Road Trip, part 2

Something I failed to mention yesterday is the mountain pass is legendary for strong winds....winds gusts can get up to 60 mph or more with no warning....it can be sudden death to trucks....we didn't have a problem that day thankfully and we have a small car..but there were plenty of semi-trucks on the road, going very slowly in anticipation of a wind gust....

The house we rekeyed in Calixico had been cleaned and remodeled by the Fannie Mae people...it had been a foreclosure...Alan said the first time he had come, the previous owner had taken off the front door, and the garage door, left the house in a complete mess...now, its been sold..has all new doors, fresh paint and carpeting and looked wonderful...it was in a new housing tract on a nice street.....Fannie Mae has a branch called FAS or field asset people who refurbish these houses and I will say, they do a wonderful job.Something good that the government does......the lawn was lush and green, flowers were blooming..it looked great.
It didn't take us long to re key it for the new owner.....I takeoff and put back on the locks, Alan re keys them,  he checks my work, and we make sure the new keys are usable. We were done in less than an hour.
We are a good team now..it took me some time to learn how to install the locks but now I can do it almost blindfolded..LOL...guess old dogs CAN learn new tricks!

Afterward, we decided to go to lunch...and were looking for a Micky D's.....the GPS sent us south and then turn right..we ended up on the above street...with this high fence...every block or so there was a border patrol truck parked along the fence line with an agent...we couldn't figure it out..kept going ...and going... and going when it suddenly dawned on me...this was the border! the other side of the fence was Mexico....the fence is very tall...probably 25 ft or more..and heavily fortified. I didn't get a good photo of the border patrol cars, but you can see them in the distance down the street......

Driving back, I noticed this unusual white group of buildings off the road...turned out it was a plaster gypsum factory...you may also notice the desert floor..it hasn't been invaded with weeds like California's high desert has...

Back to the 8, we had to stop at a border patrol barrier......they were checking every car and truck...they had one car on the side and were searching inside the trunk...this used to be common but not so much now......

Frankly, we don't mind and consider the border patrol agents as heroes...they do a difficult job...the lady agent above was all bundled up as the wind made it cold to stand outside...we noticed for the first time, a spike strip had been laid down across the road, the spikes were down of course, but could be raised in just a few seconds in case of emergency.....that was something new for us......
I really enjoyed the trip..and would like to go back one day...do some exploring in the mountains....we've been deciding what we wanted to do when we retire...sell the house and have an RV....there was a RV park tucked into one of the valleys. It would be fun to travel this great country of ours..staying where ever we wanted and moving when we felt like it... Nomads!