Thursday, January 28, 2016

Life On The Border

Many of our side trips here in Arizona have brought us close to our border with Mexico. It sure is different from our crossing with Canada. We have been through a half dozen US Border Patrol checkpoints. You drive through, roll your window down and stop at the patrolman. If you look like Ma and Pa Kettle, as we must to them, you get a have a nice day and you drive on by. I've appreciated that. We've seen vehicles pulled over with the German shepherds sniffing through them. Imagine your dog being so well trained to sniff through a car and ignore the beef jerky!
When you are below the checkpoint areas there are many Patrol cars, white with a green diagonal stripe, both moving and sitting. That most all the Patrol we have seen has been in the 27-38 age bracket tells me that we have expanded our presence over recent years.
Our technology too. In this photo in the middle of the sky area, you can find a silvery oval blur. That is an "industrial strength" jumbo balloon. From a distance, it looks like the Goodyear Blimp. Turns out, it is tethered to the earth and contains observation equipment focused over the mountains at that section of the border. With today's technology, I bet it sees pretty well at night. Looks like we have folks that watch rolling videos for a living on behalf of our safety. Thanks go to them.

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