Yuma, Arizona

We were pleased to discover on Friday morning that Dad's bag, along with his CE music and calendar, had been returned. This was especially fortunate since we left that afternoon for Yuma, Arizona, a drive that took about twelve hours. After night fell, I was enchanted to see the swirling lights of the dune buggy drivers doing late-night driving on the dunes in the desert. It was about that time (around 1:30 AM) that I called Mr. Villar, my Bible teacher, as a part of the insane flour baby project. We arrived in Yuma at 3:30 AM local time. After all that time in the car, it was heaven to walk to the hotel room.The next morning, CE had appointments at the Yuma SDA church. The people there were warm and inviting, and I enjoyed listening to an environmental scientist talk about the cool explosive things you can do with duct tape over potluck. It was also wonderful just to be with all my "uncles" in CE; it's been a while since I've seen them. The director, Calvin, had a bit of trouble as the drycleaners sent him back the wrong white shirt that was over five neck sizes too small. Fortunately, one of the women was able to go get him one.On Sunday, my family had an interesting breakfast visit to Jack in the Box. First of all, it took my dad about a quarter of an hour to explain to them how to make a Breakfast Jack with eggs instead of meat. Then, we saw an INS border patrol agent enjoying his breakfast. I hadn't realized we were so close to the border; I discovered that the Mexican border was only ten miles away. The concert that morning was at a very hospitable Sunday church, but unfortunately, Calvin became ill and one of the guys had to step up to take his place. He was nervous, but he did an excellent job for both the morning and afternoon concerts. The two appointments were so close together that everyone was late to the call time for the second one.To enjoy our last few moments outside of California, my family ate at Cracker Barrel, a restaurant that serves delicous food but exists everywhere in the US but California, it seems. Then, we headed back to Desert Hot Springs, passing the dunes once again and the gigantic Saltan Sea, which was accidentally created when some genius decided to reroute the Colorado River. Our relatives in Desert Hot Springs received us warmly, and we enjoyed giving my grandparents a new television--their old one was in nothing but shades of green. We played a nice, long round of Hand and Foot, a game using Rook cards, which gave us a chance to catch up. The next morning, we had a wonderful breakfast with lots of fresh fruit before starting the long drive back. We arrived home safely after a weekend of 13,000 miles of travel, thanks in part to all your prayers for my family. Thank you for that.