We certainly could stay longer at the Rio Bend RV and Golf Resort. We've enjoyed the fly-overs from the Blue Angels, and managed to see them in the skies somewhere every day since we arrived
But it's time to head down the road, because we have reservations we are excited about on the coast of California. It's just a two hour drive to the coast, but it seemed like we drove through three seasons to get there. We started in the desert near El Centro, California, with the sun beating down on the motor home. It sure felt like summer! We drove down Interstate 8, passing by many miles of solar panels soaking up that sunshine in lines as far as our eyes could see.
When driving a motor home, a sign that warns of strong winds over the next 63 miles is not a welcome site. Most of the wind was coming straight towards us, and we watched as our fuel mileage dipped as we headed into that head-wind.
All that wind is good for another source of alternative energy, and we saw hundreds of windmills along the interstate. It almost looked like those windmills were trying to blow away the bank of clouds in front of them.
As we traveled west, we could see the mountains in front of us. We had been traveling in bright blue skies, but we could see clouds building over the mountains. In fact, we could see rain covering some of the peaks ahead of us.
Since we had been staying at a campground below sea level, we knew we had a climb on today's trip. Our diesel engine got its work-out as we started up the mountain road. With temperatures in the 70's in the mountains this day, we didn't have any problems with over-heating. But in the brutal summer desert temperatures, radiator water must be a much-used commodity. We saw many of these radiator reservoirs in pull-outs along the interstate.
As we're leaving the desert, the mountains that are starting to rise around us are covered in rocks. It definitely looks like summer to us.
As we got higher in the mountains, the temperatures cooled. The storms that we could see from the foothills were settling in around us as the rain started to fall. This was becoming a very challenging drive.
It felt like we had driven right into another season, as we experienced a thick winter fog. Our climb today was over 4,000 feet. We're guessing that the mountains around us were lovely, but we didn't get to see them.
As we started down in elevation, we were excited to see our destination on the GPS. After months of driving across the middle of the United States, it was good to see the ocean on the screen!
As we drove into the San Diego Valley, we changed from winter to spring. It seems like this is the third season of the day! The spring wildflowers are a lovely combination of yellow and orange. We can tell that we've moved out of the desert as we take in those gloriously green hills ahead.
With all this lovely landscape comes the crowds of people that are also enjoying the views. We aren't close to downtown San Diego yet, but the highway has 12 lanes. We're glad to make this trip on a Sunday afternoon when the traffic is light.
Mark did a masterful job of driving us from below sea level in the desert, up the 4,000 foot climb in the mountains, and now back to sea level again. We are staying at Mission Bay RV Park in San Diego and this is the view across the bay from the park.
As soon as we got the motor home settled into its new spot, we took a walk around the park. There is bay water on two sides of the campground, and we walked the peninsula trail to get a feel for our location for the next five days.
We learned that this peninsula is owned by the city of San Diego. Our campground is surrounded by a mobile home park that seemed to be deserted. We found out that the city had signed a 50-year lease with the mobile home owners more than 50 years ago. Understandably, no one wanted to relocate even when the city evicted them at the end of the lease. It took ten more years and lots of litigation, but the final home owners have just been relocated. Now San Diego has new plans for this special property.
The flower beds around the mobile homes still look good, and these nasturtiums were blooming beautifully.
If you look very carefully, you can see that we weren't the only ones enjoying those beautiful blooms. A hummingbird was hovering around those tasty flowers.
We continued our walk around the bay, where we watched a heron scoping out some supper.
The evening light also picked up the rich colors of this mallard duck along the bay.
We finished our first evening with a nice sunset over the bay. Even though it was only a two-hour drive, it seemed like it was a long day. We went through three different seasons as we drove from the desert through the mountains to the ocean. I think we're going to like it here on the coast in the spring.
The last two days have been filled with unexpected, but very informative tours. On our third (and final) day at Rio Bend Resort, it would have been easy to stay home and relax by the pool. But we had heard about an interesting road trip to our north. So we opted for hiking pants instead of swim suits as we headed out. We passed by the Spreckels sugar mill, where they process sugar beats into beautiful white sugar. We see from the line on the tower on the left that we are even going further below sea level.
We also recognize date palms growing along the highway today. Unlike those in the orchards that are carefully trimmed and thinned, these have full bracts of fruit hanging and going to waste.
Our destination today is the Salton Sea. It's one of the largest lakes in the United States, and can be seen as a large blue spot on the California map. We hiked to the top of the hill for a nice view of the beautiful blue lake.
Because of its large size, there is inviting blue water as far as we could see. But we didn't see any boats or swimmers or fishermen enjoying this blue water. That's because the Salton Sea was formed by a man-made mistake that accidentally re-routed the Colorado River to this low elevation space in California many years ago. Now the water is trapped here, as it is a terminal lake with no outlet. So it sits here getting saltier and stinkier. It is 25 percent saltier than the ocean, so the usual fresh water plants and fish can't live here, and the salty ones can't get here naturally. It smells sulphur-like because of the hydrogen sulfide produced by bacteria. One of the information kiosks at the nature refuge explained, "In addition to the hydrogen sulfide, also dead fish, geothermal plants, wetlands, agriculture, and the salty sea each add their sweet fragrance to the mix."
Now that beautiful blue lake doesn't seem near as inviting.
Instead of sand, the beach is made of barnacles, and littered with dead fish. It's sad to see this huge lake going to waste as it's not suitable for humans or animals.
Since there is no wildlife living in the lake, it seems curious that we are here at the Sonny Bono National Wildlife Refuge. That's because there are actually ponds that are completely separated from the sea, that do provide nice habitat for water fowl.
This area is an important fly-over stop for migrating birds, and there are thousands of geese and ducks in different areas of the park this time of year.
We watched as this avocet floated on one of the ponds, eating his lunch. That curved thin beak is used to sweep back and forth through the brackish water.
We also enjoyed seeing this long-legged black-necked stilt. He is well-named because it looks like he is indeed walking on stilts. His curious stilt legs bend backwards at the knees.
Besides water birds, there are also those that spend most of their time on land. This gambel quail ran from bush to bush, waving that plume on his head that Denisa calls a "party hat."
After spending some time in nature, we went in search for a man-made--but God inspired-- phenomenon. We had read about Salvation Mountain, out in the middle of the desert.
It was built by one man--Leonard Knight--who labored daily to turn this mole hill into a mountain.
Mr. Knight used hay bales, and whatever else he could scrounge from the local dump. He coated the bales with mud, and then painted them in bright colors.
His faithful helpers provided much of the paint, and we saw signs still soliciting for any paint leftover from projects to be donated to the mountain.
His main message to the world is that God is love. He also quoted bible verses and the Lord's Prayer all over Salvation Mountain.
To the right of the mountain is a maze of rooms and pathways that use trees and branches as their main support system.
We're pretty sure that this structure doesn't follow building code and isn't safety approved. We see large cracks forming in many of the hay bales. But it certainly was fun to see what one man felt inspired by God to create.
When Mr. Knight left the mountain at the age of 79, it was thought that the mountain would inevitably dissolve into the desert. But a faithful group has been working to maintain Salvation Mountain. We watched as they hauled dirt in preparation for repainting a decaying section of the mountain.
We totally expected to be the only ones visiting Salvation Mountain. But this beautiful weekend the parking lot was full and people were everywhere. Many of them weren't following the "please don't climb on the mountain" rules.
Everything that stands still gets a coat of paint and bible verses. There were several vehicles scattered around that looked like "mobile salvation mountains." But we're guessing that none of these vehicles were really mobile any more.
This area of the desert outside of Nigel, California, was once a World War II training ground. Now it is called "Slab City" and has turned into a haven for people in makeshift homes living off the grid. Scattered across the horizon are old RVs and tents.
There are a few solar panels, and a number of water tanks. But most of the sad campsites are a hodge-podge of tarps connected to ancient trailers. There doesn't seem to be time limits on camping, as some of these places look like they have been around a while.
Some of the residents of Slab City are self-proclaimed artists, using their trash to make works of art. We liked this better than the piles of trash around many of the campsites.
Another neighbor adorned a tree stump with old shoes to make a work of art entitled, "Sole Tree."
We had one more stop on this bizarre road trip. On the way, we passed by many of the geothermal plants throughout this area. They generate electricity from the steam produced from hot liquids under the ground.
We had read about "boiling mud pots" where people can see the results of this hot liquid coming to the surface of the earth. On the internet, we had seen pictures of hot cauldron-like holes of mud bubbling in the desert. We had directions that led us down some questionable roads that were made worse from the recent rains.
The directions we found on-line were pretty accurate, as we found the field of mud beside another geothermal plant.
But we also found these new signs that have been posted around the field. We also heard that more than one person has fallen through the crusty mud walking out to the mud pots. One victim had third degree burns all over his body before he could be pulled out of the hot water.
So our only mud pot pictures are taken with a zoom lens that show the mud mounds around the pots. Some times our adventures don't turn out like we plan, but the good news is we left the area without third degree burns.
So today was an interesting road trip. We saw some of Southern California's lesser known and less glamorous sites. But we were inspired that even in the middle of nowhere, salvation is being proclaimed and people are drawn to it.
While we were staying at Rio Bend Resort near El Centro, California, some of our neighbors gave rave reviews of the FarmSmart Tour. It's an educational program provided by the University of California's Desert Research Department, where they explain different aspects of the crops raised in this area. We found out that the last tour of the season was happening while we were here, and they just happened to have room for us. How could we be so lucky?! Now we could ask the burning questions we had about the crops we have been seeing! For example, they explained that the fields of burgundy and green lettuce are trimmed with stainless steel mowers 4-5 times each season, and the clippings are bagged into spring salad mixes directly in the field.
At $25 per person, this tour had to get exceptional recommendations for us to spend that much money. But we are actually getting more than just a tour, because they are also feeding us as well. We began with breakfast snacks when we first arrived at 9:00. Then they demonstrated a recipe that used the carrots they raise here on their farm, and offered samples as well. Of course Denisa loved it because she likes all things vegetable, but Mark even liked it too.
We moved to the classroom, where we were schooled on the top ten crops of the Imperial Valley. We knew that lettuce was in the top ten, but we were surprised to see that beef was up there too. Many of the bull calves born in California dairies are brought to the Imperial Valley to be fattened on the alfalfa grown here. We were also surprised that two of the top ten crop money-makers were actually seeds (alfalfa and prairie grass). This area is responsible for reproducing the best seeds and making it available to others.
We found out about the farm laborers that pick most of the crops by hand. Most of them are transported daily from Mexico. We've experienced a slow border crossing, and that time can be multiplied for a busload of Mexicans coming into the United States. So some farms even pay for them to stay overnight in local hotels to avoid the loss of time at the border. These laborers are paid California's minimum wage--$10.50 per hour. During the harvest season they have very long days and work seven days per week. Recent changes in California labor laws mandate that anyone working over 40 hours per week must now be paid over-time. This change will probably be hardest on the Mexican laborers, who will be limited to the 40 hours because the farms can't afford the higher over-time wage. FarmSmart taught us so much more about the agriculture we have been witnessing for weeks!
We also got an explanation for the haze we have seen over the valley. Many days we can't see the mountains that surround us because of the poor air quality caused from several sources. One is the proximity to Mexico, where they have little regulation on pollutants coming out of their industries. But another big cause is the burning of agriculture fields. Because crops are grown year-round, farmers are always trying to plant a new crop as soon as possible after the harvest. Burning is the fastest way to clear the stubble and leaves from the just-harvested crop.
Because bees are an intricate part of California agriculture, we also got samples of several types of honey to taste. In the cup is something new to us--powdered honey. It's supposed to be good to sweeten things like cereal.
We had worked up quite an appetite with all this learning, and the next thing on the FarmSmart agenda was lunch. Made almost entirely from products they grow here on the farm, we had salads that we could stack as high as we wanted. Denisa is a big salad fan, and her plate was especially full.
But the best part of the tour was in the afternoon, and included a hay ride around the farm.
We were shown the different test plots that are being used to research different aspects of crops. The University of California has a test group of olive trees, trying to determine the best variety, best tree spacing, best watering practices, etc. Olives might be the next big cash crop for the Imperial Valley.
Most of these plots are actually monitored by plant researchers that are trying to determine the optimal conditions for a certain crop's production. One of those researchers was in the field, and he explained that he was studying different methods of watering (drip and flood), as well as different quantities of water for the onion fields.
Just like in Yuma, all the water to grow these crops in the desert comes from the Colorado River. The water arrives through canal systems that are perfectly sloped that allows the water to flow without using pumps. Likewise, all these fields have to be perfectly sloped to allow the water to flow down to the end of the furrows. We learned that there is a science to getting the fields sloped correctly. One method of moving the water from the canal to the crop is using plastic pipes that siphon the water into each furrow in the field.
After a demonstration of how to get the water started in the siphoning hose, they asked for volunteers from our group to try it. Mark was the most handsome and best siphoner of the day.
Denisa wasn't the only one taking pictures of Mark's farming skills. The leader of the program (in the blue) was also taking his picture. He'll probably be on the cover of next year's FarmSmart brochure.
He was awarded a special lime green wrist band for his efforts, proving that he "DID IT" at the University of California FarmSmart Tour.
Some of the work being done here in California is actually with researchers from the northern parts of the country. Because they can grow two complete crop cycles per year here, it reduces the University of Wisconsin's research time from 7 years to 3 and a half years.
After our hay ride, we got to Denisa's favorite part of the day. We were taken to the non-research section of the farm and allowed to pick anything we wanted. Since this is the last tour of the season, they kept encouraging us to take more vegetables home with us.
They provided bottles of water to drink, as well as bags to carry our harvest home. Denisa already has a bumper crop of carrots loaded into her bag.
We had to go deep into the fields, because past tours had already cleaned out the vegetables on the edges. We managed to find first-class heads of cabbage deep in the row.
Mark brought his pocket knife, which was a great tool for harvesting those cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower. Vegetables don't come any fresher than this!
After loading our bags of vegetables, we had built up another appetite. So we were treated with drinks, popcorn, and ice cream before we left. There were even prize drawings, where Denisa's ticket won a new cap for Mark. We wish we had scales, as it would have been fun to know how many pounds of vegetables we brought home in those two big bags.
We spent some considerable time washing and bagging all those vegetables and getting them into the refrigerator. They certainly made a pretty picture of vegetable goodness!
Denisa sees a lot of meals with extra servings of vegetables in our future. Mark is not as excited, but he is certainly a good sport. He knows that this vegetable harvest was a lot of fun for Denisa. We learned a lot, we ate a lot, and we are big fans of the FarmSmart program!
