RV Winter Rambling 2006-07

Desert Vignettes

It’s quite amazing what happens when water is introduced to the desert. Yuma and the Imperial Valley are great examples – vast fields of broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce – prolific orchards of oranges, grapefruit, tangelos, lemons and avocadoes all exist in what was previously arid wasteland. The produce is hand picked by Mexicans who are transported across the border in decrepit white buses pulling a couple of portable toilets and a hand washing station. They pick, clean, cull, wrap and box the produce right in the fields and the boxes are loaded right on to large semi-trailer trucks and shipped immediately to market. It’s a very efficient operation but wouldn’t you think that machines could do it?


When the wind blows, the sand swirls and rises coating everything in a gritty veil. The sun is obscured as if covered by gauze looking otherworldly. The sand manages to creep in through vents leaving a dusty layer in its wake. It buries itself at the roots of your hair and grazes your skin and lips. Farmers busily water down their fields so they don’t lose their dusty soil in the blustery weather. Just as sudden as the wind starts – it abruptly halts and the sun is once more hot and soothing.

The little Californian town of Felicity sits alongside Interstate 8 not far from Pilot Knob. A French man who named the settlement after his Asian wife, Felicia, founded the bizarre community. He proudly claimed, “Felicity is the only town in the USA named for a Chinese woman”. With a population of no more than 20, it has also been designated “The Center of the World” just because the title had never been used elsewhere and was thus available.

A Geocaching expedition took us into Felicity and we explored its eccentricities. A muscular steel arm protruding from a rock forms the pointer for a large sundial. The finger points to a pyramid, which is in alignment with an unusual chapel built at the top of a man-made sand dune. It all seems very mysterious and supernatural but there was no one around to explain it to us. In between the pyramid and the church, large triangular slabs of brown highly polished granite have been formed into long walls and etched with stories and pictures proclaiming France’s important achievements in aviation history. It’s still under construction and it’s obvious that a lot of money is being spent and I can’t see that this ‘tourist attraction’ can be a moneymaker. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the restaurant was empty and the gift shop, which was full of trendy and artistic wares, had no proprietor present. I called out “Is anyone here?” several times but nobody appeared. It’s an enigma.

posted by O'Leary @ 10:29 AM