Road Trippin: Peace out, California!

Being the early birds that we are, Em and I finally hauled our tails out of Kate’s house by 9am on Friday. We drove out of San Diego through the beautiful mountains on Historic 80 and made our first stop at the Desert View Tower. The tower boasts a four-story view of the sprawling Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. As a side note, the tower had lots of “liberally biased” magnets and bumper stickers for sale, which I was beyond excited about. Another side note, do not visit the tower if you are concerned about making sure your hair looks acceptable in public.

Standing at the top of the tower, trying not to get blown away!

Check out our hot wind-blown hair look!

Behind the tower, carved into the quartzite granite boulders are folk art animals with painted eyes and teeth. You can climb all through the boulders and pose with the animals for a fun photo op.

Also, there appears to be quite a vocal fan-base for Ron Paul. Case in point, these aliens:

Next, we made our way through to El Centro, California where we found the Algodones Dunes. Emily was looking in our Road Trip book to see if we were coming up on said dunes, when she looked out the window and exclaimed, “OH F*CK! DUNES!” We promptly exited the freeway. These dunes have been featured in films, such as Beau Geste and Star Wars (I know, I was stoked too). We also ran into a very kind Border Patrol officer who told us that the dunes are very popular in November when the weather cools down. People rent ATV’s and race around and the place is packed.

So then we came to Felicity. It is known as the Official Center of the World thanks to Jacques Andres Istel who convinced France, China, and Imperial County to legally recognize it as such. A pink terrazzo pyramid stands in the place of the center of the world. It is also surrounded by a “History of the World” etched on granite slabs and behind them stands a tiny church on a hill. If it sounds a little creepy, that’s probably because it is. There were two separate houses on the premises, which gave it the feel of a cult compound. We haven’t looked into it, but I’m thoroughly convinced something is going down in Felicity.

I digress.

Finally, we crossed the border into Yuma, Arizona. If it wasn’t made clear to you already, then allow me to officially declare it: We were kicking this road trip’s ass (Sorry, Mom). We stopped at the Quartermaster Depot, which was kind of snooze worthy, but it was a good place to pee/buy postcards/ease my wifi withdrawal. I have a problem and I blame my iPhone.

So then we hauled to Gila Bend, which sounds like it’s not a big deal, except that they have a SPACE AGE LODGE. I obviously don’t need to point out that this is where we stayed. So I am geeking out pretty hard about this motel, but I will not apologize.