I went outside and joined Ken in the washing process, but he was already finished with the roof and front. I did the lower sections while he did the upper areas on the sides and back that I couldn't reach. We also took time to wipe Waldo dry trying to eliminate all the spots that kept showing up if we left it dry on its own. Ken did the tires and wheels when I went back inside to shower and dry dishes.
We left at 1 to meet Dave and Jean Hosler, a 2nd cousin of Ken's, and both of them were friends of ours from our high school graduating class. It was about a 35 minute drive and on the way we stopped at Arcosanti, an urban laboratory focused on innovative design, community and environmental accountability. Their goal is to actively pursue lean alternatives to urban sprawl based on Paolo Soleri's theory of compact city design, Arcology where Architecture meets Ecology. Built by over 7,000 volunteers since 1970, Arcosanti provides various mixed-use buildings and public spaces where people live, work, visit, and participate in educational and cultural programs. It reminded me of the communes of the 60's. One of the ways (maybe the main way) they get revenue is through the selling of bells that they cast and each one is numbered and original.
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| The entrance to this unique community! |
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| This is the Visitor Area complete with showroom, cafe, and you can take an hour tour of the facility. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to do that. |
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| It really is quite a large facility. Currently about 30 folks live here but Paolo Soleri, the founder of Arcosanti in1970, had hopes that 5,000 people would live here! |
6 years ago when we were in this area, Dave and Jean had taken us to Cosanti, an Arizona Historic Site that is not a commune, but another place where these bells are made. We admired them at that time but did not purchase one. Ken had read about Arcosanti and decided he would really like to visit that community if we ever got back in the area. So he was excited when he realized that the Diner where we were meeting Dave and Jean was only 3 miles from Arcosanti. It is a very interesting place and the lady who greeted us had lived in Lancaster, PA for 13 years. She was very familiar with Lititz and the surrounding areas. Today we decided to purchase one of their bells and it took us quite awhile to find just the right one. They are very unique shapes, sizes, and each one has its own special sound when rung. We are thrilled with our purchase and are excited to hang it outside of Waldo.
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| Bells, bells and more bells! |
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| All shapes and sizes! |
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| They also cast some pottery! |
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| The windchimes were beautiful also! |
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| This is looking down on the cafe from the retail bell area! |
We had a wonderful lunch and time of sharing with Dave and Jean at a 50's Diner. What a nicely decorated eatery with the black and white checkered tiles, red accents, and 50's type pictures, cars, etc. The food was very good also, but the best part was the fellowship. Thanks, Dave and Jean, for taking time to meet with us.
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| Brought back memories for all of us! |
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| Dave and Jean drove from their vacation home in Scottsdale to meet us and we appreciated it! |
After a stop at Wal-Mart we were back to the CG by 6:00. Ernie and Noela joined us at 7:30 for a fun game of Racko which the women won. They also presented us with a new deck of Skip-Bo cards as a belated anniversary gift - how nice! I believe the women will be the winners now that we have new cards. Our old deck was almost impossible to shuffle and deal because they were so worn out! They left around 9 and I worked on the blog and downloaded photos.
Looking forward to doing some hiking in Sedona tomorrow!
How about a picture of the bell you chose?
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