885 January 26, 2023 From Somerton To Yuma

Thinking of you Uncle Don and hoping that you have a speedy recovery ❤️‍🩹

I started my day with a 3 mile walk in West Wetlands.  I chose not to walk on the elevated bike path on the levee because of gusty winds.  Instead, I walked the interior of the park, walking laps around the duck pond and then on the path through the trees along the river. Mexican bird of paradise is blooming here.

Tim wanted to do another long bike ride to Somerton.  He had factored in the wind.  For a 4 mile stretch on the levee road he encountered fairly hefty crosswinds.  Gusts were greater than 20mph.  Once he made the turn to head south he was pushed by those same winds.  The biking then was not as hard, in fact he had lots of help.  While he was biking, I ran to the store for fresh water and firewood.  I met him in Somerton.  It took Tim about an hour to go the 13 miles.

Tim drove the Jeep the long way back to Yuma.  We drove through farm land.  There are fields lying fallow.

Fields newly planted.

Fields thriving.

Fields being harvested.  How often do you think about how your food gets to the table?  We stopped to watch workers harvesting romaine lettuce.  This is back breaking work.  The crew was chanting as they harvested perhaps to keep pace with the machine moving down the furrows.

The romaine is cut and sanitized and bagged right there in the field. 

The produce is boxed and ready to be transported to cooling facilities in Yuma.  Within 24 hours, the vegetables are on the way to grocery stores across the country.

The fields are littered with the remains of the picking and then the process begins again.

This truck dips water from the canal and sprays it onto the farm road to keep the dust down.

The farm fields were to the east.  To the west, was the wall.  From Somerton there are miles of these low crossbars that are meant to serve as a boundary.  Border patrol is present here. 

Then all at once a long section of “the wall” rises up.  The wall runs for miles and miles.

There are gaps in the wall as we approached Yuma.  The gaps are going to be closed and there were work crews present beginning construction.

The dam in the Colorado River. Arizona on this side and Mexico on the other. By the time the river reaches the border, it is a mere trickle compared to the mighty Colorado up north. Multiple dams and reservoirs in the US control the flow of the water as it moves south.

The border wall and the farm fields filled with migrant workers are literally foreign to us.  We don’t have anything at home that compares to this.  It is an experience to come here and witness.  Each time we have visited we are struck anew by the complexities of the issues here.  

This evening, we went to downtown Yuma for dinner at Eduardo’s.  Afterward, we walked.  The winds had died down and it was a pleasant night.