Yesterday I drove from San Diego down 15N to, get this, theres a hwy 111. yes it's true. 111. the mystical numbers which will uplift if one can believe in their power.
I drove down 111 from 15N. it took a couple hours. I was smiling all the way to visit Salton Sea. Foolishly of course. I must have been smiling because I was conquering my fear of CA freeways which network themselves through suburbia like huge growling beasts..it's the merge lanes interfering with the off ramp lanes which terrify me the most, when the yield signs are missing, people are in a hurry here. Some are metered, but not on hwy 111. I like to drive 65. I'm very comfortable at that speed. The only vehicles driving 65 out here are the diesels who are chugging up a hill. One feels forced to be like others. I know it can't be that I'm 60, can it? Yet this may be true, as they took a toll of the age group here in California and those under 35 outnumber the older ones like me who enjoy doing 65mph.
Just a thought. I know my 34 year old girls came here to find a mate. Not enough men could be found in Washington, nor enough career opportunities. Jumping on a ferry, a novelty at first, to get to work was par for the course out Seattle way, if you lived on the other side of the water.
So here I am, still in San Diego and looking to stay close to them, and I can't figure out what good I am in their lives, so they must love me. I need to get far enough away from CA freeways so I can breath the air and space. I'm home hunting.
Salton Sea area has mountains, hills, white sands, sea waters you can float on due to buoyant properties of salt and less oxygen in the waters. I found some property on Realtor.com
right on top of the water at a section call Bombay, a five square situation, probably not even that, of Modular housing in various states of disrepair. Unfortunately, the drive was for naught, Realtor.com forgot to mention the value is in the land, not what is sitting there abandoned on top of the land.
Two stores and a motel run by the same guy running the small grocery store are there. I got away from him at the first sign of a sermon coming on. I had made the mistake of mentioning I was a mystic. I am always getting sent to hell. Just can't stay out of trouble I guess. His eyes lit up and he forgot the sermon when I told him I was looking for property. He was also the unofficial real estate guy.
He tried to sell me a 1959? MH and land for $40k cash, apologizing some druggies spray painted the walls, no big deal I agreed. Do you have a phone in the motel room? I asked, I needed to call on a few places in the area. My cell is not picking up signals out this way. No, we don't have phones in the rooms, however, I can show you at 6pm my MH's I have for sale. Stuck in the middle of nowhere with no access to a phone was beginning to worry me.
He gave me his card and I high tailed it back to Niland, to see if they actually had phones there. After trying several more motels in Brawley, CA near the Salton Sea, I decided god was trying to say no and I wasn't listening. I believe the proprietors were from India at door to door motel establishments. Maybe they didn't like my dress, I thought I looked cute, was it too short? Maybe they thought since we were so close to the border I was renting a room to smuggle in aliens. I have no idea why they would point to the sign that said "no visitors" allowed.
The last thing one wants sometimes is a visitor. But it would be nice to have phone service. After filling out the paperwork I think to ask about phones. I only have 90 minutes on my cell left and not sure that I should be saving them, or even that I can use my cell here which I was going to use just in case of emergencies. He says no, there's no phone here. As well there is no public phones on Bombay said the little old guy I had escaped from happily; It was hellishly hot.
I feel like I am in the twilight zone and the foolish smile has disappeared. It's even hot here when your car is cranking cold air.
I speed back to San Diego telling myself you knew this wasn't going to be easy didn't you? I continue to smile like Mona Lisa though.
Ah, but I have begun. you have to begin.
I'm going to the TriCities next! A river runs through it. You can almost live there for free.
