Sunday in the Desert

How does one take a day of rest when on holidays? We have already been resting, so we just made it a special day by finding a good church. We searched the internet for just the right church among the 47 here in Yuma. No luck, except to find a few that we certainly did not want to attend. We passed one the other day that looked quite modern and was doubling as a school/daycare center. It also had a mighty large parking lot which was an indicator of a happening place.

We showed up on time and as we walked into the front door, we knew would feel at home here. The foyer was at least 10 times what we were used to and a third of it was taken up by a coffee shop/welcome center. We did not have time to check that out as the service was about to begin. The worship center was huge, holding maybe 1500 people. There were 4 services, and the statement of faith was something we could agree with, totally. We had communion, a very good worship time with lively music, and then a good sermon about discouragement in the New Year, based on Nehemiah rallying the people of Israel to rebuild the walls of Jerusalum. It all reminded us quite a bit of the church we attended several times in Palm Springs two years ago.

We grabbed some fruit for lunch and headed for more walking, a new neighbourhood, and then the East Wetland Park. (Yesterday was West). East and West here are determined by "Yuma Crossing", the historical Colorado River crossing in the early to mid 1800's.

The walk in our neighbourhood revealed a small condo for sale right on the golf course behind us, for only $129,000.00.

It was the warmest day so far. We sat by the pool and read and talked for 1 1/2 hours until the clouds came. It was suposed to be cloudy and windy today, but was a dandy instead.

I am getting down right tired of restaurant food. Especially here in the good old USA where dinner and deep fry are synonomous. I ordered a shrimp penne bowl tonight and found it terribly rich and way too filling. At least only the shrimp were deep fried. The orange chicken noodle bowl last night was delicious but there was enough there to feed Moby Dick. Everywhere we look we see obese people. Even the preacher at the church today was at least 300 lbs! It is so normal here that folks probably do not even realise there is a problem.

We also took a drive north of town to check out the date plantations. It is very flat country until you come to the sand dunes. There was a haze like smog in the distance, until we realised it was a dust storm on the dunes. It is always windy up there and that is the reason that there are sand dunes there.

We have noticed a great increase in the number of snowbirds here in the last day or two. The Arizona plates in the parking lots are now in the minority. It continues to amaze me how many RV's there are here. You have to see it to believe it.