Friday, April 24

I skipped out of work early on Friday, April 24. We drove mostly west for about four hours making one stop in Gila Bend for gas. Before we got to Yuma, we pulled off the highway at Welton to visit High Tanks Brewing.

I missed a turn and ended up on a levy. I could tell other vehicles had driven there but it was not comfortable. It was very high and just wide enough for one lane. It dropped off very quickly on each side. I kept going. Mainly because it would have been difficult to turn around. It eventually reconnected with the road and we made it.

High Tanks Brewing is a cool place out in the desert and connected to the Naked Dates Farm. We ordered some food and got a couple beers. The brewmaster asked me about my Indeed shirt and we started talking about beer and brewing. He gave us a tour and talked about his time brewing in Europe and how he used to own World of Beer. The food and beer was good, but we stayed longer than I had planed because of the talkative brewmaster.

When we were done, we took a different way back to the highway and it was much easier. We drove to downtown Yuma and checked into the Home2 Suites. We had a nice room and settled in.

After a little rest in the hotel, we went for a walk down main street Yuma. It was only a block away and it is only a few blocks long. At the end of the street, there was a place advertised as a speakeasy so we stopped in The First Round. It didn’t look like a speakeasy but they had some good beers on tap and we got a round.

We finished our beer and walked back main street. We stopped at Prison Hill Brewing. We got some spots at the bar and tried some beer.

We walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

Saturday, April 25

After some hotel breakfast, I drove to the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park. We did the self guided tour and it was really interesting to see the old buildings and to learn about the history of the prison and the surrounding area.

After the prison, we went on a short drive on the Ocean to Ocean Bridge across the Colorado river. It is one lane so you have to wait at a traffic light for the traffic going the other way. We went across, made a quick stop at Sunrise Point Park, and drove back to the hotel.

We walked downtown and went to Prison Hill Brewing for lunch. We started with brussel sprouts with bacon and hot honey. I had a wrecked sandwich with brisket, pork and Yuma sausage that was really good. Karla got an elote bowl with brisket that was also good. We had a couple beers including a coconut porter that was really good. We finished with an ice cream flight. That was delicious and fun. Karla added some of her coconut porter to some of ice cream and that was tasty.

After lunch we walked to the Sanguinetti House. It had some interesting history and a nice garden, but it did not take too long to look at everything.

We went in a few shops around downtown and bought a few things. Karla went in a clothes shop and I went to the Pint House next door. I got a beer and Karla joined me just a couple minutes later and got a St. Germaine drink. When we were done, we were ready to go back to the hotel. One the way, I stopped at Prison Hill Brewing to get a crowler of the hazy IPA to go.

As we were getting ready for the evening, I contemplated driving or taking an Uber. Uber wasn’t too expensive so we took one to the casino. It was busy at the Quechan Casino and we were plenty early. We walked around and checked out the food options. We went for the 3 tacos for $10 special. Not too bad. Then we went to the theater side for Cheap Trick. Before going to our seats, I got a beer and Karla got a red wine. The show was not sold out and we had decent seats in row M. The show was fun but I thought I would recognize more songs.

After the show, I could not get an Uber. I tried Lyft and a local service, but none of them had any cars available. I called Yuma Taxi and they said they could get us a car in 20 minutes. The driver arrived right on time in a beat up old town car and got us back to our hotel in 15 minutes. I drank my Prison Hills hazy IPA before going to bed.

Sunday, April 26

Sunday morning we had some hotel breakfast. We got ready and packed up and checked out.

We headed back east on the interstate. We made a short detour off the interstate to check out the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site.

We parked and walked to the rocks and there was an interpretative trail that made a circle around the rocks. We saw a couple pictographs right away and we followed the trail around to the right. There was not a lot to see there. There was nothing on the back side either. I was a little dissapointed. But when we came around, there were hundreds of pictographs. Very cool. Some rocks were completely covered. There were figures, animals and geometric shapes.

There were a few people talking and someone asked why all the pictographs were on this side. Someone said because this is the direction of the rising sun and the pictographs are stunning in the early morning. Also, many travelers were coming from the east and this is the first side they would see.

We continued our trip from there. I skipped Gila Bend because it was busy when we passed through on the way there. We turned off the interstate and headed south. I knew there were a couple more towns before we reached the park. We stopped in Ajo, AZ. I filled up with gas and Karla went in to check out the food. She had picked up some burritos and Doritos. I got a six pack of Hazy Little Thing. We continued south and there was a lot of traffic coming north. (Returning from a weekend in Mexico?). We drove through Why, AZ and I noticed a lot of signs for Mexican insurance.

Then we drove into Organ Pipes Cactus National Monument. We drove about half way into the park to the Kris Eggle Visitor Center. I think we were the only guests in the visitor’s center. I showed my park pass and we looked at their exhibit of the desert. We drove on the Ajo Mountain Loop. It is 22 miles, but it is mostly dirt and takes a couple hours to dive. We stopped at the first picnic area. We ate our burritos and some Doritos. I had a Hazy Little Thing. It was a windy and a little cool in the shade of the picnic shelter. There were some colorful hills around us and millions of cacti. We continued our drive and made a couple stops along the way to admire the view. We saw one other car on our drive. They were going fast so I pulled off the let them pass. It was a very cool drive and I am glad we made it part of our trip.

We drove a smaller road back until we got to Tucson. Then some interstate and back to Cactus Point.