It's a date!

Yuma, AZ – Finally, we’ve found heat. Take-off-your-shoes, put-on-a-T-shirt, think-about-sunscreen heat. We’ve been seeking it for nearly a month and it’s a fine, fine feeling. 

If we had traveled any further today, we would have hit California, we’re that close here in Yuma.  We approached the city from a rise of land so we could see all of it spread out below – and it is really spread out.  It seems that the city’s greatest population source is people with RVs.  We passed at least a dozen huge RV resorts, not to mention a considerable number of RV servicing businesses.

The RV park that our directory recommended had only one site left when I called this morning – a small spot shaped like a pie slice, so we got a discount on it. Lucky for us, we have a small rig, but even so, we had to detach the car and snuggle it right up to the back of the motorhome to fit on the site.  However, we are not complaining!

This morning when we headed out, we took Interstate 19 north toward Tucson and switched to the I-10 as we entered the city.  On the other side of Tucson, near Casa Grande, we split from the I-10, which heads for Phoenix, and turned westward on the I-8.

Miles of desert scenery stretched out before us, with rugged mountains on the horizon that looked like dark chocolate. Lots of wildflowers bloomed along the roadside; yellow, orange, pink, red, purple and white.  Yellow grasses mingled with sage-coloured shrubs, and we passed saguaro cacti, sometimes standing alone like a sentinel, other times bristling like a forest, and then, miles with none at all.  I caught sight of a real live roadrunner in the desert, but that was the only wildlife all day.

After lunch, we arrived at a small town in the middle of nowhere, called Dateland.  Darrell had told us yesterday to look out for it, because at the gas station there they serve date milkshakes.  Not to be missed!  A large grove of tall date palms stood behind the building.  Inside, visitors could order the shake (Val’s choice), or date bread, muffins, squares and my choice, a slice of date pecan pie. Delicious!  On the gift shop side were shelves and shelves of Medjool dates, as well as other varieties, and a tasting counter so you could pick your favourite. 

The cashier told us a Canadian couple started the enterprise about 20 years ago.  I looked it up, and sure enough, in 1994 Roland and Charna Walker of Calgary, AB bought the town of Dateland, which was on the auction block, and turned it into the popular attraction it now is. Good for them!

Surrounding Yuma are acres and acres of farmland, and between November and March, 90 per cent of the leafy greens eaten across the country comes from Yuma! Agritourism is a secondary focus, and people can take hands-on tours of farms, harvesting greens in the morning and enjoying lunches made from them by culinary school students. We tried to book such a tour but all the dates till the end of March are sold out.  We had our dates today anyway.