Ajo, Arizona

Yesterday we headed into the town of Ajo to check it out. I think it depends who you are as to how much time it will take you to tour Ajo. It is a small town, with one stop light, one telephone exchange, one zip code and a population of 3,304 people in 2010, but we found there was lot’s to do!

We started off with a drive through town.

Highway 85 is the main road through town.

The town square reminded us of the many small towns we had driven through when we were in Costa Rica. There is a Catholic Church, Triangle Park (instead of a soccer field) in the center of the shopping area, and a bar nearby (although it wasn’t open air and was a restaurant as well).

Triangle Park

Immaculate Conception Church

Our first stop was the local grocery store which is at the north entrance of town. When we were in Borrego Springs last November I ran out of eggs so we stopped at their grocery store, which had limited selection and high prices, I was shocked to pay $5.00 for a dozen eggs!

I was pleasantly surprised with Olsen’s IGA in Ajo. It was well stock in every department, they even house the Ace Hardware store in the middle isles 🙂  I bought two red peppers and a bunch of celery for $1.69 and eggs were only a $1.29 a dozen, even their liquor prices were not that bad.  Most things I looked at were only marginally more expensive than any major grocery store.

Our next stop was to park the truck in the main shopping square and wander around. We got out of the truck at 11:52 a.m. just as the bells started ringing at the Immaculate Conception Church. They continued on for about seven minutes when they ended with twelve chimes to indicate the clock had reach 12:00 p.m.. We didn’t hear them again during our time in Ajo so they may just play at noon, but they were very pleasant to listen to.

Curley School was built in 1919 as Ajo’s public school. Today it has been converted into residences and studios for visiting artists.

Cool door into what the overhead sign, and the door, indicated was a restaurant.

When I first looked in I thought it was a pretty fancy looking place that might be worth a visit, but then I noticed there was only one table. It turns out the restaurant is closed but I thought it was pretty clever how they were marketing the space!

Our walking tour around the town center took us to the Visitor Information booth were we picked up some brochures and met a lovely couple from Indiana.

For Christmas our son and daughter-in-law gave us a membership to the Escapee RV Club and we have been trying to get a schedule of the upcoming boondock locations. So far hubby has had no response to the email he sent a few weeks ago, probably because they are boondockers and may not have access to Wi-Fi. We knew some of the group was in Ajo, so when I heard a women in the Visitor Centre ask the staff a question about a tour she was interested in for the Escapee group, I took the opportunity to talk to her. Hubby and I actually spent a good half hour outside the Visitor Centre talking to her and her husband and we not only came away with a copy of the upcoming boondock schedule, we also received an invite to join them today at the group’s happy hour.

We followed that with some time at the local library were they had excellent free Wi-Fi, so we were both able to do some updates to our computers, iPads, and my phone.

By that time it was after two and hubby thought we should go out for lunch at the 100 Estrella Restaurant but unfortunately that didn’t work to well. We were told that they were very busy and were not taking any more customers until 3:00 p.m. Good for them, sad for us because it smelled really good in there!

We did a lot more yesterday but I will save some for future blogs … stay tuned 🙂

Until next time …