To the wall and back
(Updated May 12, 2020)
On April 25, 2020 - inspired by a friend and past drives - I took a long drive from Los Angeles to Felicity, CA (The Official Center of the World) and back.
(don’t worry - I didn’t interact with any people!)
This is a map of my trip - almost 700 miles! It begins in Los Angeles, traveling directly East towards Palm Springs. From there - we continue thru the Coachella Valley down the West bank of the Salton Sea. I made a couple of stops along Salton Sea towns, and then on to Felicity, CA (the Center of the World… More on this later). Returning West to San Diego and North up the 5 Freeway.
So - let’s drive!
Along the way, you can find some pretty windmills (who doesn’t love windmills?)
There are some interesting places around the Salton Sea.. I stopped at a couple of them.
As you can see - there are some interesting ruins.
(there was no motel)
Ok, let’s keep driving…
This is my car. I like taking pictures of my car…
Driving along the border - you can see the border fence.
The black object on the horizon is the border that we hear so much about.
If you keep driving, soon you will get to the Center of the World!
The Center of the World (Atlas Obscura Link) (Official Link) is an interesting set of monuments - seemingly randomly placed into the deep Southern California desert.
Basically - a whimsical project by a husband and wife duo who both declared a town (Felicity, CA where none was there before - named after Felicity, the wife) and the location the Center of the World (because really, it might as well be anywhere!)
The Center of the World Site is the odd-looking formation to the right of the freeway.. Let’s look from the ground level.
You will come across this very indiscreet sign… They are not hiding anything here.
The site itself features a small museum (which is in season from Thanksgiving thru Easter), and slabs of granite with inscriptions, as well as a small blue-doored church on top of a hill.
On closer review - the granite slabs feature interesting and important facts about our planet, the history of humanity, as well as the histories of the United States, and that of California.
Think of these as a permanent PowerPoint or Wikipedia article for any who might wander by - perhaps future archaeologists may be delighted to find this site!
This one is about games!
There are granite rows to write out the history of the world in other languages as well (the one above signifies that this is the Russian section of granite) - though the granite here does not yet have the history written on it.
The church on the hill makes a very pretty sight…
Descending down the hill - we see the history in granite object quite well. One day, each granite face will have a piece of the story of our world.
As you can see, work is still ongoing. From the tools, it looks like it’s being done by hand!
Exactly opposite the church, is a pyramid.
(Hello from the Pyramid!)
There is also a real labyrinth! Visitors are encouraged to send in photos for laser engraving - to memorialize humanity.
I chose not to wander too deep into the labyrinth for fear of never escaping.
There’s even a section for pets!
I kept driving, along the border this time as much as I could - towards Calexico.
The desert offers some beautiful views…
Let’s drive past the sand dunes and down a rural highway until our map shows that we are in Calexico…
Here - one can get an up close and personal view of the physical border between Mexico and the United States.
I wanted to take some more pictures - but there is a heavy border patrol presence almost everywhere along the border, and I didn’t feel too comfortable taking photos.
However - it’s important to remember that on one of the streets in Calexico, the border is quite literally the fence of some peoples backyard.
This seems like a really perfect place to put a Ross store. (note again - the border fence on the horizon).
Further on and wrapping up the trip…
This is what I assume to be an immigration detention center - only since it looks exactly like others I’ve seen in the news. There are a couple of these clearly visible from the road.
From the safety of my house and writing this post I indeed do discover that this is a detention center. Actually - it is the Imperial Valley Regional Detention Center. Not so much a scary and mysterious government object, I later found that this is a place with its own website and even a video about its function (link here).
Apparently - you can take a tour (or at least watch a video ‘about’ people taking a tour) and inmates can take a crochet or Zumba class.
Interestingly enough - it apparently even has a 3.6 star rating on Google…
This center may serve as exploration for another time - there seems to be quite a lot to discover here.
For now - so long - and than you for coming with me on this day-trip journey!