The time had come once again for the Rocky Point Skydiving Boogie, which takes place every year at the end of April in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. This year, the boogie would be held April 26-29, and, as usual, would be organized by Mark and Dawn Rae Hogue. Larry Hill, the owner of Skydive Arizona, would be bringing down the Super Otter, and the jumpers would be landing on Sandy Beach, next to the Playa Bonita RV Park. Naturally, John and Mary and I would be going to the boogie this year, as would John's parents, Bill and Erika (they would be bringing the motor home). As soon as we had the dates for the boogie, we all requested the time off of work.

This was going to be my third Rocky Point Boogie. In the years before I began going to Rocky Point with John, there had been two fatalities during the event, which led to problems with the local authorities. During the 1999 boogie, the "federales" stepped up security at the airport and indicated that if there was another fatality, the skydivers would not be allowed to return next year. Fortunately, there weren't any fatalities in 1999 - and there weren't any in 2000, either...but that didn't mean that the boogie went off without a hitch. Larry Hill had problems trying to get the fuel for the Otter into Mexico. In Mexico, all of the fuel is controlled by the government, and no one is allowed to import fuel into the country without the proper authorization - that, of course, includes the Jet A that Larry uses for his planes. In 1999, he was able to get some of the fuel across, but not all of it. In 2000, he managed to come into the country with the appropriate paperwork for importing fuel, only to be told upon arrival, "This is not valid. This paperwork is for gasoline. You have Jet A." Eventually, they let him pass, but it meant that he wasn't able to fly any skydiving loads until sunset Thursday.

With that in mind, Bill and Erika decided to change their plans. Instead of arriving in Rocky Point on Thursday, they would arrive on Friday and stay until Monday. They would also be taking Janice and Danny and little Joshua with them - they would all be staying in the motor home. John and I, in turn, also decided to drive to Rocky Point on Friday and stay until Monday...but since we already had Thursday off, we thought it would be a great idea to do something we have always wanted to do: visit the Organ Pipe National Monument and camp there overnight.

John spent countless hours doing research about Organ Pipe to find out where we could hike during the day and where we could camp overnight. He learned that there are only a few maintained trails in the park, and the rest of them are just routes. The maintained trails were fairly easy; the routes were more difficult and required good route-finding skills and the ability to scramble. The one that interested him was the Estes Canyon/Bull Pasture Loop, a 4.1-mile long loop trail on Ajo Mountain. At a certain point along the trail, one can scramble up to the top of Ajo Mountain. It is listed as a difficult hike, as the trail is steep and rough, with lots of slippery rocks along the way. In fact, the jaunt up Ajo Mountain is described as so difficult that John did not expect me to complete it, if we did it. He expected me to wait for him while he hiked alone.

Later that week, John abandoned the idea in favor of another route: the Grass Canyon Loop, which is a six-mile loop that begins and ends at the Alamo Campground. That was where we were planning to camp, as it was the lesser-used campground. (Organ Pipe only has two campgrounds: the Visitor Center campground has 208 spaces, fully equipped with facilities; Alamo has four primitive sites.) The Grass Canyon Loop seemed to be much easier, so I agreed to it.

If we were done hiking early enough, John suggested that we go on the Ajo Scenic Drive, a twenty-one mile-long dirt road that begins and ends across from the Visitor Center. The scenic drive was supposed to be very beautiful, and, of course, we could never pass up travel on a dirt road - it just won't be an adventure without a little dirt on the van (which had not been washed in almost a year).

We were supposed to spend the week preparing for our five-day weekend, but on Monday, I came down with a miserable case of the stomach flu - not exactly what I needed! I was so sick that I couldn't get out of bed to go to work, nor could I begin packing for our trip. Although I felt fine the next day, I knew that I had already lost a whole day that I could have used to get everything done - it was going to be a stressful week!

Then, on Wednesday, both Mary and John became sick, too. John had a very mild case of the stomach flu, but Mary had diarrhea! She was so sick that the owner of the day care center and asked me to take her to the doctor. I took two hours off of work to take her to the pediatrician. It turns out that she had a viral infection that caused the diarrhea and the crusty eyes, as well as an ear infection - not exactly the news we needed to hear just before going on vacation! Fortunately, Mary was still in good spirits, and her pediatrician indicated that we were fine to take her on vacation, as long as we weren't flying to our destination. He gave us a prescription for eye drops and a bottle of ear drops then sent us on our way. (Of course, I couldn't take her back to day care because she was sick, so I had to take her back to work with me, so that I could get my work done before leaving on vacation.)

So, with all of that going on, it came time for us to finish packing for our trip, so that we could leave bright and early on Thursday morning.

The plan was to leave at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning, so that we could be at Organ Pipe National Monument by 8:00 a.m. That would give us plenty of time to set up camp and complete our day hike before it got too hot. Of course, the morning didn't go according to plan, and we didn't make it out of the house until 5:20. Since Einstein's didn't open until 5:30 a.m., we skipped breakfast and stopped at Circle K for ice before beginning our trip. (We stopped at another Einstein's en route to I-10 West and had breakfast there - why break with tradition?)

And while we were at Circle K, I realized that I had forgotten to bring a hair tie to put my hair into a ponytail. I was wearing my giant hair clip, but with that in my hair, I would be unable to wear a hat.

After leaving town, we drove non-stop until we reached Ajo, AZ, where we would be picking up our Mexican insurance - we would also top off the gas tank there, so that we would have two full gas tanks upon driving into Mexico on Friday. Additionally, we bought firewood so that we could have a campfire - John had read that wood gathering was illegal but that fires were allowed as long as you brought in your own logs to be used in the fire rings.

Once we were done in Ajo, we drove away, only to realize that we had forgotten to buy wine to drink with our steaks that evening. So, we stopped in Why and bought a box at the Why Not General Store - and, of course, we remembered to get a receipt, just in case we were accused of not paying again!

Finally, we arrived in the Organ Pipe National Monument a little after 8:00 that morning. After passing through the Border Patrol checkpoint, we drove into the park on Highway 85 and went straight to the visitor center (which is fifteen miles from the park entrance) to reserve our campsite at the Alamo Campground. Upon our arrival, we paid for our campground permit then purchased a book about the Ajo Scenic Drive for $.75. John also asked the park ranger about the Grass Canyon Loop, to find out if it was possible to complete the hike in one day, even with a late start. The ranger said, "Oh, sure, yeah, it's possible." With that, we thanked him for the information and left the visitor center.

It was an eight-mile drive back to the turn-off for the Alamo Campground, which, if you're not paying attention, is very difficult to find. Had we not paid attention on the way into the park, we might not have known where it was. The only sign marking the dirt road that goes into the campground is a stop sign. We could see it in the distance as we approached, so John tapped the brakes on the van to take us out of cruise control in order to start slowing down for the turn...

...And just as we turned onto the dirt road, we hear a siren behind us. "What the hell?" John frowned. We both knew that we hadn't done anything wrong - John hadn't been speeding, and everything was current on the van. So why were we being stopped by the police?

It turns out that it was just the Border Patrol. The agent had been following us for about a mile, and when he saw us slow down and turn onto the campground road, he got a little suspicious. To him, we probably seemed like we were a group of illegals trying to get the Border Patrol off of our tail. We explained to him that we were just heading towards the campground, and after showing him our permits, he sent us on our way. "That is the FOURTH time I've been stopped without getting a ticket during a Rocky Point trip!" John exclaimed.

"I guess it wouldn't be a Rocky Point adventure without one run-in with the law," I said.

After the Border Patrol agent drove away, John and I continued driving towards the campground. We drove for four miles on a bumpy but passable dirt road until it dead-ended at a series of four campsites, each one numbered. About a hundred yards from campsite number four (our campsite), there was a pit toilet, and in the middle of the road was an island with a kiosk and trash cans. Each campsite had a wooden picnic table and a charcoal grill...but no fire ring. (John later learned that only charcoal fires were allowed on the grill; wood fires were prohibited.)

We parked at campsite number four and began to unload our hiking equipment in order to prepare for our hike. While I sunscreened and changed Mary, John put together our sandwiches for lunch. Then, he prepared the limo...and that was when he announced that he had forgotten to pack our hiking sticks and his hat! All I kept thinking was, "You're taking me on a scramble WITHOUT my hiking stick! This is not sounding good!"

Needless to say, we went hiking anyway. At 10:00 a.m., we began our trek to Grass Canyon. As I had mentioned earlier, the Grass Canyon Loop is actually a route. There is no trail, so hikers must go cross-country through the desert, across the bajada (the slopes at the base of the mountains). To accomplish this difficult task, one must possess excellent route-finding skills and be equipped with a good map and a compass (or a GPS). Also, it is very important to pay attention where you step, lest you walk away with a cholla branch on your leg or a snakebite on your ankle!

At first, the hike across the bajada was very easy - and it was very beautiful, too. Organ Pipe National Monument is filled with many species of cactus and other desert plants, everything from saguaros to hedgehogs, from ocotillos to creosote, palo verde trees, and, yes, lots and lots of organ pipes! Some of these organ pipes were about two stories tall, with twenty or thirty arms each, which gives them the appearance of the pipes of a church organ. These cacti grow solely in the Organ Pipe Monument and in parts of Sonora, Mexico, because the soil conditions of the bajadas in those parts are ideal for them to thrive.

Another interesting thing about Organ Pipe National Monument is its proximity to the Barry Goldwater Firing Range, which is between Gila Bend and Ajo on SR 85. Just before embarking on our hike, we heard a "boom"; then, seconds later, a low-flying F-15 fighter appeared from the south and buzzed over us at an altitude of about five or six hundred feet. "Wow!" I exclaimed, my heart racing with excitement. During our hike, I kept a sharp eye out for more fighters - we could hear them, but we didn't see anymore that afternoon.

About a third of a mile into the desert, we came to the first in a series of washes that we would have to cross before reaching the canyon. The first few washes were shallow - only one foot deep - but as we progressed, they became deeper and deeper. Worse yet, the sides of these "arroyos" became steeper and steeper, which made it very difficult for me to descend into them without the assistance of my hiking stick. This began to slow our progress, and I soon became very frustrated.

To add to my frustration, the heat was beginning to get to me. Although it was still late in the morning, it was already close to a hundred degrees out there in the desert, and I was starting to feel like I was overheating. Eventually, during one of the wash-crossings, John finally suggested that we abort the hike, because I just wasn't having any fun.

We headed back to the campground and made it back there by 11:30 a.m. By that time, Mary was awake and cranky, and I was completely overheated. I had already sucked down most of my water, and I was getting dizzy. Upon reaching the van, John grabbed an ice-cold soda out of the ice chest for me and told me to sit down until I felt better; in the meantime, he would set up the tent at our campsite.

Once we had set up camp, John and I decided to take a drive into Why to get some more ice and some beer. Before we could get into the van, we noticed that the rear tire was a little low, so John thought it would be a good idea to get some air for it while we were in town.

Of course, leaving the park to go into Why meant that we would have to pass through "Checkpoint Charlie": the Border Patrol checkpoint at the entrance to the monument. Border Patrol agents were stopping everyone to check for illegal immigrants trying to come into the country from Mexico. Naturally, we were stopped, too, and as one officer asked us questions, two others tried to look through the dirty windows of the van. When they couldn't see anything, they asked John to open his door so that the first officer could take a peek inside. Finding only camping equipment and Mary (in her car seat), they finally let us proceed.

We stopped at the Chevron gas station in Why. While I purchased beer and ice, John filled the rear tire with air; five minutes later, we returned to the park, waving to the Border Patrol agents as we passed by them - we knew that they recognized us, for we hadn't been gone long.

Having given up on hiking, John and I decided to do the Ajo Scenic Drive, the twenty-one mile loop drive that begins across from the visitor center. There is a sign posted at the turn-off, and after a mile, there is a fee self-pay station, for those who did not pay their entrance fee at the visitor center. At that point, the dirt road becomes one-way - the only way out is to finish the entire twenty-one mile loop.

Along the way, there are numbered signs, which correspond to the numbered explanations in the book that we purchased at the visitor center. John paused by each numbered pull-out so that I could read to him the narration provided in the book. One of the numbered narratives taught us about "nurse trees", which are trees that "nurture" young saguaro cacti until they are strong enough to survive on their own. These saguaros eventually take over and kill off their nurse trees. A fine example could be seen on the side of the road, opposite the numbered pull-out. The saguaro had grown to about ten feet tall, and its nurse tree, a palo verde, was beginning to turn brown.

Many of the numbered pull-outs were there to point out the desert plant life, and we found that it was very educational. We learned, for example, that ocotillos are not members of the cactus family at all, despite the fact that they have thorny spines like cacti. We also learned to tell the difference between the desert trees, like mesquite, Mexican jumping bean, creosote, and so on. In addition to that, we learned about all of the different varieties of cholla cactus - teddy bear, chain link, pencil, and Christmas - and how to tell them apart.

Other points of interest along the way included Arch Canyon and the very colorful Ajo Mountain. Arch Canyon was fascinating because there was a giant arch up on the mountain. This arch, unlike Rainbow Bridge (in Lake Powell), had been carved by the wind instead of water.

We were also interested to see that part of the road was paved, and part of was not! We had been expecting a two-hour drive on a bumpy dirt road, but instead, we were able to drive part of the road on pavement. That was quite the surprise!

The drive did not take us two hours as expected, so once we were done, we decided to go back to the visitor center to take a look around the other campground. As we drove around the not-so-primitive camping spaces, only a few of which were occupied, we came to the trailhead for one of the few maintained trails in the park: the Victoria Mine Trail. Although it was getting late in the afternoon, John suggested that we go hiking on this easy, two mile-long trail. I said okay, so John got all of our gear together while I fed Mary her lunch. After she was done, we began hiking.

The Victoria Mine Trail was indeed a very easy one. Unlike the Grass Canyon Loop, this trail did not involve any sort of route finding; there was an actual maintained trail there that wound through the desert, dipping in and out of washes along the way. I can say that I did enjoy this trail a lot, but I would have enjoyed it more had it not been one hundred degrees that afternoon. It was for that reason that we aborted that hike, too: I was getting heat exhaustion, and John did not want to risk one of us getting sick.

Having given up on hiking for the day, we returned to camp and finished unloading our camping equipment before resting. As I tied a garbage bag to the back of the van, I suddenly heard a hissing sound - the unmistakable sound of air escaping from a tire. It was coming from the tire that we had just filled while we were in Why. Upon closer inspection, I found that there was a nail in the tire, so I pointed it out to John. He was going to pull the nail out and put in a plug, but he couldn't remember how to use the plug kit. So, he put a little adhesive around the nail to slow the leaking air and decided to wait until we reached Rocky Point to deal with it.

Since there was no shade at our campsite - and since it would be too hot to sit in the tent - we put a blanket down in the shade created by the van and sat there until dinnertime. It had just become a very lazy afternoon. While we drank our frozen beers (actually, only mine were frozen - John's beers were not!), Mary played with her toys (except for her teething beads, which had gotten lost, never to be found again). Had it not been for Mary's shrill laughter, John and I probably would have fallen asleep that afternoon.

Around 5:00 p.m., John pulled out the camp stove and started cooking dinner. Our dinner consisted of juicy steaks (but without ketchup, because I had forgotten to pack it), green beans, and butter herb pasta - and, to drink, we had "Chillable Red" wine in the box, which is nothing more than alcoholic grape juice. (Oh, if only we had remembered a nice bottle of Merlot!) The sunset that we viewed during dinner more than made up for our lack of preparedness. As soon as the sun began to set, the mountains to the east of us became a vivid orange-red - it was one of the most vibrant sunsets that I had ever seen. I excitedly took pictures of it in hopes of capturing the beauty that was displayed there.

I also took pictures of Mary doing her latest trick: standing! I stood her up on the seat of picnic table, and she managed to hold herself up by putting her hands on the table! That was so wonderful - and at the same time, so frightening! It won't be long now before she starts running...

Once the sun finally set and dinner was over, John and I spent the rest of the evening enjoying the coolness of the air against our sunburned skin...until suddenly, we heard the high-pitched buzzing of mosquitoes as they began to surround us. Now, who would have thought that, in a place as dry as Organ Pipe National Monument, there would be a swarm of mosquitoes? We managed to last about an hour before we decided to escape to our tent to keep from being eaten alive by those blood-sucking pests. At that point, we called it a night and went to sleep.

Although Mary woke up twice during the warm night, John and I were able to sleep quite peacefully until about 5:00 a.m., at which time first light broke. As we slowly started to come around, we could hear the buzz of mosquitoes both inside and outside of our tent. When John left the tent to start the morning, he was soon chased back inside by those biting little bastards - so he came back inside, zipped up the tent, and started killing the mosquitoes one by one.

Eventually, we decided to brave the swarm and leave the tent so that we could get ready to leave for Mexico. Although we would have loved to enjoy a lazy morning in Organ Pipe, we were tired of the mosquitoes and the other flying pests that were buzzing around us. Without even stopping to make coffee, we quickly ate coffee cake then loaded our camping equipment in the van. At 6:50 a.m., we left the Alamo Campground and continued on our trip to Rocky Point.

We arrived at the Playa Bonita RV Park at 8:30 a.m. and immediately pitched our tent. Then, while we waited for Bill and Erika to arrive in the motor home, John and I took Mary down to see the beach. Oh, what a fascinating sight it was for her! Chewing on her little shovel, she stared all around her, taking in all of the new and exciting things to see. John took her into a tide pool, where he let her splash around for a little bit in the cool water. Then, he set her down on the wet sand and built a sandcastle for her, using her little plastic bucket - she eventually knocked most of it down by grabbing big chunks of it. Mary thought that the sand was very neat, and she managed to consume large quantities of it before we could stop her. She also loved how it felt, as she picked up handfuls of it and let it sift through her fingers as she laughed.

The other Verleys and the Guckenburgs arrived sometime after 9:00 a.m., while John and I were unloading our camping equipment. They occupied the space directly behind us, and once the awning was down, we set up the playpen so that the babies could have a cool and comfortable spot to play. Around the same time, manifest finally opened, so John and Bill went to register for the boogie (that was when he realized that he had forgotten his log book!) while the rest of us finished setting up our home for the next four days.

The Rocky Point Boogie 2001 went off without a hitch. For one thing, Larry Hill was able to get the Otter and all of its fuel across the border without a single hassle, meaning that they were able to fly a few loads on Thursday after all. There were also only two injuries to be reported, both of which were minor. And the only fatality was a 1999 or 2000 Nissan Xterra, which belonged to a free-flyer. He had been driving it on the beach when it broke down. Since it happened late Thursday night, he decided to leave it there overnight and have it towed out in the morning. In theory, it was a good plan, but there was one variable that he had forgotten: the tide! The SUV had broken down during low tide, and when the tide came in, it completely covered the car with seawater and sand! He had to wait until low tide to have it towed away, and by then, it was a total loss. By Sunday afternoon, after the last load had flown and everyone was going home, the rear axles on the SUV had frozen and would not turn. Unable to tow it back to the United States, he had no choice but to abandon it at the RV Park.

Despite the absence of Team Flail at the boogie this year, John and his father still managed to do some nice jumps. During one of their jumps, Danny came along to do an observer ride - that was the first time he had ever been in a skydiving plane (beer!). I also did my third observer ride, during John's last jump of the day on Saturday, towards sunset. And wouldn't you know it, but I ended up riding with eighteen rowdy skydivers who were getting ready to participate in a Hit-n-Chug! Although they had some trouble getting the rules straight, we all got the basic idea. The eighteen participants would exit the plane and do a "Hop and Pop", meaning that they would immediately deploy their parachutes. Upon landing, they would have to try to land in a circle drawn on the beach, in the center of which were cans of Tecate beer. The parachutist would have to land, remove his gear, grab a beer, run out of the circle, and chug the beer - and the winner would be the one who did this in the fastest time.

It seemed like a good game, but there were lots of logistical problems with it, which they all argued about in the cattle truck, all the way to the airport. One of the logistical problems was canopy wing-loading: some guys were going to come down faster than others because of a) canopy size, and b) their body weight. Additionally, Kevin Vetter, who is a world champion in accuracy, was on the load - everyone knew that he would win. What they ended up doing is letting the lightest wing-loaders out first, at 9,000 feet, and the others exited the airplane at 13,000 feet.

I'm not quite sure who won the Hit-n-Chug, but I can tell you this: John managed to get booed by the spectators on the ground. Upon his final approach to the landing area, he realized that he was coming in too fast, so he got a brilliant idea: he would try to kick a can of beer into his hand! Well, he caused three cans of beer to explode when he kicked them, and he didn't catch any of them at all. D'oh! So, when he landed, he had to drop his gear and run several feet back to the circle, grab his beer, run out of the circle, and chug it.

Unfortunately, I missed the landing, but I managed to make it back from the airport just minutes before the Otter did a buzz job across the beach. John took Mary out to the water's edge so that she could experience it. (Of course, this was not her first buzz job. She had already seen the DC-3 buzz the Drop Zone in Eloy during the Halloween Boogie. She was only three months old at the time and was trying to sleep through it...the look of terror on her face during that first buzz job was classic!)

Mary enjoyed the buzz job, but she enjoyed watching the parachutists land more than anything. Every time she saw a brightly colored canopy fly by her, she would squeal with glee and wave her arms in the air. She and I spent a lot of time on the beach during jump run so that she could watch them land all around her.

When we weren't on the beach, Mary and I spent a lot of time in the shade under the awning of the motor home, where Mary played quietly in her playpen with Joshua while I worked a crossword puzzle and relaxed. There was a nice, cool breeze blowing every day, but it was just warm enough outside that all I wanted to do was be lazy. On one occasion, I did go shopping with Erika and Janice and Danny; and since we had forgotten to take the stroller with us, I was forced to carry Mary around in the Limo. Although it wasn't that heavy when it was fully unpacked, the bulk of it did present a problem for me while walking through the narrow aisles of the Mexican shops in the "Mall"! And, of course, things got worse when Mary started reaching for the brightly colored ceramic bowls on a nearby shelf - at that point, it was time to go, before I had to pay for something!

Naturally, I did buy a few things in Rocky Point. I bought Mary a Rocky Point outfit and a pink and purple Mexican blanket; I also replaced all of the wineglasses that John had broken when he knocked over the seville that I had bought in Rocky Point two years ago!

Upon returning from shopping, though, the laziness kicked in, and I decided that all I wanted to do was relax. A few times, I went over to manifest to talk to Dawn Rae, who had also just become a mother - her baby, Lauren, was just over two months old. She was quite the cutie, and to top it off, she was wearing the most appropriate T-shirt - it read, "Eat, Poop, Skydive"!

During the evening, it was time to celebrate the end of a good day of jumping. Although we all decided to skip the traditional skydiver party at La Curva on Friday night, we decided to stick around for the Tecate party, under the Tecate tent, on Saturday night. That evening, we put Mary in a lovely pink and white "señorita" dress, which had been given to her by her Uncle Clyde. She drew quite a bit of attention in that dress!

On Sunday, the Rocky Point Skydiving Boogie ended, and slowly, one by one, all of the skydivers began to leave...except for us, because we had decided to stay until Monday. It was also Janice's birthday, so once John made his last jump, it was time to celebrate. For lunch, we went to La Curva and drank "Especiales" until Janice got sick.

While Janice slept off the "Especiales", the rest of us watched as the locals washed the motor home...and later, the van! Yes, John finally decided to have the van washed - after all, it hadn't been done in a year. And when they were finished, it looked like a completely different vehicle. The chrome on the bumper actually sparkled, and we could finally see through the back windows. It looked so good after they were done that John gave them extra money for their efforts.

Later that evening, we hung up a piñata for Janice to break. Erika had purchased it secretly on Saturday, after sneaking away from all of us, and after she and I filled it with candy, we had John and Bill hang it up under the Tecate tent, next to manifest, while Janice and Danny went for a walk to Puesta del Sol. Just before they returned, we called over the last few remaining skydivers (including Mike Putz, the one who owns the "World's Ugliest Bus") to come and watch the violence that was about to unfold.

Upon their return, we blindfolded Janice and gave her a broomstick to use on the piñata. Then, John spun her around and let her go at it. At first, she got a few good whacks at the Tecate tent, but soon she found the piñata and started wailing on it. (Danny and I took the babies and stepped back to keep them out of harm's way!) Finally, the tough piñata fell to the ground, and Janice proceeded to stab it with the broom handle until it broke open and the candy spilled onto the ground. We gave most of the candy away to Mike Putz' kids, some of whom were calling out hints to Janice.

That evening, at sunset, John and I took Mary with us down to the beach so that we could have some quiet time to ourselves. We sat by the water's edge and watched the waves rolling in and the sun set behind Competition Hill. Mary squealed at each wave that came in and lapped the beach, and me, I couldn't help but watch the fascination in her face. At nine months old, she has already seen more things than most people ever see in an entire lifetime, and each time she sees something new, like the ocean, she reacts with such excitement. I only hope that she continues to enjoy new things with the same enthusiasm as she grows older.

Monday morning, it came time for us to go home. We spent part of the morning on the beach, where we let Mary splash around in the seawater one last time before packing up camp. Then, at 11:00 a.m., we checked out of our campsites and went to Manny's for lunch, as tradition dictates. Finally, around 1:00 p.m., we bid farewell to Rocky Point and began our long journey back to Phoenix.

Fortunately, the four-hour drive back home passed without incident. The line at the border wasn't long, and we did not get stopped by any DPS officers on SR 85. (We even coasted through rush hour traffic on SR 51, which came as a big surprise to us.) Of course, when we arrived at home, we knew that our vacation was indeed over, as all of the problems that we had left behind greeted us at the door...

...And thus ended another great Verley adventure.

Return to Naked in the Woods.