Checking out the Area

Today we drove to San Luis, AZ which is a small town of about 20,000 people and about 20 miles south of Yuma on the Arizona/Mexico border. It wasn't the interesting small town I had hoped so we just drove through it to the border and returned to Yuma.

Then we drove north on SR95 and came upon the US Army Yuma Proving Ground which is a general-purpose desert environmental test facility. YPG is located 26 miles north of Yuma, Arizona on U.S. Hwy 95. This installation covers nearly 1,400 square miles and offers climate and terrain similar to major desert areas worldwide. YPG is primarily involved in developmental and operational test of artillery weapons and ammunition, aircraft armament systems, mobility equipment, and air delivery systems.

Not seeing much to photograph, we returned to the RV where I sat outside and read for a while. While I was outside the lady who recommended this park to me on one of the campground discussion forums dropped by and introduced herself. It's always nice to meet people in person that you have 'talked' to on line.

After that, I came in and made some potato salad for dinner, read some more, had a nap and here I am watching Law & Order.

The photo for today is Bib enjoying his trip to San Luis with the windows open and his ears blowing in the breeze. It was another nice sunny day about 75F.

Hanging Around the Park

After I took Bib to the doggie park this morning, I went for a 15 minute or so walk around the park. It's interesting to see where everyone is from. There are quite a few RVs here from Ontario, lots from Albert and British Columbia and a few from Saskatchewan. There are even a few Titaniums here.

Since I've been putting off doing the laundry for too long, today I finally got my act together and got it done. The laundry machines here don't take quarters. You buy a card for $10 and you get $8 worth of laundry done and you get to keep the card. Yippee! You can use it when you come back to this park again. If and when we do, I wonder if I'll be able to find the card! I have to say it's more efficient than carrying around a bag full of quarters. They had this system in the park at San Diego too but you didn't have to buy the card. You just had to return it to the office when you were done and had to forego whatever amount was left on the card. I was lucky and had about $3.50 on the card when I got it from the office and returned it with zero dollars on it.

Anyway the laundry is done!

I also got to sit outside in the sun in my chair for a while. It was hot in the sun but there is a slight breeze again today.

Gordon went out just before sunset to photograph the dunes again. He found another road that went to a different spot in the dunes that he wanted to try out. I decided to stay here as I had seen enough dunes for now and I was tired from all the manual labour today. Also I wanted to get dinner ready. I hate getting home at 6:30 p.m. and having to rush to get that done.

The photo with today's blog shows our site at Las Quintas Oasis RV Park, site #54.

Getting to Know Yuma and Area

Neither of us have been to Arizona before so this area is new to both of us.

Today we left the RV at about 11:00 a.m. leaving Bib behind to guard the RV. It's too hot sometimes now to leave him in the truck if we're out taking photos. First we drove up Business 8 to see if we could find WalMart. There are two WalMarts here and neither are really easy to find. We were also looking for a Verizon store as my phone hasn't been showing message waiting for some time. We found one WalMart, then started out to find the other but wound up driving outside of town looking at scenery. We did find the other WalMart as well as the Verizon store but there were too many people at Verizon so we didn't stay.

There are literally field after field here of vegetables. I didn't realize so much produce was grown in this area. There are also citrus groves and date palms which produce Medjool dates. Medjool is considered to be the gourmet of the date family. Shown above are photos of the produce fields and date palms.

We had lunch at a Taco Bell and then continued driving around just to get to know the city and see if there was anything to photograph. We stopped and picked up a few groceries and got back to the RV at about 4:30 p.m. to a hungry puppy dog.

By the way, it was another nice sunny day, 76F with a light breeze!

Goodbye Californa, Hello Arizona

We left Desert Hot Springs this morning around 9:15 a.m. and arrived in Yuma around 12:45 p.m. (actually 1:45 p.m. as we're now on Mountain Time). It was a good drive, mostly freeway and the sun shone the whole way. Just before we crossed from California into Arizona we noticed some really special sand dunes that Gordon wanted to photograph.

So we got to the Las Quintas Oasis RV Park which had been recommended to me by someone in one of the forums that I participate in, got settled in and then headed back about 16 miles to take photos of the dunes. Very interesting, no vegetation of any kind. They look like they belong in Egypt.

We also stopped at a grocery to pick up some water on the way back to the RV. We needed the water but we also need the jug to tie down the internet satellite dish as we apparently forgot the one we had at a campground somewhere!

While Gordon was finishing setting up I checked out the pool, spa, showers and laundry room. Everything looks really nice so we're here for a week!

Saying Goodbye to Palm Springs

Today we got off to a slow start. After showering we just sat around for a while, then I went outside and sat in my lawn chair and read my book and while out there decided we needed to go in to Palm Springs again. So about 3:00 p.m. we headed in to town and took some photos of the downtown area then had dinner at a really good Mexican/Southwestern restaurant called The Blue Coyote Grill. The food was really good. I had a seafood enchilada with shrimp, crab and scallops and Gordon had a beef enchilada. He still thinks it wasn't as good as Feleena's in Ottawa. The photo at the right is me sitting under the blue coyote picture.

Then we headed home to get packed up and ready to leave for Yuma tomorrow.

Rescue of the Grapefruit Knife

A few weeks ago when setting up at a new site my grapefruit knife somehow got wedged under the kitchen slide and we couldn't get it out. It has caused some damage to the kitchen floor. Today Dean and Bob (Dean and his wife sponsored our guest status here at Catalina) came over and got the grapefruit knife out. Yeah! That's one problem down, now if we could just get the bathroom sink replaced, I would be happy! Luckily I had just finished vacuuming when the guys arrived as they had to get down on the floor to retrieve the knife.

Then Gordon and I went in to Desert Hot Springs to get some things that we needed for our get together planned for this afternoon. Gordon still needed to take his picture of the day so we headed west on I-10 and he got a photo of one of the wind turbine farms. They are everywhere down here as its a very windy area going through the pass between two of the tallest mountains in southern California.

Dean and Lin, Judy and Bob came over this afternoon and we had some wine and chips and cheese and crackers. Judy also brought me some fresh fruit that had just been picked off a friend's tree. I had two of the oranges tonight and they were yummy!

Tonight has been another quiet evening watching TV.

The photo is one Michelle sent of granddaughters, Grace and Faith having fun in the snow.

I'm Retired - Why Do I Have To Work?

Today, I bought an RV wash permit and we finally got the fifth wheel washed. It was really grimy from wet and dirty roads and all the wind and dust storms we've had in the desert. I know it won't be clean for long but at least it has the last few months grime off it!

Today has been a slow day other than giving Big Harv a bath. Gordon went out before dawn to the El Dorado Polo Club as they are having a hot air balloon festival this weekend and he wanted to see the balloons lighting up before takeoff. He managed to find it but it's 30 miles away at Indio. It was also the first time he had been to a polo field which he found interesting.

The photo shown is of our upper club house where the large family pool is located and where they have their pot lucks. They are having a pot luck on Wednesday, too bad, we have to leave Wednesday morning!

Again this afternoon, I had a long nap (it's getting to be a habit), then took Bib for a walk.

Looks like another quiet night for Desperate Housewives and Gray's Anatomy!