Buckeye, Arizona

Not knowing a lot about Arizona, the farming community in this bedroom suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, seems out of place when compared to the tourist brochures of desert and distant hills.  Even more surprising are the acres of cotton fields, which I hadn’t given much thought to, but always had a vague feeling they were only located in the deep south of the U.S.A.  Huge bales of cotton about 10 or 15 feet high sit by some of the crossroads, tarped on the tops just like hay.  There are a few huge dairy farms, and a HUGE Walmart warehouse is also located here (we measured it off with the truck odometer as we drove down the road parallel to it, and it has to be close to a mile in length!)  So keyword for Buckeye, reading back on all that, must be “huge”.

It was supposed to get down to freezing last night (but only got to 36 in reality), and we noticed landscaping material draped over a row of ornamental plants near the pool of the RV park we are at.  Right now it’s sunny and about 10 degrees C., with a smattering of raindrops a few minutes ago.  I’m not sure why, but the air feels a lot lighter and happier here than in Palm Springs.  The eye can see for miles and miles, as it is very flat land with a border of very distant rocky mountains and hills all around.  The park is landscaped with terra cotta gravel and palm trees and is immaculately clean.  There are about 300 sites here, and it looks to be about 1/3 full right now.  We have a small palm tree right beside the window where we sit at the table, its top about level with the top of the window, so we get to look out at that.  I quite like palm trees. 

One thing we noticed immediately upon crossing over the state line into Arizona is that we are no longer the only toy hauler on the road and in the parks.  There are a lot of them here, and a lot of lifted pickups hauling ATV trailers, usually with two to three ATVs on them, in assortments of four-wheelers, dune buggies, and dirt bikes.