Hitchikers and Coyotes and subtle honor

I spotted this coyote along the road where there is a warning to not pick up prisoner hitch hikers.
He thought he escaped my camera...and he was not hitch hiking.


This sign appears long, long before the detention center.


Pinal County, AZ Detention Center. It is massive, in the middle of nowhere, and has a kind of a funny name in a pun kind of way.


The flags blowing at this grave site caught my eye from the road, which was about 100 yards away. The grave is in a very large field, with a few other markers, and a bench, about 500 yards from a church. I thought it was striking. I only regret that I did not get the name of the marine on the headstone. I do remember that he was buried in 2001. And, yes, those are beer kegs holding up the makeshift bench. Were his friends there when I stopped I would have drank beers in his honor as well.

Hohokam Casa Grande, Joshua Trees

Picacho Peak, north of Tucson, pretty striking.


The Joshua Tree Parkway....they were named, I learned, by Mormon Pioneers after the biblical figure. I do know there are a lot of them.


This Suhuaro Cactus is reputed to be 200+ years old, way, way older than the, now getting cooked by the sun, gringo who leaned against it to see if it was indeed prickly. It was.


I have not yet located the worlds largest ball of string, but I did find Casa Grande National Monument in Coolidge, AZ. More stuff I learned....this is the largest Hohokam Indian building ever discovered and it is dated to 1200 ad. Just one of those places that I saw a sign for, 75 miles of track, if there is a track, and I liked it.

Arizona

Today I visited the Ansel Adams collection at the University of Arizona. Among the mass of others things I did not know, Adams contributed his entire archive, and equipment, there in 1973. As such, it is the official Ansel Adams site. After visiting, and seeing every print I have ever seen on every wall anywhere, I thought I might as well throw away my camera, but then I remembered that Mr. Adams is not taking any more pictures so I might as well hang in there.

Nogales to Tucson

I spent most of Sunday in Nogales. I think it is a charming town and I had no problems and I went everywhere I was not supposed to go and I thought it was very quiet and quaint...then I came to the border crossing and the US Customs Agent pulled me over and asked me where I was and what I was up to. He readily accepted my "Follow the Comet" story and then asked me if I wondered why Nogales was so quiet. Of coure I did not. It turns out the Nogales Mexico is on a military lock down because of a drug gang shoot out this past Thursday...and here I thought there was just good parking everywhere. As has been the seredipitous nature of my travels worldwide, accompanyied with my general look of a criminal, I had no problems. And all of this was just before I was going to write how much different Nogales seemed that Tijuana, to me. The customs agent, expressing his opinion only, argued that the Nogales/Tucson drug pipeline is a real problem for this border crossing. What do I know.

I am heading, in general, to the Grand Canyon.

Road towards Santa Anna, or Nogales, or to nowhere

I suppose I will eventually follow this road north, I suppose, but I don't know.

Mexico 3

People can and will live anywhere. The next house after this one was 50 miles.

All along the roads through the Sonora Desert there are these little chapel sites. Some are a very long climb, all have candles lit inside, by who I don't know since there is not a person or building or town or car around for a hundred miles.

San Filipe Mexco, confirmed site of a great carne asado tortilla.



Truly excellent roadside rest area somewhere in the Sonora Desert, northern Mexico.


Roadside shop in the middle of nowhere.

Mexico 2

Right on the edge of the Sonora Desert there was a watermelon field with big irrigation pumps and a pool where this pretty Herron was minding his/her own business, and was polite enough to pose.


At one of the rest areas I found a trail that wound its way into the desert, but I went no further than this point, and I decided this was not a good place to camp.


Then there is this side of Tijuana, which gives the place, I think, a undeserved general bad rap. I do think this was a creative, or not, name for this joint. I chose to not go in and find out.


Somewhere there are a lot of not so happy chickens. There were dozens of these trailers on the road, all empty at the time. Pollo anyone?


Until I am proven wrong I think this was a Magpie bird sitting comfortably on this cactus.