(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)
Two weeks from today, Friday, April 4, we will be pulling out of Gila Bend and back on the road. More about this in a few minutes. As you might be able to tell from the first photos above, we had a little excitement around here on Monday of this week. Well, the pictures won’t tell you it was Monday, but they do show the excitement.
There are a number of “workers” residing at the campground now that are doing construction work in the area. Some of them are driving very large, side-dump trucks which they park in the twenty acres at the back of the RV Park, which is in the line of sight from our camping spot. They usually get back from the job in mid-afternoon, about 3:00.
So, on Monday afternoon we happened to look out our window and saw a large cloud of black smoke rising upward from the desert. Our view was obstructed by another RV, so we pulled on our shoes, which we normally don’t wear in the trailer during hot weather, and went out to take a closer look. The first photo is what we saw. The right, rear tires (four of them) were blazing. The driver pulled his tractor away from the trailer and got on his cell phone.
The first to arrive on the scene was curious campers. After awhile (five or ten minutes) a Sheriff’s car arrived, then another. They stood around and watched the tires burn. After several more minutes a fire truck finally came roaring down the road. It took them a few minutes to get things setup, but they got the fire under control, as you can see by the second photo. The company carted off the useless trailer a few days later. Things back to normal.
On Thursday, in preparation for our coming road trip, we had to take the truck into Phoenix to get our 30,000 mile maintenance done. We have only about 26,000 miles on the truck, but close enough to have a good inspection before our trip. During the four hours it took to get this work accomplished, we walked to a near-by shopping area and spent time “window shopping.” We do very little actual shopping anymore, except for groceries and diesel fuel, which now is at $4.00 a gallon in this neck-of-the-woods.
After we picked up the truck, we went to Camping World to get some needed items for the RV and then to a very interesting eating place in Mesa (East of Phoenix) called Organ Stop Pizza. You see a photo of the outside of the restaurant above. Now here is a little bit of history on the place.
In 1972, the original Organ Stop Pizza restaurant premiered in Phoenix, Arizona at the corner of 7th Street and Missouri Avenue with a Wurlitzer pipe organ which was originally built for Grauman's Hollywood Egyptian Theater. This unique concept of a pizza parlor with a pipe organ was envisioned by William P. Brown, a Phoenix real estate developer whose enthusiasm for the theater pipe organ and its music led to the creation of this landmark attraction.
The phenomenal success of the Phoenix restaurant prompted plans to open another Organ Stop in Mesa. It opened in 1975 near the corner of Dobson and Southern Avenue with a Wurlitzer organ from the Denver Theater in Denver, Colorado. In the theater, the Denver instrument had 15 ranks, or sets of pipes. The instrument was totally rebuilt, and the decision was made to enlarge the organ to 23 ranks for its debut in the new Mesa Organ Stop.
The success and popularity of the new Organ Stop Pizza mirrored that of the Phoenix location. In 1984, Bill Brown decided to retire from the restaurant business. The Phoenix Organ Stop was sold to a real estate developer, who sold the pipe organ and demolished the building in favor of an office complex. Incidentally, that instrument was sold to a couple in Downers Grove, Illinois, for installation in their home! The Mesa Organ Stop was sold to longtime employee and manager Mike Everitt and his partner Brad Bishop. Under the new ownership, improvement of the pipe organ became a high priority. Over the course of the ensuing years, careful acquisition of rare pipework and percussions were made, culminating in what is now the largest Wurlitzer pipe organ in the world. With the change in ownership, the restaurant continued to gain in popularity. Inevitably plans were made to move into a facility twice the size of the original in order to accommodate the ever increasing number of patrons and ever-expanding organ. This new mega facility, located at the corner of Stapley Drive and Southern Avenue, was designed specifically to accommodate the expanding scope and size of the Organ Stop Wurlitzer. Construction of the new facility began in May of 1995 and the grand opening was Thanksgiving weekend of that same year.
In its new and improved location, Organ Stop Pizza and its “Mighty Wurlitzer” have come to be known as the biggest and best in the world as attested to by many of the world's finest theater organists and, more importantly, the hundreds of thousands of patrons who visit each year. There are continuing efforts to make additions and improvements to the organ, endeavoring to fine tune the instrument closer and closer to perfection.
The restaurant doesn’t open until 4:00 PM. We got there about 4:15 and the place was already crowed. You order and pay for your meal (pizza, salad, soup, drinks, etc.) and wait until your order is prepared. For us it took about 30 minutes, so in the meantime we found a table (which is shared by others) and waited for our order number to appear on the electronic board in the eating area which consisted of a down-stairs and an up-stairs balcony along the sides and rear. We chose the right side balcony close to the front.
The front area had a large circular stage out of which rose the Wurlitzer and the organist, on this night it was Lew Williams. The whole front wall, floor to ceiling, and a portion of each side wall, comprised the pipes, drums and bellows. The organ music starts at 4:30 and lasts throughout the eating hours, with a break now and then. The organist plays a variety of music and takes requests from the audience which are placed in a basket on the stage. You see a picture of the organ and Lew Williams above. The food was nothing special, but the music and atmosphere was nice and enjoyable. They even had a sing-a-long.
The trip for the day was a total of 207 miles, at four-bucks a gallon, not cheap. One has two choices: go or stay. We choose to go awhile, then stay a while. So, up coming is our going part. Before we reach Tennessee again, we will be stopping in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois (Chicago) and Indiana. Our trip will be about 4,000 miles and eleven new states. We plan to arrive back in Tennessee toward the end of May.
The rest of the year is already planned, but more about that another time.
There are a number of “workers” residing at the campground now that are doing construction work in the area. Some of them are driving very large, side-dump trucks which they park in the twenty acres at the back of the RV Park, which is in the line of sight from our camping spot. They usually get back from the job in mid-afternoon, about 3:00.
So, on Monday afternoon we happened to look out our window and saw a large cloud of black smoke rising upward from the desert. Our view was obstructed by another RV, so we pulled on our shoes, which we normally don’t wear in the trailer during hot weather, and went out to take a closer look. The first photo is what we saw. The right, rear tires (four of them) were blazing. The driver pulled his tractor away from the trailer and got on his cell phone.
The first to arrive on the scene was curious campers. After awhile (five or ten minutes) a Sheriff’s car arrived, then another. They stood around and watched the tires burn. After several more minutes a fire truck finally came roaring down the road. It took them a few minutes to get things setup, but they got the fire under control, as you can see by the second photo. The company carted off the useless trailer a few days later. Things back to normal.
On Thursday, in preparation for our coming road trip, we had to take the truck into Phoenix to get our 30,000 mile maintenance done. We have only about 26,000 miles on the truck, but close enough to have a good inspection before our trip. During the four hours it took to get this work accomplished, we walked to a near-by shopping area and spent time “window shopping.” We do very little actual shopping anymore, except for groceries and diesel fuel, which now is at $4.00 a gallon in this neck-of-the-woods.
After we picked up the truck, we went to Camping World to get some needed items for the RV and then to a very interesting eating place in Mesa (East of Phoenix) called Organ Stop Pizza. You see a photo of the outside of the restaurant above. Now here is a little bit of history on the place.
In 1972, the original Organ Stop Pizza restaurant premiered in Phoenix, Arizona at the corner of 7th Street and Missouri Avenue with a Wurlitzer pipe organ which was originally built for Grauman's Hollywood Egyptian Theater. This unique concept of a pizza parlor with a pipe organ was envisioned by William P. Brown, a Phoenix real estate developer whose enthusiasm for the theater pipe organ and its music led to the creation of this landmark attraction.
The phenomenal success of the Phoenix restaurant prompted plans to open another Organ Stop in Mesa. It opened in 1975 near the corner of Dobson and Southern Avenue with a Wurlitzer organ from the Denver Theater in Denver, Colorado. In the theater, the Denver instrument had 15 ranks, or sets of pipes. The instrument was totally rebuilt, and the decision was made to enlarge the organ to 23 ranks for its debut in the new Mesa Organ Stop.
The success and popularity of the new Organ Stop Pizza mirrored that of the Phoenix location. In 1984, Bill Brown decided to retire from the restaurant business. The Phoenix Organ Stop was sold to a real estate developer, who sold the pipe organ and demolished the building in favor of an office complex. Incidentally, that instrument was sold to a couple in Downers Grove, Illinois, for installation in their home! The Mesa Organ Stop was sold to longtime employee and manager Mike Everitt and his partner Brad Bishop. Under the new ownership, improvement of the pipe organ became a high priority. Over the course of the ensuing years, careful acquisition of rare pipework and percussions were made, culminating in what is now the largest Wurlitzer pipe organ in the world. With the change in ownership, the restaurant continued to gain in popularity. Inevitably plans were made to move into a facility twice the size of the original in order to accommodate the ever increasing number of patrons and ever-expanding organ. This new mega facility, located at the corner of Stapley Drive and Southern Avenue, was designed specifically to accommodate the expanding scope and size of the Organ Stop Wurlitzer. Construction of the new facility began in May of 1995 and the grand opening was Thanksgiving weekend of that same year.
In its new and improved location, Organ Stop Pizza and its “Mighty Wurlitzer” have come to be known as the biggest and best in the world as attested to by many of the world's finest theater organists and, more importantly, the hundreds of thousands of patrons who visit each year. There are continuing efforts to make additions and improvements to the organ, endeavoring to fine tune the instrument closer and closer to perfection.
The restaurant doesn’t open until 4:00 PM. We got there about 4:15 and the place was already crowed. You order and pay for your meal (pizza, salad, soup, drinks, etc.) and wait until your order is prepared. For us it took about 30 minutes, so in the meantime we found a table (which is shared by others) and waited for our order number to appear on the electronic board in the eating area which consisted of a down-stairs and an up-stairs balcony along the sides and rear. We chose the right side balcony close to the front.
The front area had a large circular stage out of which rose the Wurlitzer and the organist, on this night it was Lew Williams. The whole front wall, floor to ceiling, and a portion of each side wall, comprised the pipes, drums and bellows. The organ music starts at 4:30 and lasts throughout the eating hours, with a break now and then. The organist plays a variety of music and takes requests from the audience which are placed in a basket on the stage. You see a picture of the organ and Lew Williams above. The food was nothing special, but the music and atmosphere was nice and enjoyable. They even had a sing-a-long.
The trip for the day was a total of 207 miles, at four-bucks a gallon, not cheap. One has two choices: go or stay. We choose to go awhile, then stay a while. So, up coming is our going part. Before we reach Tennessee again, we will be stopping in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois (Chicago) and Indiana. Our trip will be about 4,000 miles and eleven new states. We plan to arrive back in Tennessee toward the end of May.
The rest of the year is already planned, but more about that another time.
No comments:
Post a Comment