John & Allison's Adventures Down South: Los Algodones and Dateland

We had decided to take a trip to Los Algodones, Mexico to see what it was all about having heard it was the Mecca for dental, optical and prescription meds. For cheap, "almost free" as the street vendors often say with a laugh.
I was in need of a crown and John wanted some new spectacles. JoAnn Gaumont's sister, Laurie, said she would go with us as she would like her teeth cleaned and had been there before and would show us the ropes.
Along the way we saw a HUGE array of solar collectors and what was likely a power plant associated with them. It turns out it is the Abengoa Solana plant that covers about 3 sq. miles and has 2700 parabolic solar collectors. It is a solar thermal power plant and can generate 280 megawatts which can provide electricity for approximately 70,000 homes. This type of plant can store the sun's power for six hours after sundown via thermal energy. Cool, no hot....

Solar thermal collectors

The Abengoa Solana power plant

We made dental and eye appointments for 1pm on Friday the 10th of January without problem and early that morning headed out to pick up our guide Laurie who has a place in Maricopa which just happens to be on the way to Los Algodones.
One hour into the 3+ hour drive we picked up Laurie and headed out on our Mexican adventure.
The border crossing is actually in California so one more state we have "been" to...

There is a huge parking lot and you cross the border on foot. Once in, there are restrooms where there was an elderly man handing out paper towels.
Then the fun begins. There is no doubt you are in Mexico. Super colourful buildings and vendors and people asking if you need a dentist or glasses or medications or jewelry or liquor or....... likely, you name it!
A young fellow came up to us and asked "are you Allison"? What a weird experience that was. The clinic we were booked into was watching for us and even though we were a couple of hours early they were ready to take us.
We were greeted by the staff. The dentist and optical were in the same office. Very different.
My procedure took longer than both John's and Laurie's. We were to come back the next day by noon, me for the crowns, turned out I needed 2, and John's glasses. We had planned for an overnighter so no problema.
After I was done round one and had the temporary crowns on we went for a little tour around the district and stopped at one of the plazas for lunch. It was very good. We checked out a few pharmacies to see how much John's meds would be there and then we headed for the border.
There was a bit of a queue which took about an hour to get through. The whole time you are in line there are street vendors and beggars, mostly women with small children. Quite sad.
U.S. customs was no problem and we were back at the car and heading to the Quechin Casino Hotel for the night. Checked in and had a rest with plans to meet Laurie for supper later.
We had a really good prime rib dinner and after John and Laurie played "Jacks or Better" at a bar in the casino for a bit.
Back up to the room with anticipation of the return visit to the dentist next day.
We arrived in Los Algodones a little early but ended up waiting until 1pm for the dentist. In the mean time we went to another plaza for a refreshment. There was live music, the first was a Mariache singer who was very good and after him were two fellows who played guitars and sang. They were excellent!
It took a bit of time for my dentist to fit the crowns. Did I mention I am a white knuckle dentist patient, even during a cleaning? After he got my bite correct they sent the crowns out to the lab again to be re-polished which took another 45 minutes, which in the grand scheme of things, is nothing.
Afterwards, with a pretty tender jaw, we went for another look around the shops for a bit. John haggled and joked around with a vendor for a leather belt and ended up with a very nice one for $20.
We left earlier than the day before and there was hardly a queue at all so we were heading back towards home in good time. Laurie had mentioned on the way to Los Algodones about a rest stop on the way home called Dateland where they grow dates and have all kinds of date related products to purchase, including date milk shakes. We had to stop and check it out. Now I believe in the date world there are two kinds of people. People who despise dates and people who adore dates. We all fall into the second category. There is also a fuel station there so we up filled the car and then filled up ourselves with really, really delicious date milk shakes and other date delights. They grow several varieties of dates and had samples so you could make an informed choice of which dates you wanted. I bought a package of Halawi dates with thoughts of them being tucked into bran muffins. YUM!!
After our "pit" stop we beetled down the hiway and got Laurie home before dark. We stayed for a beverage at her house and then back on the road for the hour drive back to Mesa.
A very interesting and enjoyable trip.