mine is....another border patrol story....

I was stopped a couple of times while birding Arizona near the Mexican
border, pre Sept. 11th. My favorite incident occurred near Coronado National
Monument. I had spent the night in a legitimate camping spot (securely locked in my
vehicle) at a high elevation and was up birding the lower elevations from my
car shortly after daylight. Upon spotting some movement in a meadow off to the
left, I (after noting no other traffic on the roads) halted to take a look
with binoculars. I just happened to have stopped in the east bound land of a
paved road near a T- intersection. After a few minutes I saw a car approaching
from the east, about 1/3 to 1/2 mile away....so I drove slowly on. Passing
the other vehicle, I noted it was a border patrol.

Next thing I new they had come right up on my bumper (almost....:-) and were
indicating I should pull over. Which I did, of course, immediately! "What
were you doing?," asked one of the two officers. "Birdwatching!," said I. "Why
do you ask?" "You looked startled when we passed you back there on the
road.", said the talkative one. I was puzzled about his choice of word, because I
would have said "worried" since I, being low on funds, was only concerned about
getting a traffic ticket for having stopped in the middle of the road! But I
said nothing other than something like "I see!" or "Really?" After answering
a few more questions, being told that "the bad guys sometimes pretend to be
birdwatchers"....which I knew from one of Agatha Christie's wonderful Hercule
Poroit mysteries :-) :-) :-) ..... and being given a lecture about being a
lone, female camper, the second officer said he was also a birdwatcher and
proceeded to tell me about some great birding spots in the area (And I later
discovered for myself these were indeed good spots.). Once it appeared things were
coming to an end....somewhere in the beginning the first officer had asked me
to open the trunk of my vehicle, which I had not yet done due to the
interesting conversation were had gotten into ....I ask if he still wanted to look into
the trunk. "No, ...well maybe you had better open it...."

Now, I must stop here and let you know I was driving an old sedan with over
200,000 miles on it; the car was also perpetually dusty in every crack and
cranny because I lived 5 miles up a dirt road and commuted 20 miles to work 5 days
a week. The trunk was jammed full, not only with my camping gear, but also
with tools, spare parts, and other survival items necessary for back country
driving. I popped the lid and watched (with delight...Tee! Hee!) as the
expression on his face changed to "You gotta be kidding!"

I closed the trunk, said good bye, drove off and continued to have a
marvelous birding trip (One of my most delightful sighting of Black-bellied Whistling
Ducks occurred that day). And, some 50,000 miles later I did purchase a new
vehicle ! :-) :-) :-)

Cheers! Judy


Judy Rowe Taylor
Mukilteo, WA
caratfeathers at aol.com