Desert Travel

Yuma

What's a desert?
It's like a beach with more sand.

Monday, July 27th
Yuma, AZ to Dateland, AZ

Daybreak over Northern Arizona University. Yuma, AZ.

A janitor found me around 5 am in my classroom. I heard him and woke up before he noticed me, so I prepared for the encounter. I sat waving, trying to look as docile as I could. But still, the sight of me made him jump backwards with surprise. I was afraid he'd have a heart attack.

Pizza Pizza! previous night
Little Caesar's was within walking distance :)

When his pulse settled down, he and I calmly conversed. He was cool with me and a really gentle person. He wasn't going to report me or kick me out. He helped me. We shared our stories. I learned that he lived in Mexico, as an American citizen, and worked in Arizona.

Northern Arizona University

Arizona Western College
shares the same campus

Then I gathered and set out. But sand and dust fills the air outside Yuma. Coughs and asthma symptoms. No shops nearby had bandana handkerchiefs to sell, so I bought a kitchen towel to cover my face.

We ready to rob a bank.

A food bank

A cool breeze carried me throughout the day. In the morning, clouds provided intermittent cover.

Travel map.

Highway 8 Eastbound to Dateland.

Yuma, AZ

Wellton, AZ

Roll, AZ

Roll, AZ

For lunch, I ate a tub of ice cream. I felt fine. Silly me. I'd done it before, but not in mid-day heat. I drank water, then I took a nap. The combination of undigested cream, the bacteria in the water, and the hot incubator of a sleeping stomach likely spawned colonies of bacteria. Anything I drank picked up that bacteria, rumbled and churned, then was flushed out. Drink to hydrate, feel sick, flush and repeat.

I had diarrhea since noon. Locals drink from the tap, but my stomach can't handle it. I got sick after putting ice into my bottled water at a high school. For the rest of the day, my stomach would not hold any liquids. I drank only bottled water that came from far away from then on. But even with clean water, every few miles I'd have to roll off the road and squat behind some scrub trees.

Dark storm clouds reached their arms down and throttled necks of mountain peaks to the north. Lightning flashed. A man outside the Dateland Travel Center told me the sky could dump four inches of rain in thirty minutes. It was monsoon season.

I was lucky to cross paths with a nice lady inside the Travel Center in the evening. Her home was an RV at a campground in Dateland. The camp had showers. I played with her three tiny chihuahua dogs and learned that most everything found in a house can fit into a car. She let me sleep on her couch and cooked me breakfast. Thank you! : -)