And what a Yuha of a day it was!  We left our last night's quarters all bundled up in 32 degree temps and arrived in Brawley, CA at 77 degrees, stripped of all of our cold weather gear.   The desert was stunning - white lilys, purple, yellow and orange flowers dotting the stark sand colored landscape.  It is amazing how so much greenery can survive in an area with so little rainfall.  We were astounded by the presence of the Border Patrol, who seemed to comprised 50% of the traffic that passed us this morning.  In addition to the temperature change, we dropped 4000 feet and are now actually below sea level!  We were on Interstate 8 for a long descent through a canyon of almost pure boulder mountains, very little green.