Parker Dam

We haven't been doing much of anything the past few days. We went into Parker to pick up our mail on Tuesday. Ed also found out why our left blinker did not work when we tow the car. There was a big worn spot on the electrical cable that goes from the motorhome to the car. Bought a new cable and now it works!!

Today we took a drive to Lake Havasu City. We needed to go the Walmart to pick up our prescription refills. We decided we would go the short way over the Parker Dam.



The road across this dam is very narrow. You can't go over it in a motorhome. Big trucks can't go over it. The bridge is closed to all traffic from 11pm til 5am.

Parker Dam is actually the third dam along the Colorado River. This dam actually forms the beginning of Lake Havasu. There is another dam in Laughlin, Nevada called Davis Dam. It forms Lake Mohave. And of course, the big one Hoover Dam is near Las Vegas and forms Lake Mead.

The wind here has been bad. We haven't been able to use our awning. We are hoping it dies down. Ed wants to play golf but he won't even try to play in this wind.

Tonight is Bingo night! Such excitement!!

Emerald Cove

We moved yesterday to another CRA park we belong to..Emerald Cove. After 9 days in the desert we spent the remainder of yesterday and all of today doing laundry and cleaning out the dust that had accumulated in the motorhome. I ran out of hot water taking a shower! The showers we took while we boondocked, were very quick. But we had a wonderful time with our new friends and we will meet again down the road I'm sure.

The site we have here is a pull through site. It is very long, so Ed had plenty of room to wash the car this afternoon.













The Colorado River










Today is a special day for some young man I know. My grandson Ramey turns 9 years old today. Happy Birthday ...Rock star!

Quartzsite

We have been here in Quartzsite now for a week and we are surviving off the grid. There are several places to park your rig out here. We are in LaPosa South. We paid $40.00 to park here for 14 days. You can also purchase a long term permit for $180 that lets you stay here from September until April. There are a lot of people who do this and they set there rigs with extra rooms made from tarps. Many have a lot of solar panels on their rigs and a few have windmills. They provide a place to dump your holding tanks and take on extra water. We have done this one time since we have been here and hope we can now make it until we leave on Saturday.

Quartzsite grows in the month of January every year. Vendors from all over come to set up in tents to sell their products. We have been through many of them. Although some of the things are unique, several are all selling the same things. There are a few businesses that are here all year round. There is a very good bakery in town, and also a very unique used bookstore. The bookstore is owned by a man everyone calls 'three socks' because that is all he wears. Well he does also wear a hat.
Here is a picture of his store sign.

We did get a picture of him also but I can't post it here.

Last night we had our graduation. Jeri had made up diplomas for us all. The diploma is from the 'Escapees College of Liberal Arts & Fulltime Lifestyles' and our degree is a 'Bachelor of RV Wanderin Lifestyle'. We had a great potluck dinner with visitors from other classes. Norah, from the class of 2007, made us a graduation cake! We have a lot of food left over, so we have decided to have a repeat tonight.

This whole week has been so much fun. We have made great friends and we will cross paths again in the future I'm sure.



This picture is from Tuesday night when we went to The Grubsteak for dinner. Yes - we were outside eating dinner.

Lots of memories!!

Hot Dogs!!

Last night we had a hot dog feast. We cooked the hot dogs over the fire. They sure tasted good.



With potato salad from Mary Jane and baked beans from Jeri, we all ate very well. Then, of course, we all moved from the tables to the fire and Carol brought out the marshmallows and cooked some for everyone.

Another great evening!

Spagetti Feast

Last night we prepared spagetti for everyone. We had another couple finally make it yesterday so we have gone from the 'dirty dozen' to the 'fabulous 14' .
We made the spagetti, Julie made some meatballs, Mary Jane made garlic bread and Jeri made a wonderful jello salad. Carol brought out Oreo Cookies for dessert. (She's excussed since it was a travel day for them)
Later while we were sitting around the campfire, we had the one of the best sunsets since we have been in the desert.
This picture doesn't do it justice.



And here is part of our group.


Fun Times!!

The Desert Bar

Today, the members of the 'Class of 2008' took a field trip. We went out to The Desert Bar. To get to this place, we drove to Parker, Arizona. We then turned and drove about 5 miles on this very narrow dirt road to get to this bar. But it was well worth the trip. This bar is only opened on Saturday and Sunday and only from noon til sundown because it is totally solar powered. The bar is built on an old copper mine site.


The tall structure is a cooling tower. They work similar to swamp coolers without the fan. When you wet the pads on top, the cool air falls and creates cool airflow.

Hot water tank!!


Another use of horse shoes. Desert sculpture!!



Our crazy group!!



It was a fun day. You can read more about this unique place on their web page..thedesertbar.com.

More info on Yuma

Yuma is known as the 'Lettuce Capital of the World'. All around Yuma there are plots of land, in what seems like one acre squares, in various stages of growth.





When the fields are ready for harvest, they bring the workers in a bus that is towing a trailer with porta potties. I'm not sure, but it seems that they do this so that there are not a lot of cars on the side of the road. Some of these fields are only accessable by a very narrow dirt road. The produce is wrapped and boxed right in the field. There seems to be every varity of lettuce or cabbage. And they work 7 days a week! We have watched this for the past 2 weeks. It's been fun trying to guess which fields are really for harvest!!

Another intersting thing to see in Yuma is called the 'Ocean to Ocean Highway Bridge'. This bridge was completed in 1915 and provided a continuous automobile route across the United States.



Here you see the railroad portion of the bridge and just behind it is the road. Before the bridge was completed there was a ferry that ran accross the Colorado River.

We have enjoyed our stay in Yuma. Tomorrow we will start getting ready to move to Quartzsite on Thursday.

Yuma Territorial Prison State Park

Today we went out to Yuma Territorial Prison State Park. They were having a "Gathering of the Gunfighters" competition today. There were 10 groups each putting on a re-enactment of the old west.

The groups were judged on content and costumes. Unfortunately, we were in the back of the crowd and the sound system there was almost non existent so we couldn't hear some of the dialog.








Here is a picture of Ed with the town drunk!!
He was very funny walking around in the crowd all day.



The history of the prison was also interesting. It was built in 1876 and only operated as a prison for about 30 years. The cells were made of strap iron that came from California and granite rock, that was quarried right next to the prison, and then plastered and whitewashed.

Each cell was a 9 by 12 room that held 6 prisoners. Originally, they had wooden bunks with straw mattresses, but an infestation of bed bugs caused them to burn the wooden bunks and re-made then out of iron. Boy were they hard!!

The "Dark Cell" above was for prisoners who were being punished for various reasons. The room was really dark. You went down a short hall to get to the opening where they were chained to the grid.

In 1900, they expanded the prison by adding an exersice yard and a hospital. The cells that were built around the yard were used to house prisoners who had tuberculosis.

After the prison was closed it became home to the Yuma High School students from 1910 to 1914. To this day, the Yuma High Schools athletic teams are called "The Criminals"! The empty cells provided free lodging for hobos riding the rails in the 20's and home to several families during the depression.

This last picture is of the guardhouse. They built it over the water tank to keep the water from evaporating during the hot summers.


What an interesting day!!

Yuma Lakes

I promised you pictures of Yuma Lakes RV Park.

These figures welcome you to the park. Can you guess why I chose this picture?

This is the courtyard between the pool and the clubhouse.


This is where we are parked until January 15th.

This is a very nice, friendly park. There is always something going on. We have taken aerobics classes, played bingo and Ed has played in a putting contest.

The weather has been good. It gets cold at nite, in the 40's, but has warmed up to the low 70's during the day.

We may be back this way later. Our chalk plans for now are to hang around Arizona and New Mexico. We have a rally in February in Casa Grande, Arizona and then another rally in April in Alburquerque,New Mexico. I think after that we will start up to Washington State. But everything is subject to change!!

Yuma

We have been in Yuma for 5 days now. We have been busy taking care of chores around the motorhome. Since we had the interior done in Florida, our outside compartment lights have not worked. We finally took the cover where the switches are and discovered that they had not plug in that switch. Job done and off the to do list! We have also been waxing and section of the motorhome each day. Only one side to go!

Of course, we are leaving time each day for some play. Ed joined in a putting contest here at the park and we have been taking aerobics classes and playing bingo. Will get some pictures on the blog soon.

We are learning our way around the Yuma area. Tonight we realized just how close we are to the Yuma Army Proving Grounds. At first we thought we were having earthquakes, but after searching the Internet for seismic activity in the area, we remembered the proving grounds! Sure was loud and the motorhome did shake a bit!!

Until next time....

Move to Yuma, Arizona

We left Bakersfield on Tuesday morning and made a stop in Sylmar, California for new house batteries. The batteries we had were the original and they really weren't holding a good charge anymore. With the boondocking (camping without hockups)we will be doing in Quartzsite later in January, we wanted to make sure we had good batteries. Son in law, Jason, used to work for Battery Power in Sylmar so he called ahead for us and got us a good deal. Thanks, Jason!

After that chore was completed, we moved on and stopped for the night at Casino Morongo just before Palm Springs in California. New batteries worked great!! Yesterday we left Casino Morongo and drove the rest of the way to Yuma. Last night we stayed at the Escapee park here in Yuma. They were full so we ended up in the boondock area for the night. We were talking with the people next to us and realized that we had also met them when we were at "The Ranch" escapee park in Lakewood, NM. Enjoyed visiting with them again. That's what this lifestyle is about!

We moved this morning to the Yuma Lakes RV park. It's also part of the Colorado River Adventures group of campgrounds which we belong to. We will be here until the 15th of January, then we will move to Quartzsite and join the others who are part of our fulltime class of 2008.

Looking forward to exploring this area. Will post pictures along the way.

Happy Birthday to my son Terry who turns 35 years old today. He is getting older and I seem to be getting younger!! Ha!!