Best Burgers and Beer in Town

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Wednesday February 5, 2014

There is a place here in Ajo that advertises the Best Burgers and Beer in Town.  This place gets no prize for creativity in choice of name- It goes by it's address 100 Estrella.

Joan, Mark and I went to the restaurant for lunch today and it lives up to it's reputation for both the beer and the burgers!

We had draft beers, great food and great conversation.  We will definitely be back.

Back in the desert Mark and I made another find.

This is a tow dart we found on our latest search for the Texan AT-6

This dart is too new to be of the era we are looking for.  Darts like this one were used by the Arizona Air National Guard.  The size and shape were just right for the acoustic sensors used by the attack aircraft at the time.  The tow darts were supposed to be towed back to a drop zone near the air base where they were fixed up and re-used.  Often the darts were damaged and became a hazard to the towning aircraft and had to be jettisoned.  When the damaged darts began littering the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness Refuge a policy was adopted that the darts would be retrieved by ground crews from the air base.  This worked out well when the darts landed close to roads and could be easily retreived by vehicles- but carrying these 70+ pound darts on your back cross country- well that was a problem that needed a solution.  The solution was for the Cabeza Prieta to make a declaration that tow darts not retrieved would become "part of the habitat" and left where they were..(uh-huh -I wouldn't make that up).

While trekking I am always on the look out for interesting plants.  This tiny  6" cactus is producing bright red fruit.

Another interesting bush has no leaves on it at all- but erupts in red blooms!  This is a very lush desert.

Our search today was to a hill 3 miles away from the nearest road.  Adding in the search grids that we walked- the total miles walked today will be near 10 miles.  On our way back to the truck from our hike, we detour over to check out a water well and a tank that sits out here in the desert.

This is a very sophisticated setup with a solar panel, electric pumps and a large fiberglass tank.

There are several of these tanks in the desert around Ajo ( and presumably elsewhere) that were placed by a group called Humane Borders.  Humane Borders has entered into a contract with the US Government to be able to establish and maintain these water points on goverment property.  HB was also able to get assurances that the Border Patrol will not use these watering stations as traps to catch migrants and will give them a wide berth. The tanks are typically marked with a blue flag for identification and to provide visibility from adjacent hills.  Humane Borders goes to Mexico to distribute maps of the water tanks showing locations along with approximate number of days and distances to Phoenix . Coyotes (paid guides) are known to tell migrants that it is two days walk when it is clearly a one week trek on foot from the border to Phoenix.  Humane Borders hopes to help dissuade some people from taking the desperate and risky chance in the harsh desert. HB is not in the business of aiding or encouarging illegal entrants- they simply believe that should someone be desperate enough to try to gain entrance to the US through one of these desert routes- they should not die of thirst before they can ask for life saving help and repatriation to Mexico.


This game watering tank is filled automatically from the larger tank shown above.  (Smile-click!) In the distance you can see a game camera on a metal stake.

Mark and I are bouyed by our discovery today and the hike has been fun and interesting.

Your traveling Friends

Joan and Jeff