There is nothing like a storm in the desert

Arizona has been a whirlwind. Two weeks of intensive crew leader training straight into receiving our crews and heading out of town on hitch.
Crew leader training started off bumpy when crew leader, Lewis, walked off the job on day two giving the remainder of us a scapegoat when things went wrong. Then off we went to Globe, AZ to Tonto National Forest for five days of workshops and trail maintenance minus Lewis. We were at about 6,000 feet, surrounded by ponderosa pine forest, and above the Tucson heat.
Back in the oven that is Tucson, we prepped for our crews, received our co-leader pairings, and I made a deal with my friend, Trevor to live on his roof/couch during my 6 off days a month. My co-crew leader is Logan, a 6'5" skinny Virginian who's car also broke down on his drive here. The crew leaders went out on Friday for blues guitar and dancing, I spent the entirety of Saturday on Trevor's couch, and Sunday I went house shopping with my lovely cousin Bobbi Jo and her family who also just moved to the Tucson area. Monday brought on our crews. Tuesday we hopped into our van for a nine hour car ride to Carlsbad, NM for a hitch of trail maintenance in Slaughter Canyon. Our crew is a rag tag bunch of very diverse delightful young people who are managing to get along quite well.
Two nights into our hitch a storm rolled in that devastated our camp. The rain flowed like a waterfall and the wind blew like a hurricane and people got soaked and people didn't sleep and people's tents collapsed or blew over and people have a wonderful story to tell. The next day was beautiful and we were able to dry out. On our rec day we were treated with tours of Slaughter Canyon Cave and Carlsbad Caverns. Nature is neat.
On our way back to Tucson we stopped half way to sleep on the side of the road on BLM land with another crew. As I slept, boarder patrol crept by once an hour to shine their spotlight on each of us. I like to think of it as their way of ensuring our safety rather than them being jerks. We returned to Tucson safely, de-rigged, and dispersed. I spent most of my weekend off with Bobbi Jo and Matt receiving a tour of where he works (Caterpillar Proving Grounds) and hanging out. Then suddenly it was time to go back to work and off to Organ Pipe National Monument we went.