Phoenix and Gold Canyon Hodgepodge

There are other places we visited in Phoenix while we were staying in Gold Canyon. And no, this picture is not more Chihuly glass. It is in the Heard Museum, which features both ancient and contemporary Native American art. We spent an enjoyable morning here on a dismal weather day.

Native Americans were using the symbol at the bottom of this tapestry long before the Nazis gave it a terrible meaning. To the Natives, it was a symbol of the sun, of the four seasons, or the four directions, depending on the tribe.

There are a lot of famous people and icons painted into this picture. See how many you can find!

There was a very sobering exhibit at the end of our visit to this museum about the Indian schools which began at the last half of the 1800’s and into the 1900’s. Children were ripped from their families to be “reeducated” so they would lose their native culture and be “assimilated”. Abuse of all kinds was rampant in these schools, and many children died of disease. Phoenix had a large one. There were success stories, but that was the exception. It made my heart sad to think of the sorrow heaped on these families.

On a sunnier day we also visited Hole-in-the-Rock, which is in Papago City Park. It’s a great place to enjoy the city, the desert, or perhaps just to watch the planes taking off at the airport.

It’s an easy .3-mile hike around the backside and up to the top.

There were surprisingly a lot of people up there enjoying a mid-week afternoon break from the city. I don’t think I’d want to be here on a weekend.

If you’re ever hungry for pizza in Mesa, Arizona, I can tell you where to go: Organ Stop Pizza. There is a Wurlitzer theater-style organ smack dab in the middle of the dining area, and the music is played daily by a revolving schedule of organists.

The lights flash on the different pipes while he plays and there is also some percussion that he can control from the organ. He played the national anthem at one point. A flag came down and everyone stopped eating to stand up and sing. What a pizza joint! Not only that, but the pizza was excellent.

Gold Canyon is located where the freeway ends at the far western edge of Phoenix. Gold Canyon RV Resort truly lives up to the “resort” in its name. It is for people 55 and older only, and only relatively new RV’s can stay. There are also “park models” here, basically RVs that don’t move and that people can buy into. It is a place unlike any other that we have been to so far. We had seen our family for a week over Thanksgiving, but for Christmas we were on our own. I wanted a nice place to celebrate, and it was the place to be.

The street above was quiet this day, but usually there are people walking their dogs or just walking or jogging, riding bicycles or golf carts, pushing a golf caddy. There is a golf course here and it runs like a pretty green ribbon throughout the resort. The residents here are very active and the resort delivered the activities. If a person doesn’t golf, no worries – there are (very busy) pickleball courts, a fitness room, lots of fitness classes, not to mention workshops for many hobbies and classes that go on all day. The resort was so large that I could get all my daily Fitbit steps in just walking the streets, and I had great fun at a line-dancing class.

Out on the street, when you passed someone, they would nearly always wave and say hello with a big smile. We were invited to join groups of people at various events, and it was interesting to hear their stories. Most people were from the upper Midwest states and came directly here for the winter to stay. Those that tired of pulling an RV after many years bought into the park models.

We enjoyed jazz by the swimming pool and a guitar player at the bistro:

There was a golf cart Christmas parade, and many of the residents of park models had their places decorated.

We could get in some short hikes close by.

One day we stopped at a food truck to purchase tamales. I turned around and there was a woman unloading sacks of oranges from her truck. She’d picked them from her orchard just that morning. They looked so good and the bag was only twelve dollars so we brought one home. Later I had some buyer’s remorse – what was I going to do with all those oranges?? No worries. They were sweet, juicy, and the best oranges I have ever had. I made juice, smoothies, orange chicken, and we just ate them. Aside from four that we gave to our neighbors, we soon had them used up.

We are learning on our journey that there are all kinds of parks to stay at for all kinds of reasons. I’m a state park kind of girl. I love wide spaces and RV spots, and being out in nature. But some times, community is needed, and this community set a gold standard for us.

Next time – we move on to Tucson