It never rains in Yuma. Except when it does.

I read where Yuma normally gets between 3-4 inches of rain annually.  It seems like we’ve had close to -- or more than -- that in the last 24 hours, but the TV news tonight gave the official tally as .87 inches.

The precip started early yesterday evening.  As luck would have it, our rig’s awning is broken.  In a loosely extended position.  Which means we can’t close the awning and we also can’t make it fully open and flat.  Bottom line:  We’ve got a sagging awning/rain water collector.  About every 15 minutes one of us goes outside, pushes up the awning with a broom, and the collected water flows off.

Before the rain hit, our big concern was wind.  Jim used straps tied to lawn chairs, a bucket of water, the bag of rocks I collected two days ago, and a duffel bag full of gravel to anchor the awning so it won’t flip up and break in a gust.  We’ve also called a mobile repair service and they’ve ordered a part -- but it will be about ten days before the part arrives. On the plus side, the repair guy said good things about our Lazy Daze, adding  “they’re built like tanks.”  The awning...not so much.

In other exciting news, last night about 9 p.m. I saw a flash of light out a corner of the rig window and simultaneously heard one of the biggest claps of thunder I’ve ever experienced. I thought it might have hit one of the nearby rigs, but we didn’t see obvious damage this morning, nor did we see an exploded saguaro. 

Since I took this photo of how Jim reinforced the awning (so the wind won't catch it and break it),  he added one more strap attached to a bag of gravel.  Looks like a hillbilly motor home.  Or, as we like to say, efficient but not elegant.

View of puddles (the TV weather caster called it "ponding") as seen from our rig door this morning.

Jim pushes up on the awning and collected rain water starts to cascade over the edge.