Monday Morning Time Travel

100_1763, originally uploaded by torri_g.

The great thing about sitting and going through five years worth of picture taking out here in Arizona, is the discovery of pictures long forgotten. Seeing the pictures of the girls make this Mother's heart long for the days when they were so very much younger, and seeing the pictures of other things made me either laugh, or think "Wow! I took that picture?" There are tons of great flash back pictures that now that I have an idea of just what disk, or flash drive they are on, may be making their way to being posted. But that is going to mean sitting and finding them again and transferring from their archive to something more accessible for me.

Today's picture though is from June 2005, and a trip made out to Organ Pipe National Monument. Once you travel the 192 miles west from our place here in Arizona, you land in a town called Why and really have yourself a laugh at how appropriately named that town is. Pass by the Why Travel Shop and laugh a bit more. Go through a border patrol check point and realize that you are just minutes from the border, and then you see the signs for the monument. Of course you are still wondering Why you drove all this way just to see cactus. I mean it is Arizona and I think the state tree is cactus since you can't go anywhere without seeing several different types! This place is special though. There is a wide variety of cactus that grows out there in the desert and one of the only area's that organ pipe cactus grows. If you ever get the chance to make the trip out there make sure to pack a picnic lunch since there really isn't much out there. Be prepared to have birds hounding your picnic area looking for crumbs, and while sitting in the picnic area keep an eye out for all kinds of creatures. Take the time to drive through the monument loop that will take through the desert and the mountains. Even though you will probably need your back adjusted after you are done with the trip because the road is true Arizona dirt road.(For anyone who has never been out here that means we use boulder size rocks for our dirt roads, and love to have them as wash boarded from the monsoon as we possibly can. That way when you get the vehicle up to about say...5-10 miles per an hour, you feel as if the whole thing is being shaken apart.)
The point of this is it was worth the long day trip out there. Even the vibrating roller coaster ride through the desert. There were lots of great things to photograph that day.

Alright, today's trip back in time and travel guide is done. I hope that everyone has a great start to the week, now excuse me while my back remembers how much it hurt after that trip.