Mesa, Arizona - Feb. & Mar. 2010

January 30, 2010 - April 3, 2010

We have been enjoying a couple of months here in the Phoenix area. We are parked in a small, older mobile home park called Ambassador Downs right on Main Street in Mesa. Our windshield had slipped from its gasket and the authorized repair place turned out to be just down the street. While there Mike saw the way the company, RV Restorations, puts in laminate flooring. Now we have dark wood floors instead of the old carpeting. Mike decided he could do it himself in a way we could live in the rig while the work progressed. Being in a big city offered lots of places to supply materials to get the job done.



Although there is the hustle and bustle of a big metropolis, there are also areas with orange groves, stretches of rocky desert terrain with stately saguaros and other desert vegetation, plus many walking trails along irrigation canals. We experienced the pleasures of both big city and small town places.

BIG CITY PLEASURES

We took the Metro Rail from Mesa into downtown Phoenix to see the state capitol. The building that served as the Arizona Territory Capitol and briefly as State Capitol is now known as the Arizona Capitol Museum. Since the guided tour was mostly museum exhibits, we elected to walk around ourselves. The extensive displays dedicated to the Battleship Arizona were worth the visit. The workings of the state is done in three non-descript buildings surrounding the smaller museum building. We briefly sat in the gallery for the raucous opening of an afternoon session of the legislature. There was a lot of joking around between the members. On the free shuttle bus that took us to and from the metro rail station we sat among people sleeping alongside bags of personal belongings . Evidently the area near the capitol is full of transients looking and waiting for social services. Code Pink and other activists were out protesting the local sheriff for his tough illegal immigration policies.

Eleven major league baseball teams hold their spring training in the Phoenix area. Although we did not go to see a game, a visit to the Arizona Museum for Youth told the history of how these teams, now known as the Cactus League, were lured to Arizona.. Most of the Red Sox, then starring Ted Williams, preferred Florida as it was more familiar to New Englanders and offered more opportunities for fishing. Another player said he couldn’t feel the sweat of the game in the dry climate of Arizona. The exhibit also had a fun video of dogs playing baseball. Phoenix is a sport-fans’ Mecca. Among the many venues for sports, we took a fascinating architectural and technological tour of the University of Phoenix Stadium - home to the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and the Fiesta Bowl. The barrel cactus- shaped concrete building has both a retractable roof and a roll-out grass playing field. No one gets inside the Cardinal’s locker room except team members. Neither of the Super Bowl teams did either.



An evening performance of the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra at the beautiful Mesa Arts Center was a treat. Our seats gave us an overhead view of the agile hands of the pianist as he played Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43. Many winter visitors volunteer here at the Mesa Arts Center and the several museums in town as well as at Hohokum Field where the Cubs play.
Another treat was the dancing at the annual manager’s dinner and show for residents of our RV park. The manager, Valentino, used to be a crooner in the style of Dean Martin and knows many musicians and performers hereabouts.



Mesa, we were told, is the dance capital of the west. A tango and the mambo were performed by couples from the park. A group from the Chinese Cultural Center did several ethnic dances. The movements during the Peacock Dance mimicked the strutting and neck jerking of the peacock but were made more beautiful by the gracefulness of the dancer.



Every so often a parade of people carrying torches and chanting would walk through the park. They turned out to be avid fans of the TV program, Survivor, and were carrying out a ceremony given when a resident portraying one of the show’s participants was voted off.

We found new places to eat. One was a Vietnamese restaurant called Un-pho-gettable located in the Mekong Plaza. It was one of several located around the gigantic central market which featured all kinds of exotic Asian foods and specialty items. Both the market and the cuisine were fun experiences! Our waitress helped us pick what dishes we were willing to try and then assisted us in putting on the appropriate condiments and herbs. Their specialty is Pho or soup, a consomme with selected additions of noodles, vegetables, meat or shrimp.

SMALL TOWN PLACES

A stunning scenic drive through the Superstition Mountains in the Tonto National Forest brought us first to the old historic mining town of Goldfield. This popular tourist place offers mine tours, train and horse carriage rides, with a brothel, blacksmith shop or saloon to see as you walk around town. We asked and got the answer to the frequently asked question, “ How did the mountains get the name Superstition?” We only drove as far as Tortilla Flat, an old stagecoach stop, as the gravel road ahead to Roosevelt Lake was in poor shape. Here old-west roots are played up with wooden sidewalks, a dollar -covered café ceiling and country music for the enjoyment of the many travelers who make their way to this outpost.
Another trip took us to historic Florence. A purse made from license plates caught my eye at the Visitor Center. More such crafts and bakery goods made by inmates were to be found at the Prison Outlet Store. We walked through the True Value Hardware store to see its touted eclectic array of goods for sale. The most unusual item were the pink boxer shorts. Here, sold as a tourist item, pink underwear are actually used by the prison. Supposedly, since the color change, the loss of such items walking out of the prison has sharply dropped and saved the tax payers much money.
On a later trip following the Apache Trail, we drove along arrays of purple, orange and bright pink colored wild flowers. We walked along the Boyce Thompson Arboretum trail that took us through several different desert landscapes, along a lake and creek bed to see some desert plants that we hadn’t seen anywhere else. The strangest was a 25 foot tall Boojum. It was labeled as being of the ocotilla family but the only resemblance to an ocotillo were the thorns. On the way to Superior and Globe huge copper mining operations were evident.