Yuma is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the sunniest place on earth, with 339 bright days a year and less than 3 inches of rainfall annually. Normal highs range from 70 F (21 C) in January, to 107 F (42 C) in July. December is the coldest month, with a normal high of 69 F. While we were in Yuma, the temperatures were in the 80's F (27 C) and 90's (32 C) - quite a bit above normal for this time of year. Ahhhh. ;o)

Eva & Doug were kind enough to let us park our "rig" in their yard during our week in Yuma . They live in a great double-wide manufactured home in the neighbourhood of Foothills on the east side. All the yards in this subdivision have large yards with short brick walls surrounding them. The neighbourhood is full of various kinds of trailers - park models, single & double-wide manufactured homes, RV's, etc. Some yards are completely gravel lots with RV spots for rent. And everything around Yuma seems to be RV-related. RV parks, RV dealers, RV repairs. There are 23,000 commercial RV spaces here!

Eva and I went for early morning walks almost every day (by early I mean early - 7:30, as the sun is coming up. It's so beautiful out at that time). Roger would crack his eyelid open to say goodbye when I was leaving the trailer. ;o) And it was nice for Roger to have his little friend Doug to watch the Olympics with, especially hockey. It was funny because Doug's a big hockey fan, but he was so quiet watching the hockey games that we wondered if he was asleep, while Roger was yacking and yelling and slapping his knee when they almost scored . We also played Pegs & Jokers a couple of nights (a twist on the Marbles board game), and Eva & I started watching Downton Abbey on DVD together in the trailer while the guys were watching sports in the house.

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma is located 2 miles outside the city of Yuma, and is home to Harrier II's and F35B fighter jets (image is from Google). Roger tells me they're the ones that can take off from standing. The F35's can launch air-to-air missiles while flying forward, and they will turn around and seek out the enemy fighter plane behind them. They often do training flights over the city, and man, are they loud. They can reach speeds of Mach 1.6, and they cost $196 million each! We saw them flying over Eva & Doug's a few times. We could hear their sonic noise, and by the time you looked up, they were banking over and gone - amazing speed. During the Canada/Norway hockey game, you could hear them flying overhead, and Roger was so torn whether to try and run out to see the planes, or to watch the game . Very cool to see, but disturbing in a "war zone" kind of way.

Considering how much sunshine they have here, you would expect it to be big on solar energy - and that it is. The Foothills Solar Plant in Yuma is a huge solar farm. It covers 400 acres, and has a capacity of 35 MW, enough electricity for 8,750 local Yuma customers.

I would not have expected, however, for agriculture to be prominant here considering how hot and dry it is. But farming is Yuma's number one business, with 230,000 acres of land used for agriculture in Yuma County. The area produces more than 175 different crops. Yuma is the winter lettuce capital of the world, with its winter produce production putting Arizona second in the U.S. in the production of head lettuce, romaine lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli. They also grow lemons, tangelos, tangerines, watermelons, cantaloupes, dates, and even wheat. One reason is the fertile soil from sediments deposited by the Colorado River over millions of years . Other reasons include the long growing season, with more than 350 days of sunshine a year, and the abundance of labor from Mexico. Rain is the missing component - 100 per cent of fields are irrigated with water from the Colorado River.

Yuma is the largest producer of Medjool dates in the world. Because of a disease outbreak in dates in Morocco, eleven Medjool date plants were brought to the United States in 1927. The soil and weather makes Yuma makes it the ideal place for date farms. Roger and I toured Martha's Gardens Medjool Date Farm. Growing dates is a completely manual process. During the growing cycle, each date palm must be climbed 20-25 times to harvest the pollen, pollinate, thin, separate strands of fruit, bag the date bunches to protect them from insects and moisture, and harvest the dates. They are an organic product - no pesticides or chemicals are used on the trees or the dates. Many date specialties are made locally, including date shakes, which are yummy but
very sweet .

On Wednesday, Doug took the day off golfing and the four of us went to the Yuma Territorial Prison Historic Park. Between 1876 and 1909, this penitentiary housed many of Arizona's most dangerous criminals. The remains of the prison are now an Arizona State Park. Then we went for lunch and to a movie (Monuments Men - good movie. George Clooney ... sigh). And on Thursday, Roger & I went with Eva to the outdoor Arizona Marketplace (huge flea market) and helped her
bring home a couple of zero-gravity lawn chairs. Handy to have the brother-in-law with the big-ass truck, right Eva? (I said big-ass TRUCK, not big-ass brother-in-law).

Today, Eva & Doug went golfing with some friends. We did laundry (solar drying, Brie!), and watched the Canada/Finland hockey game on PVR with Eva & Doug and friends. BBQ steak supper later, then tomorrow we are off to Mesa. The week here just flew by! Thanks to Eva & Doug for their hospitality. :)