Near the
NO SHOOTING signs, overlooking a
spectacular view in the Table Mesa Recreation Area, were a helluva lot
of spent shotgun shells and a broken Guns N' Roses Appetite
for Destruction CD.
Table
Mesa is one of Arizona's bilingual names that if the English Only crowd
ever gets their way will be Table Table. Or maybe Aztlán
separatistas will want to call it Mesa Mesa. Or maybe we should just
ask the local tribe what they called the place.
Em and I
were once again taking El Troque down unpaved “primitive” roads
in search of pretty rocks, and we found them, among the spent shells and shot up electronics, monitors, TVs . . . abandoned technology
disintegrating in the dry air and ultraviolet radiation.
“The
desert just consumes all this stuff,” Em said.
What is
left will provide interesting material for future archaeologists:
“They
must have brought these devices out here to be sacrificed to the
gods of progress.”
Near
where a debris-peppered gultch was blocked off by a barbed-wire
fence, we found a shot-up target with a humanoid outline
spray-painted on it.
No
wonder places around here have names like Bloody Basin Road.
Later,
along Table Mesa Road, we came across a fenced-off area: BLACK CANYON
CITY LAUNCHER AND RECEIVER FACILITLY. It looked like something out of
an old sci-fi flick, with solar panels, a satellite dish, and
security cameras. I wondered, what do they launch and receive?
Where
primitive roads crossed was Cordes, a little “town” where rusty,
derelict cars, trucks, and barns blended into a junkyard and the
desert. Cows and horses looked at us, wondering why we were there.
Who
would believe that we were enjoying the rough beauty of it all?
Later,
we passed a place called OUTLAWS ONLY.
Then we
headed up to Sedona, where postmodern franchises blend with the new
age red rock décor and the dazzling natural red rock landscape
while a heron and helicopters flew overhead.
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