The last day of my trip to Arizona was spent driving around south of Tucson to visit an old mission and to see the border town Nogales. The actual border..the fence!
Man, kind of a thrill to touch that thing. Actually I think I was too scared to touch it. Afraid they might get confused and shoot me or deport me.
The desert is the calmest most beautiful state of extreme warmth I've ever known. It was so hot my ears quit working I think or it was so quiet that nothing was making a sound. The brightness of the sun and your body's inability to move quickly in that type of heat made it all very dreamy.
The mission was breathtaking and I read every post in the museum but all I can remember was there was a Father Kino, who was Italian and he had a hell of a time there doing whatever it is they do when they set up missions.
Back to that fence and Nogales. Man, the other side of the fence is intense. It's like a shanty town. The American side is mixed but mostly fairly nice little houses. The town itself is quiet and unassuming, whatever that means.
That fence sort of blew my mind.
Why? Multiple possible reasons. History. There was excitement. For what I don't know. There was fear. Of being trapped on the other side maybe? There was curiosity. I've been to Mexico twice but barely remember because I was super young.
There was a sense of finality to the states that I've gotten when I've seen the oceans on both sides. This is the end, my friend - that's all she wrote.
We were also human animals suddenly with a restriction. You can't go past this fence. You can't climb this fence. You can't put something through this fence.
Matter of fact even though we didn't even cross the fence into Mexico, they still have the right to check us at a station a mile away just because we got 'near' the fence.
That fence messed with my head.
Arizona is pretty cool.
We didn't eat that whole day trip.
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