We escaped the cold of Massachusetts and flew to Yuma, Arizona for two weeks of sunshine and visiting with our winter friends at Westwind and Araby Acres.
We floated in the pool every day, sipped piña coladas, and soaked up much-needed Vitamin D. We spent a day in Mexico, shopping in Los Algodones, where Joe visited his dentist and we enjoyed lunch, live music, and beers before heading home. We read, Sarah painted, and we grew a few new freckles.
Can you spot sun-safe Sarah in the pool?
We found a new caretaker for Cornelia and said our goodbyes to our faithful RV home. She kept us safe and comfortable for four winters and we will miss her, but she is going to be well-loved by her new owner and will continue to live in the desert.
We bade farewell to sunny Yuma on Saturday and struck east for Deming, New Mexico. Crossing the Continental Divide at more than 4, 000 feet, Mike was struggling with the winds and the long, slow inclines. We made it into town at 7:57 pm local time; Si Senor (highly recommended to us by friends) closes at 8:00 pm, so we tried Cactus Cafe, instead. Delicious tacos, a homemade mushroom swiss burger and cold beer filled us up!
On Sunday morning, Mike just did not want to start. We were stuck until garages would open on Monday. There is not much to do in Deming, New Mexico. Joe made two trips to Walmart on foot and we settled in for an afternoon of Netflix and naps. PBJ for dinner!
No one in Deming could work on Mike, but the VanAlert app pointed us to Fox Land Auto in El Paso, Texas – 82 miles away. Gerry from AAA re-arranged his morning plans and safely towed us to Rico’s garage. Journey was a champ riding alone in the van being towed backwards for an hour and a half, while we sat in the tow truck cab with Gerry. it was about this time last year that Mike broke down on our way to Vegas. I think he’s trying to tell us he wants to stay in Yuma.
Rico conferred with our Vegas mechanic who rebuilt the engine last summer. After running some compression tests, we all agreed a leaky valve was probably the culprit. Rico also installed an electrical starter component, giving us more power and reliability.
We took an Uber to the Travelodge and checked in for the afternoon. Rico and his father had Mike fixed by the end of the day!
Rico, Sr. trained in Germany – worked on VWs for his whole career!
We celebrated with dinner at Carlos & Mickey’s Cantina. Sarah reacquainted herself with melon margaritas!
This winter we were kept busy with puppy training, in addition to our usual schedule of fun in the sun with our snowbird pals. Most days, we would head to the pool around lunchtime for a floating visit with friends. Stories were spun and jokes were shared and we all had a good time not shoveling snow.
Joe golfed on a few occasions and thought about joining the pickleball craze, but they start playing at 8:00 a.m. which is way too early to be bouncing around competitively!
Sarah quilted, joined a crafty card-making group, and painted a bit. We both read a lot of books and on colder evenings, watched Arizona PBS Check, Please and Finding Your Roots.
We flew back east for a long weekend visit with our grandchild to watch the Super Bowl. A quick road trip to Newport Beach for Joe to attend his Football Dinner gave Journey a chance to stick her paws in the Pacific Ocean.
We are grateful for another winter in the southwest desert. Thanks to all who came to visit us this season!
Adopting another dog, after Molly, was not a sure thing for us. In our marriage, we have been blessed with three extraordinary dogs, all adopted as adults/seniors. Shasta taught us the benefits of living with a retired service dog and Molly eventually completed training to work as Sarah’s service dog. When we started to look for a new dog, we were daunted by how the rescue/foster system has devolved into a money-making cottage industry. Folks are adopting the best-behaved dogs from the shelters and then re-packaging them as available for adoption for huge “re-homing” fees, rivaling the cost of purchasing a pure-bred puppy.
We continued our research and met several candidates in shelters in different states. None of them passed all of the tests we had set; a potential service dog must be calm and relaxed, responsive when approached, and accept boundaries and training readily. A dog that is clearly frustrated, reactive to people or other dogs, has issues with resource guarding, or is overly sensitive to touch cannot easily be trained to work as a service companion. Hip health is also important. It has been more than thirty years since Sarah last raised a puppy and Joe has only lived with adult dogs. Puppies are a big commitment and require a huge investment of time and patience. But as our search for an adult rescue dog with potential for service training continued with no definite results, we started to consider the benefits of puppy-raising.
This youngster was born in Indiana last June at Foxwood K-9. This extraordinary kennel is powered by solar and geothermal systems and the dogs are raised with love. She was ready to come home to us at the end of November. Because we were getting ready to leave Cape Cod for the winter, it was tricky to figure out the best way for our new pup to get to us. Delivery options were compromised by airline restrictions so we landed on the idea of picking her up directly from the kennel in Shipshewana.
We flew to Detroit on a Tuesday morning, picked up a one-way rental car, and drove to Indiana. We picked up puppy supplies and the puppy and headed out west. Thank goodness she adapted to car travel without incident! Mornings were spent bonding with Sarah in the front seat and the rest of the afternoon was spent sleeping in her crate. The three nights in hotels were relatively easy as she slept in her crate without complaint.
On our second day, we passed a sign that said we were 90 degrees west of Greenwich – one-quarter of the way around the world! An hour later we saw Mark Twain’s boyhood home before crossing the Mississippi River into Missouri. Chillicothe, MO is the Home of Sliced Bread and Sarah was stoked to stop at Missouri Star Quilts. After lunch, we passed by the birthplace of Jesse James. And in Kansas City, we met Boon and his human who works at Bar K Dog Park. We slept in Hays, KS.
Thursday’s adventures included meeting a flock of chickadees in a pre-dawn cold walk before loading up the car and heading into Colorado where we gained another hour due to entering Mountain Standard Time. The temperature was a bit warmer (56 F) as we cruised through Denver and headed up into the Rocky Mountains. When Journey woke up after lunch we were at ten thousand feet elevation in Vail and found Bighorn Park to introduce her to the snow. We stopped in Green River, UT (pop. 847) for the night – known for watermelons and its annual Melon Fest.
Friday morning was a bit tense as we got caught in a blizzard coming over the summit to Salina, UT. While Journey slept blissfully unaware, Joe did a great job navigating the un-plowed road and we made it to Mom’s Cafe for breakfast by mid-morning. We time-traveled to Mesquite Dog Park (Pacific Time Zone) before steering into the megalopolis called Vegas.
Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona
We saw a lot of sights and experienced a range of weather conditions (sun, rain, sleet, snow, winds, hail) on our journey cross-country. We returned the rental car in Las Vegas, picked up Mike (with his refurbished engine!) and after visiting our friends Friday night, we turned south to Yuma on Saturday morning.
We will be staying here in Arizona for the winter and plan to drive cross-country back home to Cape Cod in March. In these first weeks living together, we have set new routines, started training classes, and adapted to sharing our RV with our growing four-legged goofball. Her antics as she explores and learns about the world are keeping us smiling and we made more friends at the RV park in one week than the entire winter season last year. Everyone wants to pet the white, friendly puppy.
Joe proposed registering her as “Journey” because it was a journey to find her, we trekked cross-country on a literal road trip to pick her up, and we look forward to sharing many travel adventures together. She has the perfect name!
Historians and biblical scholars now believe that the honey referenced in the Book of Exodus refers not to bees’ honey but to the syrup prepared from dates. Turns out that the best way to preserve this highly nutritious fruit is to soak, cook, extract and reduce its syrup. As one of the oldest foods cultivated in the Mediterranean region, it makes complete sense that a reference to abundance would include good date production.
Medjool (Arabic majhūl) dates are known as the king’s fruit, once reserved only for royalty. These dates are large and sweet. Almost a century ago, California growers imported eleven medjool date palms from Morocco and nine survived, spawning the spread of date farming in the southwest United States.
Why are dates so expensive? It is a labor-intensive commercial crop, with farmers devoting most of their land to female date palms (which produce the edible fruit) and keeping just a few males or even purchasing the pollen when it is time to pollinate the female flowers. After the fruit buds form, each strand is thinned to allow better air circulation and bigger fruit. By August, the fruit bundles are bagged to protect from birds, insects, and dust. Dates are harvested by hand in the fall, sorted, graded, and sent to cold storage.
We learned all about date farming with a visit to Martha’s Gardens, here in Yuma. After sharing a delicious date shake by the courtyard fountain, we headed home taking the road less traveled.
After 1.5 miles of sketchy sandy trails, we determined the large CAT bulldozer parked on the trail was a good indicator that we were not on a sanctioned road! We carefully re-traced our tracks in the dust and made it back out to the secure pavement. Watch the video below of this adventure for Mike the van!
We welcomed 2022 in Yuma, Arizona. Santa brought us some bikes and a new portable propane firepit for us to enjoy outdoor living in the desert. We got our porch set up (photo above) with twinkly lights so we can read outside in the evenings. Sarah will likely add some more artistic touches as the winter goes on!
new-to-us bicycles
Mike and Cornelia waiting for Santa
Trainspotting
Wetlands restoration project at Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area
Great Egret is just one of many birds rehabilitating the wetlands
Where in the world are the Gills? 