Photo courtesy of Marcel Molina, Jr. Massachusetts Institute of Technology sophomore Lisa Smith stands in the doorway of her 1950âs Spartan Manor trailer, where she spent two nights. Small chili pepper lights and vintage yellow chairs compliment the trailerâs fifties exotica dŽcor.

Odd locales await the intrepid

Remember long summers when you had nothing better to do than pile into a cramped two-door compact and drive across the country?

Remember eating at dusty Cracker Barrels and buying cheap sunglasses from roadside novelty stores and gas stations?

Remember driving to Wally World and getting into all sort of crazy wacky adventures along the way?

Weeklong summer road trips may be mere fantasies for most college kids. Between summer school, the summer job that pays for summer school and the prohibitively expensive cost of gasoline, there just isnât the time or the money for fun-filled summer getaways. But summer shouldnât be completely without its joys. Enter the summer day trip.

While it may be the vacation equivalent of the blow-up kiddie pool, the day trip has its perks.

If you are looking for Route-66-type roadside oddities, you can find everything you need within two hours of Tucson.

Southern Arizona is dotted with about 20 or so ghost towns, and a couple of them are within a two-hour drive of Tucson.

Mike Mogan, ghost town expert and Web Master of www.azghosttown.com recommends Sasco, which lies between Tucson and Phoenix just off I-10.

The area is home to some concrete ruins of the townâs hotel, jail and cemetery.

The town of Ruby is another not-so-famous ghost town that was once home to lead and gold mining.

Photo courtesy of Marcel Molina, Jr. A 1949 Airstream trailer that once served as a coupleâs honeymoon lodgings is now Shady Dellâs most photographed trailer.

The town sits just between Tucson and Nogales off I-19. Mogan, who has visited most of the 60-plus ghost towns in Arizona, called Ruby a ãtrue ghost town.ä

ãA friend of mine used to drive by (Ruby) in the 1970âs. He says there was a sign that said, ÎTrespassers will be gut shot. Women and children winged,âä Mogan said.

While Mogan encourages people to explore Arizonaâs ghost towns, he warns against any behavior that might destroy the structures.

ãClimbing, sitting or standing on rock or adobe walls is the fastest way to destroy them,ä Mogan said. It also sounds like the way many horror movies start.

Bisbee, another old mining town, isnât a ghost town, but is another day trip worth taking for some fun.

Though the town was once the biggest between the Mississippi and San Francisco, its few thousand residents now are mostly older hippies and artists.

The brick buildingâs architecture gives the town a European feel.

If you have the time to turn a day trip to a short overnight trip, you can stay at Bisbeeâs Shady Dell, where you can rent out a vintage Airstream or Spartan travel trailer, complete with fifties-era furnishings and amenities.

The Shady Dell, which has been profiled on CNN and the Travel Channel, receives guests who drive cross-country to stay in one of their nine vintage trailers.

Each trailer has a guest book, where you can look for messages from one of the Dellâs hipster celebrity visitors, including Jello Biafra (of Dead Kennedyâs fame) and cartoonist Tom Tomorrow.

If you think some of these trips may take all day to get to, maybe someplace a little closer to Tucson is what youâre looking for.

Even a trip, well, in Tucson would be more appropriate. For that out-of-town day trip feel without all the hassle of taking a trip, the Valley of the Moon makes an ideal stop.

Located in town, at Allen Road and Tucson Boulevard, this weird rock and fantasy land looks like something from Lord of the Rings. The real story behind its creation is pretty weird itself.

During the 1920s, George Phar Legler began hauling rocks to the site, using them to create elaborate stone fortresses, castles, amphitheaters and fish-ponds.

In 1932, Legler opened Valley of the Moon to the public; dressed as a wizard, he would lead tours of children through his fantasyland. By the mid 1960s the park was closed.

Disillusioned with the park, Legler retreated to one of the caves he built and lived on vitamins and condensed milk.

A group of high school students who remembered visiting the park when they were young persuaded Legler to re-open the park, and began the task of rebuilding and restoring the Valley of the Moonâs structures.

Though the park is open at various and odd hours, you can call its information line (323-1331) to find out when it will be open to the public.

For more weird things to do and fun daytrips to fill the endless void of summer, stay tuned to future issues of the Summer Wildcat.