Day trip to Yuma.....

Our Location: just outside Borrego Springs, California

(Most pictures taken through the window of the Dogsled at 60+ miles per hour, not the cleanest of windows, sorry for the poor quality)

I slept well last night all nice and cozy, didn’t wake up until just before 7 am. Hurried outside and snapped a few pictures of the sunrise. Sent a text message to my sister Jan since I haven’t heard from her for a while. She called me pretty quick and we had a chance to chatter. She’s going to be a grandma again, that will make #6 for her. I think she’ s pretty excited. 

Sunrise this morning....

Riley and I had our hot drink and biscuits for breakfast this morning as we weren’t really in a hurry but we did have some plans. Dressed, cleaned up both ourselves and the Igloo, we left the windows and vents open for HRH Miss Kitty so she wouldn’t have any issues, ensured she had plenty of food and water before we tossed our drinking water jugs, and garbage into the truck and headed off to Yuma. Yes I know it’s a long drive and yes I know we could go park there but well we weren’t really sure if we wanted to do that. So we thought we’d take a drive and check things out before making a commitment with the Igloo. 

Heard at least 4 of these guys going over this morning...

We left around 9 am, and the first thing I did was argue with the GPS. She wanted to take us in a totally weird direction which I didn’t figure out until we were almost back home tonight. So we took the longer route via Salton City. We enjoyed the drive back through the ‘badlands’ as I’ve heard it referred to. We stopped here and there and checked out the views. Except for the smell I’d love to park there but I’m not sure I could handle the smell for days on end. The views while breathtaking and inspiring just don’t make enough difference in my opinion. We also managed to stop at the ACRO station to rid ourselves of our trash.

 

This guy was the closest but still pretty far up..

We headed south taking US 86, and eventually onto California 111, then eventually onto I-8 east bound. Riley sent Patsy (Chillin’ with Patsy) a text message asking where we could find the famed Lin’s Chinese Buffet. Miss Patsy, ever the sweetheart sent us the desired information and informed us they were off to prison. I’ll let her tell you about that. Thanks again Patsy.

I like this one with the moon in it ....

We found our way to the Arizona Marketplace about noon. It was an interesting place to be certain, but I didn’t see any fantastic prices. They were okay on some things but not so great on others. I will say we enjoyed the walk though, it was interesting, we managed to find a couple of nice t’s that we liked and so that was our purchase. We didn’t even find any hats to suit us. We must be pretty picky! I did see a nice little purse that I wish I’d picked up but well perhaps another time.

Can you see 3 of them in this picture with the moon?

We thought for certain our ears were going to explode when they started up the karaoke, who ever was up there couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket never mind sing. It was horrendous and you could see people hurrying to get far enough away so to as to keep their ears from exploding. Truly painful to hear. The next few people were actually very good but before long we were far enough away that we couldn’t really hear it. Suited us fine. 

 

That is the Salton Sea out there...

 We found some nice recliners, theatre seating, etc and a nice fella named Craig sent us to their store just down the way  for more selection. We continued our browsing and before long had seen about all there was to see, bought what we wanted and headed back to the Dogsled. Since we had driven here to look at furniture we headed down to Newberry’s furniture as per Craig’s instructions. We found several chairs that were okay, a couple that would pass the test, and Riley found one that she was pretty sure she fall in love with. I found one that was perfect in firmness but I didn’t care for the looks of it. We chatted with David, the sales fellow there but other than having them order something we weren’t going to find what we wanted. Ordering takes up to 4 weeks and we aren’t staying in the area that long. Oh well, we’ll keep looking. So with that question answered we know we won’t be hauling down to Yuma this year. 

Taken from the Dogsled window as we pass by the 'badlands' on Borrego-Salton Sea Way....

From there we headed out to Lin’s as I’ve been hearing about this place for some time now. It was later in the day and as we pulled into the parking lot, I was pretty certain it wasn’t going to work out. The lot was pretty full, only about a half dozen empty spots that I could see for parking. We parked and headed inside, again another indication it wasn’t going to work was the amount of people waiting for a table. The chairs were all full and some folks were standing, plus some more were in the line to sign in for a table. One look at Riley and I knew it wasn’t going to happen unless we could get seated very quickly. The time for seating was at least 20 minutes, probably longer. Riley shook her head no, and we were out the door. I knew she was upset but I offered once more to wait. We’ll leave it at that.

 

Love the colour of the sand here at Imperial Dunes....

Back in the Dogsled we headed off in the direction of home. It was a pretty quiet drive for about 10 minutes then slowly she started being less upset. We shared a granola bar and chatted about the possibilities available. We arrived in Brawley and headed for the Walmart. What a different looking building than we are used to, no blue of any kind. We proceeded to do our grocery shopping and of course due to Super Bowl and late in the day they had no rotisserie chicken that Riley usually gets, so we had to settle for deep fried, which was a treat for us. I ordered a handful of potato wedges as well. 

 

Sorry reflection in the window...

Back in the Dogsled we shared the wedges, and Riley started to nibble on the chicken. We stopped at the Family Dollar in Westmoreland for water, where it is only $1.00 for 5 gallons. I was hoping to make it home just about dark but it wasn’t to be as the road backed up 1/4 mile from the border patrol check point. It came to a complete stop, roll ahead, stop, then roll for a bit, then stop, finally they started just rolling us through, and about 20 minutes later were were making a left hand turn on to Hwy 76 toward Borrego Springs.

 

Don't you love the ripple effect ?

Before we reached Borrego Springs full dark had fallen. I dislike driving after dark as I find it very difficult to see with on coming headlights. They don’t seem to be where they should be, instead of one behind the other they appear to be one beside the other and it’s very unnerving to see a line of cars coming at you side by side instead of in a row. However it didn’t take long to get through the little town of Borrego Springs and back to home dirt. It was just before turning at Christmas Circle that I realized what the GPS had been trying to do this morning. It wanted us to take Borrego Springs Road out to Henderson Canyon Road, instead of making the turn and using SR22. This morning she wanted us to do that in reverse. 
 

Taken overlooking the 'badlands' on our outing today....

I passed our purchases into Riley and finished unloading the truck, locking it for the night before heading inside. Once inside we put everything away, grabbing a bite to eat. After one piece of chicken I’d had enough. It always looks so good but never tastes as good as it looks.

 

I just love these dunes...

I wasn’t going to write a post tonight as I’m pretty tired but well here I am doing it anyway. We enjoyed our day for the most part, but won’t be going back to Yuma this year. Maybe next year. We did however enjoy the sites of the dunes on our drive. Extremely beautiful to look at, although I doubt we’d want to stay too near by with all of those dune buggies, razors and quads tearing around. The dust would be horrible, not to mention the noise.  

The dark mountains contrast nicely with the light dunes, don't you think?

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. It is my sincere wish that you enjoyed your day doing whatever it is you were doing. Feel free to drop a comment, I read them all.

 

Seen through the window of the truck....

Until next time….  take care, be safe,


Deb