Part 2 of Four Days in the Desert Adventure

 

We were geocaching close to civilization on Day 3. Gila Bend was our base. 

We were near the Painted Rock Dam for some of our geocaching on Day 3.

and on paved roads for much of the day

And in and around farming country. This photo is for those of you who have read The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. Look at how the cotton bolls are tucked securely in their flower shape. (I don't think this plant is ready for harvesting as the flowers are very defined.

We stopped to watch a farmer harvest the cotton field. Notice the large, round, white cotton bales at the rear of the field wrapped in plastic.

There isn't much of a header on the combine. And notice all that dust and dirt! We don't know enough about cotton harvesting. Sometimes there is a lot of cotton left on the plants and lots of cotton on the ground after the combine has gone through the rows. On rare occasion we have noticed the cotton plants/stalks have very little cotton hanging on after combining. So we don't know if it is different machines or if a machine goes through the fields a second time. Sometime we will have to ask questions.

And like last year and our geocaching adventures in the Gila Bend area yielded some interesting things.

remains of an adobe house

the roof beam and roof support boards

the location was in a 'lush' valley

rock foundation

straw/grass and pebbles could be seen in the adobe blocks

The house used to be protected with four posts and a barbed wire fence. The wire was laying on the ground, but the four posts are still standing. Large hay bales are stacked in the background. We were in farming country.

Three holsteins wandered toward the fence close to the road while we were checking out the abode house and eating our lunch. I think they were thinking they'd be getting some lunch, too.

And back in Gila Bend, Hubby chose the evening's eating establishment. The first night we enjoyed two delicious Italian entrées. A couple leaving the establishment stopped at our table to thank Hubby for his service to our country (he was wearing his Desert Storm cap) and to our total surprise, they paid for our dinner!

This is the same Gila Bend restaurant where Prince Harry ate when he was in the US training with the Air Force Auxiliary Field near Gila Bend in November 2011. The booth where he and his training buddies sat is clearly labeled for all customers to see.

Little Italy's Christmas decorations

We went back to Little Italy the next night and ordered and paid for pizza. Another excellent meal.

The map shows where we ended on Day 2, connecting us to the geocaching we did last spring. Day 3 was near farm land and along some paved roads. The cotton fields are in the circled area. The adobe house was in the lower right hand corner of the fields below the circle. Painted Dam Reservoir is the gray on the center right side of the map. Interstate 8 is at the bottom edge of the map. Gila Bend is 20 miles east from the far right line of yellow circles.

I thought I could do the four day adventure in two blog posts, but our trip home is so worthy of its own post as is the the follow-up of the jeep. So stay tuned as there is more to this adventure.