Sunday, January 21
With a blue sky above, Reggie, Roger, and I leave Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground around 10:30. Normally we don’t head out for a new camp quite this late in the morning.
(Since today’s drive is relatively short, I worked on posting to this blog before breaking camp.)
We take interstate-8 and travel east 15 miles to Gila Bend.
After the Perfect Tow Vehicle gets some gas, we turn southward on Route 85 to Ajo. The crew is restless.
“I know what your problem is. You’re missing the morning walk.”
We stop a couple times along the way to let Reg and Rog run around some. By lunchtime our home is nestled in a secluded boondock among the saguaros, creosote, palo verde, and cholla!
Longtime readers . . . . Does this look familiar?
After setting up camp, grilling and eating lunch, the boys and I walk “our” road.
While at this camp, Reggie and Roger won’t be on the 30 foot tether for walks. I’ll walk them on their short leashes in order to keep them out of the cholla.
This cholla is eight-to-ten feet tall and bears enough spines to take down a platoon of canines, let alone two little guys like Reg and Rog.
I’m vigilant about scanning the road for any clumps of spines. Surprisingly, few are in the road and the three of us march along without incident.
Except for one moment . . . .
Roger stops his energetic trot and immediately lifts a front paw. Patiently he waits while I remove a clump of cholla spines.
“That was good, Roger. You’re smart to stop and wait for my help, instead of trying by yourself.”
No harm done and we continue on our way.
We’re a happy trio skipping through a saguaro forest!
However . . .
Gee, the vegetation seems browner than I remember . . . . The creosote is bronze, not green.
Later, back in the Best Little Trailer, I go online and search for photos taken during a previous camp at this location.
I find them at the post, “A Sonoran Desert welcome to a new camp.”
Look at the difference!
This next photo shows the color of the vegetation on January 14, 2015.
Compare that with the color in this shot of the same area, taken on Jan. 21, 2018, same month, three years later.
Now compare the cholla as it looks in January 2018 (above) with the cholla in the photo (below) taken along the same road on January 15, 2016.
For more photos of desert vegetation and a spectacular sunset at this boondock, taken when Reggie and Bridget were my crew, see the 2016 post, “Scenes from the Sonoran.”
Our first night at a new camp is always special.
Reggie and Roger are in bed, tuckered out and down for the night, when the light of an Arizona sunset pulls my attention away from the laptop screen.
Oooh! Where’s my camera!
I rush outside.
I don’t want to miss the best, few seconds of this day’s sunset!
Holding the camera screen a few inches from my face, I dart here and there, trying to find the best angle.
Dang palo verde trees clutter up the scene . . . Hmm . . . I want to get that saguaro in the frame.
Because, hey, what the world needs is another saguaro-in-an-Arizona-sunset photo, right?
Anyway . . .
Here I am, my eyes searching through the camera while I’m dodging a big ol’ cholla on the edge of a wash when —
“OH! EXCUSE ME!”
I jump backwards and back-pedal until I’m up against the side of the BLT.
“Gosh, I’m sorry! I didn’t see you there.”
After my apology, I take a photo.
Of course!
In return I get the typical bovine stare.
Gollee. I’m running around in the near-dark and almost bump into a COW!
rvsue
NOTE: I never did get the saguaro-in-an-Arizona-sunset shot. Oh well, there will be more sunsets. As for a cow in the back yard, maybe not.
I can’t believe what that cow was munching like potato chips. That plant (lower left in pic) is nothing but thorns! — Sue
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