AJO

We got down here to Ajo yesterday and it is pretty warm and dry.  Talked to the folks at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge today, and they have closed part the refuge and a lot of the blm area that we bike in because of the desert pronghorn antelope calving season is early this year because of the dry conditions.  And there are not any flowers down in this part either.  We thought AZ was getting a lot of moisture this winter, but I guess we were wrong.  We are looking at our options right now so stay tuned.

We went for a nice hike this morning, but really tired out the old dog.  I think he will get to do a short walk in the mornings now, then Connie and I will go for ours.  Also went into town to the wildlife refuge headquarters and  to do a grocery shop.  Saw lots of for sale signs on houses down here. 

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

An organ pipe cactus in the back ground at our campsite while we are having a cold one just before supper.

The camp at sunset.

Not much color for the sunset though.

Sunrise this morning was a little more colorful.

One must always take a picture of the Ocatillo's flowers.  The humming birds are really working these around here now as there are no other flowers.

This is the view in Ajo's plaza.  We always stop at the little coffee shop and have a tea or coffee.  There are two churches, one on each side, and the city government building in the center.  Very cute town center.

One of the churches.

Connie waiting for me to take a few pictures.

DESERT EXERCISE

12 March 2011:  We did a nice 2 mile walk first thing this morning.  Then after breakfast we jumped on our bikes and did a 10 mile ride.  Both of us were a little tired after that.  Did manage to do a little (1 mile) of paved road and that was a treat.  We don’t ever get our bikes on black top as we generally ride gravel and two tracks.  I managed to get 17.9 mph according to my gps on that smooth road.  WOW!  We needed to do a lot of exercising as we went out to Wayne and Audie’s last night for supper and of course had to have a lot of dessert. 

We are really glad we put in the solar panel.  It charged the batteries up in less than 3 hours this morning.  We did a little work on securing it better to the camper jack.  I had to get up in the middle of the night and put it in the jeep as we had some pretty good winds going there for a little while.  So thought we had better get it fixed up better.  Will make a bracket for it this summer so it will be easier to hook up.  Warm down here.  I saw 89 degrees on the thermometer this afternoon.  It said  90 yesterday.  We were going up by Parker today to do some kayaking and exploring around up there, but they are having a jeep rally and other things going on so decided to just head to Ajo tomorrow.  

A nice gentleman from Washington took our picture with Connie's phone at the end of the black top today.