Goodby to the old year

Well, it’s goodbye for awhile to California!  I cannot leave California without mentioning these mannequins, which are seen at every swap meet.  I don't recall seeing these in Illinois, but here, big butts are "in".

Sunday we drove from San Diego to Yuma.  It’s not a long drive but it wasn’t much fun.  As we drove through the mountains, it started to snow - the sleety, wet snow that sticks to the windshield and cuts visibility to almost nothing.  Just the thing you hope for while driving a 38-foot RV and towing a Jeep across the mountains.

Eventually we came out of the mountains and onto the plains where the weather improved and the scenery changed to classic Southern California desert, with scrub bushes along the road and mountains always on the horizon.

Just on the California side of Yuma we pulled into the Quechan Casino parking lot.  The casino is a couple of miles from the Mexican border and they let RVers park in their back lot for free for a few nights.  It doesn't cost them anything since there are no hookups; the lot isn't even paved.  The RVers often spend money at the casino or it's restaurants, so it's a good deal for the casino.  We don't gamble but the parking lot at the border is also owned by the Quechan tribe, so they still get a little of our cash.  We just park the RV at the casino, unhook the car, drive to the border lot where we pay $5 to park on the US side, and then  walk across into Los Algodones, Mexico.  It's much easier than trying to drive in Mexico.

Sunday it was dark when we went to Mexico, but the border is open until 10 pm and we were looking forward to seeing the night life in Los Algodones.  However, we were in for a surprise - almost the whole town was closed up!  A couple of the big stores were open but everything else was dark - probably because it was Sunday night.

The next day we went back to Los Algodones to get a few things and decided to have breakfast there.  We found a restaurant that was recommended by another tourist but it wasn’t open yet.  So we walked around town and found a little push-cart vendor selling Birria, which is apparently a slow-cooked chopped meat.  In texture it was similar to pulled pork, but I think it was beef.  Anyway, it was pretty good, but small enough that we decided to go back to the other restaurant when it opened and order more food.  This place doesn't look like much but it's as good as it gets in Los Algodones.

And the food was actually pretty good.  We ordered 3 fish tacos and they came with tortilla chips, salsa, relish, cucumbers, slaw, crema and limes.  With the addition of Mexican Coke Light, it was a nice breakfast.

We went to another store to check liquor prices, and behind the counter I noticed some graphic images on cigarette labels.  Later I did some research and learned that the FDA proposed this course of action in the US too, but in August a Federal Appeals court nixed it.  Mexico went full speed ahead with the idea, as did several other countries.  How would you like to buy something that looked like this?

And to our surprise, Mexican stores are not allowed to sell alcohol until 11 am.  We wanted to be on the road before then so we weren't able to buy any liquor.  We did get a couple of bottles of Coca Cola Light for the road, since we like it better than the Coke Light we can get in the States.  

One Year Ago: Beautiful birds and shells of Florida!

Two Years Ago: Aboard The Gorgeous Queen Mary

Three Years Ago: Sitting in Arizona, Thinking of Alaska