Saturday, December 31st - Sam Cobb Date Farm

 Some people look forward to a New Year's Eve celebration today, I looked forward to going back to Sam Cobb's Date Farm after 11 years.

It was cool (low 50's), damp (90+% humidity) and FOGGY this morning. Not at all what we expected to encounter in the desert.

Photos taken on the way to the date farm. I don't know if you will be able to pick it out of the photo but there are mountains that form a dark line between the fog on the ground and the cloudy sky.

Seeing the windmills, not turning, in the fog was almost eerie. At one location all we could see was the upper blade of a windmill sticking up through the fog. The base and generator section weren't that far away but they were totally obscured by the fog.

Kathy standing by some of the date palms. The bags protect the unpicked dates from birds and from any rain that might fall.

Unpicked dates on the ground. Kathy picked one up and ate it. She said it tasted as good as the ones we bought.

I'm not sure why the dates up in this tree weren't picked. They were kind of randomly spaced up in the tree.

Closer photo of the bags protecting the dates.

Their web site shows them planting 7 year old "seedlings" at another farm they now have. Mrs. Sam Cobb told us that it takes another 14 years for the tree to be mature.

They have hour long tours on Saturdays but neither Drew nor Kathy were interested in doing the tour. I may drive back there next Saturday, its only 20 miles, for one of tours.

We had a late lunch at an In N Out Burger, another thing on our list of things we wanted to be sure to repeat.

Below is the line of people waiting to order. Two efficient, and very pleasant, ladies were taking orders. It didn't take all that long before we had our food. I could see 15 people working behind the counter. One young woman spent the entire time we were there doing nothing but peeling the skins off onions. I didn't see here slice them, she just peeled them.  No one happened to be cutting potatoes into french fries while we were there today. Last time we were out here I watched a young man spend the entire time we were in the restaurant picking up one peeled potato after another, inserting it into a device that reminded me of a can crusher and pulling the handle to slice the potato into french fries ready to be cooked.

Kathy checked out a Food 4 Less grocery on the way back to the campground. I took a mile long walk and that was our day. Not totally, she warmed up some of the left over prime rib we had for supper last night. It was very good last night and just as good tonight.

I forgot to mention the earthquake. Drew texted us a 4:19AM, to send us a link to a USGS site that reported a 4.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred 70 miles from us, at 4:12AM. The text woke both of us, but we slept through the earthquake. He is a mile from us and said it woke him up.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.