The Great (North) American Road Trip: Yuma, Az AKA The Surface of the Sun

You know how when you do something repetitive or play a game for too long (Tetris for instance) that you start to see, think, and dream in terms of that activity. Well we have been submersed into a game that does just that. The game also has a racist twist to it (like all good games right?) for it is named the Mexican train game.

Jen's grandpa, Dale "the player" Hunter (nicknamed the player for his love of card games, board games, lawn games, golf, and of course, younger women) and Jeanne (dale's girlfriend, pronounced "Genie") laid this Mexican Train game upon us and took us by storm. In the three days that we were in Yuma we must have played at least 7 or 8 games of it. These games are not 10 or 15 minute matches either, they are marathons that can last a good hour or two if you play it right.

The game is simple. It's played with a double 12 domino set and you must link your dominoes together end to end like a train. Every player gets their own train track to work on to which no one else can play on until you cannot play for a turn. There is also a free track to which anyone can play which is called the Mexican (aka the lazy Mexican, merry Mexican, etc) There is a lot of strategy as you can block people or throw a double tile down which can all change the course of the game. The game is played until some uses up all their tiles and the remaining players tally up the points they have left. Mexican Train ends when someone reaches 100pts and the winner is the person with the least amount of points. The game even comes loaded with variously colored little trains to mark your tracks and a train that lights up and makes train sounds that you can obnoxiously hit when you win a match.

The deeply immersing nature of the game has led me to see how I can link pretty much every object i see to another object based on some sort of pattern, much like Tetris. Mexican train aside for now as we also played various games like the card game 13's and even a really professional game of ladder ball, to which has been given the racist name of hillbilly golf by the good folks in Yuma (gotta love it.)

Besides just playing parlor games we also drove about 15 miles and then proceeded to walk across the border into Algodones, Mexico. We traveled down for an early dinner and to see if dale could pick up some cheap prescriptions. You see, in Mexico you don't need a prescription for a lot of different drugs and they are usually marked down about 85% or should I say marked up by the United States pharmaceutical industry by 85% as they are the same manufacturers and everything, even in English but I digress because it makes me a little angry. Anyways we sat down for a nice dinner of carne asada tacos and fajitas and such, but something was amiss.

Where were all the people telling me that bracelets and rings and Mexican wrestling masks were almost free? The town seemed as if a bomb went off. We were told that the place is poppin off the chain in the winter and that Yuma itself gains about 2 or 3 fold its population during that time. Retired snowbirds flock to the desert when its cold and leave once the heat shows its ugly face. A pretty good idea if you ask me. This was the first time I've been in Mexico and have not been overtly bombarded by people trying to sell me just about everything. Weird, right? Sidewalk vendors were empty with tarps and metal sheds looking like they had been excavated and left to rust. In the end, it was a nice change of pace and the food was excellente (I'm pretty sure that isn't a word)

Dale and Jeanne have also become the foster parents for a bunch of neighborhood cats (of which I wish we had pictures of) that have become pets that live outdoors. They show up in the morning for breakfast and hang out on the back porch all day until supper time. There are about 4 of them that come and go as they please. The foster cats have even been given names; Cleo(short for Cletus), Tigger, Patrick, and Marble Cat. Marble cat likes to get into fights and causes all kinds of disruptions amongst the group. The whole situation is quite funny as these cats even jump into cars when the doors are open and all sorts of craziness.

On a side note I would like to ask anyone over the age of 60 if they have the white shower head that has about 5 different water functions to choose from. It seems like almost all of the houses in which I have showered that happen to belong to an older person all have the same shower head. I am starting to wonder if it is sent out by AARP or given as a retirement gift by the government. I'm on to you old people. (sorry grandparents)

On our last full day, Jen and I traveled down to the local bakery, Kneaders, to grab a sandwich for lunch and steal some of their open wireless. We ordered up a club sandwich to split that was delightful. It really was a great meal that came with some potato soup and a soda for about 10 bucks. After messing around the internet and taking care of business we noticed we'd been sitting there for about 2 hours or so and decided it was time to leave.

We made a quick stop at Lowe's to pick up a little washer part and then walked over to a used bookstore. The place had a decent selection but was severely unorganized and rather overpriced since some not so classic books were priced higher than their original prices, blasphemy. We did however pick up a couple of books from our youth that we've wanted to read again like Hatchet, The Outsiders, and The White Mountains. I also found some weird little paperback sized comic books based on Houdini and The Beatles for 50 cents which should be a good read. Add these books to our Mark Twain anthology of short stories and we have a good selection of summer reading ahead.

After the bookstore we drudged our way through the heat back to the house for a quick card game followed by some pizza and then another epic ride on the Mexican train. We had a great time and wish nothing but the best Dale and Jeanne. We are gonna miss those great stories of their many adventures that they both love to tell, but we must press on as we have to start looking for that next domino to add to the end of our track.

Stay tuned next time for a wrap up of The Salton Sea, A visit with Jen's Grandma Sally, The Late Late Show with Craig Fergusen, and possibly the first public spaceport.
Same bat time. Same bat channel.