Actually, I arrived later on Monday of this week. But I have to back up to where I left you a few days ago. That was Sunday evening, when I arrived in Chandler, AZ.
I had a webinar to attend before leaving the hotel in Chandler on Sunday. For those of you who have not heard of David Whyte, he is a philosopher and poet. I was first introduced to his poetry a little over a year ago, and I immediately fell in love. His way of writing, and the things he writes, just mesmerize me. Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite of his poems, called Santiago:
The road seen, then not seen the hillside hiding then revealing the way you should take, the road dropping away from you as if leaving you to walk on thin air, then catching you, holding you up, when you thought you would fall, and the way forward always in the end the way that you came, the way that you followed, the way that carried you into your future, that brought you to this place, no matter that it sometimes had to take your promise from you, no matter that it always had to break your heart along the way:
The sense of having walked from deep inside yourself out into the revelation, to have risked yourself for something that seemed to stand both inside you and far beyond you, and that called you back in the end to the only road you could follow...
He just manages to speak to my soul in a way few others do. In any case, he is holding a 3-part online lecture/webinar during the month of January. Once I heard about it, I signed up immediately. Sunday was the second of the three parts, and while it's available to be replayed for those who registered , I wanted to hear it live! He answers some of the questions that come in at the end, and I wanted to have the option of actually asking a question. (I didn't, this time.)
I ended up leaving Chandler around 1:30pm MT. I had looked ahead on the map for places I might detour to or stop at on my way toward the AZ/CA border. I knew I didn't really want to go all the way to Escondido (I'll get to that in the next post) on Sunday, because I couldn't check in to my next destination until 4pm on Monday.
I found a few possibilities and set out. My first stop was the Space Age Restaurant in Gila Bend. It's basically a diner (and not too exciting) but with an alien/space travel aesthetic going on. Here are a few pictures. I probably wouldn't have stopped, but I had driven by it on prior drives in AZ and thought that - since I have no actual schedule - it was worth a try this time.
By the time I had some (late) lunch and was back in my car, it was about 4pm AZ time, which meant I really only had time for one more stop at an outdoor venue before closing time and/or darkness. I had thought of stopping at Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, but I had been there before. So I pressed on to Dateland! I had never heard of Dateland before, honestly. It's known for - wait for it! - dates. Based on what I read it was established in the early 1920s as a stop along the railroad, and then served as a site of two desert training camps for General Patton. But it eventually became a 'date mecca' (their words) with gardens, a bakery, gift shop, care, campground, etc. I do love dates, so I stopped. I was advised not to leave without trying a date shake ... but I did leave without trying it. As I said, I do love dates, but I don't love shakes at all. And somehow the combination left me cold (pun intended).
At his point it was starting to get dark, so I chose a hotel in Yuma (another hour or so) to stay Sunday night and reserved a room on the Hilton app. After checking in, I asked the person at the front desk about a place to eat and was directed to a place on the 'historic Main St' of Yuma, called Da Boyz. What I didn't realize until after I had order and the food came out (it was excellent) was that I should have spent an hour making a couple of new friends who could go with me to share a meal. Because I ended up with enough food to feed me for three-plus days, including the small salad that came in a bowl the size of what my family of five used for salad when I was a kid.
Then back to the hotel, and ultimately bed & sleep.
I'm going to stop now, and I will immediately proceed to another post to talk about Monday through today. I'm sure you are all ready for a break from this extremely exciting narrative!
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