Every year a group of friends get together to camp at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. For a prior year’s story see this adventure. This year we had about 15 people sign up, two dropped out and many left early. Not because of anything bad happening to them but bad weather. This year the forecast was weirder than ever. Typically, it can get a bit toasty out there and our concern is over how hot is it going to get? A couple of days ahead everyone was checking the weather, and it did not look good for the home team. Friday was good, clear and warm. Saturday was supposed to be windy, Saturday night/early Sunday rain. It’s usually a toss-up in Arizona as to whether the weather reports are accurate. I have seen days where they say 70% chance of rain and it’s only cloudy etc. So, we just didn’t know.

I took the day as a floating holiday from work so that I could get headed out early. We usually all meet at a restaurant in the beautiful cosmopolitan city of Ajo for lunch on Friday. Ajo is what was called a “company town”. Back in the days of yore, companies, such as mining companies would build housing for its employees. Ajo is the Spanish word for garlic and as far as I know garlic has nothing to do with anything in the area. I read that The Spanish may have named the place using the familiar word in place of the similar-sounding O’odham word for paint (oʼoho). The Tohono O’odham people obtained red paint pigments from the area. (Source: Wikipedia, what else?)

The restaurant we normally met at closed down I believe even before the pandemic. There are very few choices for restaurants in town and the default has been The Agave Grill. One of our campers recommends the chef salad. Click here For a Yelp review. Only two people were planning on hitting The Grill for lunch and I wanted to join them. My grand plan was to head out and be at the park by 11-11:30, set up, then head back to Ajo to join then for lunch. Epic fail. I did get to the park at 11:30, checked in, but the 20-year-old ranger (Ranger Skippy) told me that I couldn’t go to the campsite until 1 because they were still cleaning. Um, what? You mean they have maids like in a motel? I went out to the site anyway and there was no one there. The other group sites were occupied but site 5, our reserved site, was clean, the beds made, carpet vacuumed, bathroom cleaned. I jest, it’s a campsite. A ramada and picnic tables surrounded by places for tents. The ramadas are a fairly new addition. In years past there were no ramadas for shade and it is usually hot out so we’re all huddling under the nearest Palo Verde “tree”. These skeletal monstrosities are more like a bush with branches that dwindle out to nothing and produce leaves the size of a grain of rice. So, our park entrance fees at work, they built ramadas and added a shower in the restrooms.

I decided to set up anyway, who’s to know? I texted my friends that I was supposed to meet up with at The Grill and said I wasn’t going to make it after all. By the time I did get set up I was so sweaty and gross I would not want to go into a civilized place, if you can call Ajo civilized.

I had purchased a new tent and this was her maiden voyage. The rain forecast was not making me feel too great but I had high hopes that the weather forecast was wrong or would change. The tent is called an “instant tent” and it really is. After years of clumsy flimsy poles to wrestle with Coleman finally produced an easy-up tent. If you want to see a demo of how easy, click here. I got all set up before anyone else got there.

Everyone trickled in little by little. Four of us travelled into Sonoyta, Mexico to make dinner reservations for Saturday night. This is a tradition for us to go into “town” and have dinner at The Excelsior Hotel restaurant and have dinner, shop at the local liquor/furniture/nik-nak store and get ice cream. There is also a taco stand right near the store that has been there feeding flies and people for 48 years. On the day we make the restaurant reservation, we usually dine here. The tires on the taco truck are completely flat, its swarming with flies and the food is delicious. I’m not sure if it’s because the health inspector doesn’t make it out there too often, or because it’s the only taco truck around as to how it’s been there for so long. Or the fact the tires are flat. All I know is that it won’t be entering The Great Food Truck Race any time soon.

Back at camp everyone was just chillin. When it got dark, we made a fire and all sat around regaling about hikes we’d been on, wacky situations we’ve found ourselves in and general campfire banter. Since most of us have seen a few winters in our day, we pretty much hit the hay fairly early. Now came the time for me to test out the new air mattress/cot situation. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was it comfortable, but I woke up once during the night and thought I was at home. The sun was rising at around 6am and so I got up to have coffee. We had decided to have the traditional Easter morning breakfast potluck Saturday morning rather than Sunday because of the predicted rain. The forecast was not changing and so we erred on the side of caution and had the breakfast on Saturday. That was a good idea. We had to fight the wind a bit, 40mph gusts are the enemy of paper plates and napkins. One napkin blew into a nearby bush and one of the campers went to get it and got nailed by a teddy bear cholla.

We were able to remove the offending segment with a comb and just picking the thorns out. Cholla thorns are like fish hooks and have a barb that is both painful and difficult to remove.

After breakfast, some people went on hikes, others, like me, stayed around to chew the fat and enjoy the 40mph breezes. I mulled on whether to take one friend’s offer up on staying with them in the Air BnB in Ajo or to stick it out, hoping the weather forecast was wrong. We just didn’t know. Meanwhile, I was able to complete work on a knit beanie and start another. Stitch and Bitch, but I was the only one stitching and others were bitching about the medical procedures they had last year, what procedures they have scheduled and how difficult it can be to get up out of a chair anymore. Yes, gentle readers, we are all over 45. Um, okay, 50. I’ll leave it there.

The weather forecast was not entirely wrong. The rain was supposed to start at midnight, but it didn’t really start until about 3am. At least the wind let up some and my tent stayed dry. On the inside. By the time I emerged from my tent the rain had stopped. It was still overcast, and I was able to make coffee. It would still sprinkle off and on. A few people had bailed on Saturday afternoon, opting out of dinner in Sonoyta and avoiding getting their gear drenched. They missed out on being able to say, “Wow, it sure is brisk out”. This is something I had never heard uttered at an Organ Pipe Easter Weekend campout. I am sure I will never hear it spoken again at this event.

All in all, good trip. I do not regret staying in the rain. My tent kept me dry, I got to see some old friends, eat good food and see a family of illegal immigrants get busted at the border.

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