Southern Arizona

" It was a long life, and during it she inhabited many different selves." Someone please remember to put this quote on my tombstone one day.

I can think of nothing I love to do more than to travel. To see the interesting way other people live and to contemplate what it must be like to live as they do. One thing I know for sure, I will never live like my neighbors in the campground, who stay shut up in their giant motor coaches day and night, the television blaring, yelling at their yapping dogs and at each other. It is not the life for me.

Today, we drove through the Sonoran Desert, to a place called Arivaca Lake. The desert road wound around the tops of the foothills, and at each dip in the road a yellow sign warned not to enter if flooded.

It is hard to imagine this dry, barren place with enough water to be a danger to vehicles. I am always surprised to find lakes in the midst of the desert.

Lake Arivaca is located off of Ruby Ranch Road, 2 1/2 miles down a gravel path. Lake Arivaca's existence seems incongruous, set in the midst of dry parched sand dunes.

Though it was clear and blue, it was also tainted with Mercury, according to another government warning. You cannot eat the fish caught from the lake. The loons didn't seem to mind, diving and paddling in a pool they had all to themselves, except for a few vermillion flycatchers and swallows.

It seemed as if we would be all alone, so far were we from civilization, but at the top of a hill we spotted a camera focused on the hills that butted up against Mexico. And on top of the camera, a radar. Bill surmised that the radar was to track movement.


We only stayed for a short time, since there were signs all along the road of illegal traffic. Empty water bottles in the arroyos, abandoned camp fires, a handprint on the back of road signs, which is supposed to indicate that a member of the Mexican Mafia had been there.

The hand sign is supposed to mean eternal war, and since we were only armed with Dorito Chips and Fig Newtons, we decided not to engage in battle and turned the car around.

Since we don't start work for another week or so, we are going to take an extended trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon, leaving on Friday morning. There is a famcamp close to Flagstaff called Camp Tuthill where we will try to get a campsite for a few days.