Prison, Anyone

As we traveled about the central Arizona area it soon became apparent that there are a lot of facilities with high fences, ribbons of razor wire, concrete buildings with narrow slotted windows all over the area.  There are sixteen prisons run by the Arizona Department of Corrections and several of them are in and around the area that we have been visiting.

In addition to the ADC complexes there are several U.S. Border Patrol Detention Centers in the area as well.  These detention centers are for immigrants caught crossing the border between Arizona and Mexico as well as other immigration issues.  

The freeways around these facilities warn drivers not to pickup hitch hikers with street signs.

Often you will see inmates (we assume trustees) working in various places along your travel route.  They wear orange jumpsuits with ADC on the back and can be seen working along the Arizona highway system doing various jobs.  There were inmates at the Silver Mine in Bisbee cleaning up and removing trash.  We saw a couple working in Tombstone under the watchful eye of an armed Sheriff. And they help non profits like Habit for Humanity building homes.

Perhaps it is the stark areas in which these facilities have been put that make them stand out as you drive by.  In Washington there are 12 facilities and frankly I haven't seen or paid any attention to any of them.  Perhaps the countryside just absorbs them in and I don't see them as much as I do when I am driving down a long, flat highway in a desert with very little vegetation or hills.

I went to another baseball game at the Peoria Sports Complex yesterday.  The Mariners played the Kansas City Royals and lost 3-0.  I must say that Felix looked good until he gave up a double and then a sacrifice fly for a single score early in the game but he pitched six innings with only two hits, his longest outing of the 2015 spring training season.  Jeremy Guthrie threw 5 2/3 innings of two hit baseball for Kansas.  Mariner reliever Danny Farquhar gave up a two-run single from Ryan Jackson with two outs in the eighth inning. 

I had an incredible seat up a few rows and to the left of home plate.  The sun was out and it was in the nineties at game time.  While I didn't have shade for the first hour of the game, it was a relief when it arrived in the fourth inning.  I was mighty hot by then and couldn't touch the arms of the seat without feeling some heat.

One last thing before I go.  I don't think you can get away from traffic no matter where you go unless you just stay home.  Leaving the Peoria area to drive home after the game I ran into rush hour traffic on the I 10.  No accidents, just a lot of slow downs and stops for no real reason, just like Seattle and L.A.  I felt like I was on the brakes more than the gas all the way through Phoenix.  Once through town and heading south it opened up and the 75 mile an hour speed limit was attainable.  It took an hour and fifteen minutes to drive up in the morning and two and half hours to drive home.  I stopped to get some dinner as it was past dinner time.  When I got home I immediately changed into my bathing suit and hit the pool for an hour before coming home.

All in all a very enjoyable day.  Friday, Mia leaves me and Honey at the trailer while she goes to a huge Quilt Guild show in Mesa and I will be looking for places for us to stay in the Flagstaff, Sedona area as we intend to move sometime next week.

Hope all is well and thanks for visiting.