S/V Tavarua

Hit up the old I-8 interstate out of Yuma. If only they could hold the weather at the 10AM temperature, all would be well. Breezed through Dateland, (still in Arizona) and ate one (and only one) date, then caved at the gift store counter and bought two Red Bulls. (You never know when lack of caffeine will overcome the need for determining which wickedly sweet date is the best of them all.) Then off to Gila Bend at a stifling 90+ degrees after a lunch Sophia’s for some ‘adequate, but nice, better than that-renamed-Outer-Limits-diner-down-the-street’ tacos. Then, finally, to the piste de resistance… the Organ Pipes National Monument. Oh, la, la. There are spring flowers on the cacti, a rabbit in the field, and doves abounding. The border patrol (which we crossed three checkpoints of.. were overly tan, and had a few German Shepherds in hyper-checkout car mode), and well, the dudes were rather mellow in the 95+ degree heat. Who could blame them? And, well, thank God. That is one crappy, dangerous job. For the most part, I’d be cranky doing it and would probably be shot by an equally irritable migrant who understood the absurdity of checking borders when it is all about labor (and the ever-popular “Drug War”) and nothing more or less. But I digress… Once we found the visitor center, a mere five miles from the Mexican border, we walked the ten minute nature trail and spent 20 minutes in the visitor center of the park. Ah, air conditioning. Other than their complaint about the recent 150 miles of illegal road trails in the park from people not using the border entryway that were destroying a portion of the park (complete with memorial to park rangers who have been killed), um.. well, the visitor center was ‘Uplifting’ in a true ‘nature is the best’ sort of way. The consensus from the both of us, the park is absolutely beautiful. Possibly our favorite of the parks, so far. (Oh, but I am still a sucker for Yellowstone.. damn, I can’t get away from Yogi the Bear, yet for the moment, this park is the Summer of Love.) The temperature for this jaunt is not April average, but May/June levels. Damn, if that scenery isn’t a gorgeous, but completely human hostile environment. We actually bought two gallons of purified water from Gila Bend before heading out (home of the Gila monster lizard)… (oh, the humility of buying non-tap water) and, thankfully, for the record, we finished most of the first jug before our traversal to Tucson, with nary a rest stop on the way. Desiccation, the reason people usually don’t live in the desert. Doh!

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