Tag Archives: Arizona

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January 11, 2018

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Boondocking, Chinook Motorhome, Dogs, USA Travel

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Peaceful Easy Feeling

We arrived at Quartzite in the late afternoon on Wednesday.  We are camping on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, which means that we can camp for 14 days for free, and then we have to move.  It is like Crown Land in Canada, but freer and more usable.

We had planned to leave Yuma on Tuesday, but we got a windstorm (sandstorm) followed by rain. Yes, rain!  It will probably be one of the few showers we will see down here.  As a result, we decided not to leave for Quartzite until Wednesday. The rain means the desert will bloom in a few days!


Saguaro and teddy bear cholla

The desert is spectacular!  I can’t get enough saguaro cacti. However, the desert is thorny. Everywhere. I’m always watching where the dogs step because there are prickers growing all over the ground. Not to mention all the thorns grabbing at your legs from the sides. The plant life has to protect itself some way. It’s a tough life waiting for rain a few times per year. Even with the thorns, needles, and pickers, the beauty is unmatched.

The desert floor is like pavement. The rocks are flat (Yes, there are some big sharp ones too. Remember everything is sharp here.).  However, the flat rocks have a smooth shiny patina from years of weathering. It is so smooth and flat that you don’t need to worry about finding a level site.  It’s almost as smooth as pavement.  Then, there are washes which are like gullies formed to carry away the rainwater.

After enjoying a glorious sunset, we were treated to a billion stars all around. Nature at its finest.

And the best sleep ever.

The wash behind our camp:
Flat level site:    

What are the poor people doing?


Enjoying the billion stars all around: 

The desert is cold for little old ladies

Tru, Reece, and Tonto:

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January 5, 2018

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Dogs, USA Travel

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Moon Howl

January 1 was the full-moon, so we had a bonfire and hotdog roast.  They do this every month in the park.  It’s called the Moon Howl.  Before the fire was ready for roasting wieners, Donna Dee took her dogs out for run.

Here is Tonto, the Pomeranian, howling at the moon.  He’s such a little ham.

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Waiting for the sun to set and the moon to rise:

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Don made the fire-pit out of a washing machine tub, and then mounted it on a lawnmower base.  Such fun!IMG_6293IMG_6291IMG_6301

 

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January 5, 2018

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Dogs, USA Travel

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Morning Walks

We have irrigation canals around the RV park.  The berm is well-groomed for people to walk or bike.  People really have to be careful about cleaning up after their dogs, although many do not.  No poop can get into these irrigation canals.  If you wonder how e-coli gets onto our lettuce, that’s how.

This is the park on the other side of the canal from Yuma Mesa RV Park, where we are staying.  I love the big saguaro cactus.  It’s a pretty park, but it doesn’t have a pool, hot tub, shuffleboard, etc.

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Most days, we just take Daisy and Poppy on our morning walk, but on the odd day, we ask Donna Dee if Tru & Reece can come with us.IMG_6232

Tru is a Border Collie.  She’s an old girl, but you’d never know it.  She’s very frisky and would play fetch until she died.  She really does have OCD, so you have to control her fetch games.  She is also an Olympic Cuddler like Poppy.  Paul wants to steal her.IMG_6220

Reece is a Standard Poodle.  He is such a handsome boy!  Yes, I want to steal him.  I keep whispering in his big ears that he should hop in the Chinook when we leave.  In the meantime, we’ll keep playing with these two precious dogs.  Donna rescued Reece and has really brought him out of his shell.  He didn’t have a good early life, but he’s livin’ the life now!  Some evenings, Donna will come over and spend some time visiting in the Chinook.  She will bring one of the dogs, so we get more time with them.IMG_6219

One day, we crossed the main road and walked along another canal berm.  As we approached a date palm grove, we thought we might be near my Aunty Candice and Uncle Gunner’s place, and sure enough, we were!  That day, we also had Reece and Tru with us.  We were all pretty hot, so we got refreshed on my aunt and uncle’s porch.  What a great walk that was!  We were so surprised that it only took 35 minutes to walk there.  Of course, Tru found a lovely display of pinecones in a bowl and tried to entice my uncle to play fetch with her!  What a girl!

Other Creatures, Great and Small

There is a dead tree near our park, and every morning the vultures perch on it and warm their wings.  It was a little disconcerting the first time I walked by, but they kept to themselves and didn’t look twice at Daisy.

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There are also citrus fruit groves and other crops.  Check out this field:IMG_6254IMG_6250IMG_6255

The day before I walked by, they were so wooly.  The next morning, I remembered my camera, but during the evening, they lost their coats!  As I approached, they came running over.

These sheep are from Montana.  It is cheaper for farmers to send their sheep south than to buy feed for them for the winter.  They get moved from field to field.  They can clear a field in a couple of days, and they add much needed nutrients.  Lucky sheep!  Who wouldn’t want to spend their winters in Arizona?

 

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December 24, 2017

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USA Travel

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Rocket Man

On December 22, Donna Dee and I took the dogs for a walk along the irrigation canal behind our RV park.  The Yuma airport isn’t too far away, so when we saw a very bright light, we thought it might be an airplane.

But, then things got weird.  Really weird.  Like Korean rocket man weird.

Donna hadn’t brought her phone, and I didn’t have my camera, so we couldn’t take a picture.  We all (dogs included) froze and just stared at the spectacle and hoped it wasn’t sinister.

This thing was HUGE.

When I got back, I described it to Paul.  He said to do a Google search and maybe there was an explanation.  I started my search with “weird” and Google filled in the rest “weird light in sky”.  I guess I wasn’t the only one.

It turned out that it was Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.  Wow!  What a sight!

Here is a picture by Javier Mendoza of the Associated Press:

Javier Mendoza:AP

Link to news story:  https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/23/573194940/spacex-rocket-launch-lights-up-the-california-sky-freaks-out-some-residents

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December 24, 2017

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Cacti, Palm Trees, and Lettuce?

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:

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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!

TravelBug

(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!

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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.