Mesa – Page 3 – Travelcraft Journal

November 30, 2015May 23, 2023

Thanksgiving at Usery Park

Every few years, my mom decides it’s time for a Thanksgiving picnic.

We’re kind of spoiled here in the Phoenix area by almost always having gorgeous weather on Thanksgiving Day. I guess we kind of pay for it with the crazy hot summers.

Anyway, ever since I was a kid, some years we have traditional Thanksgiving with a whole turkey and a dining room table, and other years we have turkey sandwiches at a desert picnic table.

This year, it was just my parents, Phillip, and I. We kept things super simple and picnicked at Usery Mountain Regional Park.

We still had the boisterous, house-full-of-people experience with Phillip’s side of the family the following Saturday.

But Thanksgiving Day was all blue skies and saguaros.

After picnicking, we took a short hike, chatting some and listening to the gravelly trail crunch under our feet, a cactus wren calling to us, and far off coyotes howling. The sun dipped low to backlight the landscape, putting glowing edges around fuzzy chollas and creosote bushes with their tiny, fragrant leaves, and making the evening seem magical.

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March 23, 2015December 9, 2025

The Return of Southwest Maker Fest

It’s almost time for the second annual Southwest Maker Fest, a free celebration of creativity and collaboration, hacking and tinkering. Once again, there will be lots of workshops, interactive maker booths, and music.

I’ll be presenting “Make Art Travel Journals Anywhere!” I’ve built on last year’s workshop to make it more hands-on.

Southwest Maker Fest will be held this Saturday, March 28 from noon to 8pm in downtown Mesa, Arizona. My workshop is at 12:30pm in the i.d.e.a. Museum HUB Classroom (150 W Pepper Place).

I’m also relaunching my newsletter with the next issue coming out this week! If you haven’t signed up previously, get on the list!

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April 8, 2014December 9, 2025

Southwest Maker Fest wrap up

So Southwest Maker Fest turned out to be eclectic and awesome. They had a street (or maybe it was two) in downtown Mesa blocked off for a live music stage and a whole variety of booths. In a matter of minutes, you could stroll by an open-source car, handmade flutes, geeks with 3D printers running, and an overalled man showing people how to weld.

There were presentations and demonstrations going on throughout the day at nearby venues. I gave my travel journal talk at an art gallery/event space.

Afterwards, I went to help out at the Gangplank booth for a bit. (Yep, I was one of the geeks at one of the 3D-printer-equipped booths.) I did my best to answer people’s questions about the collaborative workspace – but there’s really more going on there than I can keep up with.

By the time I was done there, I was so tired and hungry. Phillip and I took a quick tour of the booths on our way out, but we weren’t able to engage as much as we would’ve liked.

I’ll have to learn to weld another day.

All in all, it was a good start for Southwest Maker Fest and great to see a sampling of Phoenix’s diverse maker community come out of the woodwork and get together. I’m looking forward to the next event.

If you weren’t able to be there this year, you can get on the list to be notified about next year’s event. I’ll also be presenting about travel journals again at Craft Hack in May (watch the Facebook page or sign up for the Travelcraft Journal newsletter for details).

Photo of my talk by Trish Gillam.