The Road to Borrego
Borrego Springs, California: Tons of excitement - and no April
Fool's - on our 160
mile drive today from Yuma, Arizona to Borrego Springs, California. Well, it was
exciting to us. You may fall asleep reading this post. After running this
morning (once around the perimeter of The Palms RV Resort in Yuma is one mile),
we hitched-up the Honda and headed west on Interstate 8. Our first stop was for diesel.
85 gallons. We reached an amazing 7.7 miles per gallon on our previous tank. Gotta love
that flat desert terrain! (If you do not drive a 650hp Cummins diesel engine, you
may
not be impressed with this figure, so trust me that it is near miraculous.)
Interstate 8 crosses the Colorado River, which is also the Arizona-California
border. Here, things get interesting. First, all travelers have to pass an agricultural
inspection (we did). Then, the route follows along the
All-American Canal.
The
All-American Canal is the largest irrigation canal in the world.
(More Jeopardy trivia for you, Intelligent Readers!) The entire canal is
lined in concrete.
Down the road, a traveler on I-8 will see the "Border Fence" built
between the US and Mexico to curtail illegal immigration from Mexico and
drug trafficking. Not a pretty sight.
This fence (dark strip through the center of the photo) is sometimes called the "Great Wall of Mexico". Our tax dollars at
work.
Also in this area, every few hundred feet, you will see
generator-operated flood-lights which light the way for illegals at night
illuminate the desert at night.
Later every vehicle must pass a Border Patrol inspection on I-8.
Every car, RV, truck, motorcycle, van, etc., must stop. You can imagine this is
quite a huge hold-up on an Interstate freeway.
Lining up for inspection
Two west-bound lanes slow to a crawl
In the end, nearly every vehicle is
waved-through. Guess we didn't look too suspicious,
as we were waved-through as well.
We took a break as our route passed-through El Centro,
California. Long-time readers will know I am infatuated with the
Cardenas
Markets - a Mexican grocer in California - and now Nevada. If you ever have
a chance to visit any of their locations, I really encourage you to take the
time to explore. It is like a field trip to a Mexican marketplace, without all the border-crossing
hassles.
Plenty of parking in the parking lot
- and there is also a Staples here and a Costco
across the street.
Stepping into the El Centro Cardenas is like
entering Mexico. Nearly every shopper is Hispanic.
Nearly every product is imported from Mexico. Most
signage is in Spanish. The market has a full service
bakery, butcher, deli, great produce and everything
else you could need. So colorful too.
Pretty cakes and pastries from the
bakery... but it is Passover. I swear, every time we
visit this market it is Passover. Dang.
My Driver is mad for mangos. They
were three for 99¢. Seriously. A large box of
strawberries was 99¢. Huge cucumbers were fifty
cents each. Avocados were - don't faint - five for
one dollar.
Cardenas offers about twenty
different peppers - from your basic bell pepper to
the hottest chilies.
Carrots to chayote - Cardenas has it
all and it all is of the best quality. Cardenas also
carries a few things you may not find at your
neighborhood Safeway store.
Chicken feet. Don't wince until you
have tried them. Deep-fried chicken feet are a favorite
bar snack throughout
Asia and one of The Lovely Lisa's favorite lunchbox treats when
she was an elementary school student in Taipei.
Can't say the same about beef lips.
Haven't tried them straight-up... but if you have
eaten beef chorizo sausage, you have eaten beef
lips.
NOTE TO SELF: Never kiss a cow.
But we stop at Cardenas Market for one special item
- their grilled chicken. I stood in line to order
the chicken. I placed my order in Spanish (which is
interesting because my Spanish is very limited). The
clerk repeated what I said to confirm. I said si.
She gave me a claim number (28) and I waited until viente ocho was called to fetch my prize. I
was feeling so international.
This can be yours for $7.99 (plus
the ridiculously-high California sales tax). We
munched on our chicken in the Magna Peregrinus
while she was parked in front of the Staples
store... then we continued north on Highway 86/78
towards Borrego Springs.
Just north of El Centro is a huge
Spreckels Sugar
plant, where sugar is produced from beets. This
facility makes granulated sugar, powdered
sugar and molasses. The waste from the plant is used to feed
dairy cattle. This area is below sea level - note
the "Sea Level" mark on the tower!
Just before taking a left onto Highway 78 to reach
Borrego Springs, we came upon another Border Patrol
inspection station. This line was ONE MILE long. We
discovered the delay was due to a luxury tour bus
full of Mexican nationals on their way to Los
Angeles.
Border Patrol
The little road into Borrego Springs
was simply breathtaking. The Ocotillo cactus is in
full bloom. Near Ocotillo Wells, the desert is orange-red (my Mom would have called it
"tropicana"). In all the years we have been coming
to the desert in the winter/spring - only eleven - we have never seen the
ocotillo in such a prolific bloom. Expect too many
blooming cactus photos over the next few days.
And so we arrived at one of our favorite RV resorts
-
The Springs at Borrego. We arrived one day early
for our reservation, so will have to move spots in
the morning... but we are always happy here. We have stayed
here several times before and think this is one of
the nicest parks in America.
The skies look threatening, but we
enjoyed our evening cocktail outside in tee-shirts.
Speaking of cocktails... anyone for a mojito?
Mint, lime, simple syrup, rum and
soda water - over ice. Yummy.
Our dinner tonight was also yummy, but it wasn't
very pretty. Tonight I made my
Mushroom Schnitzel - which I only make during
Passover. However the market in Yuma last night only
had Portobello mushrooms... which made my schnitzels
a little "dark". The flavor was still delicious, but
I recommend using everyday white mushrooms when
making this dish.
I hide nothing from you. The
good. The bad. The ugly. You will see it all here on
RVGoddess.com.
Until my next update, I remain, your Borrego Springs
correspondent.
RV Park:
The Springs at Borrego. Full-service, luxury
resort with a regulation 9-hole golf course.
Naturally-fed hot spring hot tubs, pool, exercise
room, party room, activities, fabulous pet-run,
lake-side fire pits with community gatherings. Just
a great place to spend a few days... or weeks... in
the sleepy village of Borrego Springs. We highly
recommend this park.