"Is that an organ, or is that an organ?!", said the old fellow beside me. No, I'm not talking about Roger! And Lorraine, get your mind out of the gutter! The organ referred to is an early 1920's vintage Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ, located at a pizza joint in Mesa called "Organ Stop Pizza". Odd combination, you say? Indeed it is, but what a gimmick. They seem to pack the house repeatedly every nite. Our camping friends from Lake Havasu, Roger & Margaret, had given us a tip to go there. They also told us to be there at 4:00 when it opens, because it's a super busy place. 4:00 seemed a little early, but off we went. Well, holy cow. At 4:00, they were already lined up out the door and down the sidewalk. WTH? So the way it works is you order your pizza from the counter, then find a seat in the almost 1,000 seat restaurant. There is a bingo number-type display board that indicates when your pizza is ready. The seating is long tables and benches, the better to pack you in with. 30 minutes after opening (so at 4:30 – can you tell the place is full of blue hairs?), the Wurlitzer (purchased by the restaurant in the 1970’s) and its organist rise out of the stage on an 8,000 lb rotating hydraulic lift. Since a theatre pipe organ was designed to replace full orchestras, it imitates orchestra instruments rather than the usual church sounds. And the restaurant has 43-foot ceilings for acoustics, with the seating on two floors. Add a light show, and you have quite the evening of entertainment.
The organist played a range of tunes, from Star Trek to Phantom of the Opera, Green is the Color to God Bless America (during which the whole place spontaneously stood up and sang along – made Roger have a tear)
. At one point, an old gentleman sitting right behind me (we’re talking a foot apart) jumped up, whoot-whooted (well ok, the old guy equivalent of
whooting) and yelled emphatically “Is that an organ, or is that an organ?!” I looked at at Roger, who was grinning from ear to ear, and choked on my pizza. That was Monday nite - an interesting evening.
So back to the hiking trails at Usery. The Wind Cave Trail is billed as the most popular feature of the park. “The Wind Cave is formed at the boundary between the volcanic tuff and granite on Pass Mountain. Water seeps from the roof of the alcove to support hanging gardens of Rock Daisy. Breathtaking views are rewarded to visitors from this 2,840 foot elevation.” Well that sounded pretty nice. The trail was rated the most challenging, but it was only 1.5 miles each way, so we checked at the Nature Center to see if they thought we could handle it. No problem. So off we went. Had we known where we were hiking to before we started, I know we would have said “Ya, I don’t think so
.”
(The cave runs along the right side of that narrower strip of beige rock 3/4 of the way up the mtn. That tiny dot above the mountain is a helicopter.)
But being the dopes we are, off we went. About ¼ of the way up, as we were trudging along, an 80 year old man went scurrying by us. Hmmpf, well then! About ½ way up, we were having visions of Marg’s Draw hiking trail in Sedona all over again (remember “How much further?” “Oh, about ½ a mile.”?). About 2/3 of the way up, we were starting to ask people coming down how far up it was to the cave. When they pointed to the spot where the tiny people were hiking, we said “shit”. Then 80-year old man scurried past us going back down. Well, shit again, now we have to keep going. But hurray, we did make it this time! Unfortunately, the cave wasn’t as spectacular as we had hoped, but the views were breathtaking.
It appears that spring has come to Arizona a few months early, due to the warmer than average temperatures they’ve had
. The desert wildflowers are blooming, and some of the cacti have buds. Apparently the snakes are already out, so we need to keep our eyes open for them. We’re told they are usually as afraid of us as we are of them. Ha, fat chance!
And along with the spring wildflowers comes Spring Training and a huge smile on Roger's face. On Wednesday, Major League Baseball (MLB) Spring Training started. All the MLB teams practice in either Florida or Arizona (Phoenix area) starting in mid-February, and at the end of February, they start playing exhibition games against each other until the regular season starts in April. In Arizona, the MLB Spring Training league is called the Cactus League. There are 15 MLB teams playing here in 10 ballparks. On any given day at 1:00 pm, there are 8-10 MLB ball games to choose from. OMG, it’s a baseball extravaganza!
Here are games we attended (bold indicates why Roger chose that particular game to go to):
- Wed – LA Dodgers at Arizona Diamondbacks - Salt River Field at Talking Stick (built on Tribal land), Scottsdale
. Home of the Arizona D’backs and Colorado Rockies. Score: 3-2 D’backs.
- Thur – Arizona D’backs at Chicago Cubs - Cubs Park, Mesa (Cubs Park is a replica of Wrigley Field in Chicago). Score: 5-2 D’backs.
- Fri – Chicago Cubs at Anaheim Angels - Tempe Diablo Stadium. Score: 15-3 Angels.
- Sat – Texas Rangers (one of his favorite teams) at Oakland A’s (doesn’t like Oakland) - Phoenix Municipal Stadium. We didn’t go because of the weather (assuming the game would be cancelled), but it wasn’t. Doh!
- Sun – Milwaukee Brewers at Colorado Rockies (just signed a Canadian named Morneau, but he didn't play) - Salt River Field at Talking Stick, Scottsdale.
Attendance at these games was way more than we expected (10,300 at the Wed game; 14,830 at the game on Thur, 9,300 on Sun). Traffic, parking, getting tickets were all challenges
. But we had great weather and good games. Here are some highlights:
- Seeing a vintage fighter plane formation flyover at the first game, and fireworks synced to explode when the words “and the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air” were sung during the American National Anthem at the opening game of the new Cubs Park in Mesa.
- Seeing Rider fans (and hearing “Go Riders”) at the games, including Rider fans sitting in the seats beside us.
- Game 1: Knowing that baseballs chase my head like a heat-seeking missile, seeing Roger come charging up the stairs to find me after a foul ball went careening into the concession area, where I was obliviously standing in line for his ceremonial hotdog and beer. ;o)
- Game 2: Narrowly being picked off by a ball yet again (twice) – one caught by the guy in front of me; one by the girl two seats in front of me
. :oP
- Game 3: Arriving 2 hours early for the game, and getting up close and personal to the Angels as they went through their warm-up routine on the practice diamonds and signed balls for the kids. And just about getting picked off by a ball hit over the fence as we walked past left field at the practice diamonds.
- Game 4: Being saved from a foul ball when the ball knocked a dove off the wire holding up the backstop screen (no doves were hurt, but he was pretty wobbly on the wire afterward!). And best of all, seeing a young pitcher from Regina, Dustin Molleken (Roger used to play ball against his dad), pitch for the Brewers, and getting the game save. So cool!
Phoenix’ers thought they were happy to see rain on Saturday, after 70 straight days without rain. But it was part of the storm causing flooding and mudslides in California, and brought along heavy rain, hail, thunder, lightning strikes and funnel clouds here (quite a bit of damage in Mesa, including a hot tub picked up and dropped in someone else’s yard)
. There was also snow in northern Arizona in ski country. For us, it meant hunkering down (no baseball for Roger) and sitting it out. No problems or damage in our park, thank goodness. You know how I HATE freaky weather when we're in the trailer. :(
Speaking of weather, we are planning to head home tomorrow, but how far and fast we progress will depend mainly on the weather. We won't take any chances. Will keep in touch.
Wow, my husband L-O-V-E-S baseball. ;oP
Sunday, March 02, 2014
Mesa, Arizona, United States
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Comments

2025-02-17
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Eva
2014-03-03
You, Anna, should not be allowed near any flying objects, projectiles, etc., without a helmet and body armour!!! Thank goodness no injuries. Now make it home safely. Have thoroughly enjoyed your blogs. And it seems you had a great time in AZ :)
lorr
2014-03-03
Loved your blog, as usual! I'm glad you had a great time in AZ! Have a safe trip home.