NOW I REMEMBER WHY I LOVE AJO, AZ

  We slept like dead people last night. It is soooo quiet here. It also doesn't get light until about 7:15 AM. Den peaked out his window by the bed and it looked like we may get some sunshine today. I made us some biscuits and gravy, eggs and bacon...so much for the low cholesterol diet. And then we decided we should do a little walk about the RV park. Did I mention that there is a casino just across the parking lot? We can't see it or hear it from here, but in the middle of the desert..there it is. It is called Golden Hasan Casino, and it is here because we are JUST on the edge of the Totono O'Odom Indian Nation. I haven't visited it yet...hmmmm...If my friend Mary was here, we would definitely have to check it out,....right Mar??
 Here is the view of the mountains from our spot..

There are a lot of trails to walk into the mountains..they allow ATV's here, and we sometimes see them going up the trails. We did our walk up to the laundry and checked it out. It seems very clean and reasonably priced, so tomorrow will be our laundry day, except this time we can put it in, go back to the camper, and show up to dry and fold...We also noted a few unique Xmas decorations still up....

We were talking to the couple on one side of us who are from Silver City,New Mexico, which is at an elevation of 7000 ft. They stay here for the winter and go back to the mountains and pine trees of New Mexico for the warmer months. I have to tell this..When we hooked up yesterday, Den noticed that the spikets on the water faucets were all hanging on little wires, and not screwed on...whatever. So as we were talking to these people, they informed us that the reason for this was that the wild burros come into the park at night,(we did notice mule dung in various spots), and they rub on the faucets and turn the water on to get a drink...I secretly thought "oh, OK, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck", but he reassured us that was the case. This was a first for me. We haven't seen any wild burros yet, but hope to. I did have a woodpecker in my Hummingbird feeder this morning.....not quite the same, eh?
 Dennis needed some WD-40 (a must-have)  and I wanted to find the grocery store in Ajo, so we drove the 12 miles into town..FYI, the nearest WalMart is about 96 miles away. Here is the Hwy 85 going North into Ajo.

I need to mention that there is an old unused Copper mine here and as you drive into Ajo, you go past a huge wall of minerals left over from the mining. It is very cool looking, colors of yellow, orange, brown, green..Here is a photo I took as we drove by..

I also need to mention that there is a huge wildlife refuge here. It is called Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and it is 860,010 acres of which 803,418 acres are wilderness. It is the largest refuge wilderness outside Alaska. It has over 300 wildlife species, including the endangered Sonoran Pronghorn and also the Desert Bighorn Sheep. Part of it is on the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range. You need to get a permit go into it,, which is free, and have 4 wheel drive vehicle. Also, you need to sit through a required movie on safety...and not because of animals or illegals...This Air Force Range is also a place where the Air Force use to play war games during WW II. (and still do,so you don't get to go there if they are doing any bombing practice). At any rate, there are still some live ordinance above and below ground and they warn you NOT to touch ANY such strange looking stuff if you happen upon it. You are to report it IMMEDIATELY!! Damn straight, we will...and drive like Hell to get away from it!! Some cool refuge, I'll say. But...I'm not gonna let a few live bombs deter me from possibly seeing a Desert Bighorn!!..no I'm NOT!!!! Here is a link to the refuge
 So now, back to Ajo...Ajo has a really beautiful Spanish influence in it's architecture..Here is the town plaza, built in 1917...

It housed a train depot, which served the Tucson, Cornelia and Gila Bend railway. They also have two wonderful mission style churches across from the plaza. Here is the Federated Church, built in 1926...

.....and here is the Catholic Church, built in 1924..

    The plaza was still decorated for Xmas, so I had Den snap my picture in front of it.....

 We drove around and found the grocery store...Oelson' IGA market..remember the IGA's?? Actually, this one has come a long way since the ones I remember from the 1960's...this one has beer, wine and liquor...JACKPOT!!! We knew that the old copper mine pit was still here, so we drove up to it ...It is really awesome..They don't mine here anymore and that really hurt the economy when the mining ceased...Here is the mine pit..

  Well, we had found out where a lot of the places we wanted to revisit were, so we headed back the 12 miles to Hickiwan Park. I forgot to mention that the Casino also has a gas station and convenience store, and from what they tell us that is the cheapest place to fill up with diesel fuel....for the low,low sum of $3.02 a gallon..Hey, up the road 1 mile it is $3.12!!
 It is a warm 63 degrees this afternoon.  We had intended to take a stroll into the desert trails, but I think we will leave that for tomorrow. It is already almost 5PM and time for me to get into my uniform of sweatpants and a nightshirt.. I'll bet I can shock the people on both sides of us!!We cannot have individual campfires here, but they said that New Year's Eve there will be a big bonfire just across from the park in the desert..can you burn down a cactus?? One more thing you do NOT do here is put lots of lights around  your camper....That would deter from the dark skies and the view of all the constellations in the desert sky. I certainly wouldn't want to ruin that ambiance!! There is so much more to see and do around here. I will keep you up on all of our escapades!!! As for now,,,,jammies time!!