The Chocolate Mountains

On Tuesday we made another visit to downtown Yuma to go to the Farmers Market and have lunch at the Garden Cafe.  We had made reservations the previous week and a good thing we did as the place was packed.  Walkups were told it would be at least an hour wait.  It is a very popular restaurant, especially on Tuesday as that is the day of the Farmers Market just one block away on Main St.  There was also a group of about 30 ladies all in red hats and purple dresses.  I had no idea who these garishly dressed women were but Lori informed me the were a chapter of the Red Hat Society.  That still mean nothing to me so as we were waiting for our meal I googled them on my phone.  Turns out they are a social group of 50+ women whose uniform requires any combination of red and purple.

To get to the Garden Cafe you take a narrow alley which is lined with 2 birdcages.  We happened on this during our last trip to the farmers market strictly by chance.

One of the birdcages contained two little lovebirds.  Cute as can be and I am sure they were joined at the wing as they never ventured any further apart than in this picture.

The narrow alley opened up into this little courtyard which contained a hairdressing salon and a few little artsy type shops.

At the rear of the courtyard was another short alley that opened up to the Garden Cafe.

 It is simply lovely.  All outdoors, surrounded by bushes and flowers.  The Bougainvillea are all in bloom and make a nice backdrop for the ladies from the Red Hat Society.  Perhaps thats why they chose this restaurant.

 We were seated right next to a large bird coup.  In addition to a number of sparrows that flew in through the chicken wire there were some morning doves and a very peculiar looking pigeon.

Lori was quite transfixed by the activity of all the birds.

You can see the red hats and purple dresses of the Red Hatters in the background.

Here he is.  I think its a dove.  Had kind of a ruff behind his head that stood out as he was strutting in front of his mate.  Also that tail kind of fanned out much like a peacock.  It was quite the display.  His mate didn't seem impressed though.
Keeping in mind that it is spring we got to see our own fowl version of 50 Shades of Grey.

I had the Cobb Salad Sandwich with an Apple salad and Lori had a very large piece of Quiche with a large piece of Fruit Bread.  Both were delicious.  

This was the backdrop behind and above the bird coup.  Not sure what kind of tree but it was in full bloom, just like so many of the plants down here.











Since the temps have been in the 90's the past few days we have been restricting our physical activity to an hours walk with Charli early in the morning.  Wednesday we decided on a driving tour that took us north to the Chocolate Mountains and across the Imperial Dunes.  

 When we first came to Az the Ocotillo looked like a dead plant.  Just brown branches sticking up from a clump in the ground.  We were told they weren't dead and we would see greenery and blooms in the spring.  Well here it is, Spring and the Ocotillo branches are covered in small green leaves from the ground up.  At the tips of each branch are delicate orange flowers.  Very striking against the desert sand.

Lori asked me to slow down as the roller coaster road was having an unsettling effect on her tummy.

You can see the Chocolate mountains in the background.  Given their name by the colour of the rocks and soil.

 As we came through the mountains we came upon the Imperial Dunes.  They are only about 6-8 miles wide but run from the Mexican border up the east side of California for perhaps a hundred miles or more.

Can you picture Hans Solo being dropped into the gaping mouth of that desert snake monster.

That scene was shot here somewhere.

 The Chocolates in the background.

 We stopped at a scenic overlook which was basically a large dune with a road to the top, a level parking area, washrooms and a picnic table where we had lunch.











After we drove through the Dunes we came out to green fields and dairy farms.  Saw one custom combining operation and they had to have 50 John Deere Combines sitting in their yard.  The contrast from the Chocolates and the Dunes, where it doesn't appear that any plant life, other than cactus, can be sustained, to the rich agriculture in the Imperial Valley is quite amazing.

On Thursday we ran a few errands and hung around the trailer looking for shade.  Friday we dropped in on Richard and Betty for one last visit before we depart on Sunday.  Friday evening we were out for a walk in the park and this guy approaches us and warns us not to take Charli out in the desert at night cause the Scorpions are out.  He also said that he spotted a foot long lizard.  No rattle snakes though.  He told us that a black light makes the Scorpions standout against the sand so when we got back to the trailer we got out our little blacklight flashlight and shone it over the fence behind our site.  And to our amazement what did our eyes behold.  With a regular flashlight the scorpion appears translucent and is hardly visible against the sand.  With a blacklight this is what we saw.  Lori wants to go out tonight and find some more.  I'm wearing my hightop hikers and jeans and bringing a big stick.   Next thing you know she's going to take up hang gliding.  She is becoming such a dare devil.

This is our last post from Yuma.  A Park employee dropped by the trailer this morning to give us our final bill which includes the cost of our electricity for the month.  $50. and we hardly ever ran the A/C, have LED lights in the trailer but did have our fans running constantly.  Hate to see the bill if we had run the A/C.  First thing I did when the guy left our trailer is close all the windows and turned on both A/C's full blast.  30,000 BTU should cool this sucker off.  I have noticed that Lori has been a little owly and short tempered during our stay here.  I tried giving her a Snickers bar but that didn't seem to help.  Never trust a TV commercial.  Once I turned the A/C on....lets just say I haven't seen her smile like that in a month.  Must have been the heat.  Certainly can't be the company she's been keeping.
 
We are off on Sunday to Lake Havasu for 2 weeks.  It the middle of spring break and we are assured that we will see lots of wild life, although of a different kind.  I'm told to keep an eye out for young men in pursuit of young ladies wearing teeny weenie itsy bitsy yellow polka dotted bikini's.  Thanks for the tip Richard.  Wonder if I have time to buy a larger zoom lens.

Actually we have been toying with the idea of reducing our stay to 1 week and heading over to Sedona for a week and then up to the Grand Canyon and Page before heading home.  Sedona is a place we wanted to go next year and this will be like a scouting trip.  Its also 10-15 degrees cooler there and that would be a welcome relief.

Thats all for now.  Talk to you from Havasu.