Trolley Tour

Cloudy and gloomy this morning.  We walked on the beach for a while anyway and then decided to go explore San Diego.

The Pacific Ocean This Morning

 We have taken Old Town Trolley Tours in other cities we have been in and were happy to see that they have it here too.  Since it was a drizzly cloudy day we thought we would let them drive us around and we'd keep dry.

The trolley soon filled up to capacity.  We learned that there are two cruise ships docked here today and the (foreign) tourists are using the trolleys.  I think we were the only English speakers there!  Everyone else spoke German, Italian, or French.  They obviously didn't understand the driver's narration, didn't answer any of his questions, and did not laugh at any of the jokes, but that didn't stop them from seeing the sights.

Soon into the tour it began to rain harder.  Usually we get off to explore and hop on the next trolley to complete the tour, but not today.  We were able to complete the tour but they had stopped selling tickets due to the rain.  Visibility was poor and I did not take any pictures.

Old Town Trolley Tour

The rain had stopped when we got off the trolley (of course).  Near by is the Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, so we walked around that for a while.  The buildings have been restored and reconstructed and are now museums, shops and restaurants that capture the essence of Old Town between 1821 and 1872.  Very few people were visiting there today, most likely because of the weather.

Old Town

Old Town

Old Town

San Diego is a beautiful city!  It's such a pleasant change from the desert scenery we have been seeing the last month.

San Diego

 The weather was the top story on the news reports today.  It doesn't rain very often so when it does, it's a big deal.  The trolley tour driver said that the boulevard trees in the downtown area suck up so much water that they have begun replacing them with plastic trees!  Really, you would never know unless you examine one closely, they are very good.

On our way back to the RV we decided to go visit the Old Point Loma Lighthouse high up on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean on one side and San Diego on the other.  It was built in 1854 and shut down in 1891.  Turns out the fog and low clouds often obscured the light.  A new light station was built at the bottom of the hill.

Old Point Loma Lighthouse

The San Diego Skyline is in there!  It really is!

 Bernie and I got texts on our phones welcoming us to Mexico!!!  Wha???  I certainly hope I'm not paying international rates.  I'll have to look into this.

Welcome to Mexico??

Oh, and remember, we are in Pacific time zone now, so if my daily blog is late it's because we're two hours later than Minnesota time!

San Diego, California

Marble Just Hanging Out

The wind let up over night so we left the Walmart parking lot this morning and continued on west.  If it wasn't for the beautiful mountain views the desert would be horrible to cross.

Desert Mountains

When we got to the mountains we saw they were very harsh.  I can't imagine what crossing this area was like 100 years ago.  These mountains were so rocky.  In the summer it can get to 120 degrees.  There are "Radiator Water" Cement Barrels every tenth of a mile on the way up the mountain.

Radiator Water Cement Barrel

US Border Patrol Checkpoint

  Finally, we made it to the Pacific Ocean!  We are staying at Silver Strand State Beach in San Diego.  Not ON the beach, but on the paved area that is on the beach.

Pacific Ocean

  We went for a walk on the beach as the sun was going down.  There were people digging for giant clams, they let me take their picture.

People Clamming

Clams!

There are not a lot of people here, it's the off season. 

El Centro, CA

Sunrise 

We were greeted by a beautiful sunrise this morning.  A rare thing here, as there are not often clouds around.  Then we went into the Casino that owns the parking lot we had been staying in the last two nights.  We had not been in there before.  It's a small one, and smokey.  I did put $1 into a penny slot machine and lost it all. Oh well, we did get complimentary coffee and Pepsi, so wasn't a total loss.

Then we packed up and headed west on I-8 towards San Diego.  About a mile in to California is an Agriculture Border Inspection station.  All traffic stops.  They are trying to protect their state from invasive insects.  They asked us where we were coming from and if we had any citrus fruits, which we did not.

California Border Protection Station

Shortly after that was a small Border Patrol station (sorry no pic) with a working dog sniffing the vehicles.  They only thing they asked us was how many people were in the vehicle, and waved us on.

We drove through the dunes area again, on our way west.

Imperial Sand Dunes

It was only about 6 or 7 miles and the dunes were gone.  On the other side we found more vegetable fields. They were hard at work picking here too.

California Veggie Pickers

About the time we got to the town of El Centro, about half way to San Diego, the wind picked up a lot!  It was gusting up to 50 mph and pushing us around and blowing sand messing with the visibility, so we found a Walmart here and hunkered down for the rest of the day.  This gave us an opportunity to do some shopping anyway.  

Official Center of the World

Today we stood on the Official Center of the World!!  It is located just west of the Arizona/California border on Interstate 8.  Frenchman Jacques-Andre Istel somehow convinced Imperial County, California, to legally recognize a spot on his property as the official Center of the World.  Then he built a town around it, named it Felicity (after his wife) had it incorporated, held an election and was unanimously (2-0) elected Mayor.

Center of the World

You stand on the spot, make a wish, and you get a certificate stating that you stood at the Official Center of the World.

The Center of the World bronze disk is in this mirror-lined, pink granite pyramid.

"This town, dedicated to remembrance, fulfills our mission to unveil the planet's highlights of the collective family of humanity."
There are currently 100 granite panels, and plans for many many more, etched with history.

This is only some of the history in granite.

There is a wall of the History of the World

The History of the United States

The History of French Aviation

A US Marine Corps Korean War Memorial Wall

Princeton University Class of 1949 Wall

History of Humanity

History of California

History of Arizona

And there is a Wall For The Ages that is open to anyone who wants to have engraved on it his or her name for $200.  

This is a work in progress and we were told that next week there will be more engraving happening.   There are plans for lots more panels and walls.  Right now it did not appear to be a hot spot for tourists, but perhaps in the future.  The walls are engineered to last 4,000 years and become "the one book that survives."

At first I thought it was a bit hokey but after being there a while it was really rather interesting.

Korean War Memorial

Princeton University Class of 1949

Museum of History in Granite
Literacy for Millennia

Only a few miles west of that are the Imperial Sand Dunes, the largest mass of sand dunes in California, approximately 45 miles long and 6 miles wide.  This is the most popular off-road destination in Southern California.   We saw several groups with RVs and 4-wheelers.  What a fun thing to do with a group!

RVs and 4-wheelers

Doesn't that look like fun??

The area where we were is right on the Mexico border.  You can see the border fence near the horizon on this picture below.  The trucks are Border Patrol agents with cameras and electronic surveillance equipment.

Border Patrol

And then there are the remains of the old Plank Road, an Historic Landmark.  For a time, 1916 to 1926 this was the only way to get across the dunes from Phoenix to San Diego, other than going to Los Angeles first and then south to San Diego.  Can you imagine traveling this??

Plank Road

 This was at the Quartermaster's Depot in Yuma.  Displaying the Plank Road travel. 

California Here We Come

We were awakened at 7:30 this morning by a very noisy wood chipper.  7:30 isn't all that early, but when we were struggling to stay asleep through the night because of all the trains passing by we could have used a sleep-in.

We decided to move on.  Yuma has many RV Resorts, not as many as Mesa, but a lot.  There are also RV parks and private campgrounds, but why pay when you can stay for free?  Our first night was free at the BLM land we found north of town.  We filled up our water tank, dumped the dirty tanks, and then went to find a gas station to fill that up before we head to California.

Early Morning Wood Chipper

 We really didn't go very far, only a few miles, into California. Yuma is just across the bridge. So we're now in the Pacific Time Zone.  There is a casino here with a very large parking area for RVs to park for free.  So that's where we are tonight.  I think there are at least 50 other RVs here with us.

We're In There Somewhere

 I understand it's around 0 degrees back home in Minnesota... too bad, so sad.  It was 73 here today.  That awful sunshine is so annoying, it's so bright and that darned sun is so low in the sky it gets in my eyes, and causes such harsh shadows on the pictures.

After getting settled in at our new location we went for a drive in the country, not looking for anything in particular.  We saw field after field of vegetables.  Cauliflower for sure, and different kinds of lettuces.  More, that I could not identify, perhaps artichokes, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, and more.

There was a lot of activity in the fields, crops being harvested.  Most were too far out to get a good picture, or that annoying sun was in my eyes.  This was the best picture I could get.  The pickers were working so fast and furious, and they had loud music playing.  I'm not sure if the music was for fun or to keep them working at that fast pace in time to the music...maybe a bit of both.  That looked like such hard work, it made me tired just watching them.

Veggie Pickers

Yuma Stuff

As well as being the winter vegetable capital of the world this is also date country.  We went to visit Martha's Gardens, one of several date farms in the Yuma area.

Martha's Gardens

Date Palms

 Next we went to the Visitor Information Center in Yuma.  It is located at the Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park.  Beginning in 1864 this depot began supplying all the military posts in the Southwest, off-loading from river boats.  But when the railroad arrived in 1883 it brought an end to the Depot's supply role.  The buildings have been restored and turned into a museum.

Also, on the grounds was a fun little holiday village under construction.  It did seem a bit out of place, but it would make a fun spot for local holiday festivals.

Restored Passenger Train Car

Quartermaster Depot Buildings

 Right next to the Depot is the Yuma Siphon.  I never heard of this before and I thought it was so interesting.  It's a massive tunnel under the Colorado River that delivers irrigation canal water to the Yuma Valley.  Because the shaft on the California side is higher than the exit in Arizona, the water actually moves by natural siphon action.  That they built such a thing in 1912 is pretty amazing.  It's a 14-foot diameter concrete tube through the sandstone 50 feet under the Colorado River and stretches 965 feet between its 85-foot deep California shaft and its 83-foot deep Arizona exit.  

Arizona Side of the Yuma Siphon
Where The Water Comes Out

  Then we went over to the Pivot Point Interpretive Plaza.   Named so because of the swing span bridge that accommodated both rail and steamboat traffic.  This is the exact spot where the first railroad to enter Arizona arrived. The bridge is gone, but the pivot point remains, and they built a nice plaza around it.

Pivot Point Interpretive Plaza

 After all that exploring we went back to the RV and moved it to an RV Park in Yuma so we could spend a day with shore power, dump station, and water supply.

Desert Paradise RV Resort

Palm Canyon

Enough of Quartzsite for this year.  We left this morning and headed down Hwy 95 to Yuma.  I was amazed at how many RVs we were seeing around Quartzsite.  They were parked in the desert for at least five miles on both sides of the road.  Some are in Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA), and will probably be there thru March.  The LTVA is not free, but only $180 for the season, Sept. 15 - April 15.  But many of them are short term, free, like we were.

Desert Campers

Somewhere between Quartzsite and Yuma is a side trip to Palm Canyon.  We parked the RV in the desert and took the car down the gravel road to the mountains.  This is where we should find perhaps the only native palm trees in Arizona.  Somehow I was expecting to find a hidden oasis of palm trees, maybe a pond or waterfall, perhaps a tiki bar with those little drinks with the umbrellas in them.  Boy was I wrong.  We hiked into the canyon, they said it was only 1/2 mile hike, but I think they lied.  And it was steep and rugged.

Finally, well into the canyon, we saw a small sign on a slightly elevated area, that said "Palms" and an arrow pointing to the cliffs.  We looked up and after a few minutes of squinting finally saw a few small palm trees up high in the narrow crevices of the cliff side.  We looked around and saw more palm trees we had not noticed before.  Interesting, but a bit of a let down after that hike.

Palm Canyon

View From Palm Canyon

On to Yuma, the Winter Vegetable Capital of the World.  We saw lots of fields of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and who knows what else.

Different varieties of lettuce and ??

Looks like Broccoli

 We stopped at a roadside vendor.

Roadside Produce Vendor

We found another free BLM camping area north of Yuma on 95 behind the VFW.  We like free.  There are no facilities here but we still have water, gas, propane, and our waste tanks are not full yet so we can do one or two more days without that maintenance if we are conservative.  Plus we have TV and Internet, so we're good.

BLM free area