From Anza-Borrego, the Butterfield Trail dips briefly into Mexico, I couldn’t cross the border this trip, so I continued to El Centro, CA where I set up shop in the State Street Coffee house and confirmed the plans for my push towards Arizona. The 8 parallels the Butterfield Route in Mexico, without any of the hassle of international border checkpoint. In the future, it would be nice to further explore the Mexican leg of the Butterfield.
That said, it was surreal standing next to the wall itself. Something so simple dividing two vastly different cultures. Living in Texas and the Southwest most of my life, the wall has been a symbolic representation of so much in the media, day-to-day conversations, and had a constant presence in our lives. It was moving to stand next to. It seemed as if others had stood in my place and contemplated the significance of this expanse of steel standing in the desert, as the fence was marked by several groups.
With the border patrol watching out, high above the dunes, I proceeded to my campsite for the night in the imperial sand dunes, located just across from the border itself.
The sun set as the wind swept the sand dunes… it was so intense that I decided to use my GAP Integrated Interface Diagnostic tool to completely deflate my Electronic Air Suspension and lower my car as a makeshift wall. In the above video, you can see a sped-up shot of the vehicle completely deflating. This was an impromptu decision that I made to overcome the winds; I reinforced my makeshift wall with a Pelican case, and it allowed me to sleep in a calm, undisturbed tent under a somewhat cloudy and brightly illuminated sky.
The next morning I awoke to enjoy my breakfast and coffee on the border! Just a short walk from my campsite was the historic Plank Road, a seven-mile expanse across the otherwise impassable sand dunes. It was the small tidbits of history that linked our nation together that I so greatly enjoyed on this trip… this also explains why the original route of the Butterfield Overland Mail route cut south into Mexico, from Fort Yuma!
From the plank road, I ventured to the next Butterfield station’s location, back on US Soil. The Pilot Knob Station. This location housed a station that was used until the advent of the rail system, and was thus rendered obsolete. In its place today is this canal, and the border wall, separating the United States from the sleepy town of Los Algodones, known for it’s 350 dentists offering bargain dental work for the thrifty American and Canadian folks in need… fortunately for me, my teeth were doin’ alright. Algodones was recently featured in The Coen Brothers’ outstandingly dark six-part epic series, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”.
Exploring where the stations once stood, was an important aspect of this trip for me, so even though this site had no ruins, it was still rewarding to contemplate on the rich history that first linked our nation. From there, I saddled back in to head towards the Center of the World, which we will explore in the next segment.