm hire and were only for 3 months, 6 months, or maybe a year with a possible contract extension after that.

That's what my wife had been working for the last 5 years on and off. We are talking about a person that has more than 25 years experience in her field with a Bachelor degree on top of that. She had one perm position mixed in there but it didn't pay enough so she went back to contract work for more money. You'll hear "overqualified" quite a bit from your lower paying jobs, which really means "we don't want to pay much money"
Seems companies don't want strings attached anymore either, they don't want to pay benefits, medical etc..so contracts through temp agencies are the majority of positions out there.
When she recently found a good paying permanent position without the silly contract junk, it was almost like Christmas came early. She is now finally into something good that looks promising. They are paying well and are happy to have her,,,that's a rare company anymore, so it seems.

It really sucked every 3-6 months knowing your contract was coming to an end and wondering if they had enough work to extend it or if you were going to be looking for a job again.

Don't mean to sound like it's gloom and doom out there, but it's definately not what the TV portrays to the public. Job hunting is definately a tough market and I don't see it getting better for a few more years at least.

[Steve Barcak]

A few weeks back, 4 of us piled into 2 of our Pontiacs for an exploratory road trip northwest of the Phoenix area. We drove through Wickenburg, Yarnell, Skull Valley, Prescott, Jerome and as far as Cottonwood until it got dark when we headed back.
Here we are at a place where I have taught kids Bible camp at for a few summers just outside of Prescott.
Mark, Todd, me and Keith



Parts of this trip I had not been on since the mid 80s when I drove through there in my '71 GTO 455HO.
Here are some pics in Jerome.





We did not find much compared to the areas between Superior/Globe on on to Show Low but, we still had a nice drive. Coming up soon will be our continuation of this trip. We will start in the Cottonwood area and drive on up through Sedona and on to Flagstaff.


This weekend is Good Guys and another cruise night in Scottsdale Pavillions. The Arizona Pontiac Power group keeps busy and offers a wide variety of activities.

[Formulajones]

You haven't been to Jerome since the 80's? Wow. Sounds like you had a good time.

I'll be coming down to the Pavilions this Saturday evening as well, but I'm leaving the Pontiacs at home and driving a chevrolet Actually coming down for some dyno time in Mesa and then I'll hit the Pavilions on the way back through.

[Mister Pontiac]

Good friends and Pontiacs on 'da road! Doesn't get much better...

[Steve Barcak]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

You haven't been to Jerome since the 80's? Wow. Sounds like you had a good time.

I'll be coming down to the Pavilions this Saturday evening as well, but I'm leaving the Pontiacs at home and driving a chevrolet Actually coming down for some dyno time in Mesa and then I'll hit the Pavilions on the way back through.

I think I have been to Jerome snce the 80s, just not from that direction ( Mingus mountain ).

This Sat the Arizona Pontiac Power Group has 3 more meet ups planned.
1. The auto swap meet at the state fair grounds
2. our next exploratory road trip
3. cruise night

[Mister Pontiac]

Tomorrow (Sat 24th), the AZ Pontiac Power Group has more meetups happening! Early start with the automotive swap meet @ the Fairgrounds in Phoenix, then a day cruise out west. We're likely headed to the AZ/CA border area via old state Hwy 60 and other assorted and sundry back roads, stopping as we please, as we go, to see whatever catches our fancy! Then tomorrow evening, we're planning to be back in central Phoenix for a local Cruise-In.

Lot's going on, and lots to enjoy with fellow Ponti-addicts here in AZ!

[Mister Pontiac]

Here are a few pics from one of the outings a couple months back (meant to post these earlier). Three of us spent a weekend in the high country of AZ running thru the twisties (sometimes at a rather high rate of speed!) and enjoyed the scenery and adventure as we went. Oh, and of course we camped on the shores of Lyman Lake along the way. This was an 800 mile weekend...

Great times with the AZ Pontiac Power Group! As most of you can relate, Pontiacs are simply integral to our way of life out west...

[GT182]

You guys ought to be thrown in jail for that...... Cause we can't be out there with yas havin all that fun too. Yeah, it's called OHF envy.... Outback Havin Fun envy. LOL