Jacumba (pronounced Hacumba)

Clarification from the last post...Dennis provided a more accurate description of the feast he kindly provided in El Cahon:

pollo asado - marinated chicken mini tacos
carnitas - pork mini tacos
carne asada - marinated beef mini tacos
shredded beef burrito and spicy carrots with jalapenos.

Makes me hungry just reading it...

Note: We just exceeded our Maximum Speed on our bikes: We breached the 45 mph mark gaining 45.8 mph somewhere between Boulevard and Jacumba... (45.8 mph = 73.7 kmh) WAHOO!!

El Cahon to a campground near Alpine (on an Indian Reservation)

Dennis was kind enough to help us out in the morning...in fact he provided our lunch material - peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Very kind. He also gave me a supply of ear plugs for which I will most definitely use.

As we were leaving town a fellow from a vehicle asked Taran where we were headed. Taran told him Texas...he asked us to pull over to chat. He was a nice fellow, but turned out to be a bit strange. Shortly after that we started getting into the hills. We made it to Alpine fairly early, but we were pleasantly surpised to learn that we had climbed 2000 feet or halfway to the top of the mountain. We had planned to continue up the mountain another 20 miles and camp at a "Forest Service Campground". However, we wanted to find out about the services available (i.e. shower/ potable water) so we stopped at the Alpine Ranger Station to find out. As it turns out, the camp was closed due to procreating bullfrogs. I guess they like their privacy. There was a closer campground, but it was still early in the day. Taran suggested we go to the library before heading to camp...which we did. When we finally arrived at the camp we were suprised to learn it had a pool, a jaccuzzi, and a billiards room. They had a sign on the check-in counter that stated "Baby rattlesnakes have been spotted nearby - Stay on the trails and make sure your dogs are on a leash".

Alpine to Live Oak Springs

Climbing Climbing Climbing. That's what we did all day long. We went up to 4000 feet, down to 2000 feet and then back up to 4100 feet. We were very tired when we arrived at the Live Oak Springs Resort and Campground. We had been forewarned that it might rain and I had tried to find an inexpensive motel or something to ride out the storm, but to no avail. The cheapest accomodation I could find was 65 dollars. The lady who checked us in did give us some hope we wouldn't get wet. She said that Live Oak Springs get about half the amount of rain that any of the towns within 5 miles get.
We set up camp under a tree, strung a line over the tent to hold the tarp in place and put everything else in garbage bags to weather the storm. That evening we went to the Resort Restaurant and hung out by the fireplace playing chess and checkers. We also played some pool. It's fairly cold at night at this elevation at this time of year. We have warm sleeping bags, so we are always warm!

Well, it didn't rain...thank goodness. It was a bit windy, but no rain spoiled the night or day!

Phaedra had researched another accomodation program called "couch surfing". She informed us that there was a person in El Centro (60 miles away) that would be willing to host us for Thursday night. I spoke to the fellow and made arrangements. However, I will need to phone him shortly and change the plans. There are too many hills and we will not make it to El Centro before dark...and we don't ride in the dark.

We're currently in Jacumba and will likely find a campground in Octillo which is about 20 miles away. Taran desperately wanted to visit a library so that's where we are right now.

Discussion Item: Prior to leaving San Diego, I purchased a bunch of Quinoa as a protein source instead of trying to find and carry meat. We have been cooking it and mixing it with our spaghetti. We tried adding a powdered spaghetti sauce, but to limited success. Does anybody have any suggestions on what to add to Quinoa that would make it better suited to mix with spaghetti? Would curry be a good thing to add? Thanks for any ideas...