SAHUARITA

If you take Duval Mine Road and make a right and go over Highway 19 and pass by WalMart and then The Dollar Store and the tire place and the Twist and Shout Diner and then you take the first left, you will come to a shopping center with a Frys and a Sorrentino's Coffee and a Subway, a cleaner, dentist, Mexican restaurant, Italian restaurant, a Long Real Estate, and then you go under a Spanish-style arch and now you are in Rancho Sahuarita. This is a huge big Master Planned Community in the Town of Sahuarita which started being built in 2001 and still is not quite finished. The catch words for Rancho Sahuarita are "amenities" and "community" and it looks to be a fun, family-oriented place.

There are many builders in Rancho Sahuarita, all building brown-roofed homes in communities off the main road which runs through the development about 10 miles from one Mine Road exit to the next. There are 19 miles of paved trails in Rancho Sahuarita for your walking pleasure, as well as a bark park, playgrounds, miniature golf course, sports bar, lap pool, water park, splash pond, water slide, fitness center, kiddy train, playgrounds, and community pools.

It is quite the place.

A central attraction is a 10-acre man-made lake and with an urban fishing license you can catch and release catfish and rainbow trout. There is a park and a picnic area around the lake and also a walking trail. Since this is a public place, I parked in a lot and walked around the lake. It was hot but pleasant.

I also went to see several brown-roofed model homes. All the houses I saw were attractive and livable and not crazy with glam. In one of the model homes, the real estate agent asked where I was from. When I told her, she knew exactly where. Before she moved to Sahuarita, she had been nearly a neighbor.