Spring Weather Is Marred by Cold Wind and Blowing Sand

There are a lot of hopeful horse campers here at the Indian horse camp this weekend. They were hoping to enjoy the beautiful spring flowers, the warm spring sunshine, and ride the trails on the adjoining BLM land. The flowers are here, and the sunshine is here, but it isn't warm, and the wind is blowing a gale. My metal awnings are rattling and banging. I have made sure that all my cats and dogs are safe inside tonight.

At least the flowers will last longer due to the renewed cool weather. The temperature went into the 80s last week and I used my air conditioner for the first time this year. The heater is back on today.

From high vistas you can see sand blowing high into the air. If the wind is blowing this strongly down in the Sonora Desert on I-8 as it heads for Yuma Arizona, it is surely making the driving hazardous. I hope people know enough to pull over and wait it out.

Once I saw what could happen when you try to drive in a sandstorm. My husband, kids and I were driving from Pensacola to San Diego in August back in 1956. My husband was in the Navy and we were being transferred. It was terribly hot and we did not have air conditioning in our Chevy station wagon. We were all sweltering, including the kids, the dog, the cat, and the parakeet. There were black clouds ahead of us as we drove through Gila Bend, AZ.

We saw a swimming pool in front of a motel by the side of the road, and a diver had just gone in with a huge splash. I couldn't resist it, and I was even compelled to say to my husband, "Let's stop early for the night and swim in that pool." We had just passed a nice looking restaurant - Aunt Emma's Diner and Salad Bar. My husband agreed and we did, swim, eat and sleep right there - about 30 feet from a cross-country railroad track. We had barely returned from the diner when a sandstorm blew in. A train passed during the storm, and we couldn't even see it even though it was very close. We felt lucky to be safe indoors.

The next day, when we got back on the road, we passed a gas station where there were wrecked cars that had been towed there after the storm. They were burned beyond recognition. We read in a paper later, that a Volkswagen Bug had braked suddenly in front of a big rig, and the truck driver couldn't stop in time. He ran right over it, squashing the car and all its passengers. Cars behind the big truck ran into it, and those behind that ran into each other. There were at least seven vehicles burned so badly they looked like old rusty cars. I have forgotten how many people were killed, but it was over seven. We felt we might have saved our lives by stopping when we did.

The dirt in the air isn't that bad up here now in the mountains above the Sonora desert, and riders today seemed to be having fun no matter how strong the wind blows. Others left early before the sun went down. Usually everyone stays until Sunday afternoon. It doesn't matter to my buddies -  my cats and dogs and me. We just get cozy inside, and ride it out, with the wind lulling us to sleep.