It's Day 201...It's also November 23, 2019...and we are in Scottsdale Arizona

It's Day 201...It's also November 23, 2019...and we are in Scottsdale Arizona

Pulling back out onto the Carefree Hiway....and heading towards Scottsdale .... The chunks of mud flying off the wheels of Vacilando made it clear that our first stop would need to be a carwash....one big enough for Vacilando. A quick google search would tell us the nearest carwash with RV bays was just 30 miles up the road....in Scottsdale....well that's convenient....

We would spend over an hour at that carwash.....and spend 20 bucks in quarters.....thats 80 quarters for anyone out there keeping track.....it's amazing the places you can find mud underneath an RV....and that car in tow.....after a couple nights in the rainy deserts of Arizona.

From the carwash we would head to our home for the next few nights.....an RV spot at a place called Westworld. And this Westworld place.....pretty dang cool....pretty dang impressive.

Once we were all checked in....and camp set up.....awnings out and rugs thrown down......we were ready to check this place out. The first thing we'd notice.....The entire....the massive RV parking area is entirely asphalt. This is the first place we had stayed since Las Vegas in which everything was concrete. Granted.....we had only stayed in 3 RV parks....in 3 of the 5 states we had visited so far.....so not much to compare to....I guess we really are boon dockers at heart.....but none the less.....the RV set up here is very unique.

It doesn't take much walking around to begin to get a sense for how huge this place is.

Quoting the internet........"Westworld.....of Scottsdale is a premier, multi-use events facility....It spans 386 acres at the base of the McDowell Mountains and is known for hosting a wide variety of events throughout the year" close quote.

And by Variety of events....they also mean...... A lot ... of events.....over 100 separate events each year....at any given time.....you can find yourself attending horse shows and rodeos.....or even a polo match or two...in fact

Westworld is host....to the annual Bentley Scottsdale Polo Championships, which is also known as “America’s Greatest Polo Party.” This event typically features four to five polo matches in a single day.....and in addition to the fun on the Polo Fields.....The event also draws large crowds to other events included in the Worlds Greatest Polo Party.....including fashion shows....car displays.....and lots of good food....and even better live music.

But festivities here at Westworld are not limited to those done on horseback.....

Each year.....The Barrett Jackson auto auction also calls Westworld home for a few days. Barrett Jackson calls the event.....the Mecca of classic car auctions.....and the place where car lovers congregate from around the world to find the car of their dreams.....or simply stare at the past.....the present......and the future ...... of the automobile......one of the single most influential inventions...in the history of man.

Barret Jackson.....perhaps better than any other.....has taken their events to the next level. Fascinating to read that a couple guys trying to sell a Cadillac in the late 60's.....would come together and dream up what initially was planned to be a one time event....right here in Scottsdale..... but would go on to become the premier event it is today....nearly 60 years later.

For sure.....the event in Scottdale is held each year to offer up dreams for auction......and just this year...nearly 1.5 million bucks was spent on one of those dreams here in Scottsdale......a brand new McLaren Senna.....one of only 120 that will make their way to the US this year.

If some dreamer was willing to fork over that much dough here in Scottsdale.....I had to know what the world record was ....that record was set just last year....in 2018.....it wasn't in Scottsdale...but still in the US. The Sothebys auction in New York would find itself home to this record setting event when a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO would fetch 48.4 million bucks.

Wow.....seems a guys dreams can get spendy......if they revolve around a classic car.

But it's not just about the Auction itself.....at a Barrett Jackson Event. It's about charity and community as well. Barrett Jackson Auctions across the country have raised millions for local charities ....... hoping to help to make a different sort of dream come true.

Scottsdale may be their flagship event each year....drawing some 200,000 automotive enthusiasts......but Barrett Jackson didn't stop here......they now organize events across the country.....you can catch one in Palm Beach Florida....Las Vegas Nevada.....or Houston Texas.

The bottom line is that Barrett Jackson has evolved into a Cultural Icon becoming synonymous with high-end collector car auctions, setting numerous records for vehicle sales, attracting celebrities and automotive legends....and working to bring some good to the communities they call home.....and Scottsdale....that's where it all began.

And back to this place called Westworld....

Each morning....as Dougie and I walked around the place...fully aware that we were only seeing a small part of this nearly 400 acre facility......walking by as janitorial staffs cleaned up the restrooms and laundry facilities at the start of each day.....walking by the teams tearing down a venue from yesterdays event....and begin setting up for the next.....all the while being reminded of the over 100 events we had read would take place here each year....wondering what that next event would be.....another rodeo....that national quarter horse reigning event each year perhaps.....the Scottsdale Fourth of July celebration each year....the next classic car show....or when the next International Offroad and UTV expo might be held here. Each time we returned to our little piece of Asphalt.....and chatting with neighbors about how empty the RV parking area looked.....often times guessing what event might come close to filling all 450 RV spaces that Westworld offers....

The concensus.....on the internet.....and amongst my very few neighbors....was that it would most likely be that Barrett Jackson event....held each year in January....and drawing some 200,000 folks.....probably many of which arrived in RV's with their spaces reserved. Further consensus amongst us November visitors.....is that we preferred our surroundings the way they were.....can't even imagine.....and wouldn't to imagine....what it might be like being the 450th RV to pull in here ....next January.

Our first evening in Scottsdale would be spent with friends and family. And I gotta say....the folks here in the Indian HIlls area of Scottsdale.....they got things figured out. It takes little more than lounging alongside an infinity pool....visiting with family....and staring off into those mountains....while one pizza comes out of the pizza oven....and another goes in.....to appreciate what folks have come love here.....in this part of Arizona's Sonoran desert.

Flipside.....it was pointed out to me....on several occasions.......that this patio......and that infinity pool....are a much different experience in July....when it's 114 degrees....in the shade....so yea....there's that.

And note to self....visit Arizona....in November. got it.

Had a pretty awesome Thanksgiving here in Scottsdale.....the days spent exploring......learning....and spending time friends and family......

The early mornings....and evenings.....spent digging into more....into the history of this place called Scottsdale....

While reading.....i'd realized that for everything I'd learned about this desert.....I had'nt yet read about how it came to be...in the first place....I'd done all that reading about how the PNW had transformed from massive sheets of ice over millions of years into the mountainous wooded regions we see today ..... How those Massive Rock Cliffs and oil rich mountains of Wyoming and Colorado had come to be......but what happened here.....just a thousand or so miles away....what made this place so very different from those....

And just like most every part of the country we've seen so far....this Sonoran desert....has been a very different place beginning.....and throughout the 8 million or so years it has taken to get to what we look at today.

Here in the desert we see today....it's hard to imagine it ever having a tropical climate....but millions of years ago...it did.

The very same tectonic activity....that ultimately shaped much of the landscape across the western portion of the United States....would eventually begin to take the desert southwest in a different direction. The drifting of continents over millions of years that would begin to push huge mountain ranges from the earths crust up north....would begin to become much more isolated down here. And those isolated mountain ranges would be surrounded by expansive areas of flat valley's. Through this period....and as the global climate patterns began to shift....the desert southwest would begin to experience the rain shadow effects from those isolated mountain ranges....

The rain shadow effect......well...as I understand it.....that is essentially those isolated mountain ranges blocking the moist air from the pacific coast. As the air moves in and is forced up over the mountains....it is cooled and in doing so a much drier air reaches the desert floors on the other side.....creating a much more arid environment.....and over time .....also driving temperatures....up

The process would take millions of years of shifting climates.....along with those geographical shifts....to culminate in what we experience today. I was curious to know how a monsoon season could happen in an area that typically is blocked...or shielded from the rainy seasons experienced along the west coast. The explanation it seems....it pretty simple....

As seasonal climate shifts to what the west coast calls winter and spring......the rains begin to come in from the south....the gulf of California and gulf of Mexico.....and the hot arid temperatures of the desert valleys begin to function almost like a vacuum....drawing that wet air in through areas not shielded by isolated mountain ranges.

Complex for sure.....but just had to over simplify it so it makes sense in this simpletons brain. But just as I had stared those Precambrian rock mountains in Wyoming......the high desert regions of Colorado....and even the Puget Sound region of Washington.....it's fun to stare a the wide open Sonoran Desert region and wonder......How it all happened?

Picturing how over millions of years.....the planet basically shapeshifted and rearranged entire continents as if putting together a jigsaw puzzle is fascinating. An just as fascinating is learning how the ecosystems in each of these areas have evolved over time......bringing to each....species of plant and animal life that can only live....exactly where they live....

Thinking about how the universe has carefully worked all this out....over those millions of years....And standing here on the desert floor thinking about how it was once covered by that massive inland sea that covered so much of the US....but how time would.....would fill those inland seas to become this desert floor....

and then ..

how man....in just some 3 or 400 years has transformed the human race from one of regionalized civilizations....existing in a world in which the only forms of transportation were our own two legs....then horses and ships.....to the one we live in today in which we traverse the globe in a matter of hours.....in a 900,000 pound piece of metal that catapults us through the air at 6 or 700 miles an hour....and some 30,000 feet above these deserts I am looking at.....is pretty awesome.

And then....there's this place called Scottsdale. What makes it different.....how did Scottsdale happen.

Well.....not a lot of surprises.....in the first few thousand years anyways. The area would be part of the Hohokam civilization I had just learned about a few miles back. Those folks that called this desert region home some couple a thousand years back before somewhat mysteriously disappearing from the landscape....but their departure did not mark the end of native American presence.....in the following years....the Pima, and the Maricopa tribes would settle in the region and call it home....until those pesky explorers from Spain....then Mexico....showed up. And as is the case here....and across the rest of what would become the United States......it would be the newly titled American Settler that would move into the region....and begin calling it their own.....well....after....a Mexican American War....The Apache Wars...and...well....countless skirmishes across the region between native American's and US Settlers.....so in other words...a lot of fighting....and winning

It would be near the end of all this hub bub that A US Army Chaplain by the name of Winfield Scott would arrive in the area just outside Phoenix in 1888. He would purchase 640 acres.....in what would later become the heart of present day Scottsdale.

The town itself was initially called Orangedale....but when a newspaper article mistakenly referred to the town as Scottsdale, after the army chaplain....the name apparently stuck. Just another example of how a whacky turn of events....ended up in the naming of a town.

The area would remain a quiet place....primarily engaged in agricultural activity until the turn of the 20th century when in 1908 the Granite Reef Dam would begin construction....and just a few years later in 1911 The Roosevelt dam would follow....both dams constructed on the Salt River. The dams would provide a reliable water supply to the area....and would begin the growth era for not only Phoenix....but Scottsdale and many of the surrounding communities as well.

Scottsdale would not incorporate until 1951....and did so with a population of a mere 2000 residents.

Seems as though it would be around this time that Scottsdale would begin setting itself apart from surrounding communities. Well before incorporation.....early settlers in the area, many of whom were well educated....and culturally inclined.....established the Scottsdale public school system way back in 1896. In a time when Arizona was still a territory....folks across the region understood the importance of education. The folks in Tuscon led the charge establishing their education system in 1868....Phoenix would follow suite in 1871.....and Scottsdale, a much younger community understood the importance as well ....which is why their system was established shortly after their arrival in the area. The residents of early Scottsdale would even support a burgeoning art scene....on top of their passion for education.

These early investments in both education.....and art.....would go on to play major roles in the development of the area.

The community would continue it's forward thinking when in 1909 they would begin constructing exclusive resort communities with the first being the Ingleside inn. The Jokake resort would be added to the list of exclusive resort properties in 1922.....this thinking....and strategy nearly immediately began to set Scottsdale apart ..... driving tourism amongst the affluent to the area....in a time when many areas barely even knew what a tourism industry was....let alone consider investing in it.

It would be strategies like these....and the natural draw of the Sonoran desert...that would bring the world renowned architect....Frank Lloyd Wright to the area in 1937....Wright would design....and ad Taliesin West to Scottsdale's landscape. He initially built the one of a kind complex as his winter home....and studio....but it would go on to become the world headquarters for both the Taliesin Fellowship, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation....and just this year it was named a World Heritage Site. Being named a World Heritage Site means that a place, such as an area, building, or city, has been recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for its outstanding universal value to humanity.

All of this would come together to establish Scottsdale as an educational, and cultural hub in the region....and over time...across the US.

Forward thinking had brought the tightly knit community to exactly where it needed to be when WW2 would have it's impact on the town.....just as it did the entire nation. WW2 would come to Scottsdale in the form of the Thunderbird ll airfield, established on June 22, 1942. Installed as a basic training facility for Army Air Corps pilots....the airfield was part of a broader effort to rapidly expand the US military's capabilities during the war.

Over 5500 pilots would undergo rigorous training here in Scottsdale making them combat ready.

The airfield was deactivated in October of 1944....and would begin an interesting transition. Near the end of the war the field would be acquired by the Arizona State Teachers College for an aviation program. The Teachers College would later be renamed.....Arizona State University.

In 1953 the Arizona Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists would acquire the property and establish the Thunderbird Adventist Academy. The former military barracks were converted into dormitories and the hangars were adapted for vocational training in mechanics, woodworking, and welding. The academy would expand over the years....adding to the facilities to accommodate the growth in student population. The academy continues it's educational mission to this day.

In 1966 The Arizona Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists sold the airfield portion of the facility to the City of Scottsdale. The town of 2000 people had grown into a city of just over 10,000....and those forward thinkers in Scottsdale had decided it was time for them to have an airport of their own. The city didn't waste any time.....by 1967 they had secured their first fix based operator and began operation as a general aviation airport.

Today....Scottsdale, and it's population of nearly 250,000 folks have at their disposal a full range aviation hub that handles some 130,000 take off and landings each year....over 360 per day......and along the way....the Scottsdale Airport contributes over 182 million bucks a year to the city's economy. The combined economic impact of the airport.....and surrounding airpark activity is estimated to be nearly 3 billion dollars annually.

Another interesting piece of Scottsdale history and growth.....would actually take place pretty quietly during this very same period of time.

A little known Chicago based company some thirty years old....had just changed it's name....to Motorola...and would open its first plant near Scottsdale's western border in 1950⁶. The company would quickly open it's second plant in 1956 within Scottsdale.

I wonder how many folks at the time realized that this would begin Scottsdale's entrance into the industry of high tech.

Now when I hear the name Motorola......I think of a failed cell phone company that crashed and burned in the early 2000's after having owned the cell phone industry for decades. Just another example of an American institution being schooled by some young upstart.....in this case it would be Apple.....and their Iphone doing the schooling. In the following years.....the company would split off with the cell phone part working hard on making a come back in the following years.

But in 1950.....clearly.....Motorola had yet to become a cell phone company. ......but they were known for their achievments and advancements in the radio and communication industry.....in fact....they had made a name for themselves with their development of the first commercially successful car radio in the 1930's and had expanded into the television manufacturing space by the 1940's. The Galvin Manufacturing Corporation chose the name Motorola...declaring it to mean....Sound in motion....to emphasize their focus on not only car radios.....the communication tools of the future.

The Arizona plant marked Motorola's entry into the semiconductor industry. ...and was one of the first of it's kind in the country. It was also just the first step in Motorola's strategy to diversify its product offerings and enter new markets. The research and development conducted in these plants would go on to revolutionize, not only the semi-conductor industry.....but the development of all sorts of electronic advancements in the era......and apparently....all this was just before we made the decision as a nation.....to hand the entire industry over to China....ok....that part is must me being sourcastic....but....I mean....Thats kinda what we did isnt it?......or wait....maybe we just let them take it.....anyways

As I'd learned....all this would be just the beginning for Motorola, from their home in Scottsdale.....would go on to play a crucial role in the Space Race of the 1960's and beyond. The Scottsdale plant played a critical role in the Apollo 11 mission. Motorola's Government Electronics Division in Scottsdale designed and built the transponder that transmitted the famous words and images from the moon landing in 1969.

The plant also worked on various defense and communication projects, further establishing Scottsdale as a hub for advanced technology....

And probably most notable of Motorola's contribution to the industry.... was the foundation it built in Scottsdale....that brought many....many more from within the tech industry into the town....and the community it fostered. This is....how scottsdale would become known as a leader....when it comes to being the home of start ups.

Sadly....all these achievments would come at a cost.....when the Motorola plant would be linked to groundwater contamination issues in the area in the early 80's. It appears that the federal government, the folks of scottsdale....as well as motorola reacted fairly quickly to shut down contaminated water sources and begin remediation while adding alternative sources. Motorola itself, by the early 90's had invested over 30 million dollars to the remediation efforts.....including the new water treatment plant.

Ahhh....Scottsdale......just a little over 70 years ago.....a community of 2000 incorporated the town....and took the first step to wards what is today.

It's a crazy diverse place. Most any activity you can think up.....there's likely a place to do it in Scottsdale....and pretty likely in, or on, world class facilities....just look at Westworld.

It's also a place known for it's heavy investment in it's educational system ..... and always has been.

It's also the place known as "The Wests most Western Town......" A slogan first applied to the town way back in the 1940's....a slogan that stuck because of the towns ability to embrace it's cowboy heritage....and bring it....and it's horse culture into the 21st century.

There's alot more I'm sure......just as there is in every spot we get ready to roll out

Rolling out of Scottsdale would involve a few hugs.....and thanks......

Not even sure what direction we will go this time. The only thing I know for sure is the rest of that Phoenix metropolitan area was just over that way.....

So we'll the other ways.....

I wonder what we'll learn there?