We decided last
night to forego a bike ride today because rain was forecasted. And along with that the temperature was
supposed to be on the cool side...well, in the high 50s to low 60s. Low side for out here...darn nice for back in
Michigan. We came up with two truck
options: find the petroglyphs at Theba
or drive to Organ Pipe National Monument.
We were in the truck
backing up; I asked Where we going? Kim answered I don’t care, either one is fine. Ask
Mom. She says It
doesn’t matter to me either. Well,
this isn’t helpful...Marilyn, it’s your choice. You pick...petroglyphs or Organ
Pipe? O-kay...let’s
go to Organ Pipe. Good...now we can leave.
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We had a loose plan
for a picnic for several reasons: 1. It
was cheaper than eating out, assuming restaurants would even be open; 2. It
would keep us out of a crowd and 3. It would be fun. **Note from my childhood: Sometimes when
traveling to my grandparents in the Ludington area, in the days before fast
food restaurants on every corner or in every gas station, my mom would stop at
a grocery store along the way to buy cheese, bologna and bread. We’d make lunch and eat in the car. It was an extra treat when we stopped at the
Dairy Queen in Shelby. Dilly bars...Yum! 😋**
I modified that plan
a bit today...grabbed the peanut butter, fruit, applesauce, napkins and a knife
out of the trailer and made a request that we stop at the Eloy IGA. Bought a loaf of bread, a jar of strawberry
jam, Fritos corn chips and a bag of piggy cookies for good measure. And off we went to Organ Pipe National
Monument intending to have a picnic.
----
 |
| That's hail...not rain. |
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Stopped at the Organ Pipe entrance sign for a
picture...thankfully it wasn’t raining or Mom may have mutinied and refused to
get out. Pulled up to the visitor center
in a downpour. When it rains on your picnic plans, you improvise: stayed in the truck, made our sandwiches, and
ate our lunch. Sign on the door to the visitor center indicated it was temporarily
closed but restrooms were open. Thank
you very much for that!
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Went another 5 miles
down the road to Lukeville, which is right on the border. Just wanted to see if we could see the ‘wall’. No, we couldn’t, but we did see a fenced in
area with a lot of construction equipment and piles of panels such as I’ve seen
used for the wall. Maybe that was the
staging area, but then again maybe not.
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There are not many
organ pipe cacti visible along the road from the entrance sign to Lukeville and
the ones we did see were not in good shape.
I wanted a picture of us in front of an organ pipe cactus so we kept our
eyes open for a good specimen. Kim found
one and instead of turning around simply pulled to the side of the road. It isn’t raining at this time but Mom starts
saying “I don’t want to get wet” to which I replied “No big deal, you’re not
going to melt...that’s what you used to tell me.” We get out of the car to walk the short
distance back to the cactus. There’s traffic
both ways, it starts sprinkling and the temperature has dropped a few
degrees. In the midst of all that she could
be heard to mutter, “This..is..so..stupid!”
Gave us a good laugh and, incidentally, it became the catch phrase for
the rest of the day. Anyway, I got my
picture...it ain’t pretty but it’s us in front of an organ pipe cactus. And along the way I saw another crested
saguaro! Bonus!!
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There are ‘dips’
built into the roads to allow fast moving rainwater to have an easy path across
the road. Encountered a good amount of
water in several of those dips. Lots of
puddles laying out in the desert also. Rain
was a force to be reckoned with today.
However, we were
also treated to several beautiful rainbows on the way back to camp. Bright, vivid and the full spectrum of
rainbow colors. Such a treat! In
researching the colors of the rainbow I came across this blurb on howstuffworks.com: In school you probably learned that the colors
of the rainbow are (in order) red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
These are actually the colors of the visible spectrum.
But then there was this blurb on smithsonianmag.com:
There is no purple light
in a rainbow. The Violet in ROYGBIV, the mnemonic many people
use to remember the colors in a rainbow, is a misnomer, says
Henry Reich of Minute Physics in the video above. The reason we say violet
is because Isaac Newton said violet, but when Isaac Newton said violet he
really meant blue. Well,
whatever the official word is on the name of that 7th color, we saw
all of them today. Saw both ends of a double rainbow also but not the middles. Can't win them all.
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On the way back the eastern sky was dark and
foreboding, clouds covering the top of the distant mountains while the area
around us was bathed in sunshine...it made for a very dramatic landscape.
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Interesting point: We encountered two border checkpoints today but
no sign of border patrol personnel.
Usually we’re waved on by an actual person but today we just saw green
lights. Vehicles were there but no sign
of humans.
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There’s been a stray black
dog wandering around camp for about a week now. No one knows exactly where he’s coming from or
what his name is...no collar or tags. I’ve
just been calling it Black Dog. Black
Dog hasn’t been here all the time; he comes and goes. This is a pet friendly
campground and the majority of campers have dogs. Black
Dog is friendly and not aggressive but not all the dogs are liking his playful
nature. Also there are a number of kids from
just walking age But all
agree that he’s a nice dog.
to maybe 9 years old...it wouldn’t do for him to knock down a
child or an elderly person.
Well, a lady in the tent area told me tonight
that when she leaves she’s taking Black Dog with her...and she’s going to call
him Scamp. Her other dog and ‘Scamp’
seem to get along just fine so maybe it’ll be a good fit. I know Felicia won’t be sad to see him go
from a liability standpoint.
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