“In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.”
~Bob Marley
Monday morning, I drove into town(s). I was running low on gas, propane, water, and a few food items. I could have made it another few days, maybe even a week, but when I’m running low on anything, it always feels like something hanging over my head. I decided to take a short drive and take care of all my errands at once. I drove into the town of Holtville, about 4 miles from the actual hot spring, and got gas and topped off my fresh water supply. Then I drove into El Centro where I got propane at a U-Haul rental place and then onto Smart & Final for groceries. The whole trip took less than two hours from the time I left until the time I settled back into my spot across from the hot spring. When I leveled up, put out my solar panels and opened up all the windows and vents I giggled quietly to myself. All my chores were complete for at least a week or 10 days. The only “chore” I’d need to accomplish was walking across the street to climb into steaming hot water a couple of times a day. I could manage that pretty easily.
As usual, when I get back from a grocery run, I have the daunting task of deciding what I’m going to eat for my next meal. With a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, and snacks, I don’t know which ones to eat first. I settled on spinach tortellini with jalapeno/lime sauce. I put the tortellini into boiling water and while it was cooking, I whipped up a roux with jalapeno and some lime zest. When the pasta was done, I drained it and poured the roux over it and squeezed half a lime onto it. I know so many people who live in vans who eat mostly shelf stable food. PB&J, grilled cheese, ramen, etc. I even met a young man who bought packs of ramen at Costco, opened a pack, threw out the seasoning and just chewed the ramen noodles dry, and then drinking copious amounts of water. I LOVE to cook and over the years I’ve learned to make some of my favorite dishes in a very limited amount of kitchen space. Some people laugh at me when they say they had a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast and I say I made French Toast and scrambled eggs with cheese. It feels extra special to have a luxurious meal, looking out over the vast expanses I so often occupy. Life is good.
When I went to the hot spring, a man came into the enclosure with a box. I recognized him from the prior week. He had a very “native” look to him, but I couldn’t tell if he was Asian, Native American, or Hispanic. He opened up the box and there were a dozen heads of fresh-picked broccoli. He had brought us some a week or so ago, and it was one of the most delicious broccoli I’d ever eaten. Having been growing out of the ground a quarter mile away, it was as fresh as I’d ever eaten. He had explained the last time that they couldn’t fit it all on the truck and so he brought the extra boxes to us. I took a large head before I walked home to my van and steamed half the head, tossed it with just a tiny drizzle of sesame ginger dressing and that was my dinner. Before bed, Cosmo and I had some homemade peach ice cream. Yes, life was not only very good, it was also quite delicious.
The days here in Holtville have been easy and I often feel quite lazy. Aside from walking over to soak in the hot springs, there is not much to do. I listen to audio books or watch mindless videos on YouTube. Cosmo and I take short walks several times a day. The hot springs provide an endless variety of characters to observe. Some are quite friendly. Some either lack social skills or ability to “read the room” or perhaps they have mental issues. There is almost always someone whose conversation I enjoy and almost always someone who rants on incessantly about some conspiracy theory or about what Jesus wants us to do. (I’ve learned to not interact with them, and to move to the opposite end of the pool.) I often play a game: when I cross through the parking lot outside the hot tub enclosure, I check out the vehicles I don’t recognize. Then when I get inside the gated area, I try to match up the people with the vehicles. I’m getting pretty good at it.
I have been eating better, making a Greek salad most days, and often making a Waldorf salad for an afternoon snack. I bought a bag of mini sweet peppers and tend to munch on them during the day instead of sweet or salty snacks. I’ve been sleeping well at night. I think the hot soaks wear me out and I fall asleep and stay asleep easily.
Lessons From The Road: The hot springs is an oasis in a harsh environment. To it come people from many walks of life. Some are snowbirds from the great white north, vacationing nearby and visiting the hot springs for its therapeutic properties. Some are locals, coming after work some days to relax and unwind. Many stop as they are passing through from San Diego to Yuma, or from a trip to Mexico. Some of the snowbirds from the north clearly have money, but for the most part, many of the visitors are just normal working folk, or poor people. El Centro, the town adjacent to Holtville is home to many Mexican families. They are hardworking, lower middle-class families. It’s quite interesting to see everyone joined together by the comfort of the free hot springs, and, for the most part, getting along quite well with one another. There are a lot of “fringe” people as well. One day there was a lesbian couple, living in a bus with 4 kids, the oldest being probably not quite 10. One morning when it was cold, I was in the tub alone and two young women came in, but as they took off their shirts and got in with me, I saw the scars below their chests, and decided they were trans men (with very feminine faces and features.) There is a Mexican man who is a prison guard who comes a few times a week and I enjoy our conversations. There are quite a few older, pot-bellied men with long hair and beards and crystals hanging around their necks (I suppose I’m one of them). There are some with a “homeless vibe” who appear to be living out of their old, beat-up vehicles on nearby BLM land. All seem to fit in at the local watering hole. It feels like a good model for the rest of the country to follow.