Wednesday March 15th 2017

It was partly cloudy with a good breeze out of the north today. This helped keep the temperature down to the low 90s. If you were out of the sun, the breeze kept it comfortable.

Last week I explored the area to the northeast, today I drove to the southwest. I continue to be amazed by the width of this valley. I start out with the assumption that the distant mountains are four or five miles away. After ten or fifteen miles, they still look the same distance away.

This valley is dedicated to farming. The ways they have irrigated the desert is amazing. There are big cement lined canals that bring water to smaller canals and irrigation ditches. There are also valves sticking out of the ground indicating underground water sources as well. I’ve known at an academic level that irrigation is used to farm the desert, but this is the first time I’ve come face to face with it in volume.

It is next to impossible for me to tell what is growing. Most of the fields don’t have anything planted right now. Some fields show the remnants of cotton around the edges, but just dirt in the body of the field. Other planted fields have a low green ground cover type of plant that I can’t begin to guess.

Cactus garden at the RV park office.

After a few slow days getting acclimated to the heat, I’m ready to get back into tourist mode. The heat is forecast to peak on Saturday with the high in the upper 90s. Tomorrow, I’m going to another Spring Training Game. My seat is under the overhang on the shady side of the ballpark. Staying hydrated will probably require buying one of the four dollar bottles of water or an eight dollar bottle of beer. The Salt River Fields at Talking Stick stadium has cheaper seats but more expensive concessions. You can’t bring much into the stadium. Everything is searched and then you get wanded.