Today is the day our first Amazon shipment arrives in Blythe, CA. Its the first time we have used an "Amazon Hub Counter" to receive delivery of an order. For those travelling away from home, Amazon makes it rather easy to place orders and pick them up in locations that are not "home".
We watched the Amazon delivery page and when it said the order was out for delivery, we headed out to Blythe from our campsite near Bouse. The Amazon Hub Counter was in a pharmacy in Blythe. When we arrived, the UPS truck arrived at the same time. When Dave went in to pick up the order he found that you have to wait for an email to notify that the order is ready to pick up. Once the packages were dropped off and the UPS driver left, it was only moments before the email arrived. All that had to be done is show the email with bar code to the clerk in the pharmacy, and she gave us the package. Relatively simple.
From there it was a visit to the Albertson's grocery store to reload supplies like milk, coffee, fresh vegetables and fruit, etc. As we wandered the store we noticed how many prepackaged products were for sale. Even when strolling the outside of the store, which usually means the locations of the fresh products, there were still lots of prepackaged items. It seems that the US shoppers still like their prepackaged foods. Breakfast cereal was on our list, and a small box of Raisin Bran or Life cereal was $5, but if you bought mulitiple boxes of candied cereal like Fruit Loops, Corn Puffs, or Count Chocula they were only $1.99 each. Its not hard to figure out why the US has a weight and health problem in their society. We did notice that the fruit we purchased was excellent. Oranges were ripe and sweet. Obviously being closer to the source makes a difference.
Dave also noticed that finding a variety of craft beer is more difficult than at home. Basically beer is sold in grocery stores and service station convenience stores, which does make it easier to buy beer. The problem is finding a variety of craft beer. At home most liquor stores have a variety of local craft beers on their shelves, but that's not what we have found here. Lots of the traditional boring lager beers that have been sold for decades, but when it comes to craft beer, the selection is very limited. Plus, if you want to find anything but an IPA, then forget it. It seems that when a few American beer drinkers discovered that beer can actually have flavour, the IPA became the go-to option. Never mind that there are brown ales, English ales, Farmhouse ales, Saison's, Kolsch's, wheat beer, and countless other varieties. Here it is either the same old tasteless lagers or IPA's. No variety or creativity.
It turned out that today was a great day to stay in the car and drive. There have been wind warnings on the weather apps for today, and they were not wrong. Winds gusts were in excess of 50 MPH (80 km/hr), and because we are much closer to sea level, the heavier air made the wind feel stronger, and in some places east of Blythe there were huge dust clouds. Even when driving the car on the highway you could feel the gusts pushing on the car. There were lots of trucks on the road, and many were having trouble keeping a straight course. At times it was un-nerving as trailers swung from side to side. Its surprising how many trucks kept going. We were definitely thankful to be in the car and not the motorhome. Even though there were still lots of trucks on the highway, the rest stop between Quartzsite and Blythe was packed with trucks that appeared to be riding out the storm on the sidelines.
The weather was cold, with a high somewhere around 13C. That's not what we came here for, but I guess a little better than at home. When we left the motorhome this morning, we put laid everything down outside and pulled in the slides on the motorhome. We weren't sure how the slide toppers would stand up to the high winds. When we got back to camp, we left the slides in until after 8:00 PM when the wind started to subside. We still noticed the feeling of fine dust in the air for most of the night.