Pie at "The Rock"

Yesterday we traveled to Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix to attend an anniversary party for one of my cousins.On the way back, we had a stop to make. 45 miles North of Phoenix, nestled at the base of the Bradshaw Mountains, is the Rock Springs Cafe.

The site of an ancient spring and later stagecoach stop, the cafe began in 1918 as a general store to serve the miners and travelers heading a long the old dusty single track that ran North out of Phoenix. Starting in a canvas tent, the buildings were erected in 1924 and the small stop became a hotel and supply depot. Today, the old buildings are still there and the general store, one of the last 10 of the originals in Arizona, is still in business.

But what makes the place so popular is the pies, thousands of them. They sell fruit pies and cream pies and even cheesecake. People come from far and near to enjoy a slice or a whole pie. They sold over 50,000 pies in 2007. When we were there they must have had over  50 pies ready for sale and more came out of the kitchen as we made our selection.

We bought a strawberry cheesecake and a cherry pie.

Having enjoyed the high point of our day, we then got the flip side. I17 from Phoenix up to Flagstaff is a main artery but is only two lanes in each direction. For most of the way the North and Southbound lanes are separated by a large median area. Just South of our turnoff to Prescott, this median area had caught fire, resulting in the restriction of traffic in both directions. And there was a lot of traffic.

At the point we left the cafe, the restriction was amounting to a two hour delay. We spent about an hour inching along and then left the highway for a back way on a 25 mile stretch of dirt road up to Mayer. Of course, this being the wide open West, you never know when you will have to share the road.

Once the cattle crossed the road in front of us we continued on through the dust back up to paved highway and home. By the time we got home, the traffic situation had been resolved and the other Northbound travelers from the party encountered no delay. I guess we should have stayed in Phoenix and gone to Cabelas. Oh well, that's a trip for another day.