The Ride To Town Which Did Not Happen The Way We Intended It.

This morning we were readying to go to town to complete some errands. When I started the van and "put it into gear", our gear shifter came lose again. It was a moment of total disbelief. So I crawled under the van to check the shifter cable, it was sitting where it is supposed to sit, but the van could not be put into gear. Moving the gear lever at the transmission brought the gear shifter back into function, but only when shifting towards "P". As soon as Bea tried to move it into "D" (downwards) it got lose again.

The van was not movable!

So I found a towing service and automotive service shop and called COACHNET to request a tow to Ajo.

After multiple phone calls the guy showed up and above you see that he loaded it onto a flatbed truck. Since the van had been stuck in "P" we had to get it into "N" to roll it up onto the truck.

Later, I got a call from the shop telling me that parts were on national back order and would not be deliverable until next week. What a country!

But I guess we are lucky that we have our friends here and that we are in the desert where it is warm and all this had not happened on Monday while being on the highway.

Not knowing what the day would bring, we had taken a morning hike with Dixie. The BLM here is a very large area and one can walk on "for ever".

We found a cactus with fruits on top. Bea picked one and back at the trailer we sliced it open. Inside one can see the dark cactus seeds. 

Reminding a little of KIWI fruit

The fruity part has a sourly taste and can be eaten in small amounts. Small amounts, because it is high on oxalic acid and it has the potential to destroy your kidneys if consumed in bigger amounts. I am sure the Indians used it in their meals.

The name of the cactus is Fero Cactus, also called "Candy Barrel". And the fruits do look like candy. What you see peeking out at the top are actually the shriveled up blossoms.