Basil’s long journey from Mesa to Scottsdale is finally over.

Apparently eighteen miles is a long way to hitchhike when you are a code-writing donkey who is used to sitting at a computer all day.

Since Basil’s arrival was expected by Friday evening, a Saturday morning search party was launched with crews hunting all over Scottsdale for him. Starting in his last known location around Old Town Scottsdale, the entire city was scoured looking for the wayward donkey. The Waterfront was a logical base of operations for the search for Basil because the 100 degree plus temperatures were sure to draw him to water.

After hours of diving into every canal and swimming pool in Scottsdale, the sunburned crews finally gave up. The Austins could not accept that Basil could possibly be lost and didn’t relish the thought of being the bearer of bad tidings, so they convinced the search team to put their heads together Saturday afternoon and think like a donkey. By golly, they finally determined that the energetic Basil just might have gotten sidetracked by the excitement of the crowds attending the SF Giants vs Kansas City Royals game at the Scottsdale Stadium.

While the search team and the Austins spread themselves nicely around the stadium and enjoyed the game, their many sets of eyes were able to pan the entire stadium intently for signs of Basil, but to no avail. After the game, they all disbanded, each going in different directions, promising to drive all the popular streets looking for Basil. Bill and Kathee wandered the streets calling out to Basil. Nearly giving up hope they headed home, hoping on hope that Basil would be waiting on their doorstep. As they approached the intersection of Scottsdale Road and Frank Lloyd Wright, they noted a large crowd had gathered at Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant. Kathee looked out the window and right under the massive blue neon symbol outside the restaurant, she caught a glimpse of something Basil-like among crowd.

As they got closer, Kathee cried out, “Ohmigosh, IT’S BASIL” … Our elusive Basil had been found!! Bill screetched to a near-halt, maneuvered the car over the curb and into the parking lot just as Basil looked up, wondering what all the fuss was about. Basil’s long journey from Mesa to Scottsdale, AZ was finally completed on Sunday afternoon with pizza and Guinness out by the pool. The Austins and Basil were so tired that the Blog of the Day Awards for Sunday did not actually get awarded until Monday.

(Related Tags: scottsdale, arizona, travel, tourism)