by laura beth

We left Tucson and headed to Bisbee, Arizona. We had been told countless times that we would love this little town, but never bothered visiting. this time we wen tout of our way to check it out. We rolled into Bisbee in the evening and decided to settled in at Turquoise Valley RV Park in Naco, Arizona, south of Bisbee right on the Arizona/Sonora border.

In the morning we decided to cross the border into Naco, Sonora, Mexico for fun. As we headed towards the border (2 streets over from the RV park), we came across a gentleman who stopped to visit with us. Both his hat and t-shirt had "Jesus" written across them in big letters, and he was carrying a Bible. He asked us if we wanted to "burn something" before heading over (for those who may not understand, that's slang for smoking the marijuana), and then reminded us that it was June 1st, the day that the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative went into effect, requiring a US Passport or similar ID to get back into the states. He proceeded to tell us about the hard time he was given trying to walk home...basically he gave the immigration officer the "what for". What terrible luck! We no longer have valid passports. Mine is in my maiden name and Kenny's expired at the end of April. Neither of us had been to Mexico for several years, and this was really the most convenient opportunity for us to just cross the border for fun. We ended up talking to an officer before crossing, who basically told us to try our luck. And try our luck we did. Twenty minutes later we came from Naco, Sonora to Naco, Arizona, and to the same officer, who gave us the shpiel about not being in compliance, yadda, yadda, yadda, and then he literally slapped Kenny on the wrist. Whew! On to Bisbee.