ajo

don't forget to click the pic.

My new home for a while in Ajo Arizona. that white spot way back on the right side of the picture is my nearest neighbor.

I left the fairgrounds this morning about 9:30 which was late enough that it allowed me to breeze right through Tucson downtown traffic without a problem, and I arrived in Ajo Arizona about 1 o'clock.

There's five or six RVs here at the old rodeo grounds where I'm staying, which is a very big area so no one is close together, but I was able to score a really nice spot off to myself so that my nearest neighbors about 100 yards away which hopefully will insulate me from any NOISY generators.

I think I spent about a month here at the rodeo grounds last winter and really enjoyed it. It's only a few miles from downtown Ajo, so there's a grocery store and gas station nearby. But it's far enough away from everything so you get that out in the sticks feeling that I really like when I'm boondocking. The arena has been closed for years and since it's County property they don't appear to mind if RVers stay here. It's free and I don't recall ever seeing a County employee come through.

Ajo which is pronounced Ah-ho, translated from Spanish means "God forsaken land at the end of the world", and it lives up to its name. The town is built right on the edge of an Air Force bombing range which gives you an idea about how much value the government places on the town. And even though it was once a thriving copper mining town, the copper has played out and about the only way the town survives now is with winter RVers boondocking in the deserts around town, like I'm doing, and all the Border Patrol agents that live and work here protecting the border which is not far down the road from here.

I have no idea how long I will be here but it will probably be at least as long as it takes for the "Big Show" in Quartzsite to get over, and the town get back to semi normal so I can avoid the crowds and boondock in Quartzsite for a while.

                                   theboondork

My last night at the Pima County fairground boondocking area, all hitched up and ready to leave in the morning. I'm really going to miss this place, life is going to seem pretty boring after being able to see big-time events every weekend. But I will definitely be back next winter. I don't know if it's my favorite place to boondock, but it's in the top three.

A few bronc riding pictures today. This is a bareback rider. He doesn't have a saddle or a bridle, only a handle that's strapped to the horses back to hold onto with one hand.

This is a saddle bronc rider. He gets a bridle to hold onto with one hand, and of course a saddle and stirrups. Some folks consider this pretty dangerous, because with a horse jumping around like this it's easy to get your foot hung up in the stirrup when you fall off which causes you to get bounced around on the arena floor while the horse jumps up and down with his hooves a few inches from your face until the pickup men can hopefully get the horse stopped while there still something left of you. A little-known rodeo fact is saddle bronc riders wear oversized cowboy boots so there foot will slip out of the boot if it's hung up in the stirrup.

Watching these guys ride it's hard to believe they're just kids, there really good. But no matter how good they are sooner or later that horse is better.

No matter how long they're able to stay on that horse, and no matter how embarrassing their dismount is, everybody still knows that these are some tough, gutsy, young men.