Cutting Horses

Another surprise from the desert. It seems we are so far from just about everything, and yet today we found another event just a few miles away. The horses you see here are called "cutting" horses as they are trained to cut cattle from a herd to be branded. However, this coral holds riders that are preparing to compete in a cutting competition. They are paired up with another rider and have 60 seconds to move 10 heifers from one coral to another.It's not as easy as it sounds. Here's the hard part. There are 12 heifers in one coral. The two riders enter and try to get the heifers, one at a time, into the other coral. To make it even harder each heifer has a number and they must move them in numerical order. Oh, and they throw in 2 with no numbers, so they always have to "cut" right down to their last move. Here you can see the rider on the left has "cut" her heifer and is sending it into coral 2, while her partner heads off to get the next number.

He got his heifer and will now block the entrance, so only the next number will get through and none of the others.

This is very fast riding as they only have 60 seconds. Here you see Number 6 coming through, and the second rider heading off for number 7.

It was a beautiful day, probably around 75, so we had a great day for watching this event.

A Day in Yuma

I love looking at these far blue mountains and how they keep getting lighter and lighter the further they are away. I'd like to get a better picture without the poles and wires, so I may look for a better location tomorrow. However, this is the view we had this morning as we started our adventure into Yuma. As we headed down the back road we saw this team working on the transmission lines. Ron thinks they were cleaning them. The helicopter hovered while the work was being done. This looked like a very dangerous job to us! We went to Old Town Yuma to explore the shops and have lunch. Most of the buildings were empty, but we did find a few nice antique shops.We had lunch at Lutes Casino. This is the states oldest pool hall, now turned restaurant. There were not many people out shopping and when we got to Lutes we found out why. Everyone was in having something to eat. This was the place to be in town. The Answer Machine was on our table and we got to play it for a penny. Not much you can do for a penny these days. We had the "Especial", which was a hamburger and a hot dog combo. Evidently 2 guys were talking and trying to decide which came first, the hamburger or the hot dog. Neither knew, so they put the 2 together and created the "Especial". It was very good, but a lot to eat!

There is more than just food at Lutes. The walls and ceiling are covered with stuff. It's kind of like an I Spy game. Look carefully, you'll see a clock, airplane, a man working on the power lines, spurs, gun, lantern, and pictures galore, and this is just one of the walls. There certainly is enough to keep you occupied while you wait for your food.
You can see just about anything at Lutes. Here's a foot coming through the ceiling right by our table. YIKES!!!

Our drive home takes us through the farm land. Today we saw them picking broccoli.

Notice the mud on the tires? The fields are very wet and muddy. You would think they would get stuck, but they are designed for this type of work.

When we drove back into camp this afternoon Senators Wash was like a mirror. Today was one of the few really nice days we have had. Sunny, warm and finally no wind.

Since we had no wind it was nice enough for a campfire. It was a beautiful evening.

And then the full moon came up. What a beautiful way to top off a beautiful day!

Moon and Sun

The moon came up and the sun went down - and to have a 360 degree view is breathtaking!

Can You Believe It?

Here we are sitting in the desert miles from anywhere and I can still check my email, work on my blog, search the Internet and Skype with Jennifer and Amber. Isn't technology amazing? As we were preparing dinner tonight look who came driving by, the Schwan's truck. You would think we were in the city. Don, a friend of ours, got some ice cream for desert. We saw several people stopping him, so I'm sure he did well here today. It's better than running 20 miles into the grocery store. The desert is full of surprises!

Thursday Outing

Ron and I went for a little outing today. We drove towards Yuma and out into the farm country. The fields are beautiful with their different colors of produce. Here is a field of lettuce, not head lettuce, but the leafy varieties. These people are picking head lettuce.

Look at this field of cilantro. Wouldn't it make a lot of salsa!

This is an amazing field of very nice looking romaine. You can see some of the date palms in the background. This a close up of another date orchard.
We stopped at the orchard and got date shakes. They are a special treat in this area.

Quail Potholder

When we were in Quartzsite I found this pattern for a crocheted Quail potholder. It was so cute I just had to make one. Fortunately I brought all my hooks and some yarn with me. It's perfect for my teapot, which gets very hot.

The Liberry

Today we went to the "Liberry". Yup, the sign really does say "Liberry". It always has and probably always will. Right now it is a little hard to get to the liberry as there is still standing water around it from the "Big Storm". There usually is not a lake in front of it. A few days ago you could not get to it. The water has now gone down just enough for a car to drive around the left side of this picture.
Here you see Linda and Betty entering the liberry. On the table to the right is where you can put anything you don't want. If you see something you can use you just take it. It's the desert's version of a "Goodwill" store.Inside the liberry is very well organized. It reminded me of going to the Bookmobile. The books are all organized by mystery, western, romance and etc. They are on the shelf in alphabetical order by author, so it is very easy to find what you are looking for. They also have games and puzzles. Once again, it's just a matter of taking what you can use. If you have books you are finished with you put them on a return shelf and they add them to the liberry collection. This system seems to work very well for the desert dwellers and it was a fun outing for us. It doesn't take much to keep us happy.

New Camp Site

We have moved to a new campsite. We are now near the U. S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds. It's about 20 miles from Yuma and out in the desert on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Land. We have crossed to the west side of the Colorado River, so are actually in California. Just to the left of the helicopter you can see some tiny white dots. Those are RVs camped out in the desert. We are following Norm and Rosemary as we drive to our camp. We are in the area called Florida Flats. Doesn't look much like Florida does it? Again, like in Quartzsite, you just find a spot you like and park. Like they say, "Wherever you park it, it is home." It costs $40.00 to stay on BLM land for 2 weeks. They do have a sewer dump and a place to get water. Once again, notice the nice road. We were not here during the storm, but we could see it was nothing but mud.

On our way to camp we saw these 2 burros. They occasionally walk right through the camp area. They sure don't seem to be afraid of people. You are not supposed to feed them, but I have a feeling some people do as they think we might have food for them.This is a picture of our camp area. We are definitely on the top of the world here. You can see our coach on the left, then Norm and Rosemary's and then a friend of theirs.As the sun sets it touches on the mountains around us. It really is beautiful.

Then and Now

The storm just got worse after my last post. We have now heard that it was 10 miles wide and about 125 miles long. There were wind gusts from 60-75 mph. They really shook our motorhome. I took this picture from our door. It looks like fog, but it's really rain being blown by the wind.

Most of the vendors are in pop up tents. They couldn't withstand the wind and rain. This is all that was left of some of them the next morning. We saw one lady wringing out the balls of yarn she had for sale. We felt sorry for all of them.

What a difference a day makes. This was taken today. Same view as above, but from the top of our motorhome. This is what camping in the desert is supposed to look like.

We went shopping at The Main Event today. There are several different shopping areas, just like different strip malls in a town. Some are large and some are VERY large. There's The Big Tent, Rice Ranch, Tyson Wells, and Sam's Swapmeet.

When we got home it was actually nice enough to sit outside and do some stitching. There was a cool breeze blowing, so it was best to be out of the wind.