Early start today (with repeat of Prickly Pear lemonade etc. for breakfast), down to the national monument to drive the road to Quitobaquito, a 15-mile long dirt road that parallels the border with Mexico.  We didn't see anything new in terms of the park, but we did get an eyeful of how Border Patrol works.  See photos for notes--your tax dollars at work.  We also saw the great and glorious WALL--such as it is.  So far, about 12' of fence, not wall.  People will be able to pass their drugs through, rather than throw them over.  Madness. How much money for this?

We came back up to town for lunch, only to be told, arriving at the restaurant, that it is closed for renovations.  The guy working on the restaurant (owner?) made some recommendations, and on his word we went to Olsen's, a grill in the one and only (near as we can tell) local grocery store: Olsen's IGA.  Procedure was a bit strange--we stood at the counter where the sign said "Order Here" for some time, until one of the locals came over and told us that we should go down to the other end of the counter, where the sign says to go back to where we had begun.  We ignored the sign, gave in our order, and got served.  Didn't have to pay until we were done.  Actually, though, the food was very good.  The same local gentleman told us that all their food is good, and especially their daily specials, and, in particular, the Chicken Fried Steak, which was not the special for today.  Another new experience for us!

After lunch, we took the Ajo Scenic Drive, which is a 7.5 mile dirt road (ANOTHER dirt road!) which takes you all the way around the mine.  Drive particularly interesting for conveying just how big that hole in the ground actually is.  80 years of mining copper makes for a very large hole!

And that was about that.  Back to the hotel for a nap, and then I went through the first four sessions of the workshop I have to give starting Saturday.  Back to the working world from a very interesting vacation.

We leave very early tomorrow to drive back to LAX--10 hours at least, we figure.  I have a meeting at 6 p.m.  My trip does not actually end until Monday (late--flight lands in Richmond at midnight), but I will not likely post anything else after this, unless I get some really interesting photo somewhere!

Next trip:  North Carolina in mid-November for a birding tour, which is our anniversary adventure this year.