Taliesin West was the Winter home of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale Arizona.

Many of Wright’s most famous buildings were designed in the drafting room at Taliesin West, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and Grady Gammage Auditorium at Arizona State University in Tempe. Taliesin West continues as the headquarters of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and as the winter home for the School of Architecture.

All of you who are following the vacation adventures of Basil know that he is most certainly not a pet. He is acutely interested in architecture and in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright in particular. One of the main reasons he agreed to visit Scottsdale was that he would be able to tour Taliesin West.

Imagine his surprise when a series of mis-steps caused his dream to falter.

The first time he visited the Taliesin West complex, he could not even get near the place. A sign on the road announced that it was closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during August. On Thursday, he was finally able to visit but what a shock to find a sign by the main entrance which declared that “pets” were not welcome and what an even greater shock to find that the tour guides considered Basil to be a pet, rather than the esteemed member of the technology community which he is.

Basil had to be satisfied wandering around the grounds and climbing various buildings to get a better view.

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

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Inquiring minds want to know.

Why was Basil lost, and where was he.

Well, we don’t really know where-all he was while hitchhiking from Mesa Arizona to Scottsdale Arizona but we do know why he got lost.

We only gave him a Post Office box address so he headed for 85254 without further questions. We believe that he did visit this post office in his travels.

It is quite near the Scottsdale Airport where Bill and Kathee Austin got on a helicopter on June 10, 2005 and flew to Sedona Arizona to get married in the helicopter, in the air, above Sedona.

The arrangements for the wedding were made by Crystal Powell, the owner of “All Out Aerial Tours” and now All Out Aerial and the Austins are trying to make arrangements for Basil to get a helicopter flight lesson prior to his departure from Scottsdale.

The Post Office is in a part of town called Scottsdale Airpark that is a local center of business activity but also has lots of good dining and entertainment. Basil appears to not have spent much time in the Airpark but we have heard from reliable sources at the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce that he was seen at Gilbert Ortega’s and other fine shopping venues in downtown Scottsdale.

We do know that Basil was seen near Tempe Town Lake, a man-made lake near downtown Tempe which is somewhat between Mesa and Scottsdale and known for it’s outdoor activities such as the Insight Bowl Block Party, Way Out West Oktoberfest, the Fourth of July Celebration, and the APS Fantasy of Lights.

When Basil was finally found he was standing near the most famous Scottsdale area landmark. Bill and Kathee Austin give people directions to their house using this landmark by saying … “Get off the 101 freeway at Scottsdale Road and go South until you see the giant blue neon phallic symbol and then turn right.” Sure enough, Basil remembered the landmark and had to take a closer look.

“That is not so big.” He was heard to say.

basil basil the donkey Austin Scottsdale Arizona AZ

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I suppose it had to happen eventually, right? I gave Easton the wrong mailing address for sending the Fawlty Towers DVDs to Bill and Kathee Austin. Actually, I think Bill forgot which mailing address he gave me, to give to Easton, but we’re not pointing fingers here!

I assumed over the length of Basil’s journey, which is already set to visit numerous countries and continents (check out the map!) that we’d have a couple mix-ups along the way…who knew it would happen on the smallest trip between Mesa, Arizona and Scottsdale, Arizona!

I’m happy to say that Bill and Kathee did receive the DVDs and they’ve taken a GREAT PICTURE!

Because of the delay in receiving the DVDs, I’ll have to confer with Bill and Kathee as to when they can send them to the next destination…Arncliffe, Australia! The DVDs and Basil will be heading to visit Leah Maclean next on a somewhat longer journey than between two cities in Arizona.

I want to thank Bill for sorting things out with me, and I’ll be sure to make sure I have the proper mailing address in the future! The DVDs are safe…and I look forward to hearing about how Bill and Kathee enjoy them!

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Have you always wanted to ask Basil something but never thought you could?

Now you can!

What do you want to know about Basil the donkey? Where he’s from? How old is he? Can he really whistle?

Post your questions in the comments (or email us) and I’ll make sure to answer them with Basil’s help.

My hope is to reach 20 questions, and wait until that point before answering them. If I get more than 20 questions I’ll look at answering more of them.

Enjoy!

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Although Basil’s left Mesa, Arizona and the Ellsworth Estate for … well, similar pastures in Scottsdale, Arizona with the Austins (since there’s only about 18 miles difference and he’s still in Arizona), Easton was good enough to send me one last picture of him and the Fawlty Towers DVDs.

Starbucker was the first to take a picture of himself with the DVDs and it’s a beauty!

Chris Cree and Liz Strauss managed to escape taking a picture of themselves with the DVDs, but Easton’s done it!

Very cool, Easton. Thanks for doing that!

As a final reminder, Easton is one of the guys responsible for the blog network Know More Media and personally writes Business Blogwire.

Incidentally (and Easton didn’t ask me to do this), Know More Media is looking for a couple of people to fill some roles there, including Expert Authors on a number of subjects (accounting, doing business in India, construction, etc.) and Software Developer. In my experience Easton’s been a great guy to work with, and I imagine the rest of the KMM crew is equally fun.

(Related Tags: know more media, easton ellsworth, business blogwire, fawlty towers)

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