OUR MEXICAN BORDER TOWN INCIDENT.....2008

OUR NEIGHBOR BERT IS GONE NOW BUT HIS GARDEN BENCH REMAINS

Not only are the kids back to school here in Huron county but the summer holidays were over for our outdoor houseplants this morning as well. Temps have been dipping lower each night so it was time to bring the whole gang back inside for the coming winter months. The outside jungle look has now advanced into our sunroom. Yesterday I had a hummingbird fly in the open patio door but after some frantic fluttering around I was able to gently scoop him into my hand & ease him back out the patio door. HOUSE PLANTS ARE NOW BACK INSIDE FOR ANOTHER SEASON

In February of 2008 we were staying a few days at the HICKIWAN TRAILS RV PARK in Why, Arizona. Kelly had noticed an advertisement for a craft/pottery type store in the little Mexican border town of Sonoyta just a half hours drive south of us near Lukeville. The year before while in New Mexico we crossed into Mexico at the border town of Palomas & really enjoyed our time spent in the well known Pink Store. Figured it would be nice to visit Mexico again & re-kindle some of those old Amigo oriented memories. It was not to be!! BROWN EYED SUSANS IN ONE OF OUR FLOWER GARDENS

Nice sunny morning for a drive so we headed south through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to the town of Lukeville & cruised right on through the old gates into Mexico with no problem. In Palomas we had parked the truck & walked across the border but here we just drove across. Mistake!! When entering Mexico the visible change is immediate, if not some what shocking. Much like a third world country you see on television. Within a matter of a few feet you enter another land with an entirely different lifestyle. You are immediately accosted by numbers of people trying to sell you everything from soup to nuts & in most cases the nuts are probably still in the soup!! The urban decay is evident everywhere with tumbledown buildings, old wrecked cars & trucks puffing & clanking around the rut goughed dirt streets. Very poor people asking for money. This is what you see as soon as you cross the border but if you continue into Mexico further things improve. I have been to Puerto Vallarta a couple times & it is far different than either Sonoyta or Palomas so it's probably not fair to judge Mexico by it's border towns. RURAL ONTARIO

We drove for a little ways & then turned off the highway into the downtown section of Sonoyta. Had only driven maybe 2 minutes when we approached an intersection. I instinctively slowed down glancing ahead looking for a stop sign but there wasn't any. It was a divided road with a dirt median in between. No traffic approaching from either side but I was a bit confused at no stop sign for the other way either. Slowed down & entered the intersection just as I noticed some kind of sign on my left in the median. Wasn't red & didn't say STOP. Well, of course not.....I'm in a different country dummy!! Just as I cleared the intersection on the far side I saw a figure about a hundred yards ahead step off the median waving his arms in a gesture for me to pull over. Oh Oh!! ABOUT HALF AN HOUR AFTER TAKING THIS PICTURE I HEARD THE FIRST SOUNDS OF IT'S TRANSMISSION DYING

He had on what looked like some semblance of a uniform so my instinct to obey a uniform kicked in & I pulled over to the right hand curb. This man approached my open window & leaned right down in my face & began saying something in broken English about a stop sign. It was immediately clear to me that he was berating me for driving through a stop sign. Of course I stumbled out an apology & said I was confused by the signage. He went on a bit about the stop sign & I began to have some doubts whether he was a Mexican policeman or not or just somebody with green military cap & a deputy dawg badge. Then, in no uncertain terms he demanded I hand over my driver's license to him. Before I could even think about that, Kelly piped up with, "don't give him your driver's license. Talk about being between a rock & a hard place. The hard place on my left demanded my license again & the rock to my right shouted, "don't give him your driver's license!!!!" MONARCH BUTTERFLY

The situation was rapidly heating up & I still had my left foot on the clutch with the car in gear so I eased up on the clutch a bit & the car moved ahead a few inches. With that the fellow shouted at me, stepped back & opened his jacket pulling out a two way radio. It was at this point I saw the gun belt......but no gun. I quickly tapped the brake & thankfully he didn't holler into the radio for assistance. He approached the window again & this time Kelly took a different tact. She said quite sharply, "how do we know you are a policeman, show us your identification!!" I sensed a turning point in the negotiations at this point because the fellow hesitated for a few seconds, seemed confused, & then reached into his back pocket pulling out his wallet. He shoved the wallet in front of my face saying something about identification but all the cards displayed there looked Greek to me. The rock on my right now said to the hard place on my left, "do you want $20??" Is this what this is all about!!" He didn't seem to react to that but he did react to something a few second's later that we have never been able to figure out.

A COUNTRY CEMETERY EAST OF HENSALL, ONTARIO

More words passed between all three of us for what seemed an eternity & then all of a sudden he quickly stood straight up peering over the roof of the car, took a step back & began waving his harm in a forward motion saying, "Go, go, go.....so I popped the clutch & we went, went, went!!!! Down the street & around the corner I went with only one thought in mind, get back across the border as fast as I can....but, oh no, that was not to be. I not only had a rock in the passenger seat but I had a dedicated shopper sitting there as well & no silly little incident like we just had was going to stop her from going to that pottery store. No sireeeee!! No Mexican policeman, no two way radio, gunbelt or deputy dawg badge was going to get in her way. Fortunately the street I had turned onto was the one with the pottery store so very reluctantly I pulled into the parking lot. Kelly got out & went into the store but I never budged from the locked car. Had visions of the car being stolen if I left it. I was suspicious of everything & everybody at this point. I was approached about 4 times by vendors trying to sell me something but I just waved them off. Figured any second I would hear the sound of gunfire & see the bullet holes appearing my windshield. ANOTHER LOOK AT THE BEARS CARVED OUT OF AN OLD TREE

Kelly casually strolled out of the store about 15 minutes later & we hightailed it for the border with my eyes glued to the rear view mirror expecting at any second to a see gaggle of old dented & dusty Mexican police cars in hot pursuit with huge sombreros sticking out the windows & big blustery mustached men with guns blazing away at us. Kelly was probably thinking about the pottery prices.

KIDS SCHOOL BUS SHELTER AT THE END OF A FARM LANE

A couple quick questions by the American border guard & we were across the line out of Mexico & back into the good old U. S. of A. Back into the civilized part of the North American continent. I can't even begin to tell you the sense of relief I felt inside to be back on safe ground. Told myself right there & then I will never drive into Mexico again.....ever. Kelly was probably thinking, hmmmmm, I wonder if that pottery store will have a sale on next week. I don't mean to downplay all of Mexico though. It was just an incident that happened to us in a border town that was very unfortunate but had the potential to turn into a very serious situation. Sure did a lot of thinking on the drive back to our RV Park. What if we had been detained there!! We had 3 dogs in our motorhome back at Hickiwan trails & what would have happened to them. A very scary thought for us & it just pointed out how careless we had been in our thinking. PUMPKINS & SQUASHES ARE HEAVY ON THE VINES

To this very day we do not know what really happened that morning in Sonoyta. Was that a real police officer or just the usual street level scam artist with a green hat, jacket, & pants, trying to make a fast buck on unsuspecting tourists. I figure a lot of folks cruise through that confusing intersection & people just wait down the street to scam them with the police story. Someone suggested he may have been Mexican Para-military....whatever they are. Why all of a sudden did he step back, wave his arm & tell us to go. Did he see the real police approaching?? Don't know & don't figure we'll ever know but it did sour us about visiting Mexico again that's for sure.

REFLECTIONS IN A POND

I never did blog about this incident because we had relatives at home following our blog at the time & I didn't want to alarm anyone or bring down the axe of criticism on us about going into Mexico in the first place. Aside from telling a few friends we just kept it low key. Can't remember if I ever made reference to it or not in previous blogs but if not then the Chile pepper is now out of the pouch......so to speak. RED HEADED WOODPECKER FOR SURE:))

Have had a flurry of emails & comments on yesterday's blog so it's nice to know folks are reading not just my blog but other's as well. I was made aware indirectly by another blogger friend of another fellow blogger who was tossing around the idea of packing up his blog & riding off into the sunset with it so I saddled up & rode over to his site, had me a look see, liked what I saw, & think you might too so here's MIKE & PAT'S TRAVELS blogger site. Head on over, put a burr under Mike's saddle & encourage him to, "git er done!! ECHINACIA OR CONE FLOWER

Also in last night's blog I made reference to hanging out 'dirty laundry' on the blog site. Dirty was not a good word choice on my part so I would just like to re-phrase that to saying 'airing our laundry on the internet. There, now I feel much better. My socks feel better, my shirts feel better, & my shorts feel better too.....................:))

P.S. Sorry for the looooooooooooooooooong blog:((

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Money isn't everything but it sure keeps the kids in touch.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

TAKE CARE GUYS.......& SOAR WITH THE BALLOONS

WE CAME ACROSS THESE BALLOONS IN THE DESERT ONE MORNING SNAGGED ON A BUSH

Yesterday was a good reminder again of why it's important to try & make these latter years as pleasant as possible with doing things you like to do or have always wanted to do if at all possible within your means. The clock is ticking for all of us & within the past two days that clock has come to a stop for a couple more friends.

Our good backyard neighbor Bert lost his battle with cancer Sunday bringing to an end a 4 year friendship of "over the fence chats", a few coffee's, some mutual gardening projects, & a like minded understanding of all the world's ailments. Bert was a soft spoken & gentle man & I always found it easy talking with him. Even without our joint guidance on the world's problems now Bert I somehow think this tired old earth will somehow continue along on it's own wobbly way. WE UNSNAGGED THEM BUT THEY DRIFTED SLOWLY ALONG THE GROUND

CAMLACHIE MODERN MAN was my good cyber friend Fred's blogger site name. I met Fred on-line about 5 years ago when a mutual friend gave me his email address. We swapped countless hundreds of jokes back & forth & emailed each other about photography & camera ideas. I did finally meet Fred 2 years ago at a friend's 70th birthday party near London Ontario & we remained in email touch with our bantering back & forth right up until a couple weeks ago when Fred's cancer wouldn't let him use his beloved computer anymore. Send me an email when you can Fred & if you come across any good jokes out there wherever you are, send them along because I'll still be watching for you to pop up on my computer screen old Buddy. GAVE THEM A BOOST INTO THE AIR BUT THEY JUST HUNG THERE UNABLE TO GAIN ANY LIFT

We have a perfect weather day going on & that has helped smooth the saddened waters. I am in my usual sunroom spot with birds twittering about in front of me & a Colorado Atlas open on my desk. It's time to put some forward thinking travel plans into gear & begin the map plotting for this winter's trip to the southwest. Can we afford to go again this year?? No, of course not, but we're going anyway while we still can.......while we can still hear that clock ticking.

To-day's photos take us back a couple years to the HICKIWAN TRAILS RV Park in Why, Arizona. We loved our morning desert walks there & one particular morning we came across a bunch of tied to-gether balloons snagged on a shrub. We untangled the ribbons & tried unsuccessfully several times to get the cluster airborne but as a group they didn't have enough lift & the trailing ribbons would become snagged once again. It wasn't until we hit upon the idea of untying the balloons from each other that we were finally able to give the individual balloons their freedom. We launched each balloon into the air & the last we saw of them they were climbing steadily in the warm desert air currents, laughing & giggling, & heading for destinations unknown. There is a connection here with Bert & Fred & if you are quick enough to catch those balloons, maybe, just maybe, they will tell you what it is.........................:)) WASN'T UNTIL WE UNTIED EACH ONE & SET IT FREE THAT THEY ALL SOARED HAPPILY UPWARD & AWAY:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people seem bright until you hear them speak.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

IT WAS JUST KIND OF A FEELING SAD DAY

MORNING WALK AT HICKIWAN TRAILS

Just didn't seem right waking up this morning without the internet waiting for us & a few television channels to bring us up to speed on the world's news. The Park's Wifi signal isn't strong enough to reach us & our one fuzzy television channel just reminds us of a snow storm in Alaska.

Nice to be out in the desert for a morning walk again. We have had a lot of nice walks & memories here at Hickiwan Trails the last couple winters & I noticed that one of the Inukshuks I had built atop a rocky ridge last winter, is still standing. Kind of gave me a warm fuzzy. I took my cameras along but didn't take many pictures this time because I would only be repeating many of the photos I've taken here previous times. You can see a lot of those photos on the Hickiwan Trails RV Park website. http://hickiwantrailsrvpark.com/ or looking back a year to one of our days here http://thebayfieldbunch.com/2008/02/look-at-hickiwan-trails-rv-park.html

Our favorite boondocking site last year was just west of Ajo, Arizona just off Darby Wells Road. It's only about 10 miles up the road from Hickiwan Trails & we were really looking forward to going there again this year after we leave here. A major concern of ours is cell phone & internet service because Kelly needs both for here work related Deerpark Lodge reservations, etc. We were really hoping by some outside miracle that we might be able to get on-line with our new Verizon card over there, but had already heard that Verizon didn't cover that area yet. We took the car & the laptop & headed over to Darby Wells to find out for ourselves, but alas, no coverage. Oh well, we thought, we'll boondock here anyway & just drive into Ajo for our internet connection. But, as we headed up the old dusty road with it's bumps & grinds we sadly came to the conclusion that the road this year is just too bad to bring a motorhome in on. Just too many bumpity wash-outs. No problem for the car but it would just shake the heck out of the motorhome. We drove to the beautifully peaceful & serene campsite we parked at last year & just stood there listening to the golden silence of the surrounding mountains & saguaros. As I stood by the old campfire stones staring out over the desert valley before me with the mighty Ajo mountain range on the far horizon I was filled with an overwhelming sadness. We had been looking forward so much to returning to this spot ever since the day we left it back in February, nearly 10 months earlier. Just as we had been looking forward to returning to Hickiwan Trails. And I knew as I stood there that it was unlikely we will ever pass this way again.

I said good-bye to the old campsite near Darby Wells road and we drove the short distance into the town of Ajo. Another familiar place for us. Stopped at the library & Kelly went in to use a computer & check our emails. I took a walk around the beautiful town's square with it's distinctive Spanish flare. It was the middle of the week & no one was around. Few cars & fewer people. Ajo was a booming mining town years ago but since the closing up the large open pit mine the town has fallen on hard times. It's almost a living ghost town now. I had taken some photos here last year & took a few more to-day. It's quietness only added to my sadness.

We were back at Hickiwan Trails by 2. Met another couple we had first met here last year & have been in email contact with ever since. Pat & John are from New Mexico. Had a little chin wag & of course learned about some more great RVing areas. While talking to them, Hickiwan Ray, the Parks manager walked over with something hanging on a stick. It was a rattlesnake. But, it was a baby rattlesnake & it was obvious that it was very dead. That is the first real rattlesnake I've ever seen. It was apparently near one of the RV's to-day. And here I thought they were all underground!! Ray figured it got separated from it's Mother somehow. I'm not a big snake person but couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor little thing. As I said before, it was just a sad kind of day for me.

Kelly & I had set up a website for HickiwanTrails last year so Ray had a few technical questions about the site & I was able to help him out with understanding a few things on the computer. Always nice to be able to help out.

After supper when it got dark, Kelly & I walked around the park to look at people's Christmas lights. Met another couple we had known from last year & it was nice talking with them for a bit. They are from British Columbia. He was the fellow who was instrumental in helping us get our Star Choice up & running last year.

I took Max out for a short walk later as the large moon overhead bathed the desert landscape around us in a soft hue. It was a fitting time to say good-bye to Hickiwan Trails. It was a fine time to feel sad...............

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

UPDATE.....Thursday morning. Feeling better & we're off to-day for an area northwest of Gila Bend that we heard about. It's out in the middle of nowhere & sounds like our kind of place. Should be cell phone & internet coverage up there & hopefully some television channels either from Yuma or Phoenix:)) Toodles