Los Algodones, Mexico

       We were on our way to Borrego Springs for a few days until Tom remember it had been a year since his last teeth cleaning. Folks at Quartzsite all had praise for the work in the little Mexican town of Los Algodones. Ok, forget Borrego lets going down Yuma way for two days.

      There were few RV parks available but we spent so much money on the solar panels last year we we both thought we should give boondocking a try. Here at the Quechan Casino in California right near the little town of Los Algodones they had a huge RV and truck lot with room to stretch, all free.

         Here on the left is the RV parking and just out of sight on the right is truck parking. This being a warm and sunny Presidents Day weekend the RV lot was already jammed so we went with a few other motorhomes to the truck lot...no problem.

       It wasn't long before the trucks were driving around looking for a place to sleep. Some of the motorhome owners had there cars parked alongside but we felt that was rude especially since this was a designated truck lot. Within ten minutes of moving the car to the rear two grateful trucker pulled in alongside with no problem.

Mid-morning on Saturday we headed off to Los Algodones (about a mile away) for my cleaning appointment and a little shopping for Donna. If you look up Los Algodones on the web you'll see it is like a "medicare town" for snowbirds with over 350 dentists in a 4 block area. You can get presciptions, glasses, root canals, implants, liquor and gifts in just this small town. I bought the big bottle of Kahlúa for $9.99 which I know at Costco is in the mid $20's.

I chose this clinc based on fellow RV'ers past experiance. The cleaning was $10 more (at $30) then some of the others but the dental hygienist tore open new "tools of the trade" out of sterile packaging so I felt a little better. My only concern was when she rinsed out my teeth between scraping was...where'd they get the water? ha ha.
I felt she did as thorough a job as I have had in the states and until I somehow get dental insurance I will come back.

They sure can cram a lot of shopping into the 4 blocks, all crowded with all the medical offices.

       Here is one stylish gringo lady that has never said "no" to a shopping excursion. 

           To Donna, even buying some pharmaceuticals qualified as shopping.

I can't go to Mexico without contributing to a charity selling beef and chicken tamales at a street fair.

The wait to get back into the states was only 15 minutes but we were warned that at certain times of the day it could be an hour or so.

Before we allow any water from the Colorado River to cross the Mexican border, the U.S. tries to squeeze all of it that we can. Here is a small diversion dam 1 mile from the border that sends the water to the Imperial Valley, so next time in the winter when you sit down to enjoy a salad with your dinner, remember...it was most likely grown in the Imperial Valley.

When the canal was built in the 1930's they were losing nearly 70,000 feet of acre water just per year north of Los Algodones through the soil of the canal. For years the Mexicans built pumps and dams to retrieve this water until the 2000's when the U.S. decided to line the canal in an effort to stop the seepage. We've taken so much of the river it is a shame we can't allow them a little.