And we look forward to a wonderfully long adventure as we head home. We have no schedule so our days pass slowly. And the sights we have seen are truly awesome and memorable. We drive south and east from Sun Lakes, Arizona as we begin our journey toward home in Minnesota.
We drive through beautiful mountains. I have many photos of the remarkable scenery of the desert of southeast Arizona. It is a desert, yes, but awesome towering rocks and flowers appear in the landscape. Snow even topped one mountain peak.
Don’t know what these pink flowers were, but they certainly added a bit of color to the grey of the rock. And they simply appeared around the corner of a mountain road. A lovely surprise.
Here is the snow capped mountain in southeastern Arizona. Wonder if anyone goes skiing up there?
Thought this photo was particularly interesting with the contrast in the color of the rocks and the dark green pine tree.
A couple more photos of Phil and Bill picking oranges in Bill’s backyard. (The first photos were in my last blog.)
Hey, Bill….where did you go? If you are hiding, we see you!!
Into New Mexico We Go…. Nothing to see, just miles and miles of desert plants…. small bushes that apparently need little water or can store moisture within their leaves. They aren’t really even green in color….just brown and dark. They are just there – a part of the landscape. There isn’t much reason to take a photo except that it is New Mexico. Miles and miles of the small bushes covering the earth. I am sure there is a lot of life going on there, but it is hidden and not visible to us.
Border Patrol…..Here is a surveillance camera and Border Patrol truck we found at the Continental Divide. This site was manned by an active Army veteran helping out the Border Patrol. We asked him what he did when he caught (and he has) illegal immigrants trying to cross this area in New Mexico. He said he phones the Border Patrol and they come and pick the illegals up. A little further down the road, we saw a Border Patrol Station. There we spoke to a Border Patrol man going into the building. He was very informative and said that on the outside of the building it seems very peaceful, but it is chaos and noisy inside as it is full of illegal immigrants that have been caught. He said a wall and more technology is needed to address this border crisis. What a huge job our Border Patrol men and women have.
Continental Divide.. While we were talking with the Army Veteran, a woman with a backpack and toting the required hiking gear walked up. She had started walking the International Continental Divide Trail at the US/Mexican border with the goal of walking all the way to the US/Canadian border. She said she had already walked 42 miles of the Trail. The Trail is 2650 miles long and it takes about 5 months to walk from one end to the other.
I asked her if she was afraid of spiders or scorpions sneaking in with her at night when sleeping in her tent in the desert. She said she just puts in earplugs and goes to sleep. (I would need to be really tired to sleep under those conditions. I might have to run those 42 miles to be tired enough to sleep!!!) Her goal was to walk those 2650 miles to the US/Canadian Border. We wished her good luck as she walked away – heading North.
Some miles further, we could see this portion of a border wall that we were told had been recently constructed. Spoke with several different Border Patrol Agents as we traveled. They all say the border wall is needed. And that the situation at the Border is a crisis, and the people who say it is not, are wrong! It is a crisis for both the immigrants crossing illegally and the citizens of the United States.
Immigrants crossing into the US at a Port of Entry in Palomas, MX….entering as they should. Welcome!
We crossed over into Palmas, MX for a brief time.
Stacks of rocks can mean many things. Indians have stacked rocks to mark trails. Some believe these stacks of rocks mark the way for immigrants, but my question is why would they stack rocks long the highway where they are easily seen and could be removed?
Have always appreciated the love of color the Mexican people have. These buildings were in Palamas where we crossed over.
We thought this was a tiny white cloud in the distance, but when zooming in on my camera, we discovered it was a blimp.
Below, in a mostly “closed-up” town of Columbus, NM we saw a very old church. It intrigued us so we stopped to check it out. At first one small structure in the churchyard appeared to be a baptismal font, but on more inspection, it was the burial site of the man who was identified as Father, Benefactor and Patriarch. Apparently, he had started this Parish. He had died in 1991.
Phil says someone had a sense of humor to put this Golden Arches McDonald sign out here in the middle of the New Mexico desert. McDonald’s must be many, many miles away. And there is the old car. We found the sign quite amusing.
This wire profile of a man was huge and in the yard of a home where there were other rather odd things. Maybe this is Crazy Horse…..kind of looks like him.
This is the beautiful white Yucca blossom that decorates the desert and plains of New Mexico. It is their State Flower. It is said that the children of New Mexico chose it. The early settlers in New Mexico calledit the Lord’s candles. In places, they were all over….some tall, some in big clusters….growing out from the middle of a spiky cactus. Many parts of the Yucca are edible – the fruits, seeds, stems and some of the roots of the 40-50 species of this amazing plant.
It is amazing….we drive along, there is not much to see but those small dark bushes and then all of a sudden, the Yucca blossoms appear covering the landscape.
Nature is full of surprises.
We stopped at a small park where some people were gathered. It was a senior citizen group having lunch provided for them by some local organization. Two of the men were dressed in orange jumpsuits. We learned these two men were from a local prison and were helping prepare the food. Part of the rehabilitation for the inmates. It is a good thing.
This flag was tattered on the edge. It had apparently been flying over this small park for years or had survived through some strong storms, but it still flew high over the park even though not in perfect shape.
Lots of American Flags are flying all over this US and we see them when we travel.
Truth be told, it is difficult keeping the photos and blogging ahead of the miles we drive. We are actually in Missouri tonight so I will be sending out another blog soon to share with you the amazing journey we had in West and Northern Texas and Arkansas. Stay tuned!
We wish all of you good health and a very happy, warm Spring.
Anne & Phil