On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Captain C
For 12 years from the mid-’90s to the mid-‘oughts, I lived in Arizona, mostly in Mesa. After I moved back East, I continued to go back and visit my friends and family there (and also because it’s beautiful and had bands and food and more that I missed). This past February, I went back for the first time in four years, since a month before the plague started. This first set is from the Valley of the Sun (that is, the greater Phoenix area).
And before anyone asks, no, while in or near Tempe I did not see a man, naked or in tie-dye overalls, running down the street with a mop either pursuing or being pursued by an angry cat with a shaved ass. So unless he was one of the folks in tie-dye at Noodles on my last Sunday (see the last set when it posts), I did not come across our dear blogfather.
While most of the photos in this set (and indeed all the AZ collection) were taken outdoors, I thought I’d post this one taken in the main branch of Mesa Public Library, where I got my start in librarianship. As you might imagine, it looked a bit different a quarter century or so ago when I first worked there as a shelving page.
View from my cousin’s house in PV.
The next several shots are from my friend D’s house in the northeastern part of Mesa. He also has a rather extensive menagerie, which will figure in a future set.
We saw this little fella from my friend R’s backyard.
Baud
That’s beautiful.
Suzanne
As a longtime Mesa resident — Westwood High School grad and frequent user of the Mesa Public Library — this is all making me a bit wistful.
Though I lived in the southwest corner of the city, the part they’re desperately trying to rebrand “Fiesta District”, even though the namesake mall was finally demolished.
ETA: they’re trying to rebrand it, as that area of the city has always been, how do you say….. a bit meth-y? I consider it the Bill-and-Ted area, since it has the water park (Golfland/Sunsplash) that was used in the movie as “Waterloops”.
Mai Naem mobile
@Suzanne: i drove by the Fiesta Mall site a while back and it was weird seeing a pretty big piece of empy land there. I remember the whole area being pretty vibrant and then just empty big box stores. I think a Coyotes arena would have been a good fit there but there’s no way the city of Mesa was going to hand over big incentives to the Coyotes’ owners.
OzarkHillbilly
Thanx for the pics, Cap’n.
Sounds like Washington Co, MO.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I started to scroll, saw the pic of the bookshelves, and screeched to a halt.
The outdoor pics are nice too. :-)
Asparagus Aspersions
Thanks for the photos! I lived in Phoenix for close to 20 years, not far from Piestewa Peak. I went back last year for the first time since Covid, and it reminded me how beautiful the state is. In addition to visiting friends in Phoenix, we went north for a bit (Jerome, Cottonwood, Flagstaff, Grand Canyon). And on the drive back, we stopped at Rock Springs for some pie. My god, that pie.
Argiope
Great photos and introduction! My first job, at 14, was as a library page. Loved shelving the adult books on the upper floors…Library After Dark! I learned a lot that way, most of it wrong. The photos make me want to return to the southwest for a visit.
suzanne
@Mai Naem mobile: Mesa’s City Council has long been dominated by Mormons and they have historically been resistant to alcohol, and thus any attraction that would encourage alcohol consumption.
Most conservative city in America! An interesting crucible for Teenage Suzanne.
Baud
@suzanne:
And after you left, I’m sure the average shot way up.
suzanne
@Baud: If memory serves, the 2012 GOP debate at which an audience member shouted “LET THEM DIE” (in reference to the undocumented/uninsured) was the one held at the Mesa Arts Center.
Lots of people there think like that.
SteveinPHX
Thanks for your photos. I practice the same trade as you did, only over on the west side of the city. I was in Tempe several times during the blogfather’s recent tour. I was looking for much the same telltale clues (camera ever at the ready) as you, but to no avail. Maybe on a future migration…
Xavier
Curve-billed Thrasher.
Mai Naem mobile
@suzanne: maybe if they hadn’t been so resistant to alcohol the east Mesa/AJ area wouldn’t have become the meth capital of Arizona! John Giles, the mayor of Mesa is on Julie Mason’s show on Sirius XM occasionally and he’s surprising not conservative. He’s not progressive but he seems very pragmatic – basically he’s got big city problems and he needs to deal with them.
pieceofpeace
Your photos of cacti in the garden are lovely, sort of a geometric version for a garden which you beautifully captured in the evening.
My visit included a trek to Flagstaff where I was ‘dazzled’ and delighted by a dark and enormously massive star-filled sky and felt myself in a state overwhelmed with nature’s sights. I love those moments that occur maybe only once, and last forever.
Captain C
@Suzanne:
@Mai Naem mobile:
I once worked at the Sam Goody’s in Fiesta Mall as seasonal help. It’s weird to think it’s no longer there.
Erin in Flagstaff
Born and bred in Arizona, I always enjoy photos of the area where I grew up. I’m also a sucker for photos of saguaros. I keep thinking of moving back to the Valley to be closer to family, and it’s photos like these that seduce me into thinking the summer heat and traffic aren’t THAT bad.
Captain C
@Baud: Thanks!
Captain C
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thanks!
karen marie
@Erin in Flagstaff: I’m in Mesa right now, and it’s already awful. Anyone not here is welcome to trade places with me. I’d be delighted to be somewhere else.
Mai Naem mobile
@Captain C: i remember the area having 3 movie theaters and not even in the mall but the strip centers around the mall.
BTW nice pics. I live here but I’m not really a desert fauna person but saguaros are nice looking cacti.
Mai Naem mobile
@Erin in Flagstaff: I would live here for s month before you decide to move here. COVID 19 masked how much Metro Phoenix had grown. Post- pandemic Metro Phoenix really feels like you’re living in a big city. I went to LA a few months ago and Phoenix now really feels like LA not just mini-LA. Lots of freeways, heavy traffic, older downtown area, the generic strip centers along the freeways.
Captain C
@pieceofpeace: Thanks! And northern Arizona is a particularly lovely place. I think you’ll enjoy the upcoming Jerome photos.
Captain C
@SteveinPHX: Phoenix has a good library system (when they fund it). A friend of mine helped design the teen/maker areas at the central library there (which I think looks like a building on an alien capital world in the Star Trek ‘verse :^) ).
Dan B
@karen marie: Seattle here, experiencing our “warm” day this week. It’s 64° and heading for a blistering 66! Mondays6high was 52°. The Cannas, Coleus, Colocasias, Alocasias, and Bananas are unhappy. But the 2/3″ of rain on Monday was very welcome. We have a friend in Palm Springs. He’s coming to Seattle in mid June for several months. Cultivate Seattle Jackals! We like winter in southern climes. Best of luck.
Dan B
@Mai Naem mobile: Seattle has a big city feel, especially with the new skyscraper filled Amazon – northern end of downtown. The skyline seen from the water looks like the north end of Chicago from the lake. But 3-4 miles outside the core it feels suburban. And there’s Bellevue on the east side of Lake Washington. It’s a dense forest of 30 – 50 story skyscrapers. Yikes!