Scott's Post About The Restaurant Got Me To Remembering

[JimT]

Mexican Adventure

I read someplace that the difference between an adventure and a disaster is how well the story is told later on. This story is a small part of an adventure.

-smiling-

We had been deep in Baja Norte, Mexico for a couple weeks and now were headed back home to Arizona. We had come up the Pacific coast and then cut eastward below the border. Our route took us through Tecate and on up into the mountains. The higher we climbed into the mountains the colder it got. As we neared the peak it was down below freezing, and this was Summer!

Coming off the mountain we dropped down through nearly 20 miles of switchbacks. The area is called “La Rumorosa” and in 1973 it was only a 2 lane highway. The climb up was so steep most of the long-haul truckers chose to wait until late at night to make the climb. Coming around a steep switch back every couple miles you had to watch for the truckers making the long climb in their lower gears.

By the time we hit the desert floor the temperature had climbed to nearly 100 degrees! We were south and west of Mexicali that is right on the border. The US side is called Calexico.

It was near 9 AM when we got into Mexicali and all of us were hungry. Driving toward the border someone spotted a restaurant and said, “Why don't we get breakfast before we cross over the border?” We were hungry and everyone decided sure, let's stop. We pulled up to the restaurant, got out of the car and walked in. Going from the door to where the tables were, the floor was “tacky” and stuck to our shoes, our feet making a “kuch kuch kuch” sound as we walked. I looked at the floor and discovered it was covered with squished insects and flies. Everywhere. Covered. We all stopped and looked down. Then without saying a word we all turned and went “kuch kuch kuch” back across the floor and out the door. We got in the car and drove to the border crossing, went through all that and finally started talking after we had a couple cups of coffee at the first McDonald's we encountered.

[Grizz]

Good memories... some years ago i drove some folks from Tecate thru La Rumorosa shortly after the divided highway had been opened. By divided i mean separated. the east bound traffic doesn't see the west bound traffic in that canyon. It was flawless blacktop, and perhaps the best motorcycle road in Norte America.

Coming down that mountain when the city of Mexicali first shows up is like descending in an airplane. We found a clean taqueria with indoor picnic tables and gorged ourselves on really good food.

After meetings were over we drove back to Rancho Alamo Bonito in the middle of the night and had the canyon to ourselves. Flawless blacktop, etc. that was likely around 2010, i suppose it's a collection of closely spaced potholes by now.

thanks for the reminder

[Bill in Oregon]

¡Ay, Chihuahua! (Do they still say that? )
I think I'd run on down to Mc Donald's too!
Not nearly the same temp extremes, but many years ago when Ellies was about 12, we visited Carlsbad Caverns, then headed for Alamogordo to see the White Sands. As I recall it was in the mid-70s up in Cloudcroft, but 25 minutes later, when we had descended to the floor of the Tularosa Basin, the temperature was very near 100. Motel swimming pool felt pretty darned good, followed by an indiscriminate feed at the Golden Corral.
Little did I realize at that time that my mom's side of the family had settled in La Luz in 1884 after making the long haul by horse and wagon from Buffalo Gap.