What\u2019s up from Apache Junction, Arizona! Never heard of it? Understandable. It\u2019s a small town right outside of Phoenix, at the base of the Superstition Mountains. And it\u2019s definitely an\u2026 interesting place. But I\u2019ve been down here for two weeks now, and I\u2019m absolutely loving every minute of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know, I promised from day one that this wouldn\u2019t be a travel blog. And it isn\u2019t- I promise I\u2019m not going to rank all the McDonalds\u2019 in order from best to worst McChicken or tell you where to find the nicest Planet Fitness. But I do think it\u2019s worth writing about- because it\u2019s possible that Sheila and I have found our people. And because this place is just entertaining as hell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I knew from the moment we drove into town that I would fit in here. The RV storage lots with broken windows, countless old men on motorcycles, and generally lawless vibe it gave off made me feel right at home. Apache Junction is a desert town. It\u2019s mainly made up of trailer parks, RV \u201cresorts,\u201d and other, individually parked trailers. There is a Saloon called the \u201cHitching Post\u201d- a place I still haven\u2019t visited but can\u2019t wait to see the inside of. It\u2019s small enough that the streets aren\u2019t usually too busy, but it also has everything I could possibly need (WalMart, Planet Fitness, and Dollar General). And the BLM land I am parked on is a 5 minute drive at most from beautiful hiking and trail running. But the moment I realized that I would actually fit in here came last night as I was cooking rice in my JetBoil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suddenly, the loud rumble of a motorcycle made me look up from my instant rice, only to see a single person riding by slowly, looking in my direction. Excited to finally have an encounter with one of the locals, I waved. But then, much to my surprise, they reacted by turning their motorcycle towards me and slowly riding over. \u201cOh shit\u2026\u201d I thought to myself. \u201cI really need to stop waving at strangers.\u201d But it was too late. And as she approached (and I realized they were in fact a \u201cshe\u201d), the full picture came together. I never caught her name, but in the spirit of Apache Junction, I\u2019m going to call this woman Darlene. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Darlene got closer, I started to make out her outfit- a large leather jacket, pink dew rag tied under her helmet, hair so short I couldn\u2019t see it under the bandana, sequined shirt and motorcycle pants. Her eyes were hidden behind extremely large (and also bejeweled) sunglasses. Slowing down as she rode up to my open side door, she shouted \u201cYou know where Silver is?!\u201d Hmm.. I hadn\u2019t met anyone in my little trailer park yet, but I racked my brain trying to remember if I had even seen anyone that looked like their name could be silver. I hadn\u2019t. \u201cNo, I\u2019m sorry!\u201d I shouted over her still-running motorcycle. \u201cAh, that\u2019s alright!\u201d She yelled. \u201cYou got a cigarette?!\u201d Well, as a matter of fact I did. I gave her one of my old, stale Marlboro Lights and a lighter, and as she sat in front of my van smoking we chatted about her dog, about camping around here and how she was nervous to sleep in a tent because of the coyotes, and about a few of the other neighbors I hadn\u2019t met yet- Nick, a small hispanic man who apparently gets rides from Silver, and another woman with a white dog whose name I can\u2019t remember. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finishing her cigarette, Darlene asked if I had seen any other campers in the area, to which I pointed her down the road and said that I had seen a few others in that direction. After telling me that she would blame me if her motorcycle got buried in the dirt, to which I promised that if I had directed her into a ditch I would happily tow her out, she rode off, I can only assume still in search of Silver. And as I watched her ride away, I smiled harder than I had all day. Darlene was a character. And I loved it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Classy people make me uncomfortable. They always have an air about them as though they have something extremely condescending to say, but are refraining from saying it due some desperate need to conform to the \u201crules\u201d of polite conversation. But not Darlene. I have no doubt that she says exactly what\u2019s on her mind, rules of polite conversation be damned. And I respect the hell out of people like her. Sure, they are a little rough around the edges, but they are unapologetically themselves- something the world could use a hell of a lot more of, if you ask me. And something I wish I had a little more of myself. So thanks Darlene for making my day. And if they\u2019re anything like her, I can\u2019t wait to meet the rest of my new neighbors. Because anywhere with a vibe like Apache Junction is a place I wouldn\u2019t mind being a part of- even just for a winter. Maybe I\u2019ll even meet Silver someday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What\u2019s up from Apache Junction, Arizona! Never heard of it? Understandable. It\u2019s a small town right outside of Phoenix, at the base of the Superstition Mountains. And it\u2019s definitely an\u2026 interesting place. But I\u2019ve been down here for two weeks now, and I\u2019m absolutely loving every minute of it. I know, I promised from day one that this wouldn\u2019t be a travel blog. And it isn\u2019t- I promise I\u2019m not going to rank all the McDonalds\u2019 in order from best to worst McChicken or tell you where to find the nicest Planet Fitness. But I do think it\u2019s worth writing about- because it\u2019s possible that Sheila and I have found our people. And because this place is just entertaining as hell. I knew from the moment we drove into town that I would fit in here. The RV storage lots with broken windows, countless old men on motorcycles, and generally lawless vibe it gave off made me feel right at home. Apache Junction is a desert town. It\u2019s mainly made up of trailer parks, RV \u201cresorts,\u201d and other, individually parked trailers. There is a Saloon called the \u201cHitching Post\u201d- a place I still haven\u2019t visited but can\u2019t wait to see the inside of. It\u2019s small enough that the streets aren\u2019t usually too busy, but it also has everything I could possibly need (WalMart, Planet Fitness, and Dollar General). And the BLM land I am parked on is a 5 minute drive at most from beautiful hiking and trail running. But the moment I realized that I would actually fit in here came last night as I was cooking rice in my JetBoil. Suddenly, the loud rumble of a motorcycle made me look up from my instant rice, only to see a single person riding by slowly, looking in my direction. Excited to finally have an encounter with one of the locals, I waved. But then, much to my surprise, they reacted by turning their motorcycle towards me and slowly riding over. \u201cOh shit\u2026\u201d I thought to myself. \u201cI really need to stop waving at strangers.\u201d But it was too late. And as she approached (and I realized they were in fact a \u201cshe\u201d), the full picture came together. I never caught her name, but in the spirit of Apache Junction, I\u2019m going to call this woman Darlene. As Darlene got closer, I started to make out her outfit- a large leather jacket, pink dew rag tied under her helmet, hair so short I couldn\u2019t see it under the bandana, sequined shirt and motorcycle pants. Her eyes were hidden behind extremely large (and also bejeweled) sunglasses. Slowing down as she rode up to my open side door, she shouted \u201cYou know where Silver is?!\u201d Hmm.. I hadn\u2019t met anyone in my little trailer park yet, but I racked my brain trying to remember if I had even seen anyone that looked like their name could be silver. I hadn\u2019t. \u201cNo, I\u2019m sorry!\u201d I shouted over her still-running motorcycle. \u201cAh, that\u2019s alright!\u201d She yelled. \u201cYou got a cigarette?!\u201d Well, as a matter of fact I did. I gave her one of my old, stale Marlboro Lights and a lighter, and as she sat in front of my van smoking we chatted about her dog, about camping around here and how she was nervous to sleep in a tent because of the coyotes, and about a few of the other neighbors I hadn\u2019t met yet- Nick, a small hispanic man who apparently gets rides from Silver, and another woman with a white dog whose name I can\u2019t remember. Finishing her cigarette, Darlene asked if I had seen any other campers in the area, to which I pointed her down the road and said that I had seen a few others in that direction. After telling me that she would blame me if her motorcycle got buried in the dirt, to which I promised that if I had directed her into a ditch I would happily tow her out, she rode off, I can only assume still in search of Silver. And as I watched her ride away, I smiled harder than I had all day. Darlene was a character. And I loved it. Classy people make me uncomfortable. They always have an air about them as though they have something extremely condescending to say, but are refraining from saying it due some desperate need to conform to the \u201crules\u201d of polite conversation. But not Darlene. I have no doubt that she says exactly what\u2019s on her mind, rules of polite conversation be damned. And I respect the hell out of people like her. Sure, they are a little rough around the edges, but they are unapologetically themselves- something the world could use a hell of a lot more of, if you ask me. And something I wish I had a little more of myself. So thanks Darlene for making my day. And if they\u2019re anything like her, I can\u2019t wait to meet the rest of my new neighbors. Because anywhere with a vibe like Apache Junction is a place I wouldn\u2019t mind being a part of- even just for a winter. Maybe I\u2019ll even meet Silver someday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-screw-ups"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/43B5CCD4-13A3-4F81-B80A-A2C6D7285D41-216AC391-8225-4FE9-9A8A-6B12A3BE929F-2.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screwingupandtakingnames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}