Center of the World?

Today we decided to visit “The Official Center of the World” located in Felicty, CA which is just about an hour’s drive from El Centro, where we’re currently camped. As you drive along I-8 East towards Yuma, AZ, it is just off the highway very near the border. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the place as I’m not that into man-made tourist traps. However, Chuck was really looking forward to seeing it (he loves Roadside America kitsch).

When we got there, we had a little altercation with Felicity – the person. Apparently the ‘town’ and tourist trap is named after her and she is quite full of herself. When we arrived at the place, she saw Shadow in our car and said we could bring her in. Great! We got out of the truck and let her walk on the grass. She then told us to enter the “Center of the World” by going into the Gift Shop. We thanked her and walked towards the shop, stopping to take pictures of the neat stuff they had outside, including a stone replica of Michaelangelo’s David’s arm being used as the pointer for a sun-dial on the ground. As I walked toward it with Shadow in tow so Chuck could take a picture, she came running over to us, screaming (literally) that we couldn’t go near it. Okay, no problem. I apologized immediately for getting too close to something she didn’t want us to be near. That wasn’t good enough. She continued to yell at me, despite repeated apologies for somehow offending her. Then she angrily added, “I told you to go to the gift shop. I don’t know what you’re still doing out here anyway.” Yikes! She really was going overboard. What a great way to greet tourists! If I had had my way, I would have left the place immediately. I don’t like to give business to rude and obnoxious people. However, Chuck really had his heart set on seeing the place, so we continued to the Gift Shop – but not before Ms. Felicity stomped over to the clerk inside and instructed her to charge us an additional $1.50 to allow our dog inside. Really – how petty can you get?

After paying $3 each (and $1.50 for Shadow) Debbie, the clerk, (who was refreshingly and wonderfully pleasant and polite and really made up for her obnoxious boss) apologized for Felicity, shrugging as she said, “That is Felicity, so what she says goes around here. Maybe she was upset by the Earthquake we just had.” Earthquake?!  Seriously?! Yes. Debbie told us that at about 11:20 AM the ground shook for quite a while there. And we missed it – by about 30 minutes!

We were driving at the time and had no indication that such an event was taking place. Only later this evening, after watching the news, did we find out that while no severe damage appears to have been done in the area, Mexicali, Baja California Norte just south of Calexico, El Centro, CA, and Quartzsite and Yuma, Arizona all felt the quake. The US Geologic Survey reports the quake had an epicenter 20 miles southeast of Mexicali, with a 5.8 richter scale reading.

Chuck and I have lived in California before (he several times in the past; we together back in the early 1980s) and though Chuck experienced a minor earthquake himself once, I have never experienced one. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be here during a San Francisco-catastrophic-type earthquake and wish nothing bad to happen to anyone, but if there is going to be an earthquake while I’m here, I’d at least like to have felt it to have had the experience! Oh, well.

Anyway, the “Center of the Earth” was different, and had it not been for the nasty ‘Felicity Encounter’ when we arrived, I would have enjoyed it more. Chuck was impressed and enjoyed the 7 minute movie presentation and the idea of actually being at the “Center of the World”. If nothing else, it’s one of those things we can now say, “Been there, done that.”