Thursday, March 18...Border Patrol (Eek-A-Mouse)

    Into the 4th day since my vaccine and no side effects yet.  Hope the next one treats me as good.

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   We use blocks of wood when stabilizing the camper...under the front jack and all the legs, behind the tires as a wheel chock and even under the back ramp when running the bikes up in the camper. 

   On one of my earlier walks down the frontage road I found a big block of wood in the ditch.  I left it
alongside the road where I could find it again and told Kim about it, admitting that it might not be any good or fit any purpose but I thought it was worth looking at.  We went to get it; Kim put it in the truck saying that it might make good firewood.  Okay, so I’m not a good judge of wood.

   Fast forward to about a week later when Marshal walked into our camper and said something about needing to get those steps changed out because they aren’t very stable and the camper shakes when anybody goes in or out.  This is true.

   Then somebody had the notion that supporting the bottom step would help. But, golly, mister, what do we have that is big enough to do that?  Enter the big block of wood.  It was the perfect fit!  No more talk of throwing my big block of wood in the fire...it’s now a vital piece of stability.  😎

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   We couldn’t help ourselves...we checked the trail camera card this morning.  The camera is in the vicinity of the big tractor tire, maybe a ¼ mile down Picacho Highway; the card needs to be viewed on the computer.  So our morning walk consisted of two trips to the camera...one to retrieve the card and the other to put it back.     

   Looking at the card really had a two-fold purpose: check the angle of the camera and see if there’s been any action with the latter probably being the biggest reason.  It was set up to take video...there were 4 little video snippets recorded but they were all from installation last eveing.  No critters ventured within range of the camera. 

   Kim would really have liked to change the location of the camera but a barbed wire fence kind of prohibited that.  Lucky that he could reach over the fence to put in the tree.  So he left it in the same location but changed the angle just a bit. Maybe that will broaden the field of view.  And we’re not going to check it for a couple of days. 

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   Decided to ride to Gila Bend for lunch.  Willie and Ann had lunch at Sofia’s which serves homemade Mexican food and highly recommended it. Seemed like a good day to check it out.  Basically made a big loop:  Picacho to Gila Bend on US 8...Gila Bend to Why on 85...took 86 out of Why to IR 15 and then Battaglia Rd. into Eloy and from there to Picacho.  Long ride...lots of time out soaking up some natural Vitamin D. 

   Our meal at Sofia’s was very good and the portions good-sized which makes it easy to walk away feeling very satisfied.  No supper tonight!  Indoor dining was open but we opted to sit out on the covered patio where we could be social distanced and keep our masks off.

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   I have a basic story problem that I run through my head when I’m traveling whether in a car or on my bike.   If I have X amount of miles left to my destination and I’m going X mph how much time will it take me to reach my destination.  Then add that answer to the current time to get an estimation of what time I’ll arrive.  I get a small satisfaction when I arrive at or before my calculated ETA. It’s all mental math so it gives my brain something to do when I travel.  It was a long ride today so I did lots of math along the way. 

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Travel trivia:  ** At 75 mph, a vehicle can travel 1 mile in 48 seconds.

                         ** Elevation at Sofia’s is 731 feet.

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   Stopped at the Desert Diamond Casino to gas up.  After leaving there I noticed a white helicopter in the distance.  A Border Patrol truck was behind us and when it had an opportunity to pass, put its lights on and sped up.  At this point the helicopter flew off.  Not far up ahead we saw the issue: a male and female were sitting on the ground near the road with 5 or 6 Border Patrol vehicles in attendance, lights flashing.  After we drove past we met two more vehicles speeding toward that direction.  Kim came on the headset to ask “How many Border Patrol Agents does it take to get two illegals in custody?”  Since the Border Patrol was involved one could assume it was an illegal issue and not a tribal issue. 

   There were 3 more Border Patrol vehicles on a side road with lights flashing several miles up the road.  And there were no one on duty at the border patrol checkpoint on IR 15.  Seems the Border Patrol was having a busy day.

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   It’s interesting that the surface of AZ 86 which runs through the reservation, is in bad repair but has a posted speed of 65 mph and that IR 15 has a speed limit of 55 even though the road surface is much better. And it’s my observation that we are the only ones who drive 55 mph on that road; everyone else drives much faster. 

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   Kim is on his third night of imaging the same galaxy.  His intent is to gather hours of data. On an average night he may get 2 or 3 hours of data; for this galaxy he’d like 9 or 10 hours, although he may settle for 6 or 7 hours. Depends on if tomorrow’s night sky is forecasted to be cloudy night or how anxious he is to see the results.  His set-up makes it easy to return to the same target night after night and get the same picture...as long as he doesn’t remove the camera.  The first night there was some issues but those were addressed and hopefully it’s now going as he had planned.     

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Today’s bike miles: 238

Total miles: 1056

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