Finally, the sunshine has returned!  Good!  Last night we had a real gully washer with thunder and lightning.  It didn’t last long, just a passing storm cell.  But it did make a mess of the desert sand we’re parked on.

Last week we bought our first solar panel back in Quartzsite, and also bought solar garden lights to use for night lights.  We were feeling very “solarly” (is that a word?) and found the instructions on the internet on how to build a solar oven out of a card board box and tinfoil, and did just that.  And wouldn’t you know it…the sun disappeared and the clouds and rain came.

Well, today the sun returned!  wooo!  Cooking time!  I had a large sweet potato I’ve been waiting to cook.  It was too big for the pot I bought at the Quartzsite flea market specifically for use in the solar oven, so I had to cut it in half.  Then we assembled everything, placed it outside in the mud and the sun, hoped for the best and went to see historic downtown Yuma.  The high temp for today was only around 60F.

Raw Sweet Potato

Cook! Cook! Cook!

Lettuce Lettuce Everywhere

Ghostbusters?

As we were walking around Historic Downtown Yuma we spotted a bird in the window of this old hotel and went to investigate.

Hotel San Carlos, on U.S. Register of Historic Places

Inside we found some friendly gentlemen sitting at a table.  They introduced us to the bird and we chatted a bit before moving on.

Pretty Bird

Having never used a solar oven before, and being rather amateurely made, we did not know what to expect.  The slight breeze we had today had blown it out of sync with the sun, not sure how long it had been that way.  So we corrected the orientation,  crossed our fingers, and waited and waited.  About six hours total was all we could stand.  and.. yay!  The potato was perfectly done!  So we ate it.

Success!

Our travel expenses for today:  $43 gas for the Jeep at $3.23 per gallon.  Camping: NONE