The last day of activities in Tempe included a daylong series of SPU workshops at the Phoenix Country Day School, where we involved five groups of students from grades 7 through 12 in an exercise to construct fictional countries. A student proposed the creation of “Perfect land”, “a place where there is no fee to get in” and where “the weather is always perfect”. It is no wonder that temperature would be an issue here, where the heat can reach 120 F on any given summer day. The proposals for new countries, which came from inner-city kids who mostly have Latino or mixed backgrounds, reflected their desire in creating places where cultural integration is a given (another of the countries proposed had “Spanglish” as the official language.

Our vehicle misfortunes continued with two unpleasant incidents: a $500 repair bill from a local shop after we took the Panamerican Van for a general checkup ( spark plugs, ignition wires, fuel injection service, change of front rotor). When we got the van back, we discovered someone had broken into it and stolen a few pieces of equipment. It was useless to demand restitution at the shop, whose manager behaved as if such thing would be impossible. Because we were ready to leave, we had to drop the matter. But Marilyn Zeitlin, our ever-optimist host, assured us: “It is an inoculation for the rest of the trip: now you will be so careful that this will not happen again”.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

El ultimo día de actividades en Tempe incluyó una serie de talleres donde los niños de la escuela fronteriza Phoenix Country Day School construyeron países ficticios. Uno de ellos propuso la creación de “Perfectland”, “un lugar donde no hay cuota para entrar” y donde “el clima es siempre perfecto”. No es de sorprenderse, dada la violencia de la frontera y de la temperatura que llegaba a los 120 grados Farenheit.

La camioneta sufrió nuevos robos de equipo, pero como había que partir, hubo que olvidar el asunto. Alguien nos dijo que era buena señal: “ahora serás tan cauteloso que quedarás inoculado ante todo robo.”

Toward our last stretch to Tempe, we planned few detours, but none of them fully worked out as planned due to the eventualities of the road.

We have not written in this blog about our daily life alongside the main commuter community of these roads: the truck trailer drivers, who we always bump into in diners, gas stations and coffee shops along the road. Particularly on the stretch of I-40 going from Kansas City to Phoenix, we have been constantly surrounded by enormous cargos that usually go by at 80 mph. The highway is definitely owned by them, and they live— and tragically, die— in it. As we were attempting to stop at Meteor Crater City (a tourist attraction where a gigantic meteor left a giant crater) an fatal crash between two tractor trailers tookl place 10 minutes ahead from us. The highway was paralyzed for nearly 2 hours. It is estimated that every 18 minutes in a U.S. highway there is an accident involving a tractor trailer, resulting in death or injuries. The devastation of the two vehicles was complete, and the road was in flames with almost nothing left of the trucks as if both had been carrying explosives.

On a more positive note, we entered Arizona, first seeing the “Chief Yellowhorse Trading Post” which turns out to be the remnants of a movie set from a 1950s movie with Kirk Douglas. (These views of fictional landscape, however, seem to be a constant theme in the urban landscape of Arizona, as we have seen so far, but we shall write more later on this). We then stopped in Flagstaff, a mountain-like community at 6000 feet that reminded us of Banff, Alberta. Despite the challenge of negotiating the mountain roads, it was an interesting hybrid of mountain and desert landscape. We were interested in visiting Sedona, a famous scenic attraction in Arizona, but the roads were closed due to a wildfire whose smoke rose ominously on the horizon like a large golden cloud. After negotiating that last hurdle, as well as Phoenix’s urban grid, we finally arrived to Tempe (109 degrees Farenheit), where we realized that if we had managed to escape the fires of the road and of the forest, we are still at the mercy of the heat of the desert.

The Panamerican Van has now driven 7,400 miles. Driving time: 140.5 hours.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

En nuestro último día hacia Tempe planeamos pocas paradas, pero ninguna de ellas funcionó exactamente de acuerdo al plan dadas las eventualidades del camino.

No hemos escrito en este blog nada acerca de nuestra vida comunal con el grupo principal que puebla estas carreteras: los choferes de trailers, quienes siempre encontramos en cafés y gasolineras en la carretera. Particularmente en la sección de la carretera inter-estatal I-40 que va desde Kansas City a Phoenix, hemos estado completamente rodeados de enormes trailers que van como mínimo a 80 millas por hora (120km/h). Son los dueños indiscutibles de las carreteras, y viven y (trágicamente) mueren en ellas. En lo que tratábamos de detenernos en Meteor Crater City (un lugar que como su nombre indica existe un crater enorme generado por un meteoro) tomó lugar un choque fatal entre dos trailers que estaban a 10 minutos de donde nosotros estábamos. La carretera se paralizó por dos horas. Se estima que cada 18 minutos, en una carretera de Estados Unidos, se da un accidente entre trailers que resulta en muerte o lesiones de personas. La destrucción de esos dos vehículos fue total, el camino estaba en llamas y prácticamente no había quedado nada de los vehículos, como si ambos hubiesen sido detonados con explosivos.

En temas más positivos, entramos a Arizona donde nuestra primera vista fue un campamento indigena llamado ‘Chief Yellowhorse Trading Post” que resulta ser un campamento ficticio hecho por Hollywood para una película con Kirk Douglas en los años 50. (Esta sensación de paisaje ficticio, sin embargo, ha predominado hasta ahora en nuestras percepción inicial de Arizona, pero ya escribiremos más al respecto sobre ellas).

Nos detuvimos en Flagstaff, una comunidad en las montañas a 6,000 pies del mar que nos recordó a Banff, Alberta. A pesar de la dificultad de negociar el paisaje montañoso, fue interesante ver este híbrido entre montaña y desierto. Nos interesaba visitar Sedona, un escenario natural famoso de Arizona, pero los caminos estaban cerrados por un incendio forestal cuyo humo se levantaba amenazador en el horizonte, con un color casi dorado. Después de salvar ese nuevo obstáculo, y después de pasar la entreverada red de avenidas de Phoenix, finalmente llegamos a Tempe ( a 109 grados Farenheit) donde nos dimos cuenta que si bien habíamos evadido el fuego de la carretera y del bosque, aún estábamos a la merced del calor del desierto.