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Another Border Run ... For Stamps! December, 2009 |
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Coming into Tucson, a shot of the foothills of the Catalina Mountains with a few white flakes atop Mt. Lemmon:
Yeah, it’s metric! Look on the left side of the road in the distance and you’ll see a speed limit sign that says
65mph.
Nothing confusing about this sign, huh?
No, I didn't wheelie to the other side, I just turned around:
No doubt they were taking a picture of me, so I thought I'd, um, shoot back:
Odd sight to see on my GPS screen, huh?
The top dog on duty today was led around cars and trucks most likely looking for drugs or cash. Cash sniffing dogs
you ask? Oh, heck yeah. The dogs (along with more equipment, manpower, etc.,) are part of Obama's beefed up border protection and they apparently are
doing a very good job. My understanding is fiscal year 2008 (pre-Obama) netted $1.1 million in cash seizures. This year is $4.9
million. Wonder if the canines will be receiving a year end “bone-us” for their efforts??
As I approached Tucson again I realized I had enough time to make another detour before blasting back up to
Phoenix! Woo-hoo! A quick search in my GPS returned a previously stored waypoint, so that is where Mo the Moose and I headed:
Just to settle any curiosity, the vehicle in the photo above was, um, just passing through.
An old guy wearing sandals was off-loading his dirt bike from the back of an RV with Oregon plates in the parking lot
of the Visitor Center. I figured the snowbird was planning to enjoy the scenic road like me. I didn’t think
he’d be doing so in his sandals though:
End of day GPS:
AGirl
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Those who follow me are aware
that last month I was rather consumed with rehabilitating my
ankle. (Update: 
My journey to Death Valley that I mentioned in the first link above didn’t happen due to unexpected and significant accumulation of white stuff
along my route. I was, however, able to make it to Vegas for the Cher concert (by the way, it was highly disappointing)
with Kobi and our friend Pat in – aghast! – a car. I think the last time I was contained in a cage, um car, that long
was when my Dad, Kobi, and I went to the USA Four Corners Finisher’s Banquet in Ontario, California
in 2007. (Middle of report: 
According to the calendar, today is the official first day of winter. So, what better way to
celebrate than going for a ride to acquire another National Park Passport Stamp to add to my 
Better yet, I rolled out of my driveway today wearing my summer mesh gloves! 
The stamp I wanted to bag today is located at Tumacacori National Historic Park in Tumacacori, AZ, which is less than 20 miles from the international border. The last time I headed for the border for a Passport Stamp
was: 
Unfortunately, winter in these parts means prime season for road construction since it’s not 300 degrees
outside, so I hit a few delays on my way:
Stamp #338 bagged! (Look how proud Mo, my Alaskan moose passenger, is on the back of my bike!)" 
The old lady behind the desk at the park’s Visitor Center seemed very surprised to see someone walking in the door
based on her startled reaction to me. I’m sure being dressed from head to toe in motorcycle gear that looks like I’m ready for some kind of
battle had a lot to do with it. Despite the road construction delays I encountered on my way down, I still had enough time
in my schedule to make a quick run for the border, which was less than 20 miles away. By the way, notice anything odd
about this sign?: 
Confused? Well, in the 30 years the interstate has existed from Tucson to the border town of
Nogales, AZ, I’m guessing there have been quite a few confused travelers! Supposedly, when I-19 was being
built in the late 1970’s the US was going to be converting over to the metric system so the state highway department erected
signs in metric so they wouldn’t have to replace them when the change took place. Guess they never got the memo that
the US didn’t make the switch to metric, huh? Seriously people, thirty freakin’ years?? 
When do you give up hope we’re not going metric? Interestingly, all the signs I’ve ever seen along I-19 display only distances in metric, not speed. Perhaps
posting “105km” on a speed sign was just asking for trouble? 
I rode down the main street in Nogales and as I approached the last traffic light in the US I pulled over to take a
photo. Some dude walking on the sidewalk came up and started talking to me. Actually he was talking to me and Mo. I have no idea what he was saying since I don’t speak Spanish, but I’m guessing
it had something to do with Mo. Heck, maybe he wanted Mo! Another gentleman nearby who was, shall we say, celebrating
the holiday spirits in ETOH fashion, started wandering over in our direction. When he approached the bike I didn’t think
it was best to continue sitting there so I took this photo – into the sun, decapitated reindeer and all – before taking off:
Nogales is Arizona’s largest international border town with a population of about 20,000. It
borders the city of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico… literally one is across the street, um, the fence from
the other. Here are a few shots of the fence:
You can expect to see this any time you are traveling in Arizona and at any location along
the roadways, particularly in the southern part of the Grand Canyon State:
At the checkpoint, traffic was creeping along as everyone filtered through. My lane never
came to a complete stop long enough for me to pull out my camera (which I carry holster-like on my right hip)
and take a photo. So, I reached into my tankbag and grabbed my Blackberry phone so I could get a pic of this sign:
I'm thinking at least
they could use a few of those bucks to pay for replacing the goofy metric signs on the highway there?!?
While I was going through the line I apparently stepped in gum. Not a piece of gum, rather what seemed like
an entire pack of gum! My boot was sticking so badly to the footpeg on my bike (a 2005 Suzuki V-Strom DL1000) that I had to pull over on the side of the road once I got past Fido so I could scrape my foot in the dirt and
rocks and then try to get the gunk off my peg. Once back on the bike, I took this photo of the scene behind (yes, that's I-19 littered with the white and green US Border Patrol vehicles):
Yup, my lifetime streak of zero tickets or warnings is alive and well thank you very much! I'm thinking my radar detector,
much like Fido above, deserves a year end reward for it’s protection efforts.
Saguaro National Park has two “districts”, the Rincon and Mountain, and they are on opposite sides of I-10 just slightly north of
Tucson. I had previously visited the Rincon (east side) district on several occasions, and of course, acquired the National
Park Passport Stamp for my collection. The Mountain District of the Park has a scenic drive that is off-road. I’ve never
ridden the loop since every time I’ve been in the area I was either not riding a bike I cared to tromp around through gravel and sand or
I was simply blasting up I-10 to get back to Phoenix from a very extended journey (usually weeks or months long). The
circumstances were different today so I decide to um, ah, seize the journey! 
Many folks are enthralled with the sight of the big Saguaro cactus. There are some fascinating facts on
this sign such as they are 75 years old before sprouting arms, and they can live to be 200 years old, weigh up to 7
tons and exceed the height of a four story building:
Map of today's route:
Two Passport stamps to add
to my collection, late December riding conditions in mid-60s and clear skies, a scenic off-road jaunt…what a great day to be alive
and seize the journey! I’d like to take a moment to once again say thanks for all the support out
there! 
