3:10 To Yuma

 

I crossed over from the southeast corner of the state to the southwest corner of the state. I decided it was time to get a mail drop from back home plus I wanted to order a bunch of stuff from Amazon so I stayed at the Blue Sky Ranch RV Park – a 55+ “resort” in Yuma. As far as I can tell, an RV resort means that besides the normal full hookups, you have shuffleboard, pool, hot tub and planned activities. All the planned activities were canceled due to Covid. It also means that you are crammed in tighter than tight. We happened to be parked across the street from the dog park which was a tiny little patch of green grass where all the little tiny fou-fou dogs could get off leash. It seemed to be “the” place for all the55+ guys to hang out together.

Yuma is the home of the Yuma Territorial Prison which has been featured in several different westerns, mostly in the fifties. It was originally supposed to be located in Phoenix, but when the Territorial Congress all left for lunch one day, the Yuma representative crossed out the word Phoenix and replaced it with Yuma and history was made. The prison operated from 1876 to 1909 and was known as both 'Hell on Earth” and the “Country Club” depending on who you talked to. It seemed that the prison superintendents really wanted to use the prison as a rehabilitation center and make it livable so they installed flush toilets, a library and trained the inmates for life after prison. The prison also had the very first telephone in Yuma. Since the prison had all of these amenities, the townspeople of Yuma , who had none of these luxury items called it the Country Club. If you were an inmate, you had a totally different view based on the extreme heat, the hard work and the high death rate because of illness. Mainly tuberculosis, diphtheria and typhoid.

The first prisoners had to build their own cells

Six people to a cell

And here they are

Oh No!!! Trouble in River City

The Colorado River separates California and Arizona. Yuma, which is right on the border has created a lovely park, the West Wetlands. Miko and I walked along the river and it was lovely to see greenery and water. They had a massive playground for the kids which they called the Castle. I wonder why.

The Castle

I'm not sure what this footprint is.  MY shoe is next to it for size.  Frog?

The mighty Colorado River

Martha's Garden is a Medjool date farm. Again my timing was an issue. I was a week too early for the date trolley tours. Instead I watched a home made slide show presentation on how one grows dates. I was surprised at what a hands-on, time-consuming process it is. I had a date shake which has been on my to-do list in like forever. The flavor was good, but the consistency reminded me of a Wendy's shake. There was a lovely garden to sit in surrounded by the date trees.

Medjool Date Palm Trees

A Lovely Garden to Enjoy My Date Shake

The Date Shake

Speaking of fast food, I ate at my first Jack-In-The-Box. I googled the best thing on the menu and ordered a burger and curly fries. I think the grease level was pretty astronomical. It was a couple of hours before I felt a little less queasy again.