Monday was spent recovering from the windstorm and visiting with Corinne. Early yesterday we left Beaumont and headed off along Highway 10 across the desert to Arizona. Passing through Palm Springs we encountered palm trees with snow-capped mountains in the background. It's still cool but getting warmer and the skies are now unremittingly blue. All day long we saw only one little cloud, and it turned out be hovering over the Palo Verde nuclear generating station.
We saw our first sajuaro cactus as we passed into Arizona. There are beginning to signs of Mexican culture as well. Increasingly we hear Spanish being spoken and packages of papaya with chile powder and colourful Mexican custards are for sale in gas stations and truck stops.
Yesterday we stopped for lunch at Quartzsite, an interesting spot where hundreds of campers and Rvs park willy-nilly in the desert among the sagebrush. This is a favourite place for snow birds and rockhounds. There was a sort of flea market gemstone show taking place there, with an amazing assortment of humanity including leathery brown wanderers, desert rats, and hucksters. The variety of gemstones is remarkable.
Last night was spent at a huge RV park in Buckeye, 30 miles west of Phoenix. When we saw the little dot called Buckeye on the map, we imagined a rustic Western town—but this appears to be a suburb of Phoenix. Just like at Beaumont, there are miles and miles of new housing developments and big malls. There's a huge Wal-Mart complex there that must have just opened because it doesn't even show on our list. Today we'll bypass Phoenix and head south towards Tucson. Our plan is to spend the next day or so preparing for our entry to Mexico.
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