East of Phoenix, green covers the desert after unexpected winter rains. Short grass grows as the hair of cancer patient after chemo and the shrubs offer up tiny photosynthesis factories. Propped saguros dot the landscape as though the previous night of binging might topple them all. Dug out rings at their bases suggested they were newly planted in a landscaping effort. Their arms offered directions a hundred ways from noon and we stuck to the pavement though they bid us fair adventure.

Down from Las Cruces, we stopped hoping to find a niche for the night. The proprietors of the rundown RV park were holding on till they leave the earth hoping the parks needed repairs could thus be avoided. All empty slots were rented by the month and the owners suggested parking at a retail store. “Nothing all the way through El Paso now.” They suggested the feedlot RV we passed in the fetid stench that still hung in the truck.

El Paso’s Roadrunner RV offered a relief from the highway and an encounter with their junkyard dog. He gummed my hand and scratched my leg while the attendant and dog owner claimed he was just playing. Around us the city freeway hummed all night long. RV traveling loses its appeal in these moments.

Since 9/11, the border is more highly patrolled but clearly the reasons for fleeing failing economies to the south overwhelm the American efforts to resist. In Marfa, TX I asked what the chief business is for a town on the edge between stark and bleak. “Border Patrolling” came the answer. Who would believe that we fund a whole town to keep people at bay? Last year we’re told, they made nine arrests for the huge border along Big Bend up most the way to El Paso.

A vermillion flycatcher hawks after insects outside my window followed by a golden-fronted woodpecker at the Rio Grande Village Camp Ground (CG). Our first day in camp, the new-to-me birds kept me from completing my set-up tasks as I greedily pursued seeing each new flittering friend. Half the birds we’ve seen here are ones I’ve never seen making this a fun place to watch for more.