Hang a right @ the tallest cactus

A sigh of disappointment after a phone call from the DHL delivery guy was the sign that my photo adventure would be put on hold. Apparently, this up and coming business has not yet tackled the "wilderness" that is my homeland! The stinging reality of delayed gratification sucks! Well, apparently Dell Inc. has switched their carrier service from UPS to DHL...geez!...how a few letters of the alphabet can make a huge difference. For years, UPS has been servicing our great Tohono O'odham Nation, delivering packages to the remotest places in all the nooks and crannies of my desert homeland. One driver, who everyone simply knew as "Bob" was a familiar site to the O'odham. It wasn't a shock to see that big brown truck bouncing along the dusty backroads of the tohono jewed. Bob knew his way around the rez and people around the rez knew good ol' Bob. Outsiders just can't imagine how we (Natives) can exist without "proper" streets in perpendicular format, or street signs with names of people we never knew...or house numbers on every earthen building we own....as if these are the things that validate our existence as a society. It's a common joke among us Natives, especially those that live out in the "sticks" as some would call it....but I call it "God's Country", when we relay directions to our villages and homes. "Go down highway 86", "turn right on rural route 13", "go about 3 miles and you'll see a rock that looks like a quail sitting on a turtle", "then go northeast for about 1/8th of a mile and be sure not to fall into the wash""...then hang a right at the tallest cactus...yeah, the one that looks like a tourney NDN blocking the game winning shot", "then you'll see my house, it has a ocotillo fence around it and about 10 dogs and one of them has only three legs and a half of a tail, and he'll be looking at you with his one good eye". And everytime Bob would show up in his cutest little brown UPS shorts and deliver your package with a smile...now THAT was service! Well...I give props to UPS for the tenacity in satisfying their customers. While on hold with the people at DHL I wondered where Bob might be delivering packages today. A woman came back on the line to say "I'm sorry ma'am, we cannot deliver to the address given to us, we need a physical address, we cannot deliver this package to NO WHERE, ARIZONA!" At this statement I had a good belly laugh right into her ear. Just think if Columbus or Lewis and Clark had had that same attitude, where might this country be today?....hmmm....probably better off. LOL. So, after some debate with the woman on the phone, she resigned to re-routing the package through the US Postal Service and it should be arriving in my post office box (fingers and eyes crossed) tomorrow. BIG UPS TO U.P.S and a thumbs down to DHL!