We stopped off for a quick lunch at The Good Egg where the hot sauce of choice was Arizona Gunslinger. It wasn't as hot as the name promised. I guess when I really want HOT sauce, I have to pick the bottles with flames coming out! Outside, a Mynah bird sitting in the tree above the car looked at us curiously. Birds in Arizona seem to be even more nonchalant than California birds - it must be the weather.

After lunch, we set off for Arcosanti. Arcosanti is an experimental town located on a mesa in the Arizona desert 70 miles north of Phoenix off I-17. When completed, it will house 7000 people within only 25 acres of land out of the 4060 acres, with the rest reserved as natural open space. Right now, there are only 70-odd folks living there full time while the complex is constructed. According to Arcosanti's founder Paolo Soleri, the idea behind the project is to combine architecture and ecology or "arcology", in order to decrease surburban sprawl. "In an arcology, the built and the living interact as organs would in a highly evolved being. ©" This means building structures that will take advantage of natural energy resources such as solar and wind power and compacting the structure in such a way as to eliminate the use of the automobile for every-day living. You can read more about the Arcosanti Project on the Arcosanti web site.

Driving out of Arcosanti, we could not help but notice the extreme isolation of the location. The desert stretched on for miles as far as the eye could see. It was already late in the afternoon, so we made our way back towards Phoenix to find a picnic spot for dinner before catching our flight home.