Valentine’s day when traveling is kind of odd.  Neither Roxie nor I had any time to get the other anything related to Valentine’s day.  I usually remember to get something before I leave if I know we will be gone but not this time.  Sigh.  So we agreed to go have Valentine’s lunch in a local town and the only local town was Mecca.  Population 8577 (Salute!).

Before we left we thought we would take a walk down on the sandy beach by the Salton Sea:

Looks somewhat inviting, until you get to it and see it is like this:

Barnacles, or what is left of the dead ones.  Billions of them.  At least 100 feet wide to the shore.  Good thing we had shoes on.  Closer to the shore were hundreds of Tilapia carcasses, very old and dry.  These are two of the many problems facing the Salton Sea.

The sea is more alkaline that the ocean and is currently only sustaining Tilapia and Mudfish.  However when it gets hot the algae blooms and exhausts all the oxygen in certain areas.  This is what kills the Tilapia.  It is a cycle that is only getting worse as time goes by and the sea get more alkaline.

Our camp host tells us about the barnacles.  General Patton trained his troops around this area before/during WWII.  There is a museum for him at Chiriaco Summit (where we almost stayed on the way out).  It appears that they brought ocean going amphibious crafts into the Salton Sea, the barnacles dislodged and started reproducing madly here.  I can buy that.

I remember going to the Salton Sea area sometimes when I was a kid but Roxie has a vivid memory.  Not being a strong swimmer at the time she was wading in the sea when she came to a sharp drop off underwater.  She lost her footing and went under the water.  She kept going up and down thinking she was going to drown.  No one heard her cries for help.  She finally was able to regain her footing and get back to shore.  Scary stuff.  In the description of the Corvina Beach area it described it having a sharp drop off.  Perhaps she actually returned to the scene of the crime.

Lucky for us a soldier was left behind to guard things:

We headed to Mecca for our Sweetheart lunch.  There were not many choices so we went to Taqueria Guerrero.  I thought it was pretty good but not what we are used to.  Any type of food is very subjective.  Roxie thought it was OK also.  Better than cooking.

We stopped by the Salton Sea visitors center on the way back and learned some more about the area.  The sea was formed by an accidental levee breach where the Colorado River dumped its contents into the Salton Sea for 16 months!  That is a lot of water.

We got back to the trailer for a relaxing evening of not doing much of anything.  Sitting out, watching the sun set over the mountains and the water.  When we got inside later Roxie’s stomach was really hurting her and she didn’t want to mess it up even more.  She knew she had to have some dinner and asked me to make her a sandwich.  Which I happily agreed to.  When I served it to her I told her that this was the first time I had ever made Valentine’s dinner for her.

I will do my best to make sure it is not the last.