Just Add Tri Tip

Louis Jordan and Buckeye.  This is what I have been chewing on lately.  Louis sings a mean lick from the 40's. You should give him a listen you know. Go on. Do it.  Today seemed like 3 in 1.  I took this shot from Monroe Street in the historical downtown of Buckeye, Arziona.  We have been awarded the Buckeye Park n Ride so of course guess who is going to do a bang up job on it.  You know how I love to sponge the history of a place.   This is only 15 minutes from my house!

This is the coolest corner on the whole ghost town street that you could miss if you sneezed like 3 times in a row or checked out the UPS driver's shoes.

Honestly, I cropped and sliced the best for you.  I didn't include the boarded windows, dumpster divers, bbq joint that tastes like propane, jumble of crap in the front yards.  I didn't include that OK.  Just trying to keep the best and get inspired.  It is working, I am seriously in love with this town.  It is so raw and authentic.  There is surplus of boarded up possibilities.

At this point, I think I know more about the historical landmarks than most locals.  That's just how I am.  Buckeye starts in 1888 with the digging of a canal that connects the Gila River to the Hassayampa River.  They hand dug the thing with wood scrapers and horse power.  They used to baptise folks in it.  The town was built on cotton and alphalpha.  Go agro dudes.  The historical museum has tons of Hohokam Indian pottery.

Look at me, I am alphalpha!

I want this house.  Just relocate to the alphalpha crop above. Copy and paste, there you go now.  Show off.  This treasure used to be a chicken farm and now it is surrounded by nastiness.  Really low grade.  I can't believe this little town is segregated.  There is a sharp difference between houses to the south and north of Monroe Avenue.  Just sayin.  Why can't I ever have a short blog?

Hobo Joe statue at the entrance to the main drag.

I arranged a tour of this Eastman Cotton Gin today at 8am.  It is glorious.  There is nothing better than knowing the history of a place before a tour.  This is one of the oldest cotton gins still around since the 19th century.  The crazy thing is that about 5 years ago it was sold and all the gin machinery was taken out and scrapped in Mexico.  They decided to cut trusses and other major structural supports to get the machinery out. We couldn't go inside but walking around outside was good.  I looked in the windows and it was a broken cathedral full of perching pigeons.

I have to find a way of incorporating some of this into the Park n Ride.

    After Buckeye I changed into my Scottsdale dress.  Wrap dress, pearls and chunky wedges.  I found just the right fabric samples at Kravet for some runners I am designing for a client in Paradise Valley.   I want to go for this bar code design thing with pieces of fabrics sewn together.  After Kravet showroom I bought 2 pounds of English Breakfast at Souvia Tea in Phoenix. 

I took myself out to dinner at this place called Market Bistro in Phoenix.   Are you still reading this.  Really?  OK.  This place was a made to order salad bar.   I just stood behind the plate glass and picked my 7 toppings.  Of course I ordered the large size.  After my salad looked like Cheops pyramid I thought I needed to add some protein.  Grill master was next to salad mixer. All I mentioned was "Give me steak".  The salad mixer goes *I am not kidding here* "Add Tri Tip!".  But she had this weird voice inflection going on. Then the meat man repeated this command by saying "Add Tri Tip!"   I was thinking "Gawd, do I get a frickin prize or vacation package? What in the hell are you people about?  By the end of the salad I was almost laughing to myself outloud.  "Add chicken *major inflection insert*, add 4 sides, add slice of pie".  If I was salad mixer I would mess with grill master and say "Add oreo cookie, add cookie dough...add dinosaur...add hot mess".