LEAVING OLD MEMORIES BEHIND AND FINDING A FEW NEW ONES AHEAD

It was a busy night sky again as I stood transfixed under a sea of diamond like stars watching the U.S. Air Force flying mock combat maneuvers over the Barry M. Goldwater Military Range.  I saw as many as 7 what I assume to be F-16 Falcon fighter jets all in the sky at the same time.  When I say I saw them I mean I saw their blinking aircraft lights.  They were so far up and distant I could not hear them at all.  If they with their bright pulsating strobe lights were not moving they would be totally invisible among the myriad of uncountable stars.  I would say these military skies northwest of Ajo Arizona are the busiest I have ever seen.

DISTANT STRING OF LIGHTS ON THE HORIZON IS AJO ARIZONA

SKIES WERE BUSY AGAIN WITH MANY SWIRLING JET TRAILS IN THE NIGHT SKY

I WAS REALLY FORTUNATE HERE TO CATCH A JET COMING IN FROM THE RIGHT AND RELEASING 3 BRIGHT YELLOW FLARES THEN EXITING TO THE LEFT

Not a cloud in the sky on this cool Arizona morning as dawn broke over the eastern horizon.  It was a travel day for us and travel we did.  My favorite driving time is mornings from about 8 a.m. to maybe 11.  Shadows are still in the canyons and stretched across mountain sides.  Morning light has a softer hue to it before the harsher sunlight of late morning and mid day flattens out all the shadows leaving few darkened contours to give the land depth.

<<< CAUGHT MYSELF A BIT OF THE MILKY WAY HERE COMPLETE WITH A TURNING JET AT THE BOTTOM

We had the big wheels rolling by 7:40 a.m. Arizona time leaving the Ajo Equestrian Center - Ajo Regional Park skirting along Ajo's east side on North Ajo Well Road picking up highway 85 south at Ajo's southeast corner.  Always a bit sad leaving many of our favorite areas like Ajo when one never knows if they will make it back for another winter season or not.  This year more than any other I have thought about that..................

WAVED US GOOD-BYE TO AJO ARIZONA

A big morning sun cast long shadows across the road as we waved good-bye to Ajo,  and a nod to Darby Well Road as we went by.  So many great memories over the years as we turned left in Why heading east on 86 past Hickiwan Trails RV Park which gave us so many of our best early RVing day memories.  Still feeling sad as I watched all our favorite Sonoran Desert scenery passing by.  That feeling stayed with me all the way to Tucson.

SO-LONG TO ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOUNTAINS...THE AJO RANGE

TRANSPORTING A WINDSHIELD FULL OF BUGS TO TUCSON

AND OH HOW I ALWAYS LOOK FOR AND LOVE TO SEE THE KITT PEAK OBSERVATORY ON THIS MOUNTAIN TOP

Some construction on Tucson's west side to slow down for, a couple coffee's to go at a McDonalds and we were soon on our way through some more construction at I-19 before finally reaching and swinging ourselves up onto I-10 with the Big EEE's nose pointing south.

STOPPED AT THIS TUCSON McDONALDS FOR A COUPLE COFFEE'S TO GO

Highway 83 is not too far south of Tucson and in the lite traffic we weren't long in exiting I-10 onto 83.  It wasn't long before we began gaining altitude through a sweeping landscape of gently rolling hills filled with yellow grasses topped by distant mountains.  And one of those mountains had snow on it.  Topography the southwest never gets boring as we transitioned from the lower Sonorans green desert into a higher altitude plain.  Not our first time through this area but it is our first time looking for a boon-docking here.

YES WE ARE DEFINITELY GAINING ALTITUDE HERE AND THOSE ARE THE SNOW TOPPED SANTA RITA MOUNTAINS

Fortunately we had a pretty good idea where we were headed thanks to a past post by fellow RV friends and fellow Bloggers Nina and Paul over at WheelingIt  (one of the best blogs out here by the way) We also had an Escapee Club's book called Day's End with additional directions from folks who had travelled this way before.  Found the turn off from highway 83 and headed off into the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area  Even with great directions we still managed to get ourselves turned around on the dirt roads somehow.  No problem we just stopped, got out and banged our heads on the road a few times.  Everything was crystal clear after that and we soon found us a nice reasonably secluded campsite on a high piece of ground with a magnificent commanding view all around.  Did check out the Cienegas campground first but the 4 good sites we saw were occupied.

BEHIND THE SIGN TO THE LEFT ARE THE WHETSTONE MOUNTAINS, STICKING OUT ON THE RIGHT SIDE ARE THE MUSTANG MOUNTAINS AND TO THE FAR RIGHT ARE THE HUACHUCA MOUNTAINS....WE'RE IN GOOD COMPANY

YEP I THINK WE ARE GOING TO REALLY LIKE THIS PLACE AND THANKS FOR THE RECOMMENDATION NINA:))

KELLY LEADS THE WAY IN OUR JEEP AND IS JUST ABOUT AT OUR SCOUTED OUT CAMPSITE

ONLY THING MISSING IS A NICE TREE OR TWO

On distant grassland horizons we are bordered by the snow topped Santa Rita Mountains to our West, the Empire Mountains to our north, Whetstone Mountains east of us with the Mustang and Huachuca Mountain ranges to our southeast.  Directly south of us towards Mexico is a low mountain range known as the Canelo Hills.  Also south of us a short 7 miles is the town of Sonoita Arizona at the highway junction of 82 and 83.  We will probably slip down that way in the morning to pick up some Jeep gas before checking out where some of these grassland Jeep roads go.  The town of Patagonia is on our list as well as a drive over to Medera Canyon to see what we can see over there on the other side of the Santa Ritas.  Not all tomorrow of course but in the coming days.  We did overnight in Patagonia State Park one time 10 years ago.  By the way we have an excellent Verizon signal but no cell phone coverage as of yet. 

KELLY SPOTTED THIS PRONGHORN DEER A FEW HUNDRED YARDS AWAY AND I TOOK THE PIC THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD KNOWING SOON AS I OPENED OUR SIDE DOOR IT WOULD BE GONE...HOPE TO SEE MORE

THERE ARE 45,000 ACRES HERE WITH MUCH OF IT BEING GOLDEN GRASSLAND

MUSTANG MOUNTAINS ON THE LEFT WITH THE HUACHUCAS ON THE RIGHT

THOSE ARE THE WHETSONE MOUNTAINS EAST OF US

Looking forward to some very dark skies tonight and thanks to the folks for reminding us about the NASA International Space Station sighting program.  When we lived in the rented farm house near Fullarton Ontario 20 years ago we had a site on our computer which told us when the ISS would be visible and I fondly remember many nights we would go outside and wait for it to come over.  I have the NASA site on my desktop now and all I have to do is remember it is there:)) 

PHEEBS AND I HAD WALKED DOWN TO THIS TREE LOOKING FOR A POST HEADER PHOTO BUT LITTLE DID WE KNOW SOMEBODY HAD PICKED UP MY TELEPHOTO LENS CAMERA AND TOOK A FEW SHOTS OF US 2 BUMS

I THINK KELLY DID REALLY WELL WITH THAT  CAMERA AND BIG HEAVY TELEPHOTO LENS AND ESPECIALLY WITH THESE 2 ZOOMED PHEEBY PHOTOS

<<< 'OMG' IS THAT REALLY ME, I THINK I HAD BETTER THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT KEEPING MYSELF INDOORS MORE:(( Reading Doug's Wednesday Post about dropping into a placed called Desert Center on I-10 between Indio and Blyth California I was reminded of the day Kelly and I stopped there and had breakfast at the old historic Café which Doug discovered is closed now.  Even when we were there Desert Center was a pretty sad looking little place that time and progress had forgotten.  We spent a couple days exploring around the area and here is the day we dropped into that old tumble down quaint and rustic Café.  As I recall I think we had breakfast there.  It was February 15th 2012 and my post title for that day started off with He Dug His Own Grave.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A man was giving a speech at his lodge meeting. He got a bit carried away and talked for two hours. Finally, he realized what he had done and said, "I'm sorry I talked so long. I left my watch at home."A voice from the back of the room replied, "There's a calendar behind you..."

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Ohio!
Ohio who?
Ohio Silver!
Knock Knock

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Okra!
Okra who?
Okra Winfrey!

There's a man named Ralph that goes into a bar, looking very depressed. A friend approaches him and asks, "Why the long face, Ralph?"
"Oh, I'm just bored. I know every person in the entire world now, and there's just nothing left to challenge me." His friend says, "No, you can't know everyone. Do you know Paul McCartney?"
He says, "Sure, Paul's an old friend of mine. Here, I'll show you." He goes over to a phone, dials a number. His friend overhears a British accent, "Hey Ralph, how ya doing?" He talks for a while, but when Ralph hangs up, his friend is not really sure that it was Paul McCartney on the other end of the line, so he asks him if he knows the president.Ralph says, "Sure, we go way back." This time he lets him listen in as he calls a private number. It sounds like the president on the other end of the line, and they go into a big discussion of the current economic scene, and Ralph offers a few suggestions. Drawing the conversation to a close, Ralph wishes him well and hangs up.
His friend is a little dumbfounded at this point. "Well, there must be someone that you don't know." He goes over a few more people in his mind, and thinks, 'He can't possibly know the Pope. After all, he's a Protestant.' But Ralph claims to know him, so to convince himself otherwise, his friend decides to fly both himself and Ralph to the Vatican to get positive proof of Ralph's conviction.  So they arrive at the Vatican, and Ralph suggests that his friend wait out in St. Peter's Square until Ralph has cleared things with the Pope. He's standing in the courtyard, when who walks out onto the balcony of the private residence, arm in arm with the Pope, but Ralph.
Ralph looks down, sees that his friend has apparently passed out, and runs down to see what can be done for him. "What happened to you? Couldn't you accept the fact that I really do know the Pope?" "No, I'd begun to accept that possibility. But what really took my breath away was some stranger standing next to me who said, 'Who's that guy standing there with Ralph?'"