The behind-the-scenes drama was savage and plentiful at PHOENIX this month. Deep-desert auto breakdowns. Deadlines humiliated like adulterers in old Salem. One 48-hour journey deep into the dark, oily heart of Arizona gaming.
Well, maybe it wasn’t quite that dramatic. Guess I was just getting into the spirit of The Black Chip Diaries, writer Tom Zoellner’s irreverent road tale about touring each of Arizona’s 26 tribal casinos over a single weekend with his hard-drinking attorney buddy. Was it maybe just a little inspired by Hunter S. Thompson? Tom and I suspected as much, so art director Mirelle Inglefield went out and found a good illustrator who does a fairly sound impersonation of Ralph Steadman.
The road, in fact, did play an outsize role in this summer-travel-focused edition of PHOENIX. Mirelle and associate editor Maddie Rutherford helped make this true while shooting and reporting Maddie’s feature about the greatest Arizona Airbnbs, running out of gas 30 miles outside Wickenburg in the vintage 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser you see on the cover. (You also see Maddie on the cover. Earning her paycheck this month!)
“The road, in fact, did play an outsize role in this summer-travel-focused edition of PHOENIX.”
Thankfully, good, old dependable AAA eventually showed up with a gas can and bailed the girls out, but you’ll find more wisps of road drama in Jessica Dunham’s terrific Supernatural Southwest story about paranormal tourism in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, and in my own Arizona Diamondbacks Summer Road Trip Guide, based on experiences and “research” I’ve amassed over the years doing semi-annual baseball trips with high school friends.
All told, the package includes five longer-form summer travel stories I’m really proud of, plus a pair of hot-topic think pieces by celebrated Valley writers Robrt L. Pela and Stephen Lemons about the James Beard Awards and the Gilbert Goons suburban hoodlum clique, respectively.
It all adds up to what has become a tradition in our May/June issue – celebrating the Valley, while scheming a few ways to leave it come summer.
Craig Outhier
Editor-In-Chief
