Leaving California

On the way to El Centro John stopped at the beach  near Encinitas so I could sit in a lawn chair on the sand and read for awhile---somehow that  experience had escaped me during our visit at Seal Beach, and I really wanted to do that along the Pacific!  It was beautiful!!!! and I had the beach to myself!. We also drove by Camp Pendleton and saw a variety of  helicopters taking off from sandy clearing next to the beach. We also saw a nuclear power plant right by the beach at San Onofre.

Bale of cotton

We left El Centro and drove east entering Arizona at Yuma--which is very close to the Mexico border. There were beautiful mountains made of what looked like piles of  rocks and a variety of  agricultural sites, including fields of cotton and massive dairy operations. We think it would be really helpful if each state would put large signs out by the fields so travelers (like us) would be able to tell what was growing where and what the workers were harvesting!---as it is, we just have to speculate unless we see stands with produce for sale and then we can assume that was growing somewhere nearby! It  took quite awhile for us to figure out the fields of  trees we were passing were pecans!

We have stopped at three border patrol check points because where we are driving is so close to Mexico---they have dogs that sniff around and they ask us how many people are in the home and if we are all US citizens---that is all that has happened--apparently we don't look threatening!

We spent the next night at Sahuarita, Arizona at the Desert Diamond Casino. The Indian casinos are friendly to RV's and we go inside and I 'deposit' a few dollars in the slot machines. Don't know what I would do if  I ever won!!--luckily I can stop easily! The casino was very pretty--sort of out in the middle of the desert and there were some stunning cactus plants.

From there we  drove to Tombstone, Az and took a trip back into an old western town. Wyatt Earp had a house there and there were some famous gun fights on the streets of Tombstone.. There were stagecoaches on the streets and cowboys on the street corners-----apparently it has become much more commercialized since John's last visit, which was a little disappointing--but it was still fun.

Mom and Jean----be careful!

We visited the famous Boot Hill Graveyard and saw the OK Corral! From there we drove to Deming Arizona where we rested last night and today we drove to Texas---what a big state!  Once again we were very close to Mexico--we could see it right across the Rio Grande.

Tonght we are resting in Fort Stockton, Texas....Debbie and John