Mesa, Arizona 2013

Friends from North Dakota, Frieda and Lenny, spend their winters in Arizona or Texas. In previous years they would drive their camper down and live in it for 6 months each winter, but last year they bought a home in Mesa, Arizona - just  30 minutes drive from Phoenix. They have now sold their camper. We decided to drop in on them after we left Las Vegas, and we have just spent a most enjoyable 3 days with them in their Mesa home. 

Lenny, Frieda and Murray outside their Mesa winter home

On Sunday they took us to see some local sights, and our first stop was a Goldfield Ghost Town near Apache Junction. It had a huge Saguaro (pronounced sorroro) cactus in the middle of the town, and great views over to Superstition Mountain. 

Lenny, Frieda and Murray about to enter the Ghost Town

View over to part of Superstition Mountain

Saguaro Cactus in the Ghost Town

After we left the goldfield ghost town we headed further out to Tortilla Flats, north east of Apache Junction. The scenery was wonderful as you can see by the photo on the left - lakes, wildflowers, mountains, cacti...

Tortilla Flats is the last surviving stagecoach stop along the Apache Trail. It was originally a camping area for prospectors searching for gold in Superstition Mountain. Now it is a popular tourist stop where there is a bar and a restaurant, or you can buy a great burger and sit outside and listen to a few guys playing on their guitars and singing popular songs interjected with entertaining humour. We had glorious weather, so we sat outside to enjoy the music and the burgers!

Sitting outside having a burger at Tortilla Flats

The interior of the bar and restaurant area has walls papered with real dollar bills from around the world, but mainly US. I did see an Aussie $2 note amongst them.

 Dollar Bills pasted on all walls

Note $ bills on every wall

a

Wood from inside Saguaro Cactus

Although Saguaro Cactus (largest cactus in the US) look spongy on the outside, when they die their internal wooden 'ribs' are actual wood, and are used to build furniture, fences etc). See photo at left. The Saguaro can grow to over 70 feet tall and can take up to 75 years to grow a side arm. They can live for more than 150 years. The Saguaro can only grow a from seed, never from a cutting. They take in water when it rains, and can be seen to visibly expand. They then shrink in girth when drying out.








On our last night in Mesa, Frieda and Lenny took us to a local pizza haunt that is a real tourist attraction. It is called the Organ Stop Pizza, and last night alone they sold over 500 pizzas! It was a Monday night and the place was crowded - people no sooner left and the tables were filled again - there are two floors of seating, so it was pretty impressive. The drawcard is the largest Wurlitzer theatre organ in the world, and 3 organists are on a roster covering play 7 days a week. The organist takes requests, and announces birthdays and other celebrations, and it is a very unusual venue to eat a pizza (or salad, or sandwich) and have access to a bar. At times while the organ is being played by the organist, various other musical instruments located around the room seem to play by themselves. Very entertaining. The combination pizza that we had was superb. In the photo below you may be able to pick Murray out in the very front row to the left of the photo, and Frieda (in yellow) is pointing something out to him. 

Organ Stop Pizza