Lake Havasu

We drove on after visiting the Hoover Dam, but it gets dark so early that we couldn’t find a decent campground, so we stayed at another truck stop.  When we woke up, we were shocked to discover how close we were to Lake Havasu, so we drove over and spent the day there.

London Bridge is a bridge from England that was reassembled at Lake Havasu.

Poppy and I soaked up some sunshine along the Bridgewater Channel while Paul worked on getting Sirius satellite radio connected.  Daisy took a nap.  It was a peaceful day.

Nap time:

There are often memorial plaques in picturesque locations.  This one caught our eye:

Yuma:  The Land of Sunshine

We decided to press on to Yuma, where our boler friends stay for the winter.  We joined them at Yuma Mesa RV Park.  It’s not a glamorous park, but it has all the essentials, and it’s very affordable.

Jim and Marietta (The Poopsters) took us on a drive around the area, including a stop near the border at Algodones.  We drove through the foothills and looked at the farms in the area.  Yes, lettuce does grow in the desert.  So much water is diverted from the Colorado River to irrigate the fields.  It’s an amazing feat, but I’m sure there will be long term repercussions (Aral Sea, anyone?)  Most of the workers are from Mexico.  They arrive on buses in the morning and work all day in the fields.  The buses tow porta-potties behind them.  When we stopped by one field, the workers didn’t speak English, but the cleaned and threw us a head of lettuce!  Fresh heavy wet lettuce!  What a treat!

We met Don and Glorie for lunch at a quirky restaurant called Lute’s Casino in Old Yuma.  It’s not a casino, but maybe it once was.  The decor is eclectic:

We toured Old Yuma, where Lute’s Casino is located.  It’s a cute district with interesting shops.

After lunch, we continued our tour.  We saw some really swank RV parks to see how the other half lives.  We had a really fun time.

More fields:

As the workers harvest the crop, it gets sent up a conveyor belt where it is packaged and boxed.  The process is very fast!

Notice the deep furrows for irrigation.  The fields get flooded to keep things alive in the desert.

We also found a geocache which had a travel bug.  We had never found a travel bug, but we decided to take it and move it along in our travels.  Oh the responsibility!

(Picture courtesy Donna Dee)

On another day, Don and Glorie took us to the Arizona Flea Market.  You can get anything from fresh veggies to RV dump valves!  I totally scored on veggies.  Look at my haul for only $4!  The stalls were closing, and so the man packed my bag full of extras — more lettuce!

Another special thing about Yuma is that my aunty Candice and uncle Gunner stay here for the winter too, so we stopped by to visit them.  They have a lovely park model that backs onto a date palm grove.  They also have a tangelo tree and grapefruit tree, so uncle Gunner picked us a bag full.  I LOVE FRESH PRODUCE!  They are off to California for a few days to visit their son & family, but we will visit with them when they return.