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Published: February 29th 2020
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January 24, 2020 we headed east to Yuma, AZ. I felt a little tug changing direction as we had been making our way west since October. The drive along I-8 took us quickly out of the city and into canyon lands, farm land, and desert lands. About half way to the CA/AZ border we passed through a mountain pass and on the other side it was FLAT again and could see forever...nothing but desert. We saw some people sitting on the side of the road with border patrol as we were going through the pass. We were very close to Mexico on some stretches of the interstate and I even got a view of a wall.
The pass was gorgeous with rock that looked similar to what we saw in Joshua Tree National Park. The valley we drove through after we got through the pass is called the Imperial Valley. They grow lots of leafy veggies there along with broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc. There are lots of farms in Yuma as well growing the same. I saw a sign saying, "Where your Winter vegetables come from." During our time in Yuma seeing these farms was very interesting. They were in
different stages of planting/harvesting. In the area, water from the Colorado and Gila rivers are diverted into canals to the fields. They seem to have a pipe network that they move around field to field when planting. We saw some harvesting crews being bused to the sight pulling trailers with porta-potties and washing stations. We saw cabbage or ice berg lettuce being harvested and it was placed on conveyor belts that took it through a rinse and then into the crates on a truck to be taken off for packaging.
We stayed our 1st 3 nights in Winterhaven, CA just across the river from Yuma. It was a nice place and inexpensive but the sights were pretty close together and when we are going to be someplace for a while we like to park then scope out the area and either extend, or move to a better place. Well this time we lucked out because when we went looking at other places we stumbled upon an RV resort having an open house. If you attended the open house and hadn't stayed there before they gave away a free 2 week stay! So needless to say, we moved over there.
Border Wall
Dark line in the distance(right) We ended up extending to a 3rd week. We finally found some summer temperatures....70s-80s and sunny most of the days we were there. We did a lot of sunbathing and enjoyed the pool. The place had live music several times a week, Mike played some pool, (they wanted him to join their league), I enjoyed their yoga classes and bingo. We did have some really windy days and saw the limited visibility that comes along with that in the desert. We also had a couple days of cold rain.
We didn't explore too much while we were here. We were surprised for being flat and the largest town/city in the area we did not have very good cellphone service. At the resort we had enough signal for texting and calling but really weak for data. We also were surprised we couldn't find a classic rock or pop radio station. Most stations were Spanish, new country, or talk radio. When we ventured out of town we didn't have much cell service at all.
In town along the river we visited the old Territorial Prison. It was like the "state prison" before Arizona became a state. It was built mostly
Prison cells
Yuma Territorial Prison by the prisoners. I guess there really were sentences of "hard labor." Next to the prison was the "Ocean to Ocean" bridge. This was the final link connecting the East and the West with a roadway. Prior to the bridge a ferry was used. When we were under it a train came along on the trestle that is adjacent to it. We were excited because Mike and the boys love the movie 3:10 to Yuma. We sent them a picture😊. We were amazed and continue to see it in Tucson too, how much cargo is moved by rail in this area.
One day we took a drive north on the main route joining I-8 to I-10 in this area. As soon as you get out of town it is quite desolate. There is a large Army base called the Yuma Proving Grounds. They test tanks and gunnery weapons and do desert training for troops. We saw a tank cross the road and could feel and hear the rumble of the testing. It sounded like distant thunder. Driving through the Proving Grounds we also could see some areas that looked like middle eastern buildings in the distance. Likely used for
life like training.
We found a wild life refuge (Imperial) that was really neat. It was a small visitor center that highlighted the wildlife and some plant life of that region which is along the Colorado River. We went back the next week for a guided moonlight hike. That was so cool! It was at full moon and once your eyes adjusted you could see fine. Some people had florescent lights to look for scorpions. They didn't see any, I was glad of that! We were told that they will not have hikes at night after this one because it will start to get warmer and rattle snakes may start coming out. One of the volunteers is a full time RVer and they volunteer at different places in the winter time. I enjoyed talking to him about that. On the drive home we saw a little desert fox peaking out of the scrub brush along the side of the road. It was so cute. It reminded me of our cat Jayda who lives with the boys now😊
The rodeo came to town so we checked that out. We enjoyed it. I am thinking it may have been a
few levels below the "bigs' for professional rodeo. Maybe like a "farm league" equivalent to baseball. It was really cool to see all the people and this way of life living off of the land. I had mixed feelings though with regard to the animals. It was a good showcase I thought of the skills a rancher needs to manage their herds. I was also amazed at the patriotism displayed.
Everywhere we went though and even when sitting by the pool, Mike was loving seeing fighter jets practice all the time. There is a Marine Air Base just down the road from where we stayed....Seems to be a trend being near all of these training bases😊
Our last weekend we walked to a nearby RV park that hosted a classic car show. They had some really nice looking cars.
We enjoyed the weather in Yuma and can see why snowbirds flock here. I am not a huge fan of the low desert just because it is so dusty and dry. Some areas had some palm trees but overall it is a pretty "tan" environment. There was lots of shopping and restaurants as well as Mexico nearby. Many
people go there regularly as well as a local casino and there is lots of biking. The city has a nice long bike/walking path along the river. For us hikers, we would have needed to venture off of the beaten path quite a bit, something we didn't really want to do without good cell service. As I write this we are in Tucson. I really like it here. You'll hear/see more in my next post.
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