# El Centro, CA



## SCcamper (Feb 4, 2017)

Naval Air Facility, El Centro, CA

When full timing as we did, constantly on the move, Chosen Destinations comprised about 35% of our parking choices.

One time while traveling with our long time Navy friends we decided to spend the winter in CA. Our first stop was the Naval Air Station RV Park at Lemoore, CA. While on active duty I had been stationed there for 4 years. Our traveling friends had a daughter living close by in Hanford, CA.

After spending 2 weeks at Lemoore we had reservations at the Admiral Baker Naval Recreation Facility at San Diego, CA. During the move to San Diego our adventure began. Being windy on our departure day we called the CHP to inquire about wind conditions on I5 at the “Grape Vine” area. Truckers, busses and RV trailers were not permitted to travel the Grape Vine and the condition was expected to last 24 hours. We mapped out another route taking us to Bakersfield & Riverside and on down to San Diego. High winds but we could maintain 55 MPH all the way.

On the way it started raining (In southern CA in the winter time???). We got into our sites at Admiral Baker and the rain continued and kept-up, on and off for the next 2 weeks. Flooding and mud slides were all around us so we decided to leave. We figured going up over the mountains and down into the desert area of southern CA using I8 we would get rid of the rain.

It was right in the middle of snowbird season and finding a long term (2 months) parking site was going to be hard to do. We called all the areas we were passing thru and found nothing. In desperation we decided to call El Centro. It’s nearly closed down in the winter months and the RV park there has more population than the base and is normally completely full all winter. But, unknown to us, it had also been raining constantly there. They had a couple sites for us in a FHU overflow section. The sites backed-up to a ball field. We had 30 amps with another 15 amps available with an extension cord. The base had a smallish commissary, Navy Exchange, and movie theater. Right across the street from our sites was an 8 lane bowling alley, golf driving range and the main mess hall which allowed RV patrons with ID cards to eat there without reservations except on holidays. (And it rained).

El Centro is the winter home of the Naval Flight Demonstration Team, the Blue Angles. On our week two they showed-up and sleeping-in after 8 AM was out of the question from then on, except on rainy days.

El Centro is not equipped to handle large amounts of rainfall. By week four all of the parking lots were full of water. Large tank trucks with vacuum hoses were contracted to collect the water and dump it into the canals. We decided it was time to hunt for another place to park. We drove over to Yuma and started hunting. It had also rained a lot there and some of the snow birds had moved to higher ground and we found 2 sites side by side in a seniors RV park. Very good location and very affordable. We spent the rest of our winter there. A couple years later we spent the whole winter with them, that’s another story.

El Centro Main Gate Area.
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=12630

Our overflow parking area.
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=12628

You can see a little of the ball field in the background.
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=12627

Blue Angles on their flight line.
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=12629

Our parking site at NAS Lemoore.
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=12582

Our Parking sites at Admiral Baker.
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=12615

What the rain did to the deserts around the El Centro/Yuma areas.
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=15329

Our final parking site that winter at Yuma, AZ. From there we would split-up with us heading down the border roads to Corpus Christi and Our friends hearing north to Peoria, IL.
http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=15051


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## C Nash (Feb 4, 2017)

Enjoy the pictures SCcamper.  Love the Blue Angles.  If you ever get the chance to camp at Fort Pickens Pensacola Fl you can watch them practice.  The F 22s will put on a show at Tyndall AFB in April I think.


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## SCcamper (Feb 5, 2017)

I spent 41 years  in US Naval Aviation.  31 active and 10 as a civilian. Before the Blue angles made El Centro their winter home it's designation was NPTR, National Parachute Test Range. I was there in 1976 when the British national parachute demonstration team was there for training. The Flight engineer for their C-130 was my room mate. (His NATO rank was equivalent to mine. I had the only room at the CPO quarters with an extra bed).  He invited me to go up and watch them free fall from 14,000'. After the team landed in the landing zone the C-130 buzzed them at 350 kts,  and 25' off the desert. The C-130 has a huge flight deck and I was seated behind the flight engineer. The team, loading onto a flatbed truck when they saw us coming, dove off and scurried for cover. I vowed to never fly with another Brit.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/falcons/


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