Trouble on the Border

Our view from our free BLM campsite in Ajo Arizona

Bumping down the Ajo highway 86 through the Tohono O'odham Nation Reservation and met up with Tina and Shane at their house on the outskirts of town.  They directed us to an area in the Bureau of Land Management land a stone's throw from their house and we set up camp.  I gathered some wood and made a fire and we sat outside watching the moon rise.  How nice to be free camping in the desert on a warm(ish) winter night.

It was in Ajo where we gathered more information on the migrant situation on our southern border.  We'd heard about the Trump wall being built and saw protest signs all over Ajo saying "No Wall."  Our friends have been crossing the border and helping out at the camps in Mexico and there are a lot of volunteers who come to the Ajo area to help the unfortunate asylum seekers who are mistreated by the coyotes who take their money to smuggle them across the border then abandon them in the hot desert where they try to hide from the US border patrols.

Building in Ajo where volunteers gather to load water and plan forays into the desert.

Many of them die in the effort.  Groups in these border communities like Ajo send out volunteers to find the bodies.  They leave water in the desert to try to help the migrants. The story is that the border patrols empty those water containers when they find them.  Looking at the harsh land, I know we could not possibly make those long secretive treks and survive.  I feel shame about what our government is doing at the border.

Plaza in Ajo Arizona

After free camping at Ajo, our battery on the camper was pretty much depleted so it was clear we had to come up with a better way to charge the battery.  The unit came with a single solar panel but evidently that was not going to cut it for our power needs  We drove back to Tucson and got some advice from the Intestate battery guy, then headed off in search of some BIG solar panels and a 12 volt plug in charger.  That night we landed back at at Kartchner Caverns and stayed at the park there so we could plug in our new heavy duty charger to restore the battery.

Former church, now museum.

Then we plugged in the camper power so we'd have some heat for when the temperature dropped below freezing overnight.  We were seeing the temperatures swing 40 degrees between night and day.  While the heat source on the camper is propane, the fan that pushes that heat into the rig draws a fair amount of electricity.  Being a 1980's model camper, I'm betting it is not very efficient.

Our distributed camping site on Cave Creek

Batteries topped off, we headed off to the Arizona-New Mexico border through the small town of Portal where we found "distributed" camping next to a small stream up in Cave Creek Canyon.  Again we found a fire pit, and again we had a wonderful night poking the fire and sipping red wine. We spent two night there and loved it.  Evidently this forest is a favorite of birds and the birders who follow them.   A lovely place, and one we'll revisit on our journey home.

Chiricahua Mountains

In New Mexico we found highway 9 that runs just north of the Mexico border.  All along this parched corridor we saw roaming border patrols.  Some of the units had portable listening devices and they'd park overlooking the vast desert trying to spot migrants coming across.  After traveling hours down the road we pulled over to pee and right away, a helicopter arrived and circled.  I stood and stared. They circled.  Finally I just said "the hell with this" and proceeded with my "business".  Connie did the same, then they flew off to the west.

Later that day we saw a section of wall being built and it looked pretty silly.  Here we had vast tracts of border with a little quarter mile section being built.  From the sheer distances involved, there is no way that wall will ever be built from California to Texas.  I sure don't want my tax dollars wasted on the effort.  As it is, the border patrol has their electronic surveillance methods that are doing the job quite well.  Down the road we saw a blimp floating high in the sky.  Later we were told that the blimp's job was to locate low flying drug smuggling aircraft. What a crazy place!

We found the Pancho Villa State Park right at the crossing at Columbus New Mexico where I rushed off to fill the propane tank so we would not freeze that night.   A strange history there.  Pancho Villa raided the town and US army encampment in Columbus in 1916 and the US Army retaliated, chasing the famous Mexican hero deep into Mexico... and never catching him.

Our new solar panels were cranking out the energy but the $20 controller failed so we headed east towards El Paso to find a Harbor Freight to exchange the unit.  It's been almost thirty years since I was last in Texas.  With trepidation, we crossed the border into the lone star state.