No date + one date = Dateland

Friday March 17. Day 14. Yuma to Dateland. 55 miles or about 95 km.

Michael, our host, had breakfast ready. Scrambled eggs,  hashbrowns, sausages, and toast with homemade jam. A true feast.

Somehow, while Michael was cooking, guns became the topic of discussion. Michael, a retired police officer told me that he has 5 guns in his home with the necessary ammunition. I was speechless. Why do you need a gun and why so many? Well one in each room/car and one on my body for when I can't get to my other gun in case of a burglary and for self protection.  But doesn't that defeat the purpose when every Amercan does the same? It is food for thought. 

We said our goodbyes to some awesome people and were on our way. A much shorter, hopefully, day than yesterday. A day with very little services. 

We continued to ride through the desert and the terrain was mostly flat. I noticed that in between the dry bushes, sand and spring flowers, acres of vegetables would appear. Heavy irrigation is needed in order to make anything grow in a desert. A costly way of growing vegetables.

Slowly the landscape began to change and a fair bit of climbing awaited us. To be followed with more desert separated by one straight road. Just when I felt that the ride was becoming boring a ridge of mountains made up of reddish stone appeared in front of us. Just amazing.

Today we also saw many cargo trains. 3 locomotives in front and sometimes 2 at the back. They are very long and a pleasure to see them pass us.

Soon it was lunchtime but there was no shade to be found and it was 26 degrees Celcius. So on we went till we came upon a little Mexican store that had an overhang providing us with some shade and a bench to sit on.  Vicki went inside talking with 2 Mexican men. All 3 came out and a miscommunication happened. Vicki said "talking" while the 2 men thought "tacos". 10 minutes later they handed us each a burrito! People are so kind. 

Our camping is in Dateland, the capital of dates. No I don't have a date 🤪 but I ate one. They make date milkshakes and ice cream.  The store/restaurant/camping is the only place in Dateland. While we were setting up camp a lady came over and invited us over for dinner. So we made quick work of getting ourselves organized or sort of and headed over to a huge 5th wheel. We had pasta and some great conversations. An end to a great day.