Finally.

My article from my April 2009 press trip to Arizona is almost in print. Next month it will run in the Travel Writers’ Tales syndication. The combined circulation of this group of newspapers is just under 300,000. www.travelwriterstales.com/publishing_partners.htm

Part of my story is based on our visit to Tubac, Arizona, a very artsy town only an hour away from Tucson.

This is a picture of Kamon. He is a Vicegerent Elder Jesusonian living near that funky little artist town.  He is a member of an intentional community that bases their concepts of how to live on The URANTIA Book. I’m guessing that, like me, you’ve never heard of it either. Here’s a link to some of their site and more information about Kamon. http://gccalliance.org/profiles/members/8

Granted, that website looks pretty wild. And you can imagine what we were thinking at 6:30 a.m. when we were crawling into a little red car to go to some strange farm with two people we’d never met. Luckily I wasn’t alone. Actually, it was Thomas Spanhel from Germany who was the one that started the whole idea. But after everyone else in our group got cold feet, it was just Thomas and I that ended up getting into that little car with two people sporting Cheshire smiles.

We met Kamon, CipPriAnkhA and Gabriel of Sedona, along with other members of their community, at their big farmhouse and organic garden. My about-to-be published article is limited by word count and doesn’t do the visit justice. They treated us with kindness and light-hearted humour and seemed very open about their views and even took my joke about purple Kool-aid with grace and a quick comeback.

Not to mention the great  7:00 a.m breakfast they served us. It seemed like a comfortable place, though it certainly wasn’t sanctioned by Tourism Arizona. But I think they should know that it only makes their state that much more interesting. Not everything worth seeing should be safe and sanitized.

So, if you’re ever in Tubac, look for the pedicab drivers. They’ll invite you for a visit. Don’t worry. There was no evidence of matching running shoes and they delivered us back to reunite with the official part of the tour… exactly when they said they would.