15th May – Blythe to Oja

The day… (can I leave you to fill in the rest). Anyway it was a little cooler than yesterday with temperatures hovering just under 100F (all temperatures here tend to be in Fahrenheit and I can’t be bothered to convert so you Celsius-heads will have to do it yourself).

We were back on Interstate Highway 10 and after about 5 miles we crossed the Colorado river and were into Arizona.Quite spookily, large cactuses started to appear almost immediately. We noticed that we were passing through the “Colorado River Indian Reservation”. The Native Americans must have been absolutely chuffed to bits to have been gifted all these acres of barren desert and scrub brush (which they probably thought that they already owned). There were none in evidence to ask so I suppose we’ll never know.

We rode down i-10 for about 120 miles until we joined Highway 85 which took us through Gila Bend to Ajo. We had a mixture of three lane, two lane and single lane roads and the desert scenery was practically unvarying for the whole distance. There were rocky hills and outcrops and flat stretches of sandy desert. From a distance this looked green because of the bushes that grow in it but close up these are fairly widely dispersed in what is otherwise barren sand. There are also a few cactuses dotted about here and there. We half expected to see a posse ride across the road.This is the sort of scenery we had always imagined riding through when we planned this trip.

The road itself was fairly deserted and often all we could see was it disappearing into the blue heat haze far in the distance. The desert landscape did become rather monotonous and we did get somewhat bored with it although it was quite exciting to discover that a one point we were passing through a US Airforce bombing range. The occasional dust storms were also quite amusing

We were really struck with admiration for the tenacity the original pioneers. After about 10 miles in this desert on a horse or mule we would have said “Sod this for a for a game of settlers, I’m off back to the saloon”.  They would have made a film about it called: “How the West was Largely Ignored on Account of it Being Too Hot and Dry and Dull.

After 195 miles we arrived in Ajo and booked in at the La Siesta Motel and RV Park at about 3pm. Even though this is a very small town, seemingly like all American towns it is widely spread out and we were alarmed to find that the nearest place to eat was about 2.5 miles away. Why, I hear you ask, would this be a problem? you have motorcycles surely? Well the answer starts with b, ends in r and there are a couple of e’s in the middle. We then discovered that there are no taxis and the only public transport is a local bus service that only runs till 6 and has to be booked in advance.

We booked a pick-up for 3.15 to take us to Marcella’s Diner and dashed round like scalded cats beautifying ourselves. When we got on the bus we were told that in fact the latest we could get back would be 4.20! This being the only option we piled into Marcella’s shouting for double orders of beer and the menus. Aside from the big blue and green plastic mugs they gave us to drink from, the meal, if somewhat rushed, was more than adequate. I had a beef chimichanga, which I’ve always wanted to try, and which to my surprise was a sort of Cornish pasty in choux pastry. The home-made salsa was delicious. The clientelle seemed to sum up this part of America, with Native Americans, Anglos, Latinos and what appeared to be a Weeble. We got talking to a lady whose family had moved to Ajo from Mississippi after the Civil War 150 years ago and who described herself as mixed Native American-Italian. Everyone seemed to be fluent in both Spanish and English.

We got the bus back at 4.20. The only other passenger was  a disabled lady who grumbled to the driver about her neighbour who had just got out of jail in Tucson and was making a nuisance of himself out in the street on his skateboard. The driver helped her into her house when we got there and we thought what a really nice service it was for people who are either too poor, too disabled or (in our case) too drunk to be able to drive. And it was only 75c each.

That then was the end of our night out in Ajo and I am now sitting in the shade by the pool just about to add the last full-stop to the blog for today. We will be staying here tomorrow and visiting the Organ Pipe Cactus National Park and maybe having a quick hop into Mexico.