Phoenix, Day 4, Wed 22nd, Desert Botanical Garden & Pueblo Grande

Wednesday, February 22nd, we experienced strong storms during the night and early morning. This was followed by strong winds all day. It seems this was not only the case in Arizona. We received a phone call from Catherine Meo, our next door neighbor. It seems the gate to our back yard between her home and ours was open as was our storm door on the back of the house. After taking two hours to get home from Frankfort, which should be a 20-30 minute drive, Catherine noticed these things at our home. She went over and closed the door and the gate. Our concern was someone trying to enter our home. That gate is really not easy to open and close. Grateful for a good neighbor to notice and help. 

We chose to start this day at the Desert Botanical Garden. It was amazing. This botanical garden is very well laid out and very well maintained. In spite of it being so very windy, we really enjoyed this view of the types of vegetation found in the desert. I will just post picture right here. Lots and lots of pictures. 

This was a wonderful walk in the wind. A few raindrops also joined the mix. Highly recommend this attraction. 

Our second touristy thing this day would be Pueblo Grande. This site contains a museum as well as two loops to walk outside. We walked one of the loops and then went through the museum. The loop we walked was the Interpretive Mound Trail. We did that before going in the museum at the suggestion of the ticket lady. 

We began this trail by walking around and onto the top of the Platform Mound. This mound is sacred to the native people. I was once an inhabited area and had buildings on it. The sacred nature of these structures is that they will return to the earth from which they are made. These are pictures of the mound walls and top with existing structures foundations. 

We left the Platform Mound and entered the Interpretive portion of the trail. Types of homes used by these people over the many years were constructed. The round pit homes with only a door like an igloo and no windows would not have been fun to live in. 

The first is an Adobe Compound and would have been used around 1300.

These are Hohokam Pit House. 

This hollow place is the Huhugam Ha Kovolka meaning 'ancient sunken patio'. It was used as a game field. Today it would be used as a dance ground, for weddings and namings. 

This is a replica of a garden. 

And, this is an oven in the desert. 

Learning from the homes built in the Desert Botanical Garden as well as Pueblo Grande, we found the homes often shared an common court area. They may share the cooking pit and/or kitchen. They also used covered open spaces as a cooler place to work at tasks than being inside. These were usually poles on each corner with branches for a roof. They were called ramadas. 

After our outside walk, we took a turn through the museum in the visitors center. 

It was late in the afternoon but not a time we were ready to go back to the hotel for the evening. We decided to pick somewhere and drive there to experience more of the lay of the land. We decided going south would be good as we had been east and north. Claude saw a little town named Gila Bend and it appeared to offer roads to make a nice loop to get there and back to the hotel. Off we went to Gila Bend.

The thing that threw us for a curve was the air. It seemed to be foggy but there was no fog. We knew there were mountains in the distance we should be able to see but they were often not visible for the fog-like air. Then it dawned on us it was that strong wind stirring up dust and dirt. Since we had very heavy rain during the night and early morning, the dust in the air just didn't seem right. 

We made it to Gila Bend. We thought we would have dinner somewhere in the little community. I checked Google Maps for a list of restaurants and learned there were very few there. The city was actually only on the main highway. We opted for Little Italy after 'dragging their main street' first. Our server showed us to a booth and it had a life-size picture of  Prince Harry on the wall. We sat at this booth. I told Claude as we ate that I was sure it was a gimmick, Prince Harry surely didn't eat there.

As we finished our meal, our server came over to give us the bill. I first asked her to show Claude her t-shirt. It had a logo similar to National Geographic on it with the saying "National Sarcastic Association". Claude needs this t-shirt. 

Then I asked the server if Prince Harry really at there. Sure enough...he did!! There is a military base not far from Gila Bend. Prince Harry was in the British military and they came to this base to practice and learn military things. They came to Little Italy to eat. Other than there being a couple of body guards that kept out of the way, our server said it was a very normal evening. They also had a Shrimp Festival in Gila Bend that Prince Harry attended. Amazing. (In case you wonder about a Shrimp Festival in a very landlocked state, they had a shrimp farm that supplied the shrimp.)

Back to our hotel after a fun and very fun day despite wind and dust!!