The weather got progressively hotter as we headed East, finally topping out at an even 80 degrees. For the first time in a long time, I changed into shorts! The land here is mostly agricultural, green fields that look out of place when framed by dry, dusty gravel heaps of mountains.
We decided to take highway 86 North from El Centro to the Salton Sea. I'd seen a documentary called "Bombay Beach" about the area a while back and was very interested to see the sea in person. We drove on the highway for a while, hands out the windows and the radio turned up. Suddenly we saw brake lights and abruptly stopped in a line of cars.
"What's going on?" I asked Dave nervously. He shrugged and tried to get a view of what was ahead. The moment I saw the Border Patrol cars and spotlights I knew: it was a drug or immigration checkpoint. We pulled forward, my heart beating a mile a minute and my face flush. I had a very small quantity of a substance that's quite legal where I'm from in my bag. Unfortunately, I had forgotten it was there until just this moment, and in California it is decidedly illegal. My heart beat faster and faster. I could see it now, calling home on bail for possession, everyone rolling their eyes, cold nights spent in the penitentiary. I just wasn't made for the criminal lifestyle! As we slowly rolled forward, an officer patroled with a large, keyed-up German Shepard. Two cars to go. Suddenly the dog whined, leapt forward, and barked at the trunk of a small red car in front of us. Two more officers quickly went to the car, and the K-9 officer praised his dog in a high voice. The bored looking man in the checkpoint box took one look at our license plate and waved us through. Neither Dave or I spoke for quite a while, waiting for our pulses to come back down from the jackhammer rate they had been at.
"Dave" I said sheepishly "Can we find a trashcan??"
A ways down the road we began to be able to see a glimpse of sunlight reflecting off water. The sun was setting so we started searching for a campsite. We saw an unposted dirt road jut off to the right, and took it. All around us was flat sand and patches of scrub brush. We followed the cracked and sometimes sand covered track as far as we could, until it dead ended in a large sand dune.
On one side of the road was an unfenced fruit plantation with large, round, yellow fruits hanging thick on the trees. In a blatant continuation of my crime-ridden lifestyle, I hopped out of the car and picked three of them, still warm from the sun. We sliced one open, and it turned out to be the juiciest, most delicious deep red grapefruit I'd ever had. We ate burritos and grapefruit until sticky juice ran down our arms and covered our faces.
By the time we finished cleaning up, the sun had gone down and been replaced by a gigantic neon-bright full moon. We stepped out into the sand and our bodies cast long shadows on the dunes. Full of happiness and sugary grapefruit, we took off running barefoot up one dune and down another, with Jax the dog joyously bounding along with us. He ran at full speed in huge circles, kicking up puffs of sand and sending bits of sagebrush flying. Eventually we all tired of our game and walked back to our little home on wheels together.
We stayed there two nights, soaking in the sun and devouring one grapefruit after another.
No comments:
Post a Comment