We left our home in Carefree about 9:30 am. It was already warm. First stop was Starbucks which was really busy, but eventually we got our drinks and got back on the road. The plan was to make our way to Yuma.
Jeff had plotted the journey keeping us off freeways as much as possible. We went through Surprise Az, then on past Buckeye Az as well. The countryside turned from desert scrub to agriculture. Most of the time the fields looked various shades of green, and at 50 miles per hour it was impossible to tell what was growing. Beside the road were man made canals, irrigation for the crops. At one point we saw a small group of adults and a couple of little kids standing at the edge of a canal, they appeared to be fishing.....in the canal! Oh well, I thought, maybe the kids just wanted to go fishing and this was the nearest water? Further on down the road we saw a large pipe that was gushing water into the canal......and two birds who were watching this water with interest! We realized there was most likely fish in this canal......the river suppling the water obviously was throwing up fish as well!
Soon the fields were full of cotton. I had no idea cotton grew this far north in America. I really wanted to stop and pick a ball of cotton! There were acres and acres of it.
There is one thing that I particularly dislike on these little road trips is the lack of somewhere decent to eat! We had been on this stretch of road before and had stopped at a little roadside bar called Desert Rose, we were hungry and disappointed that it was closed. It may have been closed for lack of business or because it was Veterans Day. We had no choice but to push on.
Our next stop was Gila Bend, where we succumbed to Macdonalds! I don't know how many years it has been since we dined at Chateau Ronnies.....too many to count.
A couple of hours later we were approaching Yuma.
My school friend Ruth and her husband Jim RV in a park just outside the city and were expecting us around 4pm. We rolled in to sit in the shade drinking cold beer and snacking on nuts and popcorn .
After an hour or so we continued on into our Historic Coronado Hotel in Yuma. Historic means old
and generally from a different era! Not really up to our usual Best Western but it was decent and clean. We settled in and Jeff went off to find some beer. .Ruth and Jim arrived just before 7 and we all drove in their truck to Da Boyz restaurant in the cute little downtown area. There was an important football game on the tv in the restaurant and loud roars were sent up pretty regularly, Jeff and Jim .....most interested. Food, drinks and chatter was lots of fun, all of us having lots to talk about. Ruth and Jim being very familiar with the surrounding area gave us lots of ideas on places to go. We parted a little while later......and I should mention.....when they arrived at the Coronado Ruth gave me a gift.....a super shopping bag with a large colourful picture of Frida on the front. She knew I was/am a fan of her art.
The next morning we headed out to the little town of Julian, which is at the end of a very twisty road that also went up to 4,000 ft elevation, quite a change from Yuma at 150 ft. Julian is a cute small
tourist destination, famous for Apple growing and many businesses selling pies. We spent an enjoyable time there then hit the road towards a Borrego Springs. Not quite sure where we would
spend the night, we passed through Braely and Westmoreland.......nothing looked remotely suitable! So we rolled into Borrego. .......we went out of town several miles to the Borrego Springs Resort and Spa. Spa was closed but pools were open, and we were tired and not into driving at night in the desert. It seemed the hotel was quite occupied but we got a nice room. As we were a good few miles from town we decided to stay at the resort for dinner.......I made a reservation for 6:45. After a bit of r and r at the pool we walked out for dinner. There were two separate dining areas with a bar in between. In the smaller area there were two, large tables filled with women....16 as it turned out. In the large dining area, there wasn’t a soul! , except for us! A bit odd to be there let me tell you! Anyway we made choices from the menu, only to find out they were out of this or didn’t have that! Finally we chose out of the limited things they did have.....disappointing. One surprise was the glass of wine I ordered came filled to the very brim!
I’m sure I was asleep before 9 o’clock , all that fresh mountain air. We heard the coyotes howling through the night. Borrego Springs is one of a few places in the world that is a designated dark
community. This means they don’t have lights after dark so that the magnificent sky can be seen. Of course no one could make the full moon disappear , but it was a beautiful sky.
This morning, we were making our way homeward. We decided after our experience last night at dinner, not to chance breakfast.
We drove into town, Jeff had found at least 3 coffee shops. We went to all three and none had proper espresso machines, at each one we were directed to another......finally the 4th was just perfect, great coffee, fun owners and hot cinnamon buns fresh from the oven.
.....blog is giving me trouble......so I’m signing off....ride home was basically uneventful, arrived at 5 pm and hit the hot tub......sore riding 3days, but fun.
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