Latest / Arizona Unscripted / Episode 6: 🌵 Arizona Unscripted - Life on the Arizona Strip
Transcript
- Arizona Unscripted: Welcome to Arizona Inscripted, a podcast all about Arizona and ever every place in Arizona. All about the people, places, and and things we do in Arizona that make the state great and fantastic. ⁓ today we are we have a couple of great guests, but first of all I want to introduce my co host Diane. Are you there, Diane? I see you. Hello, yes, Bart. So great to be back here with you. Welcome back. Yeah, thanks. How's the how's how's the weather out in your neck of the woods, they say? Well, we're a little over a hundred, so it's warming up. ⁓ we call this preheating. You know, I keep telling people it's it feels really super hot right now. but as it gets hotter, we're gonna wish we could go back to this. So when it starts cooling down and we get to a hundred, we're like, ⁓ my gosh, it's amazing. It's only a hundred. But on the way up, it's a little suffocating. Yeah, it is. It's a it's gonna be a little bit. But you know, the Arizona, we know our state's incredible, right? It's got all this range of elevations and I I think sometimes people don't realize they think of Arizona, think of a c like a cactus or I don't know, or something. And and the reality is it's such a diverse state. I mean, we have we have a little creek in the middle of the state, kind of a small little thing. Yeah. That little creek that runs through Mojave County, the Grand Canyon. But you but we have we have such diversity. I mean, wildlife to I mean I I want everybody to come here. Just come to Arizona, hang out, even in the come in hot come in hot weather, enjoy it. Think of it like a sauna, you know. And we do have air conditioning. So if you can't handle it outside anymore, just step inside and enjoy enjoy a beverage with one of your neighbors. And listen, hey, we should introduce our guests. We have a guest today, and maybe more than one. I think or Jim's online too. Jim, are you there? Can you hear? Yep, I'm here. I see ya. There you are. How are you doing, Jim? Things are hot here, that's for sure. You getting a wind tunnel effect yet? Is it still the wind's still kicking up? You know, it's been pretty nice in the last couple of days, but yeah, we have had the wind going pretty strong up here. Yeah. We just got back from Washington. And I was sitting outside and I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, it feels like a freight train. And it was the wind storm coming through. So it is no joke here. Yeah, it's we talked about wind wind ⁓ generators. We should have them in our backyards here. We could Yeah, I know. I should ⁓ hey do you mind those who people do they do wind sailing on sand? Have you have you seen that? Hate to say ⁓ Sounds super cool. You get on like a little like a like a little scooter and you put it with the sail up and you sail across the Yeah. They do that on them flat ⁓ lake beds, the dry lake beds. Man, it's that could be that can be painful though if you flip over. We have Katherine with us here today too. Hey Katherine. Hi everyone, how is everybody doing today? Yes, I understand it's supposed to get warm this week, but I did take my Walk this morning despite the I think it was about 92 when I was out there for my walk. But ⁓ I was happy to get home and you know, then you just immediately jump in the shower, right? Because you you you're sweaty and hot. But ⁓ I'm really excited about our guest today. Kathy Kathy from up in the district four, the ⁓ sort of unknown area of Arizona. I'm I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say about ⁓ what's happening up there. Great. Well that's a good introduction, Kathy. Hello. Hi. Hi, everybody. So great to have you here with us today, Kathy. Yes, I've got to explain where we're at. We're up in ⁓ the northwestern part of Arizona, in this tiny little Arizona strip area between Utah and Nevada. And nobody really knows about us because they take I-15 and they just if you blink you're you missed it. That sounds rural. That's pretty rural. I looked for your town on the map, Kathy. Yeah. I actually because Kathy lives in Scenic, I believe, and I looked on three different maps and it was not. on any of ⁓ And it it's frustrating because I don't even really know where Scenic is. I know the general area, but I I couldn't find it on the map. No, you won't find it on any map. No, we we have ⁓ we have ⁓ five unincorporated areas in this Arizona strip. It's Arvada, Beaver Dam, ⁓ let's see, Desert Springs and Scenic. I guess that's four. Four and ⁓ anyway, yeah, we're unincorporated, therefore we don't get map space. So or or weather space on the TV channels or you know the Google card core car doesn't go across your ⁓ driveway, huh? Yeah, no take a picture. No, no, actually our streets really it's ⁓ because it's fairly new. It's 10 years old. So it's fairly new here. So we haven't had Google in our area. So you I just have to tell them like because we're we're dirt roads and every once in a while you like we have a private road so it's paved. And so you just say it's the paved road. And you're like I will say ⁓ I have made a few trips up there and it is so incredibly beautiful. And but I have to tell on myself because I mean we're in lower part of Mojave County. Well, lower compared to you on the other side of the Grand Canyon here. But I keep thinking, gosh, this is so rural. And then I come up to Kathy's area. I'm like, ⁓ wait, hang on, hold my lemonade. This is rural. So Kathy, tell us what what is life like up there? Well, I mean, it's not, you know, you come. When I when we got here, it was because we could buy a good acre of land, you know, and it's quiet and there was just a sprinkling of lights, you know. So we ⁓ this is beautiful, and you're between, you know, two states and six miles from Mesquite, Nevada. So things aren't so bad, right? But then you find out that there's not a lot of like like ⁓ I don't know, I guess. It's beautiful. We sit out on our back porch. I mean, we've got we're surrounded by by beautiful mountains. The sunsets on the mountains are gorgeous. Yes. Every night. You just don't want to miss them. And then you can run out to the front yard and see, you know, the other side of the sunset. So we are blessed that way. So we do have it beautiful here. But the difference would be probably services. ⁓ You know, that happens, you know, you you don't think about it when you move out here. You just you don't think about, ⁓ you know, is is there pantries, you know, for the elderly? ⁓ is there, you know, what about the school children, you know, and and what do they how do they where do they get to play? Is there a park? Is there you're so spoiled by thinking that that's everywhere, you know. So we didn't move to rural. you know, on purpose so much as out of necessity for the land, you know, so that we could build my husband's shop that he wanted. So you don't think of what it means in real life until you experience it. And if you can for us it's it's fine. You know, we don't have any problems, but the community is wonderful. We've got the best people. They look out for each other. ⁓ we have we're starting up, you know, different committees, you know, to fix like, you know, for the pantry, for the elderly, ⁓ and for the young families. ⁓ we're doing things for the school, you know, starting up, getting the PTO, you know, revved up, trying to get parents more involved. ⁓ and so I think we're making a lot of changes. I mean, it's gonna cause where growth has been. astronomical. I mean we have gone from that little twinkles of light, you know, in the distance to a full on suburb. Wow. It's just that bad. And that's in eight years. ⁓ well. It's just, you know, and I I tried to get a a ⁓ how many are probably here. And it's around almost, you know, three to five thousand ish. You know. So yeah, it's it's huge. And the large, large homes. Is it like a it's like a a is it actual city or is it an incorporated area? How is it it's unincorporated. Okay. And so that's why we don't exist because we're unincorporated. So that means that our board of supervisors are our caretakers. And so I call ⁓ our mayor because our board of supervisors that we have here, I told him too in in the last meeting he meets He comes out every year. And so then the last meeting I went, you know, since we don't have any governance out here in our area, I says, you know, that makes you our mayor. And so if we have any needs, you need to help us. ⁓ And how did he respond to that, Kathy? He I could see him roll his eyes. Well, not roll his eyes. He just kind of like you could sell he was thinking about it and he went, I guess I am. So I said, so we need. Yeah. So anyway, that's and he is see that be three hours from where we live. Wow. For him to drive here. Yeah. So I can see where that's a problem. You know, you can't do that every month. ⁓ you've got district his district one is huge. And it's it's all rural too. I mean. He doesn't have any real big towns. He has a sliver of Kingman, Arizona. But really he does have a lot of area to cover if he he was gonna go visit everybody. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, we're just, you know, quiet neighborhoods, good people. ⁓ we would like to have a fire station out now. Yeah, that that'd be cool. You know, the one we have is ⁓ in Beaver Dam and that's ten miles away. That's ⁓ that's if if it's not further out. Ten miles away is to my house. And so usually it's just to cool off the the side the you know, concrete. But whatever's left after ⁓ ten minutes of fire. ⁓ Simple things that we maybe take for granted, like newspapers, post office, coffee shop, grocery store. ⁓ you don't have those luxuries that seem like just basics for some of the rest of us. You don't have those. So living is different up there. It is. And I and some people are very happy that way, you know, but we have to drive ⁓ ten miles one way to the post office to get our our mail. So you're not gonna do that every day. Right. You know, a couple of times a week maybe, you know, or if you're passing through. ⁓ yeah, things like that, you know, you don't think about until you're out here and and it would you know, it would be nice, but that's gonna be a federal plan and ⁓ and you gotta So we're not So it sounds like a lot of planning though, like you gotta really plan, right? Plan your life around getting you know medications if you need it or I mean gosh, that sounds ⁓ That sounds pretty pretty intense sometimes, I imagine, even though you're out there in that beautiful area. Yeah, it is. It it is. It's just that you just have you get used to what you have and how to work around it. But what what about healthcare, Kathy? We have a we do have ⁓ a clinic in Beaver Dam. And ⁓ but that is and the dentist we we lost our dentist. So And that was just recently. So we don't have a dentist there in that area. But ⁓ which is I guess okay. It's too bad though about the clinic. And because we have to we don't have a a doctor, we have a PA. ⁓ okay. So we've lost our doctors just within the past year. Yeah. So I think that's gonna be normal. you know, the way things are gonna be in the future. And I think they're ⁓ yeah, we're gonna be losing what little services we have. ⁓ like we c we can't have meals on wheels out here because we're too far away from anything. ⁓ we we have ⁓ Mesquite Nevada six miles away. They can't cross the border. That's part of their con ⁓ And we get for our pantry, ⁓ we're not getting much, but what we get we we love, you know, we're we're happy. ⁓ comes from Utah because we're too far away from Saint Mary's in Phoenix. ⁓ And they can't travel all that way anymore. It's just not productive for them to come all that way to us to give us food, you know, for our pantry. So we're ⁓ we're we're making or making some changes to the pantry to help the people ⁓ so we can get more things and we're breaking away from the the local church that had control over it. And they they want us to break off. And so we're we're just in the process of, you know, now we have to look for donors and and things like that. And that I think we'll be okay. In fact, I think I know we're gonna be better because we'll be We've got a a board now, you know, to look over the pantry and take care of it. So I think it's gonna be ⁓ much better. And maybe we can get, you know, food where we could deliver to, you know, a bag of food to the senior centers. People 20 years ago moved out here with their trailer to retire, you know, and everything was gonna be great, you know, and it was for them. That's what they wanted. They didn't want to just Quiet, you know, and and they could go into town if you know, which is mesquite and get whatever. Well, then 10 years goes by, maybe the spouse dies, you know. Right. And so now you've lost that income, you know, and you've lost that help. Yeah. You know, or 10 years in, you know, now you can't can't drive anymore, you know. Who knows? I mean these little things add up. And they can't get out of it either because they're stuck. Yeah, you're kind of stuck, right? You're stuck. You're stuck in they are. And if they don't have a lot of family to be able to help and and whatnot, which most of these people, you know, they're they're proud people. And and they're wonderful people, but those are the people we're looking at right now. Is how how can we help our our elderly, our disabled, our our people with you know with dis Children, I mean, it's getting to be to the point where we have to take notice and we have to make changes. So Yeah. I will say hearing across Arizona, our rural communities are greater impacted by health closures. I mean, if you're in a more urban area and you've got three or four or five to choose from and one goes down, it's not that big of a deal. But in rural, When you lose that, it's a bigger impact. And the cost of gas. And when you talk about 10 miles, 10 miles on a dirt road is very different than 10 miles on the freeway. ⁓ yeah. I went and did a road trip a few weeks back and I decided to take a dirt road. And yeah, that was a whole experience. And it took me like five times as long as it would just driving down a paved road. So I really had a deeper appreciation. for all of those services being down dirt roads that you need to drive. And this is impacting our families across the state, ⁓ in rural and really paying attention to how we can as neighbors help each other because the cost of food is going up and that pantry, I'm sure, is just life sustaining for some people. So important. Yeah, we've really grown there. ⁓ the last Just getting involved with it just ⁓ was a few months ago. I think Christmas time, there was like seventy-two families. Wow and then now it's over it's like a hundred and twenty, I was told. Thank goodness. And so that's a lot of growth. Huge growth. So yeah, we need to make changes and and we better be quick about it because you know, that's it's we don't get meat here for You know, and so that and that ex that's huge expense there on getting me. So yeah, we have a lot of a lot of growth here and a lot of changes, but the good thing about it is we have a good communities, you know, that'll gonna work together. You say I need something, that's that's great. Yeah. Yeah. So I I'm really looking forward to, you know, working with businesses and and the people in the community. think they're gonna be able to do their own ⁓ maybe maybe their own volunteer fire department type of thing is that is that that was not in the cards when I talked to the chief to chief hunt that that isn't something we have a fire department built already in CMEC Arizona at the very far end of it and the reason they did that is because they wanted to put in a subdivision so to put in a little a a you know quarter usually you have to have one one acre, five acre, or ten acres to build, but they made an exception for this one builder. Well, ⁓ so he had to build a fire station in order to secure that area. But it's not manned and it's not fit to be manned. There's no there's no living quarters. So they do have have like ⁓ a per a paramedic ⁓ ambulance and they have ⁓ a fire truck in there. ⁓ okay. They have something but yeah. But you gotta live nearby or someone's gotta be able to get it. Exactly. There has to be somebody that can grab that, you know, grab it and get to that spot. And and usually it's ⁓ they're at the other fire station. my gosh. But really challenges. Who who are you looking for? Is there any any people in the state you're looking for, like representatives and people that and even candidates, people that could be either looking to help help the area, help you out? What we what we have is like I said, you know, our board of supervisors ⁓ for for our dist our area and he would be our mayor. And I've already talked to him about it, you know, but ⁓ I know that and what's really funny is any of the candidates and and people that take care of us have to drive past us. in order to get to where they want to go, if it's Colorado City, if it's, you know, whatever city there is up north in the north rim of Grand Canyon. So we're like, hey, we're here. Stop on by. Have a cup of lemonade. Come on. Come on over. Well, I would say across Arizona, I think it's important to have an eye on our rule. community. So if people really want to make a difference, take a look around and reach out to people in your rural areas and see how you might be able to help. That would be great. Is there any ⁓ I have to ask, is there any can you spotlight any like local restaurants around there you guys love or in the area that you go to? Yeah, you know, come up. ⁓ my gosh, you're gonna get me embarrassed here. Okay. If you go to Beaver Dam, there is ⁓ the dam bar. Yes. And the damn store has ⁓ a little ⁓ red wagon, they call it, where you can get burgers and fries. Their fries are fabulous. that's it. That's it. Is there any ⁓ it well is there any kind of pseudo secret thing about the area you want it you want like you know, it's got ⁓ some special little nooks and cranny you want it describe. Yeah. We get a lot of visitors, especially during the winter. Our snowbirds come in. Okay. And or people just come in from all over. I don't want to advertise too much, but ⁓ side by sides going up through the mountains, you know, and just the desert rides. Are they beautiful? I mean, it's just beautiful to take, you know, rides around, but You know, it gets a little noisy, but nope no problem. We have an R V park. So yeah, we that's that's about the only thing there really is, is and people do come and they all have their RVs and even the people with their second homes are always, you know, that's it's a quiet winter. It's a quiet winter. But now do you find with the with the with the gas prices acceleratingly getting higher and higher? Are you seeing ⁓ something happening with that in your area? I do. In fact, I'm trying to think of the event that there was ⁓ recently and I noticed that there was a lot less people at the event. And the only thing I could think of, ⁓ it was ⁓ we have a damn jam. I love damn jam. It is, hey, we get some big ban people, you know, at this been going on for years and years. And ⁓ I did notice a decline in ⁓ the people in May. And I thought that was interesting because they would normally be extrem you know, you'd like no place to park. And so I yeah, I think I gas prices have affected us. And I guess the other thing I was gonna bring up and I forgot about was we do all of a sudden the past ⁓ I guess two and a half, three years. We now have where we had no gas stations to where now we have four truck stops and one more on the way. And so that that is that is very interesting, isn't it? ⁓ tax base. So Yeah. Are the meals decent at the truck stops? Are they okay? Have you Yeah, I forgot about that. They're truck stops. Okay. That's all I can say. The sun was all I remember going by some stopping at some, they were really good. Like they had some really great burgers. I mean some really Yeah, we haven't got that far yet. Maybe the fifth one will have a really great burger. The audience out there, you know you have your mission. Yeah. I have to do truck stop hopping. Well, I appreciate you shedding some light for us on your community and area and the challenges that you're facing up there. And we know that our people across the state are as well. So we would love to hear from our listeners and if you've gone in the area or what you're doing to cope out there. Bart. Yeah. I think that's I think that's a great idea. Just tell us what you think. Tell us, you know, please, yeah. You know, give us a shout out in the comment section, you know, subscribe to the podcast. And ⁓ I'm I'm super excited. I was telling her be the the audience doesn't know this, but in the background ⁓ Kathy there's a bunch of guitars and I'm like celivating a little bit. Guitar players like, this is awesome. Yeah, that's not me. We love our jam sessions. Yes, we do. We gotta go to the is there, yeah, is there an event but speaking of that? You had that one event, is there another one coming up on in in the summer that people can ⁓ go to? No, there's nothing in the summer. We would melt. ⁓ Yeah, we we we have a trash cleanup you can come to in in October. Desert trash cleanup. Yeah, that'd be fun. Or we've talked about a bowling contest across Mojave County in the summer to get out of the heat and into the air conditioning. So you have to be creative in the summer. Yes, you do. Thanks everybody for being on here today. Thank you. It was wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much, Kathy, for coming on. I really appreciate that. Okay. Thank you.