Day One of the Great Adventure

I get up this morning and make sure everything is packed. I ended up using a cab, not a bus, to get to the Red Mountain campus. So when the cab arrives (in a good time frame... that is a first). I pack up my two bags and climb in. It doesn't take much time before I decide that i have the best cab driver ever!

First, he actually used a map. Like an actual paper map. He mapped out our route and and we were on our way. He was polite and he asked if I would rather take another highway than the one by my house, because that one would be crowded and might slow us down... which in cab fare means that that the fare would be increasing by the minute.

Then I arrived there ahead of schedule and watched Alex and Glenn pack up the vans and then we were on our way with a few stops along the way. Soon we were on the road and picking up speed, as we drove through the desert and into the wasteland known as rural Arizona. On the way I listened to a little bit of We're Alive podcast and jumped several times. I turned it off and stared out the window thinking about life and the passing bushes as we followed a pair of train tracks.

Soon we were passing through Ajo (the little town that the city bus now travels too). On the other side of Ajo there is the even smaller town of Why. Which has a lot of stores labeled Ajo and my favorite store labeled "Why Not Travel Market".

We stopped for food and then we were off again. Soon we crossed the border and we entered Mexico. After another somewhat long drive, we ended up at CEDO.

We unpacked, and got our introductions to the research facility. I thought that it was interesting learning about what they do in their community. I thought it was important how to know how they help their community, so that we can help as well.

So some things that I thought were cool: giant grasshopper on the window at the restaurant where we ate dinner, having a guy come and play guitar for our table (really well done too), watching the sun set over the ocean, taking a quick dip in the ocean (and learning more about how much a person who can't swim very well and who had a panic attack during a scuba lesson should NEVER go into the ocean), and having people smile at us as they walk by (very different from downtown Tempe).

Over all a pretty good day and I had fun. Can't wait to see what happens tomorrow.