Desert view

The Ajo Mountain Drive has many great views.  This is just one of them.

 The Ocotillo are starting to bloom.  The red against the blue skies is spectacular!

Purple

A small purple flower in the desert.

Color

An evening shower a couple of weeks ago gave us a show.

Arches

Arches Canyon is one of the favorite hiking places in Organ Pipe.  The arches are accessible with some scrambling.

Heat

Saturday we met a family that was vacationing from Fairbanks.  During our conversation they realized that it was 120 degrees warmer at ORPI than at home.  Hard to believe.

The greeting ritual

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to observe the greeting ritual.  R and I spend  time working in the visitor center (VC).  One of jobs is to greet the visitors when they come into the VC or as we walk around the VC.  " Hi how are you?  Can we answer any questions? Where are you from?"
   As we are chatting, the process has started.  We find a commonality.  A common interest.  A state of National Park we both have visited.  A location where we both have lived.  As the process continues it might progress to someone we both have met or even know !
  At the conclusion of the process, we have established a relationship, sometimes casual, sometimes quite close.  And all of this happened in a few minutes.  Some of these established relationships have lasted for many years.  It is one of the reasons we are doing what we are doing.  The people make the places memorable.

Surgery

Jason's surgery is over.  What an ordeal!  His initial surgery lasted 11 hours.  I don't have all the details of it but the doctors removed the fibula bone from his right leg, along with some tissue and blood vessels.  The bone was cut and fitted into his jaw and the blood vessels attached.  After a few hours they discovered that they got clogged up so he was taken back in back for another couple of hours.  

   The next morning, more clogging (clotting) so in the afternoon, he was in the O.R. for 5 more hours.  The doctors determined that the "flap" procedure they were trying was not going to work so they reverted to the bone graft procedure that normally uses a piece of the hip bone.  The doctors cleaned up the jaw of any new tissue (to prevent infection) and put some "bone paste" on the area,  Hopefully that will work out.  The good news is that he did not get a tracheotomy or his jaw did not need to be wired.

  All of this started on a Monday.  I am writing this a week later and he is in a private room and has been walking a bit.  How will his leg be without a fibula?  He will be wearing a special boot so some time while his leg gets used to only one bone, but the doctor says he will be fine.  It sounds incredible to me.  

   What work the jaw will need in the future, I have no idea, but no doubt, the journey is not over yet.