We woke to a wonderful warm Arizona morning, with partly cloudy skies. The Doves in the Ficus trees outside were all a-twit with song. We decided to take advantage of the weather and venture out a bit farther away from home.
Our first stop was the Yuma Territorial Prison. An amazing place, it was situated on a perfect hill overlooking the Colorado River that allowed for natural cooling in the summer and temperate conditions in the winter. The inmates worked in the fields, growing their own food, and making items to sell to townspeople. In spite of its reputation, the prison was apparently considered to be a "country club" by the locals.
Donna is looking for a special place to stash the crim whose mug shot appears below:
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Communication with the outside world had to be done in a sly and secret manner!
There were a number of colorful inmates at the prison, but this young lady was one of the most notorious:
This story encourages me to practice my "Yes, Dear" response.
After the prison tour, we went into old town Yuma, to the old Quartermasters Supply Buildings. This restored area is a large grassy area with historical buildings to explore, and, on Sunday's a Farmer's Market. Today there was also a Civil War Re-enactment, complete with muskets, cannon fire, and people dressed in period costume, both men and women. Unfortunately, pictures were discouraged without payment, so I can't share it with you.
The Farmer's Market was along the side of the large grassy area and included a variety of local produce.
One of the vendors was a very nice young lady selling hot sauce. Ana Bella DeAnda has been making her own non tomato based hot sauces for years for her family, who encouraged her to market them to the public. She resisted for years, but realized that the habanero salsa could be a fitting memorial to her late mother, Bella Gloria Gonzalez, who suffered from lung cancer even though she had never smoked. Bella Gloria's grandchildren had always called her Mama Bella, and so the name was born. A donation is made every month to Hospice of Yuma in the name of Mama Bella. The DeAnda family is working on creating a website for Mama Bella Salsa and their goal is to have an on-line store soon. Look for it and enjoy the salsa! Believe me, it is wonderful!
We had a couple of hours to kill, so we drove to the Andrade border crossing to have a look at the area around Algodones, Mexico. Algodones caters to gringos' needs for medicines, dental and optical work, all done by licensed (by whom?) practitioners at a savings reported to be up to 70%. We've talked to several people who have shopped there, and all were satisfied. We didn't bring our passports with us, so we couldn't go into Algodones and look around. Maybe next time.
Then we drove a bit east to the Arizona town of San Luis, again right on the Mexican border. This is the border crossing:
We were just in time to see a huge number of Mexicans crossing the border, probably after a day of working in the US.
One of the interesting things we saw in San Luis was this street sign. Please let me know how to pronounce it:
As I write this, 8:00 pm local time, we're enjoying a huge thunderstorm. Wind, lightening and rain are pounding the trailer. Yuma has already had more than 3 times the average rainfall for January, so they're concerned about flooding. The agricultural fields are a mess and the crops need to be picked. The cantaloupe season has already been delayed, and there's no relief in sight. At least until about next Wednesday. Should be good sleeping tonight!
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