Every year a core group of friends get together and go down to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument for and Easter weekend campout. I have been blessed recently with a Monday through Friday job where I get out of work at 1:30 in the afternoon, so this year I could jump in my car after work and head down. I had packed up everything non perishable the day before, so all I had to do on Friday was pop home to get my food for the cooler, tend to the cats and I headed off to Eden.
I left by 3pm thinking stupidly that might beat the traffic heading out of town. I was way wrong. It was bumper to bumper all the way from the confluence of the 60 and 1-10 through Buckeye. I got to the campsite about 6:30 and quickly got to setting up.
It was good to see everyone again as some of us only see each other once a year. Others of us regularly hang out as we are in a book club together, or just like to do things together. This annual even had been going on for over 16 years. I really enjoy it as I love to camp and though some years it can be a bit warm down there, the campground is really good and getting better as now there is SHADE!
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is located in southern Arizona, south of Ajo, west of Tucson, and east of Yuma. It borders Mexico and you can see it from there. The park was founded in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The park was created as a way to preserve a representative area of the Sonoran Desert. The new monument was part of a movement in the National Parks to protect not just scenic wonders but also the ecological wonders of the country. Over 75 years later, Organ Pipe Cactus is now one of the best preserved examples of the Sonoran Desert wilderness.
Within the monument, signs of human use are also preserved and protected. The monument is the site of culture and history that reflect long, widespread and diverse use by American Indian, Mexican, and European groups. The intersection of these of these three cultures is significant archeologically, geographically, and internationally. (Copied and pasted from here as I am too lay to regurgitate this information).
Those who show up on Friday evening usually just hang out and catch up. Some of is who get there early enough make the short trip in to Sonoyta, Mexico go to the steak house there to make reservations for the following evening as is tradition for us to eat Saturday night at the only good restaurant in Sonoyta. Also, there is a liquor/various sundries store called Vasquez where we buy good tequila, and some like to visit the pharmacia to get cheap over the counter drugs. I got there too late for that this year.
On Saturday we all usually go for a hike. Some like to treacherous long hike up Mt Ajo (which means garlic in Spanish), some like the kinder gentler hike to what is called Bull Pasture and others like me in recent years either site around at camp (when I had a broken toe), or go on even easier hike. Last year I went to what is called Dripping Spring. this is a little dribbly spring coming out of a little cave in the rock and it is swarming with bees, so you don’t stay too long. This year a feature area called Quitoqibito spring in the south of the park. In past years it’s been closed because of illegal immigration activities and the only people lurking about in that area were the “Coyotes”, their victims and the border patrol.
The visitor center was giving tours of the newly opened area on Saturday so three of us decided to go. It was a 20 mile very bumpy ride out there, but you could see the “fence” they are trying to build to keep those pesky Mexicans out. Like the Great Wall of Arizona. It looks like something that can be climbed in like, 1 minute. It isn’t finished and when we drove further it was just a short easy to jump fence really just to indicate the border. Along the fence in a road that was built by FDR and is now patrolled by border agents. We drove parallel to this until we got to the parking area for Quitoqibito Spring.
We walked around the pond and up to the spring boil then back to the van after a long winded tour and lecture on the history of that area. Then we drove the bumpy road back to the camp and saw a nesting great horned owl that looked like a cat sitting on a nest in a Saguaro.
We got back and my friend Joan and I took to crocheting and everyone else that was back just kicked back and chatted. At 6pm we were all going in to Sonoyta for dinner. Then there was the great scuffle as to who was driving and who was riding with whom. I said I would drive and could take two more, but everyone pretty much found a ride and I Jon ended up with me, which I liked because he is a retired border agent. We were joking that I should bring my new lighter that is shaped like a bolt action rifle ha ha…
We crossed the border which is getting scarier as they have much military posted at the borders now. But nothing happened and we went in and had dinner at the little steak house we always eat at. It isn’t the best but it’s the best in town.
Afterword, we headed back to camp. So here’s where it gets interesting. We were probably no more than 100 yards of American soil when I see the old blue and red lights in the rear view mirror. I said, “Oh shit, Jon, we’re getting pulled over, I haven’t done anything”. So I pull over and the officer approaches my car. I roll the window down and he asks if I speak Spanish. I say no, of course not your friggin idiot, do I look like I speak Spanish? Of course only the No part was audible, the rest were my thoughts. So he shows me the radar gun and he says I was going 58km in a 40km zone. I apologized, thinking he’s a liar and that radar gun is an etch-a-sketch. I ask what to do. He tells me I can go to the police station and pay the fine. I ask how much is the fine and he says $1000 pesos. About $80 American dollars. I look at Jon and he’s just staring ahead and ask what to do and he says it’s up to me. Well, I didn’t have $80 on me so I tell the officer is there any other way, I don’t have any money. So he tells me he can take $60 and then I see what’s going on here. So I say what about letting me off with a warning and I will never do it again (which is true, I never plan on driving in to Sonoyta again). He then says he can take $40. All I had on me was $40, Jon offered to pitch in $20 and I said it’s okay, I just want to get out of here. So I gave the Highway Robber, I mean, Police Officer the $40 and got the hell out of there. Jon said he was very impressed with my negotiation skills.
Got back to camp and regaled the story around the campfire. Everyone was joking about what could have happened but all in all we were pretty lucky. It’s not going to go against my driving record, my insurance isn’t going to go up, and Mr Police Oficer probably got off duty and got with his other crook cop buddies to compare their hauls for the night. Also, if he would have searched the car he would have found my camping hatchet in the trunk and I would still be in jail down there instead of blogging about it.
One of the guys at camp said that I was in the No Hassle Zone which means that I didn’t have to stop, I could have just kept going. I questioned this and so did Jon. So when I got home I googled it and that is not what that means AT ALL. It means you do not need a permit to drive in that particular area. Between Sonoyta and Rocky point is a hassle free zone. When we go to San Carlo we stop at the 20-click mark and pick up a permit because we are going further into Mexico and you need a permit. So if I would have taken his advise (which was after the fact) and blown through like Thelma and Louise, I, again, would still be in jail down there.
Until next time, your Friendo Bandito,
The Scuba Jedi