greetings from the border

greetings from ajo, arizona!

we had a whirlwind of a christmas, with julie's whole family visiting for the weekend; three church services in 24 hours (remind me to write about serving communion to a nun at the christmas day, homeless service); our annual "island of the misfit toys" party between the two services on christmas eve; and a chinese food extravaganza on christmas afternoon. we then skedaddled to the airport and flew to pheonix, collected our backpacks and rental car in the wee wee hours of the 26th, stayed the night at an econo-lodge, and then made our way to organ pipe cactus national monument, where we have set up camp in the desert, with the mountains of mexico just to the south.

our plan was to car camp a couple of nights, and then hike back country with our packs for a couple of nights. a cold, dreary rain today has us instead in ajo, eating good mexican food and hanging out at the public library (where, wouldn't you know, they are showing the movie cars! the kids are thrilled.) we've had two days of beeyooouuteeeful day hikes so far, and the kids have been amazing troopers, so i can't complain too much! tomorrow is supposed to be nice again, so we're going to try for a one-night back country packing adventure, probably just three miles or so out, and then back again the next day. we fly home early sunday morning.

look forward to desert reflections and some photos when we return!