Today, I Woke Up in the Desert

Well, if life were a contest to see how remote I could live I might be winning. I don't know where I would have to go from here, though. Australia maybe? I would really like to try Alaska. But I'll alaskabout that later.

Last night I caught the flight out of Columbus to San Diego. I was suppose to leave the day before, but through a ticketing hiccup, I did not get on the flight and had to rebook for the next day. This as it turned out was fortuitous. US Airways flight 148 CMH to SAN, was the only evening flight that had not been canceled due to the ice storm that hit Columbus. On the 11:00PM news, however, there was a story about this flight. After waiting two hours on the runway, the plane could not be de-iced and the pilot decided it was unsafe to takeoff. I was glad that I did not get on.

The flight on Wednesday evening took off without an incident. I had planned a leisurely trip out so that I could spend the night at the Crown Plaza and see a couple museums in San Diego. When I did not fly out on Tuesday, I had to cancel both my plans and my reservations.

The plane got into San Diego late, about 9:45pm. When I looked at my rental car reservation, it had been made for 10:00am instead of 10:00pm. I called them about ten minutes before they closed. Though they had me listed in the computer as two consecutive no-shows, they stayed open until I got there and gave me a car for the week. I was very happy. The one thing I hate now about traveling is this period before I get a car and place to stay. It is by far the most stressful.

At about 11:00 I started the two-hour drive into the desert. Making the drive between Octotillo and San Diego is locally know as “going over the hill.” This is a drive going from sea level to 4055 feet to sea level. There is nothing except mountain and two casinos along the entire drive. About half way down the hill I passed four highway patrol cars, three dozen flares, and a white SUV that had flipped several times on the highway. Imperial County ranks 52nd out of 58 counties for fatal vehicle accidents.

A little after12:30am I arrived in Octotillo. This was about 3:30am to me. When my hotel plans got canceled I had decided that I would just stay in the trailers at the museum, or in a worst case scenario I would just stay in the car. Well, the trailers were locked.

Ok, I guess I had not thought through the actual worst case scenario. Last night was the coldest February 2nd on record in the Imperial Valley. In 1929 it had dipped to 29 degrees. Last night it was 26 degrees. I got out my luggage, put on three pairs of pants, the only sweatshirt I brought, and both sport coats. Every hour and a half I woke up freezing and ran the car until it warmed up. Then I fell asleep for another hour and a half.

You can see about 100 miles in all directions from the museum. At about 2:00am there were flashing lights and two cars pulled over on the freeway west. At about 4:00am there were flashing lights out in the desert to the south. At about 6:00am, when the sun the came up, I found coffee at a gas station down the road. Outside the gas station the Border Patrol was arresting four illegals who had evidently come across the border in the night. I spent the next two hours walking around museum property and watching the sun rise.

Everything's good. I found coffee.