We're in Roswell, New Mexico

Yes, we couldn't resist. Not much of a town, but they have a nice museum and the "alien" shops are a hoot. I have a terrible wireless connection in the room right now so I'll be back later with pix.

Algodones, Mexico

To get into Algodones, we parked our car in a parking lot just outside Yuma, AZ and walked over the border. That's me walking over in the first pic. No questions asked, nothing. The big draw for Americans here are the dentists, opticians, and DRUGS! Notice the signs for all the different prescription drugs in the second and third pix. No presciption needed (except for controlled substances) and cheaper than the U.S., if you don't have insurance. Same with the dentists and opticians, who, supposedly, have all been trained in the US. We didn't try them out.
I asked the old woman's permission to take her photo and gave here some money, but I didn't buy anything she was selling. Thought it would make a nice photo. The next shot is of a vendor's colorful wares, and the last is a typical street corner shop, velvet portraits of Jesus and all. We left with 1 bottle of good tequila (for $20, 1 liter per person allowed) and walked back over the US border without a problem, just had to show our passports.

Border Control 50 Miles Inside of Arizona

First off, I had meant to post pix of Algodones, Mexico, but I only got as far as these border patrol pix and Blogger photo upload pooped out on me. I will try again later. In the meantime, here's a couple of shots of the stop we encountered. As I said in the intro, this was not at the Mexico border, but about 50 miles into Arizona. I asked the guard what the dogs were looking for and he said narcotics, bombs, weapons of mass desruction (huh? he actually said that), and illegal aliens. We encounted two of these check points while in southern Arizona. Right now we are up north in Sedona. Have a lot of catch-up posting to do. See you later.

Greetings from the Space Age Lodge in Gila Bend, Arizona

I can start this by saying that we have come a very long way since we left Palm Springs. Yes, we are staying in this ridiculous motel with a theme straight out of the 50's. Actually, I think it's kinda cute. Notice the little flying saucer on the door behind Ed, neat huh? Anyway, Gila Bend is a tiny little town about 80 miles southwest of Phoenix. We're here because we wanted to see Organ Pipe Cactus Monument and Gila Bend is the closest town "decent" enough to stay in and it was still a 75 mile drive to the monument (one way). We are both trying to adapt to being on the road again; we've been to Mexico (more on that to come) and we've been through two border control stops on the highway, complete with drug/people sniffing dogs (pix of that to come). Also took a lot of pix at Organ Pipe Cactus, will post those later also. Going to bed now, I'm exhausted. Oh, did I mention the railroad tracks behind the motel and the freight trains that pass through the night blaring their horns?

Our last post from Palm Springs.....

It's finally happening, we're leaving tomorrow and we will be bringing the cable modem back to Time Warner as soon as I finish this. (This condo has no Internet access so we had to subscribe for a cable connection.) We are headed to Yuma, AZ which is south of here and even hotter.
Latest temps have been in the hi 90's. We're going to cross the border (by foot) into Mexico and see what we see. Will be back with interesting stuff, I hope.

Liberace's House! Liberace's Piano-Shaped Mailbox!

We went to an estate sale of an actor named Chris Adair (I know, we didn't know who he was either; turns out he costarred in a lot of TV and movie westerns in the 50's and 60's). Anyway, we bought a book there called Palm Springs Confidential and it contains a lot of info about Palm Springs' celebrity past, including lots of addresses of the stars' estates (all nearby too). So we decided to devise our own little "Celebrity Homes Tour." Most of the homes we found were surrounded by security walls and gardens so it was hard to take a decent picture (they included Lucy & Desi's home; a HUGE estate that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor; Jack Benny's house; Lily Tomlin's former house; the house John Phillips (Mamas & Papas) was living in when he died; Barry Manilow's old house - he still lives here, but in a much more secluded spot - and others). But by far the most accessible and interesting was Liberace's. And for sale too! Actually, all the homes were basically in the same neighborhood and literally every other one was for sale. We'll have to ask our rental agent about them. Yeah, right. Oh, we are DEFINITELY leaving Palm Springs this Wednesday. We have to this time, the condo has been rented. We'll be heading to Yuma, Arizona which is practically on the Mexico border. We're planning on taking a day trip (walking across the border) into the town of Algodonas and see what's up there. I will try to post again before we take off.

We took a drive up to the tiny mountain town of Idyllwild, CA

Idyllwild is about 45 miles from Palm Springs along very twisty, curvy mountain roads. By the time we got up there we were at 5000 feet and the temperature had dropped about 25 degrees (mid 60's from the high 80's down below). Great way to cool off. The first 3 pix were taken in town and the last 4 on the descent. The fifth photo is interesting cause the road below looks like a toy racetrack. The cloud formation in the last photo made the mountain look like an erupting volcano. Finally, Ed made two new friends while sitting on that bench.