Elfrida, Arizona: Unincorporated Beauty on a Frequent Drive

Sometimes it just takes a while to get somewhere, so you might as well enjoy the ride.

We've gone from living in cities that take hours just to go miles because of traffic jams and accidents (and/or unreliable public transportation), to living in rural areas where hours is what you have to do in order to go shopping, then back and forth again.  Southwestern Florida was an odd duck in that we were basically rural but within so much yet, somehow, so little. That was complicated (as is our relationship with that area), but really whose relationship to any place isn't complicated when all things are considered?

Now, there aren't too many medical cannabis dispensaries here in Cochise County unlike up in the Phoenix area alone. If you want variety, you need to drive hours across this area which is roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island put together to get to the various dispensaries - all having their pros and cons, and without much competition (except for the ones "closer" to Tucson) they don't have the same prices/perks - for the most part - as they do elsewhere in the state.  We know we are still lucky, however, because parts of this state do not have ANY medical cannabis dispensaries. ZERO. There you can grow, as the law states you have to be at least 25 miles away as the crow flies to grow your own at home. However, due to the expensive, effort, and such it takes to grow your own, and grow it so it doesn't make you sicker, not every patient has the ability or desire to do so. Caregivers become the next option, but when any of the patients or caregivers live in the border zone requiring you to pass through a inner - and federal - border patrol checkpoint... That makes things a little trickier for the parties involved - especially vendors who may not get rid of all of their product prior to their need to return to home base.

But I suppose that story is more for Leafleur! This story is to once again tell you just how insanely gorgeous of a drive it is to go through Elfrida, especially at sunrise or sunset. In fact, taking so long to get to the dispensary up in Cochise this evening after already leaving later than we'd anticipated had the perk of being able to see this beauty. Oh what a night... (Can't wait to paint some of these shots...!)

We'll surely keep driving hours and hours through here for whatever. (Well, so long as gas prices aren't terribly insane.)