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Hasta La Vista USA - Hola Mexico!
Yes, our Español is coming on a treat! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we’re not there yet. We’re camping near the border and hope to cross tomorrow at Tecate. We have seen Mexico though, over the steel wall, and it doesn’t look so bad!
So last time we were allegedly near Area 51. We may or may not have driven 12 miles on a dirt track to the main gate. We may or may not have driven round to the “secret” back gate. We almost definitely didn’t take photos, as the signs told us not to. We may or may not have been closely watched by “the Feds” – the two dudes in a truck parked on a hill looking at us through binoculars were probably birdwatching. (They weren’t, they were definitely watching us). So that was fun.
The rest of the Extra-terrestrial Highway was long, long stretches of nothingness punctuated by alien themed tourist stops. The Little A’Le’Inn was the best, filled with UFO and Area 51 photos, newspaper articles and general tat. We enjoyed their Alien Burger – it was out of this world! While we were there, there were a couple of sonic booms from Area 51 that shook the windows. We also stopped at the “famous” Black Mailbox – a mailbox in the middle of nowhere allegedly used to communicate with aliens. Yes really - it’s that sort of place.
Having escaped from being probed by aliens or the Feds (the only close encounter was a raccoon running around on our truck that night) it was back into the Mojave Desert for some more star gazing and hoping (unsuccessfully) to spot tortoises.
From there, it was more desert, cacti and Joshua trees down to the Salton Sea and onto Slab City – which is a load of artists / runaways / reprobates living out in the desert on an old military base, with no running water, no services of any kind and apparently no law enforcement. It calls itself “The Last Free Place” as anyone can live there without having to pay rent or rates. Just turn up with a caravan, tent or build a shack out of whatever is lying around. Having watched some YouTube footage, we timed our stay to turn up AFTER their weekly Saturday night party and left BEFORE their Halloween bash, so we had a pretty quiet stay, just some singing, people playing instruments and lots of barking dogs. An interesting place with some obviously very talented artists there, but also a lot of crap – art wise, rubbish wise and the other.
More desert as we came back West, following the Mexican border, sleeping under the stars in complete isolation – apart from the planes, helicopters and observation balloons patrolling the border zone. Every other vehicle on the road appears to be Border Patrol, but they’ve not given us any hassle. We’ve spent some time getting our papers in order, doing as much online as possible, in the hope our crossing will be quick and easy. Tomorrow will tell.
So it’s so long, USA. We’ll be sad to leave. We’ve especially enjoyed the last couple of weeks in the deserts. The changing landscapes, the peace and quiet and the free camping (tonight will be the first time we’ve paid for camping in four weeks). The coast was lovely, but busy and expensive. We hope to come back to explore more of the southern states and enjoy the vast expanses of different landscapes. But first, Mexico calls!
Adios amigos!