Well well, how did I end up here?

Clicking the pics is half science, half art, and half luck.

Since I was all alone in the boondocking area at the Pima County Fairgrounds I was forced to walk all the way across the street to the main campground to have a dumpster to throw away my trash. After complaining to the head office, which included falling on the floor and crying, I woke up this morning to find once again, that the squeaking wheel gets the grease.

Well, it does appear that I drove right through the middle of Tombstone, Arizona, and kept going until I got to Whitewater Draw about 30 miles past Tombstone.... Why? I don't know; there is just something that keeps drawing me back to these very large birds. Is it their 6-foot wingspan? Or their funny backward knees that bend in the wrong direction? Or maybe there long, dangerous beaks? I really don't know, but I just felt I had to see them one more time before the Cranes and theboondork heads north.

I had thought that the desire to migrate would cause all the cranes to rise "au masse" and fly off into the sunrise, but that doesn't appear to be happening. Whenever I came to Whitewater Draw, there were about half the Sandhill cranes as there was the last time. But this time I could count the cranes in the hundreds, instead of the thousands, so it seems now there's serious about leaving.

Being the bird expert that I am, I have deduced from this activity that various cranes pack up and leave whenever they feel like it... Kinda like me. Maybe I'm jealous that they can come and go as they please without schedules or reservations, which is something I've always aspired to, but the Sandhill cranes are doing a lot better than me with their ability to live – "free as a bird."

I'll only stay here a few days, and then I'll head back to Tombstone and kill some time absorbing the gunfighter ambiance of the town until I need to be at Rockhound State Park in New Mexico on the 27th when my freedom killing reservation is due .

Theboondork

              Saggy Bottoms.
I guess I was in a black and white mood when I got to Saggy Bottoms this morning,

The Cranes.

The flight deck.

The tree.