A visit with friends

 This morning, I again had to set the alarm for 7:30 and poor Yuma was sure he was staying home again while Dad went out for the day.  I assured him he was going too and he was happy.

Today, we are going for a day visit to Jerry and Elva Shannon's place in Wellton, Arizona.  Wellton is located about 25 miles east of Yuma over the Fortuna Mountains, about an hour drive away.

Tom, Jerry, Deb, Elva and Deb

We arrived around 10:15 and sat around to catch up on recent events in our lives and enjoy the weather.  It was up to 71 in the afternoon, so with no wind it was a beautiful day to be outside.

Jerry has all the desert toys.  Because the Can Am was only a two seater, we all jumped in to two Jeeps, mine and Jerry's to take a tour of the mountains and deserts in the Dome Valley.  Jerry is quite experienced with the back roads around here so no chance of getting lost.

The first stop was to the Naked Date.  It is a food stop in the desert south of Wellton.  We had shakes and I had a BLT with chips.  Yummy!

Been here awhile.

We went north toward the Barry Goldwater military training grounds and to get there we had to go under I-8.  Not built for trucks.

Most of the desert roads were passable by 2 wheel drive if you didn't mind getting your vehicle side swiped by creosote bushes.  Jerry would let me know when I needed to go into 4 wheel drive to make it through areas of deep sand.

We went around those mountains.

Military made for the troops to have cookouts, I'm guessing.

Dolphin or shark?

Just west of the cookout building, there was a huge wash that at times must have powerful water raging through it.  At one point, the rocks would only give to the water in small amounts causing these deep ravines.

Those holding water are known as Tanks.

Near the end of our ride, we stopped at four WWII tanks in rough shape.  Jerry believes these are used for laser training by jets flying over.

What is that in the tank turret?  I didn't notice it till I downloaded and enlarged the picture.

It was near 4 o'clock by the time we arrived back at Jerry's place where we sat around and talked for just a bit before it was time to head home.  We had a great time!  Thank you Jerry and Elva for giving us your time and company.

I made it home before dark, had a little dinner and I'm now watching Thursday Night Football.  A long and fun day.

Thanks for stopping by.