Water in Yuma

Yuma is in the desert, but also at the confluence of the Colorado and Gila Rivers.  In 1935 the Imperial Dam was completed, giving local access to water for all the irrigated cropland we see: trenches of water between rows of crops plus sprinkler irrigation. (We met some folks who told us all the irrigation makes Yuma humid, but I haven’t noticed that.) The dam also created Martinez Lake.

Tuesday and Wednesday we visited some of the places created/supported by the dam and the rivers -- if you don't count the entire city of Yuma. 

1) Martinez Lake Resort is a private marina/town on the lake of the same name. It was started in 1955 as a fishing camp and named for a family who grazed cattle there before the dam created the lake.  I can only describe the marina as funky looking with hacienda-type homes next to shacks.  Jim said he thought their only zoning regulation was “If you can toss it up, you can live in it.”   Great place if you love to fish, boat, bird watch or are in the witness protection program. 

2) Close to the resort is a military campground on Martinez Lake.  It was less junky looking than the town and had small cabins plus 20 RV spots with electricity and water hook ups, but no gray/blackwater hook ups or dump site--which might limit how long you could stay.  For us, that would be one week max. It's really out in the boonies, but I could maybe see us staying there for a few days next year. 

3) Also near the resort is the beautiful and desolate Imperial National Wildlife Refuge made up of desert, wetlands and the last unchannelized stretch of the Colorado River -- plus what looks like untouched land. 

4) Yesterday we took a 3 1/2 mile hike along the Yuma East Wetlands trail near downtown Yuma.  The trail is in a 350 acres area being restored to wetlands by the Quechan Indian Tribe and the City of Yuma.

The Martinez Lake welcome center, I guess.

Main Street into Martinez Lake...

And another home near the beginning of Martinez Lake  

Jim looking through binoculars at the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge.

Imperial National Wildlife Refuge Visitors' Center.

A view at the wildlife refuge.

The Colorado River as seen from the Yuma East Wetlands trail.

Cooper kicks up dust on the wetlands trail.  There may be a 
river nearby, but just feet away you know you're in the 
desert.

Yuma Territorial Slammer

The number one tourist attraction in Yuma AZ (per the web site Trip Advisor) is the Yuma Territorial Prison State Park.   When I told Jim that he said "What other tourist sites are there in Yuma?"  So how could we not go?  

The grounds are beautiful:  palm trees, lush green grass, walkways with flowers.  Not sure if the prison looked like that back in 1876 when the first prisoners moved in (they also happened to be the folks who built it.)  But the prison was so modern for its time -- with electricity, running water and flush toilets -- that those on the outside called it "the country club."  Those on the inside, however, called it "the hell hole."  It was oppressively hot in the summer, cells held six people each, and those flush toilets weren't in the cells; each cell had a single latrine bucket emptied once a day.

Jim looking in one of the cells at the Yuma Territorial 
Prison State Park, which was used as a prison for 33 
years.  Over that time it housed  3069 men and women 
who'd committed crimes ranging from murder to 
polygamy. 

Bev peering from behind the bars.  After the prison closed 
in 1909 the site was used for a few years as the local high 
school.  To this day, the high school sports teams are 
called the "criminals." Really. 

Jim coming out of the "Dark Cell," a windowless, bathroomless space where you were tossed (in just your underwear) if you didn't follow the rules. Folks  were not 

put in the dark cell one at a time; instead, guards added prisoners until it was standing room only.  (Looks like Jim got his clothes back.) I thought the room had bad juju.

A reconstruction of the prison guard tower sits atop the original water tank.

One great book; one OSU win

 ---We have a spot at the edge of the Yuma Proving Ground RV Park.  There's nothing behind our rig except a view of desert shrubs and brown, distant mountains.   I can sit outside, look at the view and see no absolutely no one.  (I can however, hear a distant neighbor yelling for Marge, her Shih Tzu)  Today, that's where I read on my Kindle.

I’m about 3/4 of the way through “The End of Your Life Book Club” by Will Schwalbe.  Jim’s sister, Cathy, suggested it because she knows I tend to read memoirs.   The book centers on  1) the author's mom’s treatment for pancreatic cancer; and 2) the books they read while she gets chemo.  Sounds like a downer, I know, but  it’s uplifting, touching and motivating. A very good book. (Thanks, Cathy.)   

---I am not much of a TV-watching sports fan, except when it comes to Ohio State - my alma matter - playing football.  And then I watch the game like I do a scary movie:  through my fingers.  When it gets too scary, I leave.  So last weekend when Wisconsin tied Ohio State with just seconds remaining and the game went into overtime, I went on a walk.

After about 7/10 of a mile, Jim found me in my quest for laps around the RV park; Ohio State won.  Yay!  Later I came back to the rig and read about the game online on ESPN and the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.  I’d much rather read about a victory after the game than have to suffer through a close one.

Yesterday, Ohio State had a sloppy win over Michigan to end the season with 12 wins and no losses.  So double yay, as to most OSU fans it’s a losing season if you don’t beat Michigan.  Jim’s OSU however (Oregon State) lost their “Civil War” game between OSU and University of Oregon but still finished 8-3. 

---Finally: It may be hot and sunny here in Yuma, but RV neighbors are hanging holiday lights on their motor homes and stores on the military base are playing Christmas Muzak.  In honor of the holiday season, see our Christmas decorations below.

The only decorations we'll put up this year:  A holiday moose cookie tin (look familiar, Mom?) and Kleenex's holiday edition.

Mexican shopping trip

Los Algondones, Mexico is just 8 miles west of Yuma and the northernmost city in all of Mexico.  It’s known as a medical mecca for inexpensive dental care, eyeglasses and prescription drugs -- there are over 350 (really) dentists in this tiny town of about 4500 people.  We’d heard from people we’d met last winter in Tucson that you can get good, inexpensive medical care there, like a teeth cleaning for $20.  But we didn’t need glasses or dental work.  We just wanted to go to Mexico, see Los Algondones and window shop.

You cross the border from the tiny (population 59, says Wikipedia) California town of Andrade.  I didn’t see anything resembling a town as we approached Mexico.  Instead, there was a fairly nice RV park and then a huge, paved parking lot.  We parked the car, followed the crowd, and walked across the border.  No checking of IDs or of anything being brought in.  

Within seconds of crossing the border we were approached and asked if we were needed  dental care, glasses or prescriptions.  If you say yes near the border, the asker will take you to a store and demand a “finders fee” from the doctor or pharmacist. In addition to all the folks hoping for a percentage of your bill, someone was standing in front of nearly every medical place we walked by asking you to come in and get your teeth checked, to get glasses, to get a prescription filled. We must have been asked those questions 50 times. I told one man who asked me if I needed prescription drugs that I didn’t have a prescription. He said I didn't need one.

Vendors also came up to us with jewelry, leather goods, ceramic turtles, painted rocks and all sorts of doo dads.  I stopped to look a couple of times (I did see some purses I liked and wanted to get a closer look) but then someone was right next to me trying to put a wallet in my hand. 

Whenever we are somewhere the least bit “iffy,” Jim’s mantra is to look like you know where you are going and what you are doing.  That means walking with purpose and no lolly gagging taking photos or looking at maps.  When one of the street vendors put a bracelet on me, Jim said someone could have tried to steal from me while I was distracted or claim that since I was wearing the bracelet I’d stolen it.  I didn’t get that impression from the vendors.  Persistent would be a huge understatement, but most were were also polite.  But I get Jim’s point and I'm glad he looks out for us. 

Anyway ... after about forty minutes of walking around and repeatedly saying "No thank you; no gracious" I finally took a few photos.  Then we crossed the border back into the US where we had to show our passports and anything we purchased. (I bought three small bottles of vanilla, which, now that I have them back at the rig and opened one I’m pretty sure are fake -- they are too mild to be real vanilla.  Vanilla water, maybe? ).  In late afternoon or evening it can take hours to get through customs, but since we left Mexico by noon we got through in 20 minutes.  Walking to the parking lot, we heard a woman  telling another visitor that she always came to Algondones to buy tortillas and to visit her husband who had been deported. 

Years ago I took my kids on a short cruise that included a shopping stop in Ensenada, Mexico.  What I remember most was a sign in front of a store that said “We Cheat Less.”  Although I doubt that there will be a “next time” shopping trip to Los Algondones, if we ever do need anything from Mexico's molar/eyeglass capital, I'll research it so I can find a “we cheat less” type of place.

The border crossing into Algondones, Mexico near Yuma. Arizona.  We walked in to the right of the white metal grate in the photo.

An Algondones street.  

Signs for Los Algondones dentists in front of their businesses.  Some of the shops -- like the ones above -- looked run down.  Others looked modern enough to be on the Starship Enterprise.

We still had a successful shopping day because on our way back to the rig we stopped at two Yuma farm stands.  Our haul included honey, pickled beets, date nut bread and (in the aluminum foil) home made tamales. 

Happy Thanksgiving from Yuma, Arizona

Last year we celebrated Thanksgiving in Junction, Texas.  This year we’re in Yuma, Arizona; we arrived Tuesday from San Diego.  I love the Southern California climate -- the air actually feels soft.  And there are so many things to see/do.  But there are too many people and too much traffic.  And so we are back in Arizona.

As I write, I am sitting outside our motor home in the sun at the Yuma Proving Ground “Desert Breeze” campground (a misnomer today because the wind must be a zero miles per hour).  I’m watching a gaggle of ruby-throated hummingbirds dive bomb each other as they fly back and forth between feeders attached to two nearby rigs. I’m also looking at brown mountains with a view of a single saguaro cactus, shrubby bushes, a lot of beige rocks and sand and -- because we are on a military base, after all -- a chain link fence.

Last Thanksgiving I quasi cooked a holiday dinner (main dish:  turkey sandwiches) but this year we had a full blown TDay meal at the Yuma Proving Ground base restaurant, the “Cactus Cafe,” for $14.95 each. Jim wasn’t sure he wanted to “eat out” -- he said he didn’t think he couldn’t eat $14.95 worth of food. My position was that I couldn’t make ham, turkey and all the fixings for $14.95 times two. Besides the fact that while Jim is a great cleaner upper, he is not a cooker.  We ate out. Like they say, happy wife, happy life.  And Jim liked his dinner.

We sat with a couple from New Hampshire who for the last three years have lived year round in Welton -- about 30 miles east of Yuma -- in their 34-foot fifth wheel with three slides.  Before that they'd done a lot of traveling and even spent 14 winters living in their rig on BLM land near here and returning to New Hampshire each summer.  Now they are having health problems and can't drive much (the man recently had a defibrillator and a pacemaker put in.  Jim said something along the lines of "how's that working for you?" to which the man replied "I'm alive." That's a taciturn New England thumbs up, I think.)  They advised us to do as much as we could while we were "still young." And whenever we are in a motor home park, I do feel young comparatively speaking. 

Bev's Thanksgiving dinner is on the right.  I made up for less food on my plate by later adding  pumpkin pie AND carrot cake. It was good, but not near as good as I'm sure Bev's Ohio family had today in Brecksville.  Nor was it as good as the huge friends and family dinners we have in Salt Lake City.  I bought a turkey breast I'll do in the crock pot tomorrow so we can still have "leftovers."

Bev and Jim inside the Cactus Cafe. To the left is the buffet line and behind us are maybe left over Halloween decorations?  Photo was taken by hostess Ana Rosa, whose usual job is working in the base gymnasium.

Bev in front of the Yuma Proving Ground's Cactus Cafe.  I told Jim we need action shots and not just "Here's Bev/Jim standing in front of [insert name of object here]."  I'll work on that. But most of what we do is hike/walk/read/look/repeat.  Not alot of fast action.