Everybody has one, that special drawer that stores all the nonsense that you can’t quite place elsewhere. Chip clips, batteries, found parts of objects that you no longer have and gum…lots of gum.

Well I have the digital equivalent in photographs.  Random shots that individually may not stand on their own but are just as interesting as a complete set.

The pic above is a good example of momentary importance. The current owners of the Coronado Tower have decided that that after all these years the building needed some cleaning up and in the process removed all the trees making it look rather stark.

I organize things all the time. In my garage, my office and even my music collection everything has its place. I really don’t like junk drawers because really it means you have failed at putting everything in its place.  With all the photographs I have taken or scanned its no different.  I could go the straight sort by date route but interesting little gems would get lost in the sea of dates.  in reality, photos are better grouped chronologically by event anyway. There are only a few times in your life where the exact date is important.

So that leaves me with my digital junk drawer. At least its not stacked up somewhere, blocking an exit and creating a fire hazard. Random 2011 and 2010

If you have lived in El Paso for a while one of the things you may have noticed on the westside is the bridge to nowhere.  It’s right before the Sunland Park exit and there appears to be no reason for it.

There was once a purpose but when the drainage dam was built the road to it got severed leaving only the entrance from the neighborhood in Buena Vista.  That side is fenced off.

The bridge taunts you from behind the gate

I have always wondered if it was possible to get to it so today I set off to try. I looked at the area from above on Google and found a dirt road that entered the drainage area from the side of the Westside Recreation Center. There is a gate but today it was open.

Looks all flat and easy from here.

Once in I drove to a wash area where some taggers had hit some concrete walls.

From there I drove along the top ridge and then down the side of the dam.  That proved to be a dumb move as once I got to the bottom I was greeted by 3 foot boulders blocking my way. After trying unsuccessfully in 4low to get back up the only way I found around was by skirting the bottom of the dam sideways next to the boulders. It was a long 1o minutes of sideways slip and sliding.

Easy does it

I won’t lie and say I wasn’t sweating bullets.  The rocky substrate kept sending me towards the boulders, I had to fight the urge to gas it and just let myself creep along.  The end of the boulder line drops you right at the entrance to the bridge so all in all it worked out.

Success!

I wasn’t going to be able to go back the way I came so I traveled down a rocky and rutted hill which put me right next to I-10, before the Sunland exit.  For future reference, it may be possible to go this route instead of the tricky way i went.   I think its time to look into winches.

Full Flickr set here: Bridge to Nowhere

What to do, what to do. Three day weekends are a tricky, there is a ton of things do but trying to find that balance of activities that are fun and sandwiching it all between lunch and dinner can be a challenge with kids. We started the festivities on Saturday with a trip to the farmers market, bowling on Sunday and the El Paso Zoo on Monday. The Zoo has several new additions including zebras, giraffes , lions and a very lively sea lion. To accommodate all these new animals the zoo expanded into the area where the old Dudley field once was, home of the Diablos.

Oh Hi there!

We ended the day with a walk by the river. The boys dig walking along the jogging path and with it being so close to the house there is no excuse not to do it.

Big tree at sunset

We went to the first farmers market at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing.  There is a ton of nifty stuff to look at there.  This is one of the residents of the compound, an old GMC truck:

Old GMC Truck

The full set can be viewed on Flickr here: Old GMC Truck .  I also took some pics of the Dessert Crossing grounds:

Windmill and Water Tower

Full Ardovino’s set here: Ardovino’s Dessert Crossing

A couple weeks ago, we drove out to San Elizario to check out some galleries and across the street from one of them was an old adobe building that had about 2 walls left to it.  This was what was left of one of the windows.