Tacna, Arizona

Good morning, my friends, and Hellooooooooo, Arizona.

Okay, so we're getting a little ahead of ourselves with that Welcome to Arizona bit. We have miles to go before we get there. Sadie was settling herself for a morning nap while we were preparing to leave Escondido.

We really hated to disturb her, but progress waits for no cat.

We headed south on I-15 until we reached I-8. This brought back a lot of memories of our time in Phoenix. Our families lived in southern California, and I can't even begin to count the number of times we traveled this road during our three years there. We didn't have air-conditioning in either of our cars, and so that was one hot mother of a drive.

Recall what we talked about with these granitic boulders when we arrived in Escondido. If you missed that, you can read about it at this old blog post. We traveled through landscape just like this for many miles after leaving San Diego County.

We crossed over the Pine Valley Creek Bridge, which was later renamed the Nello Irwin Greer Memorial Bridge. This isn't my photo below. We couldn't see it like this. Where we crossed, it simply looked like flat highway. 

(Image credit: By Original uploader was NicksGarage at en.wikipedia - 

Wikimedia file, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52980882)

The Google tells me that the northern span is 1,691 ft (515.4 m) long while the southern span is 1,741 ft (530.7 m) long. The two spans rise 450 ft (137.2 m) above the valley floor, placing it among the highest bridges in the United States. At the time of its construction, it was the first bridge constructed in the United States using the segmental balanced cantilever method. And if you're wondering what that means, The Google says that in segmental balanced cantilever construction the precast segments are transported to the bridge and placed and held at the right position before post-tensioning back to the rest of the bridge. A moving gantry with lifting capability for the heaviest segment is required to lift and hold the segment in position.

Clear as mud, right?

Moving along, the road stretched out straight and flat for a good part of the trip.

Eventually we reached the Imperial Valley and El Centro. You can see we're below sea level here.

Surrounded by thousands of acres of farmland, El Centro has transformed the desert into one of the most productive farming regions in California with an annual crop production of over $1 billion. Agriculture is the largest industry in Imperial County and accounts for 48% of all employment. We know they grow a lot of alfalfa, but we saw other crops as well.

And it takes a lot of water to farm in the desert.

We passed by this enormous solar energy farm. This is the Tenaska Imperial Solar Energy Center. You can read more about it at that link I've given you. It's able to generate enough electricity to power approximately 44,000 California homes, and consists of nearly 2 million solar panels. All-in-all, it spans a 946-acre site in the southern part of Imperial County. Equipment for this is manufactured in Nebraska.

Continuing on, we passed by the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area. I could see this from a distance, and it almost looked like snow.

We could see folks out there riding, and don't you think that made us want to saddle up our ATV's and go. We filed this away as a future destination.

We could see there was some primitive camping and pit toilets. This is BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land, and so camping there would be free.

We drove many miles before the first wildflowers appeared on both sides of the road.

Eventually we saw more yellow in these desert marigolds and blooming rabbit bush.

We crossed over the Coachella Canal. Construction of the Coachella Canal began in the 1930s but was interrupted by World War II. After the war, work was resumed on the canal and deliveries of water began in the late 1940s. The canal was mostly earth-lined when it was first constructed, except for the last 38 miles, which were concrete-lined. Today, most of the canal is lined with concrete to prevent water loss from seepage. Grass eating fish are stocked in the canal to prevent water loss to aquatic vegetation.

Then we passed by this church that appears built on a berm. Something clicked in the back of my mind, and I was pretty sure I knew what this was. And since there were people walking around out there on a Thursday, I knew there was more going on here than worship services.

Indeed there was. As it turns out, we were seeing just a portion of Felicity, California. Imperial County, as well as the French government, both recognize this site as the official center of the world. Here's a picture of the whole thing (not mine).

(Image credit: @david_k747 on Instagram)

One man, Jacques-André Istel, constructed a huge pyramid there, complete with a bronze plate. The plate, a disk set into the pyramid’s floor, marks what Istel considers to be the very middle of everything. The town itself was founded in 1986. It’s based on a children’s book he authored, called “Coe, The Good Dragon At The Centre Of The World”. 

So passionate about this supposed center of the world, he decided to start a town, and name it after his beloved wife, Felicia. The town has a population of two… Mr. and Mrs. Istel. I guess it takes all kind of people to make a world.

Okay, and now we can celebrate our entry into Arizona. We crossed this bridge over the Colorado River. The sign I've circled there marks the Arizona state line.

Very quickly, one passes through the town of Yuma. My grandparents used to winter over here in a truck camper smaller than one we sold several years ago because it was too small.

And soon, we saw the first saguaro cactus of the trip. It was the only one I spotted yesterday, but we'll see a lot more on today's drive.

Crossing over another mountain ridge, we entered the Dome Valley. I'm assuming it was named for the "dome" off in the distance. This is another agricultural center in the desert.

And we were very near to our destination for the night in Tacna, Arizona. When we pulled into our spot, I noticed this ocotillo cactus on the other side of the wall.

It's just starting to bloom.

So we got ourselves hooked up, had a late lunch, and rested for a bit. It was very warm at 88°F, and so I donned shorts for the first time this trip. Our shadow selves were itching to get out for a walk.

In the distance, we could see the Copper Mountains. They're located on the Barry M. Goldwater Range in southwest Arizona. These jagged mountains rise above the desert floor about 12 miles south of Tacna. Coyote Peak is the only named peak in the Coppers, but it is not the highpoint. The highpoint is designated simply as 2888. From this I learned that Arizona used to be very mountainous, and that the mountains contained copper. In fact, Arizona is known as the "Copper State."

As we walked along, I noticed these little bloomers at one weedy site.

And we saw another traveling cat through the windshield of a big motorhome.

The catio below is for a different cat, but this is pretty fancy. I'm not sure how this travels. We can only think it must be disassembled. On the other hand, there are lots of folks living here, and another lot of them who are snowbirding from cold climates. We saw lots of license plates from Minnesota and Canada.

And that's about all I have for you today. We're just here for the night, and so we're ready to move on this morning. We'll end our day in Benson, Arizona, this afternoon, and we'll be stationary for three nights. The next RV park is the actual object of our desire. It has its own observatory. I don't know any more than that, so we'll learn more when we arrive.

What follows are lots of pictures of some fun "garden art" we passed by in our walk around the park. I'm just posting pictures from here on. Take a look and enjoy. Or don't. I'm not trying to boss anyone around, but I think you'll enjoy seeing all this fun stuff. A woman informed us most of it came from one of the small border towns in Mexico.