I've been hauling butt, well, crawling butt in Rigadoon, to get somewhere warmer but continual driving gets tiring. I decided to spend a few days in the Sonoran Desert to take a break because deserts are warm, right? Mostly right. The Sonoran was still chilly at night although nowhere near freezing. The sky was clear and I got a slight sunburn from a Christmas Day hike. Sigh. Lovely.
After those few days of R'n'R (ha!) I continued west towards Yuma. Totally flat until this weird streak of mountains right across the sky.
Once over those the air became noticeably warmer. I guess The Chihuahuan is more of a desert than the Sonoran.
After a couple days in Yuma dealing with showers and laundry I crossed the border in California to park at the Quechan Casino. They have a huge parking lot and it was packed with RVs just hanging out, maybe doing the trek down to Mexico for dinner and drugs. I parked on the edge of the semi lot next to a little Sunrader and some big RV from Canada.
I walked the two miles to the border (I'm so cheap; there's a parking lot near the border but I didn't want to pay RV prices for a couple hours of parking. Some people drive to the point where 'No Parking' signs are erected and stop on the side of the road just before them. Cuts about 1.5 miles from the journey.) Walking across is quick and free, and once over there you are continually assailed by people asking you if you're looking for dental or eye care. I do want my teeth cleaned ($20) but not without researching the dentists first and I wasn't prepared this time.
Grabbed some ventolin (3 for $4.50 vs $100 each in the U.S.), paid probably too much for a pretty silver bracelet and escaped the streets without being dragged into an optometrists office.
While at the casino I met this lady:
She couldn't afford a hightop van so her son improvised, adding a truck top to the top of her van. There's plenty of standing room underneath it and her bed is in the section without added height.
One more night in Yuma to really stock up before tooling north to Quartzsite to find out what the deal is with desert boondocking and the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous.
No comments:
Post a Comment