#76 / 2008 Tour 4 Winter: Heading to Slab City

ARRIVING IN SLAB CITY, CA

#76


Now we made it to the Slabs. I became intimidated thinking the place would look like those RV camps back in Yuma, but not at all. There was a good road out to here and it's an enormous place, many square miles to camp, and lots of room to spread out. Lots of mountains in the background and mesquite bushes for shade, no palm trees out here. I think all those palm trees in Yuma were just a preponderance of imported palms from way back when, when they were trying to market the place to RVers.

But Yuma is a memory now. We met a guy at Mitry Lake that has just about convinced us to go straight on down to Mexico and forget San Diego. We're still considering a change. It would be a lot less complicated hanging out on the Pacific Ocean in Mexico than San Diego.

Right now it is raining on the Slabs. I decided to look for a cheap hotel room for a few days so we can charge up all the batteries and clean up. My gas stove uses butane canisters. I paid $1.29 in Las Cruces, up from $.99 at the dollar store there. At Ace Hardware in Yuma they cost $3.99! So I didn't buy any and I'm down to my last four. We are saving them to make coffee in the morning and are trying to cook outside with fire pits or charcoal. But that doesn't work if it's raining.

And it's cold again with all the rain. So we hope to find a cheap room today. We'll go back to the Slabs in a day or two as I have to kill time because I got my mail forwarded and it won't get to Niland, nearest town to the Slabs, until Thursday.