There is something indecent about daylight pushing the darkness away at five in the morning. For a low latitude tropical aficionado like myself darkness should rule my roost till some time past six every morning.
We left the Ojai Ranch RV park at 5:45 in the morning. We were going to drive nine hours to Santa Ana in far distant Sonora. In one day.
The road out of Tecate, Highway 2 bustles across farmland and through villages and suddenly takes flight high into the mountains. And what spectacular mountains they are!
We took the toll road (Cuota) marked in the map as 2D, because we wanted to make miles but I had to stop for a few pictures.
The grandeur of the mountains was exhilarating and the pink tinted rock gave the drive the air of Martian exploration. From there we returned to earth and the road took us dead due east at sea level more or less. Desert vistas of which we have had our fill started early and went late…
The wind was out of the south and it blew warm and hard all day, and not in a good way. I watched 18 wheelers swerve as they plowed through the wind and blowing sand.
We had driven the previous day through the outskirts of Tecate listening to NPR on the scratchy San Diego station, a taste of the States we hadn’t had for half a year. It was odd, seeing the wall because on the US side of the line there were only empty hills, more desert. The wall was the only structure.
It’s forty miles from Tecate to Mexicali and you know when you’ve arrived. There’s a sign saying Mexicali: 988,000 residents and it’s probably a low estimate.
We were not touring so all I had to do was keep driving on the six lane bypass. Bye Mexicali! Hello mainland! Finally we were out of Baja land of desert and surfing and weird beaches. We were in Sonora, colorful mainland Mexico which we craved.
San Luis Rio Colorado was the first town in Sonora and within sight of the wall we bought gas at $3:41 a gallon for regular. Reading stories of six dollar gas in California made me happy to be in Mexico. That and the food.
It was a strange day, all three of us getting more and more tired as we made our way east. Past Mexicali on the way to Sonoyta Highway 2 runs along the border. Right along the border.
A military patrol running down the highway ahead of us. We should have stopped at the restaurant where we passed them as they tucked in. Locals know where the good food is!
The border on the Mexican side is a wall, a backdrop to daily life. On the US side it’s a complex of lights, cameras, patrols fences and roads.
Sonoyta was next, and I’m compressing the tedium of the driving here. Layne had fried some sausages the day before in camp. Periodically she got up, peed and brought me hot tea and a sausage sandwich. Tell me you don’t wish you were traveling in a camper van. We were keeping up with Google’s speed estimates.
Stopping for me to pee(!) the wind was horrendous. But Rusty who hates wind in his ears surprised me and was ready to do some exploration. We were all three bored!
Sonoyta. It’s across the line from Lukeville. It’s an average Mexican town. Gas was down to $3:52 compared to Google’s estimate of $5:60 in Lukeville. That’s all I know. We drove on.
We’d seen a five mile back up of trucks waiting to enter the State of Baja California from Sonora at a checkpoint. This line in our direction of travel was only a kilometer long but we were glad to drive by in the car lane. The inspection was thorough because our home on wheels was fascinating. The soldiers checked lockers and were totally professional yet completed their tasks with smiles and jokes all round. Yes they are soldiers and customs officials but they are not threatening or intimidating.
Oh god it went on. And on. We took the road to Caborca which was our first overnight stop last December. We waved to the ARCO truck stop where we’d slept our first rainy night in Mexico December 30th but we kept going, we had another 60 miles to cover to Santa Ana.
It was great being on the mainland. Street vendors were back after we’d seen none in arid unpopulated Baja. We saw souvenirs for sale south of the US border in Sonora State. We did more damned desert to our destination: Santa Ana Sonora home of a strategically placed campground.
We could not find the bastard. We circled it like sharks but the campground did not appear. How was it we were the ones couldn’t find the well reviewed spot we needed so urgently? I was getting ready to drive some more and find a gas station for the night, when we finally sighted the gravel parking lot that is Punta Vista RV park. $17 for all facilities, not clean necessarily and a little shade, just enough for us.
I crashed in our recliner.
Layne cooked pesto pasta for dinner. I opened the wine from the Guadalupe Valley. We had rosemary bread from Doña Lupe in the valley. We ate well.
I fed the campground cats and drank Laphroaig in honor of Webb Chiles and his life of long journeys, and Rusty was snoring already. Nighty night as the sun went down and the temperature with it.
A long day. On the map our journey to San Carlos and it’s beaches.
