Places Visited:
California: El Centro & Borrego Springs

Saturday, April 23 Rio Bend RV & Golf Resort near El Centro, CA--- $27.00. Full hookup paved interior streets gravel sites N32° 45.962' W115° 41.557'.

Joyce declared that this was a "down day". We have been going at it hard. It was time to take a day and relax, and that we did. Talk about not doing ANYTHING, absolutely nothing, that was our day.

Well we did take a short drive around sunset.

This truck/machine has just delivered a load of hay to that big pile of hay bales you see on the left and is heading off into the sunset.

We saw a beautiful sunset over the San Diego Mountains plus crew of hay trucks picking up hay bales out of the field and delivering them to a storage area.

The mountan in the background is in Mexico. Remember we are only a very short distance to the Mexican Border southwest of El Centro. Don't you just love that full moon over the mountain?

Sunday, April 24 Oasis Inn & RV-Park Borrego Springs, CA--- $20.00. Water & 30-amps, no dump station at all: dirt/gravel interior streets & sites N33° 15.417' W116° 23.496'.

We transitioned the motorhome from El Centro to Borrego Springs today. El Centro is located in the southern portion of the Imperial Valley while Borrego Springs is located northwest of the Imperial Valley so we drove through the heart of the Imperial Valley this morning.

For us this drive was exciting. We made several stops along the way to watch farm machinery in the fields. I was fascinated at how mechanized these operations were. While we have seen hay being cut and raked into rows we have never watched the operation where big trucks with special attachments drive through field scooping up bales of alfalfa at 10 to 12 miles per-hour. The mechanism that picks up the bales of alfalfa is attached to the right side of the vehicle and contacts the ground on the right side. Once contact is made with the bale of hay it is yanked on a conveyor belt assembly that rapidly moves it to an empty collection spot behind the driver. As each new bale arrives behind the driver the bale takes it's place in a row until the row is filled. When filled, the row is mechanically moved to the rear end of the vehicle. As each new row behind the driver is filled with bales the entire row moves to the back of the vehicle, making room for bales coming up the chute. This process is repeated until the vehicle is full. Without slowing down the loader exits the field and heads down the road to the staging point where hundreds upon hundreds of bales of hay are being stored. The loader backs up to the huge pile already there. The whole bed of the truck rotates up like a dump truck but the hay is being firmly grasped so that when the hay is vertical the operator pushes it up snug with the huge pile he is adding to then releases the grip on the hay and backs away. Some of these staging areas have hay stretching for 800 or more yards. In one field we saw 4 of these loaders working at breakneck speed. Hay was disappearing from that field at an astonishing rate. I could watch this operation for hours but that ain't going to happen with Joyce in the car.

Another field was harvesting carrots. This was more than I could believe and I was watching it. The harvester was being pulled by a big tractor. A big attachment off to the side of the machinery was unearthing what looked like 6 to 8 rows of carrots that must be growing about 2" apart in rows 8"apart. We could not see exactly what was happening with the machinery directly in contact with the ground. But the assembly came up at a 45-degree angle for about 10-feet. We could see carrots riding up that assembly with the green top up and the orange "carrot" dangling out the bottom. Mind you there were 6 to 8 rows of carrots riding up this "escalator" assembly. When the carrots reached the top of the assembly the green tops were removed with the green stuff forcefully returned to the ground. As fast as this thing is moving there is a LOT of green stuff flying back to the ground.

The orange carrots that had been dangling down just like they had been growing dropped onto a conveyor belt that took them to an 18-wheel tractor trailer riding beside the carrot harvester. Carrots were flying into that trailer so fast it would make your head swim. In no time at all the trailer was full and the 18- wheeler was dragging the load of carrots out of the field heading to the processing plant a few miles up the road. Quick as a wink another 18-wheel tractor trailer pulled in under the moving harvester and started receiving those carrots. I could watch this operation for hours, but you know I didn't get to. I want to get a close up view of how that mechanism is unearthing the carrots and exactly how are the carrots individually grasped for their rice up the conveyor belt. Exactly how is the machinery removing the green tops from those carrots? This operation intrigues me.

Not many miles down the road we ran across a harvester in a sugar beet field. It took a minute to determine what they were harvesting since they appeared to be harvesting a barren field. Then we could see that the big tan root the harvester was digging out of the ground was sugar beets. I suppose they mowed the tops off the beets and saved them for cattle food or something. There was only faint evidence of green in the field as it looked essentially barren. The harvester had an arm that extended forward at a 45-degree angle until it made contact with the ground. Like the carrot harvester I could not tell what was going on where the arm made contact with the ground but a few inches above the ground we could see sugar beets moving up the conveyor belt in rapid fashion.

At the top of the conveyor belt the beets dropped into a chute leading into another conveyor belt that delivered them to a big trailer being pulled along side. I thought the carrot harvester filled up the trailers fast until we watched this thing. Sugar beets were flying into those trailers so fast that the harvester was keeping a fleet of tractor trailers busy delivering beets to the processor. Before long I was being threatened with another shopping spree with me riding the bench all afternoon. Mercy, I sure have to pay a stiff price for watching this machinery.

Before we leave sugar beets look at the fields being harvested in the two pics above and note how the tops of those beets have been mowed prior to harvesting the beet. This is what a sugar beet field looks like prior to moving.

Not long after passing through Westmorland the irrigation ceased and desert returned. We were heading up the west side of the Salton Sea although we cannot see blue water for some reason. The Salton Sea is 235' below sea level so spotting the depression where the water in the Salton Sea is heading shouldn't be hard to do. We can certainly see where it should be but there is only something dark in the valley where we think the Salton Sea should be. Possibly the southern end of the Salton Sea is overgrown with vegetation.

By the time we head west on SR-78 we are in serious desert. Along SR-78 there are ATV's and off road motor cycles running up and down the side of the road and along paths in the desert. They seem to be enjoying going fast up and down those hills and moguls, the more dust the better. ATV's and off road motor cycles is a BIG thing along this road. In almost every open area we see RV's and pickup trucks with trailers. Coastal California has moved out here for the weekend to have fun on their ATV's.

The small community of Ocotillo Wells, located on SR-78 around 5-miles east of the Borrego Springs turn off, seems to be the hub of ATV activity or at least where the crowd gets burgers and gas. It appeared that most of these ATV people were dry camping in the desert.

When we turned off of SR-78 onto Borrego Springs Road/CR-S3 we started seeing warning signs about the steep grade ahead. The grade was a decent rather than a climb. I can see why the warning signs were there the grade went down and down and down relentlessly for 15-miles the first part was around 6% grade with the remainder gradually easing to 4-5% grade.

I didn't need the exhaust brake to help with breaking but couldn't help but think about the climb out of Borrego Springs on that highway. The entire 15-mile drive was through typical desert. This part of the desert was in Anza-Borrego Desert State park and the ATV's were not scooting around like they were outside the State Park.

In Borrego Springs we headed to the State Park campground located on the west end of town. We had heard so much about the campground that we didn't even consider any others. Arriving in Borrego Springs we did the obligatory loop in the traffic circle that is the center of town then headed west on Palm Canyon Drive to the State Park and Campground at the end of Palm Canyon Drive. Within 300-yards of the traffic circle Borrego Springs we had run out of restaurants, Borrego Springs may be well known but it ain't big. A few miles later we enter the State Park and find the Campground at Palm Canyon. What palms? Was our first thought. The campground looked like a desert survival camp. A nice ranger at the gate explained that sites were $29. I looked at Joyce and we both laughed, $29 was he kidding? He wasn't, neither was I when I asked where we could turn around.

We exited the State Park and pulled over on Palm Canyon Drive with three RV-Parks in sight. We got the phone numbers off their signage and made phone calls. One was $20 the other $29 while the other had a message that they were away from the phone. Bingo, we headed for the $20 per-night place. It had all we needed and more which was electricity and water. However, this was the first commercial RV-Park we have come across that did not have a dump. They told us to "just dump the gray water on the ground that is the way we do it out here in the desert". That surprised me especially since we are in "California"! Something tells me that the State folks wouldn't agree with "that is the way we do it out here". We won't dump any water on the ground since we are only going to be here one day we will carry it with us and dump at the next campsite.

After grabbing a bite to eat we decided to take a scenic drive west on CR-S22 to Ranchita. That was a GOOD choice. As far as scenic drives go this is a good one. The "hill" is called Montezuma Grade and is posted as an 8% grade. That is a steep grade in anyone's book. Some sections are probably as much as 9% and the grade lasts for 11-miles. The lower half has many curves and switchbacks each with a dramatic view of the Borrego Valley far below. I am not going to do it --------but there were a bunch of trucks pulling travel trailers up that grade. We did see one large motorhome chugging up at a good clip although we saw it in the bottom half. I wonder if that motorhome continued that pace the entire 11-miles to the summit.

We drove up to the summit then back down. Joyce was snapping pictures right and left. On the way down we pulled into numerous pullouts to take pictures of the valley below. I can't say enough about this scenic drive. It is one of the better ones anywhere. The sheer cliffs and panoramic views of the Borrego Valley below are as good as vista views get.

On the way down the mountain those panoramic views of the valley showed bright green irrigated agricultural areas on the north side of Borrego Springs. When we got back to Borrego Springs we set out to find those agricultural areas. They were not hard to find since the north side of town is hemmed in by mountains.

The green agricultural areas turned out to be citrus groves. Grapefruit, lemons and oranges, hundreds of acres of them, and one good sized date grove were what made up the "green" irrigated plots we saw.

One of the groves had an "honor-system" stand with 8-pound bags of grapefruit for $3. Just drop your $3 in the slot and select your bag of "Seley Reds" Marsh Ruby Grapefruit-Borrego Valley. They were in bags like you see on a grocery store shelf complete with product labeling and all.

We are going to start looking at the labels to see where the fruit and vegetables we purchase are grown. Joyce thinks she has purchased lemons with a Borrego Springs label on them.

Near the citrus groves tumbleweeds gather on a fence.

Intermingled with the tumbleweed is patches of lavender. The colors compliment each other making the views strikingly beautiful.

We experienced a good day. Tomorrow we head to Indio about 70-miles north of Borrego Springs.

Until next week just remember how good life is.

Mike & Joyce Hendrix