yuma part two: a date shake and the bridge to nowhere

After visiting the tiny church in Yuma, we went back on the road and headed back towards the freeway. We didn’t get very far before we made another stop. While driving to the tiny church, Jake noticed a large bridge that looked familiar to us and he noticed a sign for date shakes. Date shakes aren’t easy to come by in San Diego and are one of my very favorite things, so we stopped to check out From the Farm.

We passed this field of cabbage right in front of the farm house? farm shop? country store.

There were a lot of very large trucks with very large tires in the parking lot and we were wondering what was going on and discovered there was a wedding taking place in the back. It was a cute spot for a wedding! Inside the store itself there was a knick knack/antique side of the store on one side and on the other they sold various jams, pastas and other little goods.

What’s in traffic jam? I have no idea (there wasn’t a label with ingredients on it) but I loved the name of it. They also had other jams and jellies which you could sample if you just asked. The owner let us try a few other items (like a tequila jelly that was very strong) and he was really nice and easy to talk to. Jake got some local history from him as well, including information about the bridge we saw.

They also offered samples of their homegrown Artichoke Tea. It was more pleasant tasting than I figured it would be, didn’t taste too much like artichoke in tea form. It was a whole dried artichoke they used to make the tea and apparently it has many health benefits.

They have a small menu of food including hot dogs and tacos as well as the milkshakes. All I wanted was a Date Shake!

[date shake – 8oz. / $3]

They used real, whole dates for their shake and the date pieces were a nice, smaller size. The shake was nice and thick and had a really light, pleasant sweetness from the dates. I enjoyed it quite a bit! I also liked they had an 8oz size so I wasn’t forced to get a huge milkshake. I never finish the big ones but this small one was the perfect size.

From the Farm (Yelp | Facebook)
5158 S Hwy 95
Yuma, AZ 85365
(928) 726-2899

After getting Date Shakes and a little history about the bridge from the owner of From the Farm, we drove towards the back of the farm and over to check out the “Bridge to Nowhere”. We drove under the bridge first and saw the dry riverbed where the Gila River once flowed through the area.

The “Bridge to Nowhere” is actually named the McPhaul Bridge. Here’s a little history I snagged from another site:

“The 800 foot long suspension bridge was originally called the Dome Bridge, but was renamed after a local old-timer named Harry McPhaul. It was built to cross the Gila River. It was modeled after the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. When a dam was built upstream in 1968, the Gila River was diverted and the highway was rerouted over a much smaller bridge. A flood in 1993 destroyed the new bridge while the Bridge to Nowhere, spanning only desert sand, survived intact.” (Lower Colorado River)

This bridge was actually built first in 1929 while the Golden Gate Bridge started construction in 1933. They both use a similar style and when we first saw the first we thought, “Hey… that looks like a mini Golden Gate Bridge!” In 1968 they deemed the bridge unfit for modern day traffic and shut the bridge down to traffic, hence the nickname “Bridge to Nowhere”.

We got up pretty close to the bridge and noticed barbed wire around the top and the “No Trespassing” signs and didn’t get much further than that. It was fun to take a look at it up close though and check out the bridge. Another fun little roadside landmark to cross off of our list!