My recent few days in the Phoenix area encompassed more than posing with a Daily Bulletin under a Baseline sign. Among the sights:

The men’s room at the retro Joe’s Farm Grill in Gilbert has a GI Joe theme and features a TV over the urinal. Here’s a writeup. I believe the video is the movie “Team America World Police.”

I also saw an Arizona Diamondbacks game at Phoenix’s Chase Field. A friend and I traveled there via (be still my heart) light rail.

This Dairy Queen (629 E. Main St., Mesa) caught my eye during a drive past. I went back one night for 1) the neon cone and 2) a Dilly bar.

I have a soft spot for the Cracker Barrel chain of restaurants, which have a theme that might be described as “corporate folksy.”

Rocking chairs out front, a gift shop of nostalgia items, a dining room with farm implements on the walls and pretty good food. There are no Cracker Barrels in California but I stopped at the westernmost one, west of Phoenix, on my drive back. A cactus in front of a rural-themed restaurant? Whatever works.

That evening I had dinner at the Wheel Inn in Cabazon, a very good diner, and despite the strong winds and threatening weather (a far cry from the sun in Arizona) took a photo of Claude Bell’s famed Cabazon dinosaurs.