Blue Goose ~ Day 190

December 3, 2014 ~ Fortuna Hills, AZ to Gila Bend, AZ

Lately, while I am not choosing places to sleep because of proximity to a Starbucks, there usually seems to be one within a quarter mile. The free WiFi is as much an inducement as the coffee, and they are bright cheerful places, even at 0430. People are starting their days, reading the paper, going to work, coming home from work, on their various screens or meeting friends...the staff are quick-witted, efficient and friendly. While Starbucks is working on water consumption and recycling issues, they unfortunately do not use / offer shade-grown coffee, and have a huge problem with recycling the millions of cups used each day (if they are even put in a recycling bin, which most are not). What I didn't know until recently is that cups have a thin polyethylene plastic coating inside to prevent coffee from leaking, making them difficult to recycle as the plastic needs to be separated from the paper. Their interface with their employees, their commitment to LEED buildings and C.A.F.E (Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices) are the positives. I am going to be much more consistent in using my reusable cup, thereby reducing by 300 the 4 billion! disposable cups sold per year.

As I drove east I saw a sign for Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and went there. It's on BLM land (Bureau of Land Management) where camping is free or very cheap. Lately I often see RVs and trailers out in the desert, a single one here, another over there, in several areas. Here, at Painted Rock, there was a campground host, but the sites were widely separated. At other venues, on BLM land, one can just pull off and camp and people do.

The petroglyphs are from the Hohokam people.

Petroglyphs at Painted Rock - BLM land - AZ

On the way back to I8, I went down a sandy road along a cotton field and found a second non-running Greater Roadrunner, the first being just off the main road five minutes earlier.

Greater Roadrunner - near Gila Bend, AZ

There are always Yellow-rumps and lately Say's Phoebes, but the White-crowned Sparrow population has diminished. It was sunny and just warm enough; the cotton had been harvested but fluffy white cotton detritus was on the road edges. I always make certain I can easily turn around and not get stuck. The only time I've even been close to that was on a muddy pull-off at Stillwater NWR in Nevada where the ground didn't appear that soft and sticky but was.

After carrying on an inner dialogue about going (or not going) to Cabeza Prieta NWR, I finally did. It's an hour south of Gila Bend, towards Lukeville, Mexico, on a straight road through the 1.7 million acre Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range, used primarily for air-to-ground bombing practice.

Tim Cahill writes of his experience in Cabeza at www.nationalgeographic.com (search Cabeza) that is definitely worth reading. What discouraged me from going INTO Cabeza was my vehicle. I would have loved traveling the famous El Camino del Diablo but needed a four-wheel drive vehicle. Of the three possible routes for casual travelers, the only road for a two-wheel vehicle with high clearance was the Charlie Bell Road. So I did not actually drive onto the refuge but instead visited the VC in the town of Ajo (means garlic in Spanish) where I watched a film about Cabeza, bought a book, talked with the woman in the front office, wandered the trails through perfectly zen-like desert gardens outside the refuge, did the gnatcatcher ID exercise again (decided I saw a Black-tailed which is a life bird) and wished another bird or two would show up. They remained elusive this time of day. It was overcast, with not a hint of a breeze and a comfortable temperature near 70.

The lady I talked with had lived in Ajo over 20 years and loved it. Historically, copper was mined here with a huge open pit south of town. Mining stopped in 1985, and the company sold the workers' houses which were / are being bought by retirees (as second homes) or young families or  as rental properties. With Ajo so close to the Mexican border, it is now also home to Border Patrol agents and Ajo is changing from a boom / bust mining economy to a desirable destination for desert-lovers. I am beginning to understand the attraction, am finding the desert seductive, can imagine living here...or at least why people love it. Ajo would find a place on my top 100 towns in the US where I think I could live.

I left with an hour of remaining daylight. While going through a BP checkpoint, the agent asked, "Mind if I look inside?" and as the side door slid open, my box of CDs nearly spilled all over the pavement, but he caught them just in time. What a job... Three other agents were standing around. They are trim, laconic and courteous, wearing brown uniforms and outfitted impressively. Signs ask travelers to "Contain Your Pets As Working Dogs Are In Use" or something like that.  As I left..."Be safe, ma'am...travel safe."

In Gila Bend, it began raining hard. I ate from Taco Bell and spent a noisy night with trucks arriving and leaving constantly, and frequent long freight trains just across the road. I watched one truck pull in after dark and maneuver into a slot in between the others already parked. I am impressed by what they do; the stereotype of long-haul truckers has been totally unfounded in my experience so far.

I actually love sleeping in the van on a rainy night, as I've said before, and there is the added layer of a "rain curtain" on the windows. But it WAS a bright and noisy night.

Ajo, AZ