Christmas 2012

In our holiday jamies on Christmas Eve.  This year the boys got plaid and the girls got polka dots. From left to right:  Serene (Shad's twin sister), Jim, Bev, son Paul, daughter Ashley, grand daughter Mia, SIL Shad.  Grandson Marshall was sleeping.

Another jamie shot.

Three-year-old Mia has a great Christmas morning.

It doesn't get much better than a castle that's 
also a marble game.

Bev and Jim with a gift of home made goodies sent by 
daughter Season and SIL Lee of Portland, OR.

Marshall.

Shad and Marshall.

Paul in a reflective mood.

Ash and Marsh.

Mia and Grandpa.

Going home for the holidays

Whoa!  I haven’t posted since Saturday.  Since then we’ve gone to a movie (Lincoln at the matinee at the Yuma Palms Mall - it was packed and we may have been the youngest people there.  Then again, I may be flattering ourselves); to the Yuma Downtown Farmers' Market; to a couple of farm stands between the Yuma Proving Ground where we are staying and the city of Yuma (Jim is now an affectionado of date bread); and we visited another nearby wetlands called Mittry Lake.  

Plus we've been cleaning the rig prior to storing it here at the army base and heading home in the tow car for the holidays.  We leave tomorrow morning. I probably won’t be posting often, if at all, until we are back on the road in early January.  Merry Christmas everyone!  Have a wonderful holiday and talk at you next year.

A coyote staring at us on our way to Mittry Lake.  What Jim really wants to see is a burro.  I may have to buy him one.

Mittry Lake near Yuma on the lower Colorado River between that river's  two southernmost dams (Laguna and Imperial).  The Laguna Dam was the first dam built on the Colorado River.  

Ducks on Mittry Lake.

Jim on the Mittry Lake dock.

And Happy 92nd Birthday yesterday to my Mom.

Wellton, AZ

Yesterday was a “let’s drive and see what we find” day.  

We decided to go to Wellton, a small town east of Yuma and about 40 miles from where we're staying at the Yuma Proving Ground.  We’d read that it has a lot of RV communities and Jim had researched nearby hiking routes.  So we just wanted to take a look.

About 1800 people live in Wellton year round but the population doubles when the winter snowbirds show up.  The town’s amenities are very basic:  a small grocery store, a Circle K, a school, a thrift store. 

  

The main event for us was a hiking trail in the nearby Muggins Mountains.  We weren’t prepared to hike -- I was carrying my pink purse (Jim says I have to get a different one; he doesn't think it makes me look I’m prepared for anything except Nordstrom) and wearing my canvas Toms.  And we didn’t have any water.  But we just wanted to find it for “next time.”  

We drove on roads that took us through all sorts of lettuce, broccoli, and other vegetable fields where harvest was in full force. After the paved road we took a rough, hilly, dirt road to the trail head.  Jim was driving;  he watched the road for potholes and cliffs, while I looked ahead in case another vehicle was headed our way on the very narrow road.  I didn't see any cars, but I did see a man walking with hand weights like he was on his daily exercise walk.

Turns out he was a local vegetable farmer (my dad was a farmer, too, but I can’t visualize him walking the back 40 carrying dumb bells - what do you think, Mom?) who had lived in Yuma all his life  Anyway, we walked with Mr. Farmer toward the trail head and got a short history lesson plus some hiking trail tips. 

Holiday decorations in downtown Wellton, AZ.

Bev on the trail.  Jim made me hide my purse for the photo.

Jim taking a photo of what Mr. Farmer called  Coronation  Peak. He said the conquistadors named it that because it looked like Queen Isabella's crown.  Per Mr. Farmer, the explorers sent the queen a drawing of the peak that is still in possession of Spanish royalty.

Coronation peak as it looks from the lettuce fields.  

I snapped this shot of harvesting equipment as we drove back from the trail head.  

Christmas decorations at the Moore Farm.

The irrigation here continues to fascinate me.  You can see the deep trenches between rows (or in this case between about three rows) that are sometimes completely filled with water. We think this crop might be cotton.

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.