dunes to nuts

Chocolate Mountains Aerial Gunnery Range

We left Ehrenberg, AZ (15 degrees C) serenaded by large, olive-coloured grackles where there are blossoms on the trees, fields of cotton and ditches lined with pampas grass.  Our first sighting of flock of white egrets in the Imperial Valley tells us that we are in sync with the other snowbirds. One of our favourite landscapes - the dunes south of the Chocolate Mountains - lies south of Blythe. Where else could we find both beauty and Black Hawk helicopters rising slowly around us?

On down Highway 78, past Glamis, then the S32 to Interstate 8 West and past El Centro which lay below sea level, with hazy skies and 28 degrees C. We stopped for a break at the Jamie Obeso memorial rest stop - the most beautiful rest stop I have ever seen and there were big shady trees there with fragrant bark.

One last big climb on the Campo Road and we're in the Potrero County Park oak forest and other trees draped in the last bits of fall glory. And where there is oak trees, there are acorns and, you guessed it, squirrels, too. So Vida is in dog heaven after 2 nights good behaviour in hotels. Indians lived here long ago and subsisted on the acorns and the later settlers arrived and carried the oak wood by cart to sell to folks around San Diego.

The park is 10 minutes away from Tecate, so we are in border patrol country, and observed from helicopters again from time to time. For a while, we are the only campers here, then others arrive later in the afternoon to cross over to Mexico in the morning. It rained overnight for the first time since last spring and it is a pleasant and cool rain when we wake up. We are waiting to meet our friends and travel with them down Mex. 1, so we head to Rancho San Diego the next day to do a bit of re-supplying.