Road Trip, vol. 7

Uncle Alvin's 1933 trip from Minnesota to California

January 14, 1933 The next morning we started out quite early and soon found ourselves in desert country again, though for a while it seemed to have some agricultural possibilities. We were climbing quite steadily and soon crossed the Continental Divide. It seemed quite funny to be crossing the divide and at the same time to be on an almost level plain. After crossing the divide we began losing altitude, and when we reached Tucson had dropped almost two thousand feet. From there on we traveled mainly through desert and mountainous country. We saw quite a few mountains but very few of them were snow-capped. When we reached Yuma we had our first sight of the great Colorado River. We were also inspected there, and the roots were cut off the cactus plants we were taking along.

After leaving Yuma we entered a real desert. There were great sand dunes with very little vegetation. The sand was drifting across the roads, there being quite a strong wind. The strip of desert lasted for a while until we entered the fertile Imperial Valley. Here we saw our first really green country. Everything seemed to be green: truck gardens, lawns, and everything.

Later that day we advanced upon the last mountain range between ourselves and the coast. For perhaps an hour we had some very steep grades and many curves. When we reached the top we found a very strong wind blowing over the mountains. Shortly after, we ran into our first rain of the trip. This was just a week after we had started. We had now reached an elevation of over 4,000 feet, but we soon started going down. As we descended into the valley we soon found ourselves in some really beautiful scenery. The vegetation was almost every color imaginable, from red, green yellow, brown, to white and grey. The rocks were grey and brown, with dark mountains for a background it presented a really pretty picture.

That evening (Sunday) about four o'clock, we entered San Diego. About the first thing we did there, even before we rented a cabin, was to buy four dozen oranges for twenty-five cents. They were quite large and of excellent quality. We then drove through the city and finally located a cabin camp on the southern side of the city and quite near the ocean. It was my first sight of the Pacific Ocean, and it was rather disappointing because it was in reality a bay, and had only a very narrow opening into the ocean proper.

That night we drove around the city for a while, but there was not so very much to be seen. We just formed the impression that San Diego would really be a better city if the border were not so close.

San Diego is the most important naval base on the west coast.The fleet was out while we were there, however, so we saw only a few sailors walking the streets.