Apr
16
2005

Aim That Sonofabitch For The Border

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 16, 2005 - 09:03:37 pm
(Posted Under: Travel, Arizona Trip)
I'm going catch that train and tell the porter, aim that sonofabitch for the border. I make my home where I lay my bottle and I lay my hat.

This morning we got up early, to head down south for our Tucson trip. The scenary between Phoenix and Tuscon was beautiful. I'd enjoyed driving around the flat parts near Apache Junction, however, it was kind of bare. The ride down to Tucson was even more enjoyable in terms of scenary. The day already seemed like it was going to redeem the whole downtown Phoenix disaster of last night.

We hit Tucson at around 10:30 - we made great time. It was virtually immediately obvious that Tucson was going to be much better than Phoenix. A really nice city, I could totally imagine living there. We drove out towards the Segarpo National Park and Old Tucson. Got some amazing photos. The trip to Tonto National Park last week was amazing, but it seemed like there was more variety of vegitation and cactii down south. Vegitation was lush, however the landscape was more brown than around the Tonto National Park area.

Really wanting food and drink, we headed back into Tucson, just short of hitting the Saguaro National Park, deciding we'd go through it on the way home. We quickly hit Fuddruckers, and like the last time we ate there, walked out feeling like we'd eaten too much. Once back in the car, we set out for Hotel Congress. This served to be quite a task to get there, what with the one way streets and closed roads. We circled places upteenth times. However, with Tucson being so nice, it wasn't an issue at all, unlike the frustrating aimless wander around Phoenix last night.

Eventually we navigated our way to Hotel Congress, went in and brought our rockin' Club Congress t-shirts.

After loosing some time with the whole debarkle of finding Hotel Congress, we set out further south to the St. Xaiver Misson, 10 miles south of Tucson. Interestingly, metric is used south of Tucson. So, it was knowing how far everything was, as all the signs are in kilometers there. The misson was eaxily visible from the road, which was impressive, because of it's size. We were soon driving up to it, in awe of the sight, There is little point rambling about it, there are plenty of pictures that can much better describe it. We spent at least an hour admiring it, before it was back in the car, heading for Mexico.

We hit the Mexican border around 5PM, at the town of Naplous. A bit hairy actually finding the border, and ensuring we didn't end up in some lane destined for Mexico, but before long came to the influx of cars crossing over to Mexico, and likewise into the US. We parked and walked around the actual border, getting as close to Mexico as was confortable. Literally a couple of feet. Quite an experience. Though I kicked myself that I hadn't taken my passport, because it would have been cool to have stepped into Mexico, if possible. (Interestingly US citizens don't need their passport to do it). Not the only reason why it would have been good to take my passport. [wink] The city, especially immediately outside the border felt an awful like Mexico, yet the difference between both sides of the border line fence was painfully obvious. After walking around, taking photos and looking at all we wented to, we walked back to the car, to drive north back to Tempe.

So give your ID card to the border guard. Say your alias is Jean Luc Piccard.

On the way south, we'd noticed on the other side of the road was a mobile check point. We didn't really think that much of it on the way down. (Pre-emptive disclaimer: parentals, chill - nothing bad happened! [smile] ) Returning, we had to stop at it, and not being a citizen, and not having my passport with me (not leaving the state, let alone the country, we didn't even think of it), we got asked to pull into the station. Hence, I had to give my ID card to the border guard - in the form of my licence. I won't lie, it was nerve racking at first. Though as we sat their and waited for about 15 minutes, while the border patrol literally took my ID card, and checked me out, it became less nerve racking. While we didn't know what was going to happen, we both knew the worst that would happen would be that they'd have me stay there while Katie drove back to Tempe, got my passport and returned - while would have just been a pain in the ass more than anything. Even while we were slightly nervous of the outcome (after all, it was the border patrol, I was, in the back of my head, able to dig the whole Banditos thing, and knew that as soon as we were on a way again, it was going to be a great story about the the trip to the Mexico border. After about 15 minutes, the border guard returned with my license, handing it to Katie, confirmed she knew me - and then was silent. No real indication if we could leave or not, with the exception of returning my license. It was indeed an indication, and we were back on our way back to Tempe, already talking about how it was going to be a cool store. Every trip to the border needs a cool story. Obviously if we ever go back south, I'll take my passport. [wink] As too interstate, but I was already planning to do that. (Reassuring the parentals - please send me an email and tell me you haven't had a heart attack. [smile] )

A ton of awesome photos to come (the 256MB memory card we brought the other day is the shiznitz!), but right now it's off to Pranksters Too to catch our favorite duo - Scotty & Troy.

Tucson Trip Photos

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