2001 Southern States to Alamos, Mexico

We have enjoyed our time with Margo and Jim in Thousand Palms, California and on our way to Borrego Spring also in California to enjoy the US Thanksgiving with Eric and Lynn. In between we have spent time in the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains. We moved from Oak forest to pine and back to desert landscape filled with boulders and rocks, jumping cholla, agave and "wait-a-minute"plants - these are mesquite or anything that has long needles that catch your clothes and make you stop for a minute and unwind from them. Your stop is usually very abrupt. You also hope you do not get any burrs in your hiking socks as they also let you know very quickly of their presence. We have moved from sea level to 5,000' with many ups and downs and the temperature has done the same. At the higher altitude we have been close to freezing temperature at night. We have been cosy with our 12v bedwarmer and in the morning our heaters (catalytic and forced air furnace) have kept us warm.

At the viewpoint (4000') at our campsite at Borrego Springs we can see the townsite - 10 miles away and the Salton Sea about 35 miles east and below sea level. The next day we drove the long downhill to the valley and it was a long slow drive - the road was very good but we could see where there could be a lot of problems. One fellow was pulling a small trailer uphill and was having problems about 1/4 of the way to the top and also not the steepest section.

The saying is "If you do not like wind you should not live in the desert". This was true for our three days in the Borrego Springs valley. The wind blew about 25-35mph for half the time. According to a resident this occurs every third day. We had a great Thanksgiving with Eric and Lynn Preston at Lynn's father's (Dr. Moering) home in Borrego. Chris helped with the turkey and such and it was delicious. The next day we hiked to the Palm Canyon Oasis (about 5 1/2 miles). The Oasis is a series of 4 water areas nestelled in the narrow canyon on the mountain side. We later soaked in the hot tub and enjoyed our visit immensly. Dr. Moering is a very special 90 year old wise, comical, learned, and a gentleman.

On to Yuma to see if we could purchase a new flexible solar panel there, but no luck and spent the night at the BLM land Wildlife Refuge at Mittry Lake. Chris had an accident and dropped our large panel a couple of times and it does not seem to be producing as much power as normal. So on to Quartzsite as we know we can purchase one there. Our overnight stay is at the Dome Mountain short-term stay area which is also free.

We next made a beeline to the border and spent a very cold night in Nogales - it went down to 25' F or -4 C. Nogales is about 5000' altitude and there also was a cold front that came through. We made a number of phone calls that night and tempted to stay in the Walmart parking lot so we could leave early the next morning. We had a knock on the door about 9:30 telling us we could not stay there but we should go to the K-Mart lot. Instead we went and filled our gas tanks and stayed at the Chevron Station. It was quite windy otherwise we would have been on the hill at the Insurance company lot. The next morning we had a swift border crossing and was through immigation by 8:30. We had not planned on driving all the way to Alamos, but since there was very little traffic and we made good time we pulled into our friends yard just before dark. Since it was later than our usual time to arrive they thought we would not be there until the next day.

There really is a noticeable decrease in the number of tourists here. We have never seen the Trailer Parks this empty. We visited a few day with The Thompson's and then moved to our usual park - The Acosta Ranch. It is difficult for large rigs to drive into but we have no difficulty. The grounds are very tropical with Palm Trees, bouganvillas blooming, a fresh lime tree and grapefruit tree at our back door, and one guava tree. The perfumey scent of one guava filled our camper. Alamos did have a lot of rain when Juleitte (hurricane) came through and everything is exceptionally green and the foliage is very dense.

This week in Alamos is very busy as the town is having an 8 day Fiesta. Each night in front of the church is a stage set-up on which the many entertainers will preform. The participants are local school groups, choirs, and a local Folklorical dance group. Some nights there is problems with the PA system or they may have difficulty sorting out which tape the group is going to dance to, but it all seems to get sorted out in the end. There seems to be an unbelievable amount of talent for a small town. Last night there were about a dozen guitarist and choir group, plus many dance groups depicting different regions of Mexico (called the Folklorica Dances). There are the inevitable long-winded speeches while the audience is eating cakes, drinking champorado (a rich chocolate and corn flour drink), while the children are enjoying the circus rides that are located on the opposite side of the plaza or just chasing each other around. It all is a happy time!

We plan to spend Christmas and New Years here before moving further south. This town of about 5000 has a small but growing expatriate community. It is a National Monument and was a very wealthy Spanish town during the silver mining days. The old Hacienda homes are being rebuilt with the skill of the local tradesmen and they are large and very beautiful. The 16th century church is the center of the community with all the local festivities happening on its square. We visit Alamos every year and it is one of our favorite towns. We will visit the local Internet (there are 3 Internet offices) once a week to pick-up our mail. This is so much easier than having "snail mail" delivered and the cost is only 10 pecos or about $1US per hour.