The wind is horrible this morning. I listened to it blowing during the night and feels almost like a winter morning.
We decided to check out 'old town' located on main street in downtown Yuma. We first found the visitor's center which is near the river in the Quartermaster Depot State Park. When we found the park area they had a large Civil War Re-enactment going on. We looked around the visitor's center and picked up books and pamphlets with information on the Yuma area.
We drove back to main street, parked and walked through a few of the shops located along this area. None of the shops looked like they would be in business within the year. There was nothing unique about any of them and I wondered how they could possibly make enough to pay their rent. The wind is just horrible and it's hard to decide if a jacket is needed or not. When in the sun and out of the wind, it's quite warm but once the wind hits, it is very very cool. One of the shop owners said the foot traffic in 'old town' was down considerably because of the wind being so cold. I would hope that today's shoppers are not a normal day for these places.
Inside Lutes Casino We continued walking and found Lutes Casino. I have read a lot about this place which is basically a restaurant and bar. The history on Lutes states it was never a casino but rather a billiard and domino hall in 1901. It is a quirky place with lots of crazy antique items hanging from the ceiling and old posters on the wall. The front of the restaurant has bars on the windows and doors and a large window where they are preparing food on the grills. The history states that the Lutes family obtained the building from the original owner due to a gambling debt owed to the family. With most things, I'm a little disappointed after all I've read about the place.
We found a table and ordered a pitcher of beer and looked at the menu. I read their hamburgers are the best but wasn't in the mood for another hamburger just yet. We decided to split a tri tip sandwich and an order of onion rings. We ordered the Philly style tri tip and it came on a hoagie bun with peppers, onions and cheese. When we were in Mesa last year we had a tri tip sandwich at one of the craft shows that was wonderful. Tri tips are a special cut of beef that is known for it's tender texture. Arizona is the only place I have seen tri tip as an offering. Our food came and we were both a little disappointed in the sandwich. The meat was wonderfully tender but just no flavor to speak of. We doctored it with ketchup which helped considerably! The onion rings were very good and of course, the beer made it all go down smoothly. We ordered another small pitcher of beer and listened to the piano player who was quite entertaining.
When we left 'old town', we drove over to Home Depot as Larry is still looking for a lightweight ladder for the RV. While there, I looked at the rope lights and found a 48 ft. length for $35, which was far cheaper than anyplace else we've looked, so decided to buy.
I looked up the address for Lowe's and we drove over to price their ladders. We found that Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe's all carry basically the same ladder for various prices. Larry decided to look around a little more before buying.
We headed home with the idea we might give the cats a little time outside in their new pet cage. When we got back to the RV the winds were still bad and the temperature had cooled so decided the cats would not be so thrilled to be outside today.
I looked through the brochures we pick up at the visitor's center and found many interesting facts about the produce agriculture here in Yuma. I read that Yuma County has over 530 farms averaging 1,435 acres each. Some of the crops grown here include, lettuce, spinach, onions, apples, endive, figs, kale, squash, mustard greens, okra, radishes, zucchini and tomatoes. There are 13,000 acres of broccoli, 7,000 acres of Cauliflower, 10,500 acres of melons, including cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelons. The citrus farms are fewer than in years past because grower's found other countries can grow it cheaper. Lemons are the citrus most produced here with about 12,000 acres of groves. There are still a few orange and grapefruit groves in the area. Another crop that is produced in the Yuma area is something called Jojoba. According to the brochure, Jojoba is grown for the liquid wax contained in it's seeds. Jojoba is commonly added to soaps, shampoos and cosmetics.
Yuma is also a large producer of Medjool Dates which is a $35 million dollar industry. Last week we stopped at the farmer's market located in the parking lot of the Yuma Mall. While shopping one of the vendor's offered us a Medjool Date which I found to be very good. I have never been a fan of dates but these were very tasty. There are several stores around Yuma, owned by the Bard Date Company, that offer stuffed dates, chocolate covered dates and the much advertised Date Shake. It was interesting to read about the intense care needed for the growth of these dates. Yuma is one of the only areas producing the Medjool Dates outside of the Middle East. It is basically a 12 month care program which includes, thinning of the trees, de-thorning and each fruit cluster must be draped with bags to prevent birds eating the fruit or the fruit falling to the ground. It takes 7 years for a tree to start producing fruit and a tree can live up to 60 years and beyond. The surprising thing I read was a date tree only thrives in low humidity and high heat but one tree can consume 100 gallons of water per day!
The Yuma area is also a producer of cotton, 40,000 acres of wheat and 35,000 acres of alfalfa. The wheat and alfalfa grown here feed thousands of head of cattle, some locally owned and others by large corporations who own over 120,000 head of cattle. Sheep are also a local industry but the sheep are basically imported to the Yuma area from the northern states in late September, because of it's winter climate. The sheep are brought to the Yuma area to graze the fields, bear their lambs and put on weight, preparing them for market.
WOW--I had no idea Yuma had this multitude of industry! Of course it take hundreds of workers to maintain these business's. The climate here pretty much makes it possible for agriculture to be ongoing the entire year. I also read that the permanent population of Yuma is around 100,000 and temporary population counts of 30,000 military personnel and 90,000 snowbirds. The Foothills, which is where we are staying, has a permanent population of about 35,000. I also read that the agriculture workers number around 50,000. All in all, Yuma area is larger by population numbers than would be expected. Yuma has a small town feel; much different than the Mesa-Phoenix area.
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