Day 4: It's Recreation Time!

I have reserved judgement, and now it's time to judge... I don't like it. I love it! Mountains everywhere! On average, 330 days out of every year are sunny and clear. It's hot, but not muggy. I couldn't see it last night, but Joe and Laura's apartment is right next to a mountian! It's awesome! Joe and I decided to find an old abandoned copper mining town. We cruised down some back-ass, dirt desert road for miles until we found it. There wasn't much left, and what was left had been speckeled with paintballs and scorched by campfires. Apparently we're not the only ones who know where it is! It was awesome just the same, though. It's hard to fathom this without being there, but imagine total silence. Not just a little bit of background noise, but silence. Like being deaf. That's what it's like out there. When you stop your car and get out, you hear nothing. An occasional breeze is all the noise you can hear. Cactus and other miscellaneous desert brush stretch out for miles until it meets a mountain somewhere. It's really quite amazing.

Ever see a river running straight through a road?

Can you believe that this picture was taken right down the road from Joe and Laura's apartment!!!

Day 5: The Desert Part II

We opened up the day with an hour long haul to the Southern border. Joe and Laura have lived an hour away from Mexico for 2 years, and they still had never been there. Leave it to me to help them change that. I must say, I'd like to see real Mexico some day. What I saw was nothing more than a flea market, only 30 times more irritating. Add in a little bit of a Tim Burton nightmare, and you've got the town of Nogales, Mexico. (I think that's what it was called. I'll double check it later. I'm to tired now.)

We parked our car on the US side of the border, and then proceded to walk across and check it out. We were then immediately bombarded by 78 Mexicans, each one asking if they could sell us some of their shit. Some sold perscription drugs. (No perscriptions necessary in Mexico) Some sold fake Cuban cigars. (what a tease!) Some sold cheap gold plated jewlery they claimed to be solid gold. (News flash: If someone ever tries to convince you that something is not gold plated by holding it to a flame, they have proven nothing. All they did was make it hot.)

After deciding that this particular view of Mexico was a shit-hole, we decided to head back. We were acually out of the country for a total of about 15 minutes. It was a bit dissapointing, but I did accomplish what I set out to do. I can now say that I was in Mexico!

We Came...

We promptly got the fuck out.

After leaving Mexico, we got stopped by the border patrol to see if we were harboring any illegal aliens. It's a good thing I left mine at home that day!

Excuse me, sir... why the hell is your vehicle dressed up like a mouse?

Then it was off to the desert again. This time, we went way the hell out in the middle of nowhere. Much more remote than the site Joe and I visited the day before. After traveling down dirt roads for miles, we finally came upon an old graveyard. Most of the graves had deceased dates of 1902. My guess is since it was a mining town, there was a big accident in the mine that year. Who knows.

We also came upon the ruins of an old building. It was made from adobe bricks, and apparently hasn't fared well against the elements. The graveyard and this site were the only two shreds of evidence that this small mining town once existed.

Did you know that there are self-propelled steaks walking around on the Arizona desert roads?

I also got to do a small bit of hiking on the mountains. We drove up this winding mountain road, got out and decided to check out the place. Of course, I had to go find a big rock to climb on...

And here's just a bunch of random pictures that I took along our excursions in the desert

Ha! Like that stopped us!

Oh, and I can't forget the rows and rows of Air Force planes that we saw... just waiting to be put to good use. I'd offer to take one, but somehow, I don't think they'd let me.

I left Arizona that night at about 10:00pm Central Time. (8:00pm local Arizona time) The plan was to drive straight through the night and arrive in San Antonio, Texas sometime in the afternoon on the following day. Well, here I am. I arrived at exactly 1:00pm on Friday afternoon. I'm not quite sure how yet. It's late in the evening on Friday as I type this, and I still haven't slept yet. I think I'm about due. The pictures from today will have to wait until the next time I get a chance to update the site. Hopefully in a day or two. I'm going to be kinda tied up tomorrow. (YeeHaaa!)

Continue to Day 6