November 11th

Arizona Gothic

So Kohler picks up the hot-dog fork and says… Hey lets make a picture like that one painting. We could have worked a little harder at copying. We were working from memory.

AZ Camping – Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

One Friday afternoon after work I packed the kids into the car and we drove off into the desert. We love camping. I grew up in Western Washington. I don’t remember many camping trips in Washington when there wasn’t rain. Camping in Arizona is a different story.

It was late afternoon when we arrived. It was still well over 100 degrees. There was one thing that would make it so that I would enjoy myself no matter how hot it got. I got an e-mail from the Department of Homeland Security on our way out of town. The e-mail said that the Department of Homeland Security approved our application for a fiancé visa and they were going to send it to the National Visa Center for further processing. YAY!

We choose a campground that was away from the National Park facilities. We setup the camp. It was Kohler’s job to take fotos as we pitched the tent.

One good thing about the heat was that it appeared that we were the only ones brave enough or stupid enough to be out there camping. We had the campsite all to ourselves. Kohler took full advantage of this. He was as loud as he could possibly be.

We went on a hike. It was only supposed to be a couple of miles so I wore my Brazilian flip-flops. There was a dried up cactus on the ground. I kicked it. The spikes went all the way through my flip-flops. I spent the rest of the night pulling spikes out of my foot and my flip-flop.

The cactus were really sharp as Dylan demonstrated for us.

It was still fun though. There was an old abandoned ranch-house and coral. It was great to explore.

The kids freaked themselves out a little bit with ghosts and spiders and snakes. I’m pretty certain we did not see any of those things.

We hurried back to the campsite and I started dinner. There are few things that taste as good as meat cooked over hardwood charcoal.

Dinner was good. The sunset was awe inspiring. The kids settled in to their tent. We played a game together. Dylan played us a part of a song from his Zune, and we guessed the name. I did okay, even with the new stuff.

Every once in awhile I would sneak away to take fotos.

The next day we explored Tombstone, AZ. The kids really enjoyed it. That night we watched the movie. Kohler couldn’t believe that we were just there! It was exciting for him.

It was a great weekend spent with the kids. I loved the fotos I got. I loved the games that we played and the memories that we made. The best part was that we were one step closer to getting our visa.