A Balmy Night Before Christmas

Some people at home are quite surprised to hear that the "warm" desert gets down to freezing temperatures at night. Well, some times it really does. The coldest period is from the middle of December to the middle of January. After clear nights, I have already seen frost on the roof of our van several mornings, but if you wait 30 minutes after sunrise you can watch the mercury climb steadily until it reaches somewhere between 60 and 70F, which I must admit, is pretty comfortable for a northerner. Now, locals might still freeze as they are used to much higher temps during their very hot summer months.

But then we have had a few days when clouds have moved in from the coast, some times creating the most beautiful sunrises, and keeping the desert at a much higher night temperature. Right now it is 6:15pm and the temperature is still 63F. That is pretty nice and we won't have to start the furnace yet.

This morning Bea left camp very early. She was bound for Los Algodones, MX to stop by the "Purple Pharmacy" to get a supply of her medication. Actually she had taken what she thought was an ample supply for 3 months from Canada, but mysteriously, one of the pill containers had disappeared, WITHIN THE TRAILER!  We have turned everything upside down, but couldn't find it. Since US-pharmacies don't accept Canadian prescriptions, the solution was to go to Mexico, where you can get almost any medication (unless it's a controlled substance) without a prescription. To make sure she get the very same drug she had an empty labeled container with her. 

She had left shortly after 7am and came back with her filled prescription just about 2hrs. later. As a side-effect it only cost her a little above 10bucks for 1.5months where she normally pays over 35/month in Canada. It pays to go to Algodones, and if you are early, you won't have to wait for hours in a long line-up either. But the parking lot on the US-side had already started to fill up when she arrived there. However, most people won't start going back until the afternoon rolls around. 

So most of the day was spent relaxing in camp. Some new campers have started to come in, but the area is still sparsely populated. A change from earlier years are all the little van campers coming by. Many of them driven by women and usually they have a dog with them. Some of them are not permitted here as they don't have a mounted 10gal waste water tank installed. That's why we have a host here.

I truly enjoy going grocery shopping here as the stores are stocked way better than at home. The other day I went to the Mexican-style market "Cardeñas". I wanted to shop for veggies and fruits. I was overwhelmed when I saw the veggie and fruit department of this store. 

Everything was neatly presented and the whole store very clean. Going there, it is an advantage if one has a basic knowledge of Spanish as aisle labels are in Spanish and many typical Mexican products have no English declaration. But that can be expected if you are less than 30 minutes from the Mexican border.