Day 38: Blythe to El Centro, CA

Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Matthew 5:16

So I guess this should actually be titled Ehrenburg to Blythe to Ehrenburg to El Centro. Last night when Bruce was planning his route, he found a road that parallels the Colorado River for about 25 miles. But when he got there he realized that it was gravel. What to do? Bump along the gravel on his road bike? Take a different route? Risk the wrath of his wife by calling and asking her to hurry and unplug and bring him his gravel bike? Or ride back to the RV Park and start over? He wisely chose to ride back since he was only 4 miles out. Luckily he started around 7 AM. The first time. He took off on his gravel bike around 8:30 and was so glad because he loved the peacefulness of the gravel and the beauty of the river and NO cars! Just him and a few coyotes. This was one of his favorite parts of the whole trip.

Before he left this morning we noticed all the boats and dune buggies at the RVs and tiny houses throughout our park. Since we arrived after dark, we hadn’t noticed that this RV RESORT is on the Colorado River. It even has a beach with little tiki huts. I was feeling so bummed. I know that the land of “what ifs” and “if onlys” is a dangerous place to be. It makes me take my eyes off the blessings that God is giving me RIGHT NOW. But … it is very enticing to me. When I discovered what a cool RV Park we were in, all I could think about was IF ONLY we had gotten here sooner, so we could have enjoyed it. But the truth is, I did enjoy it. I got to walk around it on a beautiful morning and see lots of interesting things. There were a lot of tiny homes and permanent RVs. I think people have RVs here as vacation homes. Honestly what a great idea. If you have a boat and a cool dune buggie you’re all set! I talked to one of my RV neighbors who had moved here in March. Her husband had been working here and so when all the schools closed, she and her kids moved here to join him. She likes the park but said that she would absolutely NOT spend another summer here. At 127 degrees, it was impossible to cool their RV even with 2 air conditioners. Wow! I guess I can’t actually fathom 127 degrees!

I noticed a little cemetery on the side of the road and decided to go investigate. It was very old. The graves were all covered in rocks (does this mean shallow graves?) and some didn’t even have names. I had wandered through it for a bit when I realized that this is exactly the kind of place that snakes probably hang out. Time to go.

Well, the mystery is solved. (You are probably wondering WHICH mystery since we have encountered so many unknowns). The Joshua Tree Mystery. I was looking through this little kid’s book that I picked up for Kinsley at the Joshua Tree National Park and right there, in color, found out that we actually have NOT seen a Joshua tree. But we got some great pictures with some California Fan Palms.

Although I enjoyed the scenery as I drove beside the river for 20 miles, I can’t say that I enjoyed it as much as Bruce did. I probably should not have even driven that far on a bumpy dirt road. There were 5 places where the road took a dip down into what we think is the dry river bed and then back up the other side. Who knew that RVs could go 4-wheeling!?! Bruce called to warn me about the first two (he forgot to mention that there were FIVE) and to encourage me that I could do it. By the 3rd call about them, I started getting a little nervous. “Go cautiously,” he said. “But not too cautiously. If you don’t have enough momentum you might get stuck in the sand and not be able to get up the other side.” Great. Does AAA come out to dry riverbeds through back country roads when RVs get stuck 4-wheeling? When I finally got to the first one, I was practically reciting his instructions in my head. By the 5th one (which I had NOT been told about) I was enjoying the challenge. Kinda like a roller coaster. In the sand. Never mind that there were 28 feet of RV behind me.

These roads might have been a little much for Harvey (since the clothes in my closet had bumped out onto the floor, the mattress was partially off the bed and the things in the cabinets had rearranged themselves). And it was definitely rough on the little nameless cycle.

After the peacefulness of not seeing a single car on the dirt road, we turned on to highway 78 which was packed with truck after truck after truck. And NO SHOULDER! Once I caught up with Bruce, as his manager, handler and pit crew, I convinced him to stop. It wasn’t actually hard. He agreed. That highway was way too dangerous. He walked behind Harvey to put his bike inside. Then he came and said to me. “Come see God’s hand on your trip.” Well, that’s intriguing. I went around back and there was the little cycle, hanging on for dear life. Two of the four straps holding her had broken. It looked like they possibly got sawed in two by the vibrations of the bumpy road. The only thing holding the cycle on the rack was the little pin through her front tire. I can’t believe none of the vehicles that passed me on Hwy 78 bothered to point it out. I don’t know what I would have done if she fell off and was dragging. Thanks again for your prayers. They matter!

We drove by the town of Glamis which must be the dune buggy capital of the world. So much sand! I found out this was where they filmed the Tatooine scenes from Star Wars. The area is part of the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness.

From Brawley, we drove along Hwy 111 (which at one point is called the Victor V Veysey Expressway – what was his mother thinking?) to the little town of Niland which sadly seemed to be mostly boarded up. I guess it’s actually considered a Census-Designated-Place, or CDP to those in the know. On the outskirts of Niland were 3 whacky places we went to see. The main one was called Salvation Mountain, where a guy had painted scripture on the side of the mountain, as well as on several cars. He wanted to share the love of Christ and use his artistic skills. He passed away in 2014, but volunteers keep it up. Somewhat. It looks like you used to be able to go in these tunnels under it, but they are roped off now.

About a half mile down the rode we came to a place called Slab City. People who choose to live off the grid have made homes in various old (most likely not running) cars, trucks, RVs and anything else they could get their hands on. It was hard to take pictures without feeling like a stalker, so I only got a few. I was looking at something else on Google Maps and was surprised to see Slab City shown as a real place.

A little further down the road we came to East Jesus. An artists’ colony and gallery, according to an artist we met there. It was really whacky. These artists have a lot of imagination.

We decided to go ahead and drive to El Centro since it was actually just another latitude adjustment. Bruce found us a nice RV Resort. Except since we checked in after close we couldn’t get the wifi password or the bathroom code. Bruce washed his bike, the little cycle and parts of Harvey since we brought the top layer of that dirt road home with us.

El Centro is about 15 miles from Mexico. It is the biggest town in the Imperial Valley and it’s completely below sea level. -47 feet. How is that possible? Shouldn’t there be water every where? I think the Blue Angels practice here. Some jets zoomed over us earlier. And later some helicopters in formation.

In-n-Out Burgers was right down the street from our RV park. We couldn’t resist. I walked down to get some burgers while Bruce was washing everything. Unfortunately the fries were cold by the time I got back. Did I mention I’m slow?