Road Trip, Detour One: Arcosanti

So we were headed to a 1970's architectural community in the middle of the Arizona high desert. Jeanne, my travelling companion, had heard from her friend Chloe that it was a pretty intense place.

It was on the way to Marfa, Texas so we figured, "Why not?"

(website HERE)

Intense was an understatement. Our first thought when we pulled up to it was that it was a leftover prop town from "Planet of the Apes."

(Photo by Jeanne)

The brainchild of Italian architect Paolo Soleri, Arcosanti was started in the 1970's, ran out of funding a few years later and is now an educational urban laboratory manned by a community of devoted volunteers.

(Photo by Jeanne)

About 70 people live here full-time -- guiding tours, running the vegan café and working in the bronze foundry hammering out the famous Soleri windchimes.

We had arrived too late for the 4pm tour so we struck out on our own. With the uncanny radar of nine-year-olds, the boys homed in on a stray ball and went to town.

(Photo by Jeanne)

Free to wander, we started snapping photos. Have I mentioned that everywhere we turned, there were circles?

(Photo by Jeanne)

Circles.

(Photo by Jeanne)

Circles.

Circles.

(Photo by Jeanne)

Okay, it was all a little eerie.

When we stumbled upon the winged amphitheater, my imagination took flight. I couldn't help thinking of the chairs as white-garbed acolytes sitting in rapt attention.

(Photo by Jeanne)

We drove about half a mile down the hill to our rooms. (Volunteers live in dormitories up at the main compound.)

Evidently, the guest quarters have yet to be completed.

The rooms were...well, let's just say they were all about the view.

And the view was incredible.

But the boys were tired. And overheated.

(Photo by Jeanne)

And it was 105 degrees. And there was no air-conditioning.

So we used our first Road Trip Chip -- the one that says, "Never be afraid to make a spur-of-the-moment decision."

And with the unshakeable dream of an icy hotel room in our heads, we got back on the road, turned up the music, drove another 80 miles and found an icy refuge in Tempe, Arizona.

(Jeanne and I thinking of air-conditioning)

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Editor's Note:

Apparently, the room to stay in at Arcosanti is the Sky Suite (a futuristic bachelor pad, up at the main compound and with A/C) but it was booked already.

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Up next:

An Other-Worldly Mind Meld at White Sands, New Mexico:

"My eyes are telling me that this should be snow...so why is my plastic sled melting?"