The air was warm at 7:30 a.m. Don’t know what the temperature was but a walk
felt doable. I walked down to the beginning of the pecan grove and turned
around; Kim kept going. I wanted to be back at camp by 8:30 because I had a 9 a.m.
play date. Tammy and I were going
riding.
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Today was Tammy’s day off and we’d been talking about going for a ride
again. My turn to pick a destination. I
had an idea which I ran by her at supper last night; she was onboard, and we
agreed on a 9 a.m. start. We left a little before nine, anticipating an
estimated 4-hour, 235-mile ride. Since
Google Maps doesn’t factor in gas stops, a sit-down lunch and time for photo
ops, we knew it’d be a bit longer than that.
This was our discussed route: Take I-8 to Gila
Bend, then AZ 85 to Why where we’d turn onto AZ 86. At some point on 86, we’d enter the
Tohono O’odham reservation, so we’d turn onto IR 15 at the Gu-Atchi Trading
Post, and either cruise into Casa Grande or Arizona City for the last leg back
to camp.
We
were making good time, and it was all going according to plan until we stopped
at a beautiful little park in Ajo. I just wanted to get out of the sun for a
bit and drink some water; the park was just the ticket. While we were enjoying the shade and talking,
Tammy mentioned that Marty, her significant other, was up in Montana near the
Canadian border and she was down here not far from the Mexican border. She
followed that up with, “So, if we pass a mileage sign for Mexico, I’d like to
stop and get a picture to send him. Oh, and by the way, is it possible to go to
that Organ Pipe Park?” I smiled at her
and replied, “Sure, we can stop at Organ Pipe and if you’re game, we can do
better than get just a Mexico mileage sign.
Once we’re in Organ Pipe, we can ride another 20 miles or so to
Lukeville, which is right on the border.” She said, “Let’s do it” and at that point a little side trip was added
to our planned route.
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A
couple of miles outside of Lukeville, on our right, the wall was very
noticeable as it went up and over a mountain. I will say, though, that it took
me a hot minute to realize exactly what I was seeing. From that distance, the
countryside of Mexico is visible, so I guess we did see across the border…and,
surprise! it looked just like our side. Scrub brush, cactuses, rocks…just your
basic desert landscape.
We did get a picture by the ‘Mexico’ sign with an arrow pointing to a traffic lane. I don’t know why itwas pointing to a lane outside the main crossing lanes, but it was a sign so we went with it. And when I looked at the picture, it reinforced my belief that I should keep my helmet on for pictures.😏
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We were hoping to get something to eat in Lukeville, but we were told that it has nothing but a small gas station and an RV Park, which looked like it had seen better days. There is a restaurant near the gas station, but it didn’t look open; don’t know for sure because we never tried the door. The young man we’d asked directed us to Granny’s Kitchen in Why. We’d seen it as we left the gas station, so we knew what he was talking about. There’s not much in Why, but it’s bigger than Lukeville…it has a restaurant and two gas stations. 😎
Granny’s Kitchen was busy with no seating
available inside; we were going to wait for a table but people were taking
their own sweet time to eat so we decided to get take-out and sat outside to
eat. Thumbs up on the taco salad!
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We
were so caught up in getting to the border and then getting something to eat
that we didn’t stop at the Organ Pipe Visitor’s Center. However, we did make a stop in one of the picnic
areas to get a picture of an organ pipe cactus.
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Googled ‘Lukeville border area’ when I got home, and this is some of what I learned:
** The town of Sonoyta, which is on the
other side of the wall, would have been the place to get something to eat at
the border, I’m sure.
** The Lukeville Port of Entry facilitates
pedestrian crossings, also.
**Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), about 60
miles south of Lukeville, is a popular tourist town/beach destination for
Americans.
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Our little border adventure turned our 5-hour ride into about an 8 ½ hour
ride…and 235 miles became 294. Sure, it
was another long day in the saddle for our butts, but I’m not complaining.
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Not
only do I send the grandkiddos pictures from our time out here, but a couple of
weeks ago I sent them coded messages, along with the code sheet needed to decode the message. Today,
I received a coded message in the mail from Shelby. What a treat!!
She used one of the stamped, addressed envelopes I’d given to her in
case she felt the need to write to us. We send texts to each other on her mom’s
phone but sometimes it’s just fun to write a letter. Anyway, I sat down right away
to figure out her message. She used the same code sheet that I sent to her…and she
gave up on writing coded sentences about halfway through and just finished her
message for me to read. I appreciate the effort!
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Kim was able to image the Dolphin Head again tonight. He also set up his
Star Tracker for the first time tonight. He’s in the process of figuring it all
out right now.
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