Day 39: El Centro to Pine Valley, CA

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us and we are His.

Psalm 100

76.9 miles – 6,178 ft climbed – 2,825 calories burned

It was foggy when we woke up this morning so Bruce waited until 8:00 to leave. It stayed kinda cool for a while which was nice for him starting off. By the time I took off around 11:00 the sun was out. It has been such a long time since we’ve had to deal with rain or even dew that I forgot that the water all collects on the top of Harvey above the cab. When I pulled Harvey forward to get off the leveling blocks, I made the mistake of leaving the door open. Never do this. For one, it’s dangerous. Two, when you pull off the leveling blocks the motion causes all that water to pour over the sides. It’s like taking the ALS challenge.

This RV park is HUGE. Most of the homes here are permanent. Some probably vacation homes. There is everything from module homes to tiny homes, RVs and trailers. These tiny homes seem a little more … shall we say … weathered than the ones in Mississippi or where ever we were that I first saw them. But hey, listen to me being all judgmental and sounding like I even know anything about real estate. Since we’re in California, these may have cost more than my house in Wichita.

My feet have really been bothering me. Crazy how Bruce is the one biking 7 hours a day and I’m the one with the dry, bleeding feet. I googled (my kids would be proud) household ingredients for a foot soak and made my own with honey, hand soap, olive oil and salt. It felt really good. Then I wore socks all day as an added safeguard.

I passed two fields with several acres covered with all these things that looked like tables. I was wondering if they were going to put something on them or if they somehow assisted in growing something. Then I realized they were acres and acres of solar panels. I think they were “harvesting” the sun for energy. Great use of that land since it looked pretty barren.

We saw pretty much every kind of nature today. Not animals of course. Vegetation. El Centro started out with some very flat farms. As we got closer to the mountains it was desert terrrain on both sides of the road. Then mountains with huge boulders. Once we were kinda through the mountains it was back to fields. Which turned into forests. And tomorrow beach!

Speaking of mountains, these did not start with gently rolling hills. They were straight up. Bruce did 3,500 feet of climbing in just 7 miles. That is crazy. That is ALOT of climbing! There were signs all along the road indicating that they had water for your radiators. At the bottom there was a sign that said, “Don’t over heat. Turn your AC off for the next 10 miles.” So I did. Harvey handled the hills like a champ.

One section of the road before I got to the mountain had a sign that said something like, “Safety Awareness Zone. Drive safely.” So we only have to drive safely there? The rest of the time can everyone just go wild?

This was a good day for Bruce. Old Highway 80 had nice shoulders most of the way. Traffic wasn’t too bad. The temperature stayed mostly in the 70s. Bruce loves to conquer those climbs. He’s an animal, remember. And then he gets to enjoy the descents. Oh yeah. I almost forgot about the first 20 miles when he was on Evan Hewes Highway. It was not so good. He said that it was the worst road he’s ever ridden on. He was on his road bike, but said it would have been bad even on his gravel bike. He should have brought his mountain bike. Evan would be embarrassed. Since Bruce had already finished riding on Evan’s bumpy highway by the time I started, I opted to just take I-8. Which was quite smooth.

We connected just before heading to Jacumba Springs. It might have been in Octitillo. Or maybe no man’s land. I’m not sure. Bruce had seen this stone lookout tower on his climb up. Since I had time to kill to let him get ahead of me, I went to check it out. I guess they are pretty lenient about the ages of RVs around here. As well as where you park them. Including if by chance, you decide to take up residence on the side of a road. There were a few by the side of the road that would have felt right at home in Slab City.

The tower was kinda neat. It also seemed to have a bit of a whacky artist bent. I climbed all the way to the top and boy was it windy! I was almost afraid my cell phone would blow out of my hand. The attraction also offered a little section of the rock mountain that you could climb through. In it were various stone statues. Not a horrible way to kill some time.

The highway out of there was perfect. Smooth, wide shoulders, no traffic and relatively flat. It went through the little town of Jacumba Springs. Which actually is half in the US and half in Mexico. I guess officially they are sister cities. The border fence was less than 100 yards from the road at some points. There were signs stating that it is a felony to smuggle. I’m not sure if it meant people or drugs. But I’m wondering if someone was actually thinking that they wanted to smuggle, would they see the sign and change their mind? There has been so much talk about building a wall between the US and Mexico, it hadn’t dawned on me that there ALREADY IS ONE. I guess this one has been there for decades.

About 15 miles down the road was a Border Patrol check point. Everyone had to stop. I guess RVs are pretty suspicious because the Border Patrol guy told me that they needed to check my RV for narcotics.

Knowing Bruce had gone through this exact check point already, I had a sneaky suspicion about this. I asked the guy if my husband had put him up to that. Which in hindsight was probably not a wise thing to ask. The Border Patrol guy started laughing and said that yes, my husband had indeed asked him to do it. I said, “so you mean I don’t get to have my RV inspected?” Then I asked if he could come in and pose for some fake inspection pictures, which he heartily agreed to, as long as I didn’t show his face. We ended up having a great conversation about the state of the US and respect for law enforcement agents and parenting and people acting entitled and how we were blessed by God to be a blessing to others. Since it was starting to get dark, I unfortunately had to end the conversation and continue on to find my husband. He had made it all the way to the little town of Pine Valley.

We never know what to expect when we get to a town. I figured that Pine Valley would be small because they didn’t even have an RV park. The Frosty Burger place had just closed when we got there so the girl working the counter told us to try the convenience store pizza across the street. It was hand made (as in Bruce watched her roll out the dough) to order while we waited. Delicious. It has been fun patronizing (wait. Does that mean doing business with or speaking down to? I mean the former!) all these little restaurants in these small towns. Plus then I don’t have to cook. Or do dishes. It’s a win-win.

We are now parked in the library parking lot. Not a bad place to boondock. Our daughter, Annie, told us that last week someone boondocked right on her street. The nerve! But actually a pretty good idea. Most people would just assume you are visiting someone on the street.