TO APACHE JUNCTION

During our hike to the Tenaja, the wells, I picked up a black water bottle of a kind you see in Mexico. Left in the bushes by an escaping Mexican entering the United States illegally, I speculated.  Scenarios kind of run through your mind about what you would do if you encountered a situation like that.  I tend to have a lot of empathy for immigrants who, like our forefathers, are looking for a better life than the grinding poverty of their native country.  I was reminded of the bottle as we got back on the road  as there were Border Patrol cars all over, parked on the roadside, one had stopped a traveler, Jim counted nine  zooming south before he quit counting.  There are two of these Border Patrol inspection stations in the short distance from Organ Pipe National Monument to Gila Bend. Normally they have drug sniffing dogs at each station. This time, not. We expect there was some significant incident to cause such a commotion  and the dogs were being used elsewhere. Since we don’t get a newspaper we will probably never know.

I was excited about Why, Arizona because of my past as an avid stamp collector.  One of the things I liked to do write to the postmaster  and request a return postmark from unusual places like Dime Stop, Texas, or Hell, California. Why, AZ was on my list. They closed the Post Office a long time ago.  And, truth be told, stamp collecting doesn’t excite me anymore.

We passed the tailings from the Cornelia Copper Mine at Ajo and got a better idea of how big that mine is. When we viewed it from the top looking down, it just doesn’t register.
We stopped to shop, then put in at Jim’s home Moose Lodge for one night before we get into our park. We had a drink and took a menu home. They serve meals everyday and breakfast on Sunday. We expect we’ll be back.