We decided to take a trip to San Luis, AZ today. I keep seeing signs for this area but have no idea what it is like. I read that Somerton, AZ is only about 12 miles outside of Yuma and San Luis is another 12 miles beyond Somerton. San Luis is a border town and doesn't appear to be very large but thought it might be interesting.
We stopped by our local Daybreak Cafe but there was quite a wait for breakfast so decided to go on to Yuma to eat. We drove by a small 50's diner that I saw an advertisement for in the local paper. It didn't appear to be too busy so we decided to go in and give it a try. It was a pretty small place and there were 3 or 4 couples waiting for a table so we opted to eat at the bar area. We waited awhile for our food but basically it tasted pretty good.
Border Fence from Somerton to San Luiz, AZ
We got on RT. 95 from Yuma, headed South to San Luis. We drove through many vegetable fields on our route. We started noticing a 'border' fence running not far from the highway. The area of the fence visible from the road was probably 20 miles long and ran all the way into San Luis. When we drove into the edge of town, the first thing we saw was what else but a Walmart! We drove on into town and it started feeling more like a Mexico town as it was so dirty and poor looking.
We drove down the main street and had to promptly turn onto a side street to keep from going across the border. We pulled around to a McDonald's and ordered a soda and I asked the cashier about going across the border to San Luis, Mexico. I asked her if there was any shopping there and if it was safe to go across the border. Of course she and everyone else in town was Hispanic and when I asked these questions she gave me a strange smile and answered yes to all my questions. Later she told me that the shopping was about the same as in San Luis, AZ. This promptly changed our minds about going into Mexico because when looking along the street here, the stores were very 'seedy' looking. We pulled the car into a parking space along the street and walked about a block on both sides of the street. The stores we went into made the 'dollar' store look like a Macy's!@!! I cannot believe anyone would have a need for this junk, which as I looked at the prices and they were very expensive. I can understand how Walmart can exist in this poor area as they must be the only place in the town to buy decent merchandise. Well, needless to say our trip in and out of San Luis took less than 45 minutes! Wow, I'm so glad we came!
Imperial Sand Dunes
We made a quick trip back to Yuma and decided to take a drive toward California since it was still very early in the day. We headed toward El Centro, CA which we noted by the road signs was only 45 miles from Yuma. El Centro is where we want to take the 'Farm Tour' as soon as we can find a day to do so. We drove out of Yuma about 15 miles and starting seeing huge sand dunes with lots of RV's and 4 Wheelers. We stopped at a rest stop located in the Imperial Sand Dunes. Part of the dunes are obviously in Mexico as the 'border' fence was visible from the roadway in many areas running along RT 8. I can only imagine how much fun it must be to run the dune buggy's over these massive mounds of sand.
After we ran out of the dune area we again started seeing huge vegetable fields. It is impossible to figure out what is growing in these fields looking at them from the highway. Some looked to be broccoli or cabbage and a lot of the fields looked like they had been harvested recently. I'm curious if the broccoli reproduces after being harvested as the plant itself was left in the field. If it has only one harvest, I would believe they would plow and replant the field immediately. Maybe when we take our farm tour we will learn a bit more about the growing process.
We exited RT 8 into El Centro. The town was medium size and appeared to be very clean. We decided to have a burger at the In-and-Out as it had been several hours since breakfast. We got our food and sat outside at the tables to eat. The day is very sunny and the temperature shows 77 degrees but we were cold setting outside. Larry had on shorts and I had on capri's with a sweatshirt but With the lack of humidity, the weather always seems cool.
As we left the restaurant, the RV's starting arriving back in town from the dunes. We drove through the rest of the main street and wound our way back to RT 8 headed back to Yuma. There were lots of business's along the main street in town and a large mall on the west side of El Centro that appeared to be pretty new.It seemed our trip back to Yuma went much faster than the drive over as it usually goes, I guess.
We came home and let the cats outside for awhile. None of them seem to enjoy this for some reason. In years past, they were constantly wanting to be outside. Raven seems to be more in tune with being out than Tucker or Charlie. Actually, Charlie seems to be aging very fast since leaving home and feels like he's skin and bones. I'm wondering if he will live long enough to make it back to Illinois.
Lights on our Palm at RV Site
We sat outside and drank a beer and put our new lights on our palm tree. By the time I wrapped the lights around the tree my hands were bleeding! The trunk of the tree, where they have trimmed the palms, are like a knife and both Larry and I have snagged our arms and hands several times while walking by it. The sun was going down and the temperature was starting to cool so we packed up and moved inside for the evening. It amazes me that we are this far south and the days are so cool feeling. There is only about two hours out of the day that feels really comfortable without a jacket but I still prefer this in January over the weather in Illinois.
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