2003 – 04 . . . Beyond Quartzsite

In my humble opinion, there were only two good reasons for us to go to Yuma. The most important one was to get the truck fixed . . . once we found out what was wrong with it . . . and the second reason was to get my teeth fixed . . . once they found out what was wrong with them. The side-lights would be a visit to WalMart (to replenish supplies) and, hopefully, reconnect with friends we had spent time with before.

Getting the Truck Fixed

From the time we left Mesquite, we felt a vibration. So in Las Vegas, Fred took it to a garage that had done some vehicle repairs for friends. They couldn't find anything wrong and suggested that maybe the wheels needed balancing and so it was done. NO, still we were joggling along. Well, there was no one in Quartzsite to look at it, so we went off to Blythe California . . . maybe wheel bearings . . . no . . . maybe the differential . . . no . . . maybe the drive shaft was not balanced . . . well, we can't do it here . . . you need to go to Yuma or Phoenix . . . no, we don't know anyone there, etc, etc. Hence . . . off to Yuma.

On one of our trips to Laughlin from Quartzsite, we met some folks from Yuma who said they knew of a couple of good mechanical shops and offered to line us up with them. AND we will be forever grateful! Five weeks and quite a few hundred dollars later we had new U-joints, a disengaged 4 wheel-drive transfer case, new oil cooling lines, an oil change, axles on the trailer aligned, a new tire for the trailer.

The bright side was that we encountered some wonderful people who helped us not only find a place to get the truck fixed, but also get around when we were without transportation.

Again, we camped on BLM land without hook-ups. And again, we were impressed with the diversity of RV's that were there. From the ridiculous to the sublime - a half million $ Blue Bird bus sitting next to a tent! But the sunsets were spectacular.

Getting my Teeth Fixed

Algodones is where many Winter Visitors go for glasses, dental work and to have prescriptions filled almost free! For many Americans the cost of their health care, drugs, dental work is so high, a few trips down across the border is well worth it. For example, I had my teeth cleaned for $25 (USD) and had two teeth extracted for $40 (USD) each. Chelation treatment are also accessible and reasonable.

Getting my teeth fixed meant doing the Algodones thing. Now, Algodones is a small Mexican border town

south of California and just a few miles west of Yuma. I'm not sure how many streets there are, but each street has walkways that lead into plazas that house pharmacies, dentists, optical places, doctors and vendors. Vendors line both sides of every street selling jewellery, leathers, trinkets, and whatever for almost free.

In the main plaza, there are young Mexicans who use canned spray paints and various

pieces of plastic and paper to create the most incredible scenes on RV wheel covers, Satellite dishes, vases, plates, or even canvas (if you supply it). These kids are so talented and skilled - I've never seen anything like it anywhere else.

Depending on your timing, it could take up to an hour to travel the three miles from Highway 8 to the parking lot just on the American side of the Mexican border. From there you walk probably a block across the border. The return trip can be even more horrendous. We've seen line-ups almost a mile to get back across the border. BUT the savings are worth it and I have not talked to anyone who was any more displeased with their treatment than they were at home.

Holtville and the Hot Springs

What with our returned confidence that the truck would (likely) transport us where we wanted to go and two less teeth, we ventured on to the Imperial Valley and the Holtville Hot Springs in California.

There is another Long-term BLM Campground just out of Holtville (the Carrot Capital of the world) called the Oasis Desert Hot Springs. By this time, people were starting to leave but some of the core residents were still there and had been there all winter - they had quite the compound.

The main attraction here is the mineral hot springs (that is about 120 degrees F).

Fred just loved them and would go down (about a block) at least once a day. The water was so hot people would go down, fill up containers and bring them back to do dishes and laundry.

Imperial Valley

I just never expected the Imperial Valley to be as vast as we discovered that it is. According to the brochures, there are over 462,200 acres under cultivation (vegetables and field crops) with an extensive below sea level irrigation system. There are three main canals that feed the fields from the 82 mile-long All-American Canal. Surprisingly, most of the valley lies below sea level.

Each vegetable field we saw extends over about 40 acres, and in the case of this cabbage field, it seemed to take about a week to harvest it. Apparently, each field is inspected and must be certified ready to harvest. Each vegetable MUST be a certain size (to fit into the containers). Any that are too big or too small are left on the field or dumped.

As opposed to the Yuma area, people are allowed to glean the fields. Some of the all winter folks actually can and freeze some of the vegetables they collect.

AND THEN IT GOT HOT!!

I couldn't believe it! After almost 4 month of below normal temperature, we suddenly encountered our first heat wave. And it was hot - it actually set records.

We headed back to Yuma to spend a little time with friends there. The weather was so uncomfortable we decided that we may as well start heading east and find a place that we can try out our new air conditioner (to this point, it had less than a hour on it). And here we are at Picacho Peak between Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona feeling oh, so much cooler.

Next Stop - Deming, New Mexico.