Thread: Weekend at the Border in CA

Closing weekend at the border for April 2007

Here it is, Friday the last weekend of our April month long muster at camp Vigilance in Boulevard, CA.

Today is Friday, April 27th at 10:00AM and I have just packed up the truck, with my gear, last night we loaded onto the truck the neighbor’s 3 year old refrigerator and dishwasher for camp, and are heading to camp for the last weekend of the monthly muster. I hit the 15 freeway south and it is nice and warm, about 80 deg. and a little windy. As I drive down the 15 toward the 8, traffic is very light and I’m at the 8 in no time at all heading east toward the high desert. At Alpine I get off the road to make a food run at the local store for tonight’s dinner of hamburgers, potato salad.

Now over to Ace hardware for the grommet punch to repair the flag for the roof and then back onto the freeway. Traffic is still light and the wind is picking up a little, so I keep it below 80! Within the hour I was at the exit to the Acorn casino where we drive down to camp. As I drove down the road leading into the Indian reservation I drove slowly looking for any trace of IA’s that may be walking toward the freeway or HWY 94 for their ride to the cities north, but none were sighted today.

Driving down the dirt road the temperature was in the low 80’s and a mild wind was blowing up the dust. I pulled into camp and made my way to the coffee machine to get a hot cup of coffee. Inside the “Stagecoach Inn Resort and Spa” were a small group of members and we all said hello; outside on the patio was another group enjoying the afternoon shade.

I checked in with HQ and then got the food out of the truck, then went to the patio to muster up some strong bodies to help lift the new fridge & DW out of the truck. Wow it sure was easy to move this time with six strong people carrying it, we had to move it to the back patio and in to the only door where it would fit into. We decided to have a early dinner so we could get out into the field early for operations that night, so we started the BBQ and started preparing the fixings for the burgers that night. One of the directors said that the back head in HQ was plugged up and could not be flushed, I tried the plunger and decided to empty the “Poooopy” mess into a bucket, my goodness is there no job Americans won’t do? We had to get a drill snake to clear the mess, but it was fixed within 20 minutes and cleaned up for use again, thanks Anita, don’t know what we would do without your help! 1800 rolled around and dinner was underway, as was the evening meeting and the team headed out for operations. I cleaned up the dinner cooking utensils, and everyone was full and ready for night operations I made my way over to the comm. Center to relieve the folks who had been in HQ Comm. the entire week, day and night as they were in need of a much needed rest.

During my evening in the COM center our night operations had reported 30-40 IA’s and we made the appropriate calls to our friends at BP posts with surprising responses from them. Around 0100 I was relieved and headed for the tent. While trying to sleep in the windy tent I was too warm, and uncomfortable so around 0530 I decided to get up and see what was going on in camp. We had a number of sightings during the night at a couple of our sites we had been posted at, and our teams were still vigilant observing people on the other side who were just waiting for us to leave the areas and make the crossing into the USA. I had my cup of coffee and a roll and proceeded back to the comm. Center to take another shift helping out with communications while others around camp did some of the regular camp clean up duties and general repairs.

Here it is Saturday morning and we have about 35 people in camp, and we are setting up for day operations, our teams for another great day at the border doing what our federal government refuses to do! We amass two great teams 16 & 8 well equipped people who are headed out to our sweet spots to spend the day along the CA border where we have determined to be the best spots for the weekend muster. The teams check out the equipment, get radios, call signs, bionic ear, water, sun screen and move into the caravan position at the front gate ready to roll out. When everyone is accounted for and the vehicles are identified we give the go ahead for departure and notify BP of the events that are going to be undertaken. BP is totally co-operative with us and thanks us for the reports.

As the day progresses the heat increases to around 90+ and very little wind, just enough to keep you from becoming a tomato! As the afternoon comes and goes so do our teams, briefly returning back to camp for food and replacements on the lines. We have observed many IA’s today, and some actually ran right by us not more than 20 feet away after concealing themselves well, then diving under the fence and dashing into the California bushes for cover, others still wait on the Mexico side for us to leave to make the crossing.

At 1800 we start feeding the crews our “Camp Stew” created by Chef Anita & Ron and all of us partook in a great meal, then our evening meeting took place. We again decided on what areas we were going into tonight, the times and number of people who were going. Those people who were going early got their equipment together, and I made my way back to the comm. Area to relieve the people in there for the evening shift till 0100. I signed out the radios, night vision, and got the descriptions of the vehicles going out as the teams gathered to begin the caravan out of camp. The team leaders checked radios, and gave out call signs and off they went into the night for another evening under the stars! I made my calls to BP informing them of our intentions, and returned back to my comm. Duties. Things were quiet in camp, an occasional radio chat between groups, we had a BP agent in one of our areas who was nabbing the ones we were reporting directly to him, so it made my part real simple, just stand by incase someone needs me.

As the night went on, I cleaned up the comm. Room, cleaned up all of the equipment remaining, charged the spare batteries for the equipment and kept a close eye on camp. At 23:59 our power went out completely, camp and the surrounding area was totally dark! I immediately went to the breaker box and flipped all the breakers but no luck, my small flashlight was getting dimmer, so I switched to one of the Monster lights and kept that around for a few minutes after I checked out camp for any unusual people or things that were out of the norm. After a couple of minutes passed, I decided that now was the perfect time to take that much needed hot shower if I was to sleep at all tonight, so I made a mad dash to the condo tent for my towel, and change of clothes. Jumping into the warm shower and washing off the 2 days of dirt really made a difference, I took my GI shower and was out back in HQ in less than 8 minutes still waiting for the electric to go on. Around 0100 teams returned for the evening, and we were able to make a call into the electric company to report the outage, it seems that it was a “planned” outage for 3 hours! Darn, did not get that message! So I went to bed to get some much needed rest, as the incoming teams also did.
Teams dispersed through the rest of the early morning hours to our sweet spots making additional reports of IA’s, and calls into BP were made. I awoke around 0730 Sunday to a nice cool morning, and made my way over to the coffee maker for a hot cup of joe!

Today is pack up day and shutdown camp day, so we all partook in those tasks that needed to be done, I grabbed the cleaning supplies and cleaned the back two heads & showers so that they would be clean for May’s muster, some people gathered up the bags of recycle & trash, the Stagecoach was cleaned up and food organized. I had to take down the condo tent this weekend and pack up everything, so I made my way over to the tent camping area to get that done. Within 30 minutes I had it all packed up and was ready to hit the road again.

I said my good byes and jumped into the truck to make the 2 hour drive home, the weather was warm, and wind blowing about 15 mph now, I drove slowly to the freeway looking for additional IA’s that we could add to our list. The final count was somewhere around 450-480 sighted, 110 or so reported, and about 70-80 captured by BP. Not bad for a bunch of old farts who don’t get paid to do this type of work!

We had a very successful muster month, and I wanted to thank all of you who spent the entire month at camp, and those of you who spend weeks at camp and those of you, like me only could make it down for the weekends. You all did a great job, and I am proud to muster with all of you, a great bunch of patriots have again done the job that the federal government refuses to do, and we had fun doing it!

I made my way home and pulled into the garage and headed for a fresh cup of coffee and a smoke and let the wife that all went well. It was good to be home again, and I was glad to see my wonderful wife, she so understands and goes along with me doing these musters I am so thank full for that. After a hot shower and a good home cooked meal I sat down to keep up with what was going on in the world, read my 586 emails, and then got online for the Sunday night chat board at minutemenhq.com to let everyone know of our success of the month.

April is over and May is just weeks away, so if you want to come down to the border let us know, we will be happy to see you there…..until then stay safe and remember” In God we trust, and all the rest we monitor” !!


Ken

"Where the hell is Boulevard" is the standard bumber sticker for the folks who live there.
Glad you had a good trip and missed the cold weather, I was up at the casino this am and the winds were 30 to 40 mph and dang cold and hasn't let up all day, it's 2030 hrs now and the wind here is still strong with a temp of 48 drgrees.
Thanks for your help down here.
MD

I've driven from San Diego to Yuma AZ on IS 8. It 's a great drive, especially looking at the sand dunes before getting to Yuma. Good luck this weekend, stay safe, kdreger