Still in AZ

Well I am still in AZ, can't seem to get out of this place. Not much has happened in the last few days. I finished part of my job in Ajo and have moved to Safford AZ. This place is not much better but there are far more modern conveniences.

Its still hot but to combat the sun I have adopted some of the indian ways. No I'm not rubbing mud all over my body but I did get tired of applying sun screen and feeling so greasy by the end of the day. The indians I have been working with almost dress like I would in the winter. So I bought a couple of long sleeve shirts even though temperatures reach close to 100. Its surprisingly not that uncomfortable. Its so hot that even this little fella went for a swim in the pool.

My only real day off was spent in Tucson with Kevin Walsh. He really seems to love it out here. Kevin let me borrow one of his bikes and we did a little desert moutain biking. Mountain biking was much more fun when I was in better shape but it was still a good time. One of the biggest differences biking in this part of the world is you do not want to crash off or on the trail for that matter. The trails are very hard and rocky and off trail is tool but you'll end up full of cactus needles.

Check out these pics. In one day I saw both the roadrunner and the coyote. Both were moving pretty slowly in the afternoon heat.

Life in the Desert

I ve been in Arizona for for a little over a week now. I started in Globe AZ which is east of Phoenix. I spent 3 days training to enter a closed mine site, go figure. The weather was nice , not as bad as I thought. On the fourth day I traveled to Hell, I mean Ajo, AZ. Not much going on in Ajo and you'd think since I'm only 45 minutes from Mexico I could find good Mexican food but no. The three places to eat consist of a Pizza Hut, A crappy chinese joint and a place called Marcel's which buy the way does have the best flaun I have ever had.

LaSiesta Lodge 30

I am staying at n RV resort called La Siesta. Its not bad, I am in a little lodge. There is a pool and a hot tub available to the guest but after being in the sun all day I really just want to hang out in the air conditioning.

The down side is I have very limited cell coverage, I think I am in double extended service which means I am probably paying $20/minute. To use the internet which is piss poor I have to go to the club house. The lights didn't work at first so I had to use my head lamp to do any computer work.

Today I took the day off and drove to Tucson to visit a friend (Kevin Walsh) that transferred from our Gaithersburg office. We just got back from lunch and I was finally able to get some real Mexican food. The weather here is nice too however they are in Monsoon season so it typically rains at night which tends to make the days a little more humid. It is supposed to get up to 110 by the end of the week. I already miss the green of non-desert areas.

I have not seen any snakes yet but Kevin accidently ran over a rattler on the way to lunch. I did however see a road runner, no sign of the coyote, I know he is out there somewhere.

Work has been interesting. To save costs the client is supplying laborers to help out with the survey. Two are native americans from the local reservation. They are definitely a different culture. I don't even think the girl I have been working with knows where Ohio is let alone the east coast. They tend to work much like robots, I will tell them to do something and they do it but then stand there until I tell them what to do next, even after repeating the same tasks over and over and over. They are very polite though and are willing to work hard.

It looks like I will be here for at least another week so there should be more to come.