Panchos Moving ServiceIn mid-November, the wife and I were venturing down to Rocky Point when we came upon a pickup truck towing a flatbed trailer. Both vehicles were loaded to the max and piled with stuff about ten feet high.

After following this slow moving makeshift contraption for several miles – unable to pass because of oncoming traffic – the driver finally pulled over for gas at the Lukeville station, a small border community and gateway to Mexico about 35 miles south of Ajo. Wishing to get a closer look and better understanding of how such a heavily laden contrivance could roll down the highway, I decided to turn in behind him. Perhaps I could fabricate a sort of “Believe It Or Not” documentary and sell it to the National Geographic Channel.

A white crew cab Ford pickup, with a bumper-to-bumper overhead storage rack, was crammed with every household item imaginable. Mattresses, chests, tables, boxes, chairs, bicycles and other assorted articles were securely tied or bungeed down. Even the tailgate was lowered to allow more cargo space.

Attached to the fully loaded truck, a 16 foot long flatbed trailer – equipped with its own add-on rack – was equally overwhelmed with washing machines, sofas, recliners, more chests and paraphernalia common to neighborhood yard sales. Like the truck, an extension was added to the back of the trailer to permit additional carrying capacity. As nearly as I could determine, the rig was packed tighter than a kilo of frozen shrimp.

While I’m not certain of its origins, I would image the load was coming from either the Phoenix or Tucson areas. If so, then how is such an awkward and burdensome vehicle permitted to travel along Arizona’s roadways at considerably less than posted speed limits? While it may not technically be registered as a commercial vehicle – in Arizona or Mexico – obviously it is transporting items intended for resell. Unless, of course, the driver needs a dozen washers and dryers to do the family laundry.

Maybe all of this craziness is legitimized under various sections and sub-clauses of the North American Free Trade Agreement/NAFTA. And maybe the driver of the truck is a member of Mexico’s equivalent of the Teamsters Union. Or, possibly the guy really is an employee of Pancho’s Moving Service and is simply transporting a load of furniture for a customer returning to Mexico before Trump builds his wall.

“Hey, buddy, ya got room for a California King?” Overloaded truck and trailer refuels at the Lukeville station before entering Mexico.