California

With Yuma a no go, we pulled up a map to see what our options were.  The next town was  El Centro, California.  We had never been to California, so why not :)?  We pulled up RV Park Reviews and started calling.  The second place was having a special through the end of December and monthly sites were half price.  Awesome...we reserved a site with plans to stay through Christmas.

We continued our drive west on I-8.  Upon entering California, all vehicles must go through an agricultural inspection station.  We knew this before hand, but thought we were gonna be staying in Arizona...not California.  So...oops, we had questionable fruit on board.  They took our citrus that wasn't stamped or stickered as being from California.  Our bag of oranges from Trader Joe's we got to keep, the oranges and lemons from a backyard tree were confiscated.  Bummer.

Moving on...

After I-8 enters California, it dips south until it is right up against the Mexican border.  The border fence runs right next to the interstate for a ways.  In some places there was the fence and then on the US side two more rows of barricades.

Right about the same place that the road snugs up to the border, the terrain changed dramatically.  We entered the Imperial Sand Dunes!  I wish, wish, wish we could have pulled off for a little while to see them better but we were seriously racing the clock at that point to get to our destination before dark.

blurry cell phone photo of the dunes that lined I-8

We reached El Centro just as the last bit of light was fading from the sky.  We would have made it before it became completely dark if not for the wrong turn.  What is it with google maps these days?  We use our phones for gps navigation and lately it is hit or miss.  Wrong locations (it took me to a gas station instead of a NP Cave...seriously), waiting until you are right up on the street to tell you to turn, or just not talking at all sometimes.  I am waiting for the voice to start laughing one of these days or say haha, just playing with you because it is that bad.

Anyway, a misguided turn took us down the busiest street in town.  So much fun to do that with a big trailer in tow!  We got the gps to behave and give us the correct directions, which meant we were still ten miles from the campground.  A giant U-turn and back on the interstate...

Finally, we made it to our destination for the night.  What a long day...we started out at Lazydays, then went to Casa Grande, next Dateland, passed through Yuma, to arrive in El Centro.  Whew!  Our neighbors in the site next to us were the most helpful people we have ever parked next to.  The man came out right away and (because it was completely dark) turned all of his outside lights on so that we could see to hook up.  So thoughtful of him :).

We were all pretty tired, but also pretty hungry.  With our fridge being on the fritz, we hadn't stocked up on groceries.  So...back to town we went to get some food.  Being that close to Mexico, we wanted some good Mexican food.  We found a "hole in the wall" little place that made awesome fish tacos.  We sampled several different things, but those were my favorite that night.  (yes, I said "that night". we went back...duh)

And that concludes our long --three post to tell you about it-- day :).