Americana

Jill and Doug, our Canadian travel buddies, were our local guides today, taking us two places they’d been before which were new to us.

First we went to the Saturday morning “flea market” at the La Paz County campground where we ended up with about a dozen purchases.  Our items included: a ballpeen hammer, a sunglasses cord for Bob, cords with balls on the ends to attach to a tarp, 4 utility pencils, an electrical tester, a sweatshirt each for Cathryn and Bob, a plastic pitcher (to replace one that broke when it fell out of the refrigerator while we were driving), 3 mini carabiners to fasten various items, and a large bag to hold our outdoor patio mat.

Most were astonishingly well-priced, in the $1 to $4 range. Take a close look at the picture of Bob in his new sweatshirt and see if you can discern its’ special feature.

Next we drove 4 miles up a narrow dirt road into the hills(Doug and Jill wouldn’t tell us where we were going) . . .

. . . then suddenly found ourselves looking at a large parking lot with about 300 cars, what looked like a church front, and a huge open-air, cowboy-style restaurant called the Desert Bar jam-packed with more than 500 people.

Take a look at our “Spot” message, below, to see the location.

A band was playing rock and roll, people were  dancing, and two full-service bars were offering drinks and taking food orders. The choice of beers included Bud, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light and well drinks.

(The picture above is for you, Ryan).  The only food items offered were hamburgers (no cheese), bowls of chili (no cheese), hot dogs (no cheese), and chili dogs.

 

Yet again, we were on the young end of the spectrum, and except for one family that appeared to be of Latino origin, the entire crowd was white: no black or Asian people, nor any Native Americans.  We waited quite a while for our plain hamburgers (ketchup, mustard, pickles and onions available as add-ons at the condiment counter, no cheese), and drank beer.

The crowd was lively, including the couple seated at a 6-person table by themselves who we joined because we’d been waiting 25 minutes already and couldn’t find a table. Jim and Rosalie (pictured above), looking to be in their 80s, had arrived by motorcycle and kept us cracking up over their lively jokes.  They left us after finishing their burgers so they could join the crowd on the dance floor.

On returning to our campsites, we convened for our last Happy Hour together, just the 4 of us.  Tomorrow Doug and Jill head north, and we head east.  We’ve enjoyed traveling with them and expect to see each other again this summer, as well as possibly traveling together again next winter.