DAY 2- BRAWLEY TO CASA GRANDE

After a great night at the Best Western, Brawley (great folks there) we headed out for a long drive to Casa Grande, AZ.

The first attraction was the Old Plank Road, built in 1915 as an east–west route over the Algodones Dunes. Some participants were able to find it, some not, and some turned off by the "do not enter" sign. It effectively connected the extreme lower section of Southern California to Arizona and provided the last link in a commercial route between San Diego and Yuma up until 1926 when a new asphalt road was built.

JIM AT THE OLD PLANK ROAD

At about the same area many of us stopped at the roadside rest, and took a photo of the Morgans lined up with trumps wall in the background.

Stan also went treasure hunting and "struck gold" (many pennies) in the parking lot just under the dust. He promised to buy us all drinks with his findings.

Our next stop was in Yuma Arizona where many of us visited the Yuma Territorial Prison State Park (1987-1909), while others had coffee or visited the Sanguinetti House and Gardens, the charming 19th-century adobe home of E. F.  Sanguinetti (1867-1945) (no photos). We managed to escape unscathed from the prison.

PRISON GUARD HOUSE

BRIDGE OVER THE COLORADO RIVER THAT REPLACED SOME OF THE PRISON

OLD NEAT WAGON IN THE COURTYARD

STAN, ELAINE AND JEN

SOME CELL BLOCKS

A CELL

WE LEFT GERRI THERE AS AN INMATE,
GUILTY OF NAVIGATING A MORGAN

Lunch was the next stop with not too many choices. We stopped in Wellton at Geronimo's, a fantastic Mexican restaurant in a very tiny town. The "good ol' boys" were there to chat with us, and loved our Morgans, but there is no place to carry our rifles in them, a bit of a problem for them.

After lunch, some stopped for a date shake at Dateland, a stop in the middle of nowhere.

The remainder of the day was driving across the ever changing desert to the Holiday Inn Express in Casa Grande Arizona.

Several of us ordered dinner "in" from the Boston Restaurant and Sports Bar, while many actually went there. The French did "fine dining" at the BeDillons restaurant, but I didn't get a report yet.