Dirt Cheap Day Trip 27-B

Alternate title, for the extra-literate:

Earth Econo-logical Sunshine Journey 27-B

Why 27-B? Why not? Must everything be ordered sensibly always?

Agua Fria National Monument, pack rat nest

Winter's the best time for desert wandering. Sometimes there's even a rare clear-ish liquid in the "creeks."

Water Cold was in fact trickling through the “Agua Fria National Monument” when Dudine and I paid a free visit last week. Part of our poverty reduction plan: spend future “vacations” in our own ‘hood. The directions on the BLM page are vague, so after some wandering we asked a Quickie-Mart clerk, who eagerly directed us onward, as if she were actually glad to tell us.

Historic Teskey Home Site, Agua Fria National Monument

 

Wandering further, we parked—alone--at newly fenced and reinforced “Historic Teskey Home Site," courtesy of a local historical society.  Happily, there is little federal funding for “improvements” so the place is not yet “californicated." No pavement, no entrance fee, no uniformed goons, no crowds, no toilets, no smooth tourist trails with hand rails, no crap-filled gift shop, no poisonous overpriced “snack bar,” no closing time—nice and cheap!

Teskey Home Site, Agua Fria National Monument

A bleak reminder of my age, to find a ‘historical site’ dated a mere ten years before my own sojourn began.

The explanatory plaque has not yet been painted with graffiti, carved with initials, burned, axed, or shot-gunned—but give it time. The Teskeys, family of six, still had no electricity when they left in 1948. Water was from a hand-dug well and heated on a wood stove. They farmed, and raised horses and cattle. Hard work but I would trade my industrial drudgery for it if I could.

Agua Fria River

Horses are better than cars, we decided, in this rough land. The trip to town would take longer, but without flat tires or gasoline. Also, cars still can’t breed free new cars. Come on science, what’s the hold-up?

The pathetic Agua Fria “River” was less than a quarter-mile east, via an old jeep road. Usually dry except for storm run-off, it calmly gurgled away a recent winter blast. Eventually Phoenix will drink it, so don’t pee in it unless you hate Phoenix.

Agua Fria River, Agua Fria NM

Now: the following directions are very real, if anyone wants to find the place: (Or for you all with newfangled Gee Pee Ess, try this bitchin site.)

I-17 north out of Phoenix about 40 miles to Cordes Junction, exit 262. Exit, head east, and hang an immediate right on Stagecoach Lane. Follow it around and down about a mile and go right on Red Rock. Soon go left on Quail Run. This turns into Kelton Ranch Road at a cattle guard and the pavement ends. Stay on this road and you will go over a second cattle guard, under power lines, then over a third. The Teskey site is on your right when you come to the steel bridge. I forgot to note mileage but I’d guess less than ten miles from the highway.

Agua Fria River, Agua Fria NM

Have an inappropriate amount of fun no matter what, and please cuss me if the directions ain’t right. This is one of four vehicle access points in the Monument, we’ll eventually go to the others so stay tuned if you give a rip. Folks who lived in the area 600 years ago left art galleries among the rocks, which I plan to find.

%$#@!

20th Century Man

best Kinks song ever, by Ray Davies

This is the age of machinery,

A mechanical nightmare,
The wonderful world of technology,
Napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare,

This is the twentieth century,
But too much aggravation
It's the age of insanity,
What has become of the green pleasant fields of Jerusalem?

Ain't got no ambition, I'm just disillusioned
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.

My mama said she can't understand me
She can't see my motivation
Just give me some security,
I'm a paranoid schizoid product of the twentieth century….

…Girl we gotta get out of here
We gotta find a solution
I'm a twentieth century man but
I don't want to be here.

I was born in a welfare state
Ruled by bureaucracy
Controlled by civil servants
And people dressed in grey
Got no privacy, got no liberty
Cos the twentieth century people
Took it all away from me.

Don't wanna get myself shot down
By some trigger happy policeman,
Gotta keep a hold on my sanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna die here….

This is the twentieth century
But too much aggravation
This is the edge of insanity
I'm a twentieth century man but I don't wanna be here.