After a great long weekend in Palm Desert it was time to head back to Phoenix. We spent a while picking some citrus fruit and then hit I10 to head back.
Click image to enlarge!
In the condo area that Joe and Bev live there are numerous orange, mandarin, lemon, and grapefruit trees. If no one picks the fruit they go to waste so we did what we could to help prevent that by picking about a bushel of fruit.
Bev and I with a prize grapefruit.
On the way back we were a little hungry so decided to stop at a crossroads on I10 call Desert Center. It is about halfway between Indio and Blythe in the middle of the desert. I had always been a little curious about the town (?) that has a population of 125. We found about a half dozen buildings close to I10 including a post office, the cafe above, and a small store. From the outside it's one of those places that you hesitat for a moment wondering if you really want to go in but knowing that it was a long ways to anything we went in. We were welcomed by a friendly waitress and opted for cheeseburgers. We sat at the bar one stool away from an interesting individual dressed in bicycle gear and then I remembered the bicycle we saw outside with the small two wheeled trailer loaded with gear. Keeping in mind that this place was in the middle of no where and in a desert I became curious and asked him where he was from and where he was going. He was a little indefinite in his answer just that he was riding around in the desert seeing what he could see. Apparently another "desert rat".
I went to Wikipedia to see what they had to say about the town and found a number of interesting things. The town was founded in 1921 by a man named Stephen Ragsdale and nicknamed "Desert Steve" - another "desert rat". He started pumping gas to people traveling through from a 55 gallon drum. He also made a tow truck from a Model T and eventually started the cafe that we ate in. Hard to imagine!
There is an interesting history that unfolds over the years surrounding the town. It involves the founding of Kaiser Permanente there and probably the first prepaid health care program. General Patton being there to train for the invasion of Rommel in Africa.
For a short read that will probably leave you amazed click the link below.
We stopped at a roadside rest area in the desert and the above sign gives an omnious warning.
We kinda watched where we stepped.
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