Our month in Yuma, Arizona

Here is a recap of our travels to date. The blue line is our route traveled (984 miles) since the beginning of the year: we left the Johnsons in Simi Valley, went east to Indio and Joshua Tree National Park, continued north to Tecopa and Death Valley National Park, then across to Nevada and Lake Mead, south into Arizona and Quartzsite, and from there further south to Yuma, situated in the very south west corner of Arizona close to the Colorado River and Mexico.

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For years we have heard about snowbirds who gather in Yuma to escape the winter months up north. This year it was finally our turn to explore and discover what it is that draws thousands of retirees to this part of a remote desert and love it enough to return every year.
Armed with several coupons for various RV Resorts that we picked up in the Quartzsite Big Tent RV Show, we made our way to Yuma, about a 90-minute drive from Quartzsite. It was an easy drive south on I-95.
This was new territory for us. The desert terrain, however, remains the same. And as the AAA map indicates, there are several military restricted areas scattered throughout the remote desert. We passed the US Army Proving Grounds and just south of Yuma is the Goldwater Air Force Range.

Yuma Proving Grounds entrance with its twin cannons

our turnoff in Yuma, going to Fortuna De Oro  RV Resort in the Foothills section

So what do we think of Yuma?
First impressions were mixed. There is nothing much here, it’s flat and dry and remote. Visually there isn't much appealing about the landscape. There are mountains in the distance, and there is the Colorado River that snakes its way through but it’s basically an open, remote desert area and Yuma is simply a fairly good-sized city along Interstate 8.

So what’s the appeal?
Yuma has almost 95,000 year-round residents. But from about September to March, the population just about doubles when the retirees arrive for the winter months, starting as early as September all the way through March. Yuma transforms into a playground for the grey set. There are dozens of RV Parks in Yuma, several in just one block, each one vying to attract visitors with various activities. 

We ended up staying in Yuma for a month, longer than we had first planned.  Soon after we arrived in Yuma we got the call we had been expecting for many months, that my mother who had suffered for years with a degenerative brain palsy, was in her final days.  We immediately flew out to Maryland and were in time to be with her and my family when she passed away.  We were able to participate in the funeral arrangements and memorial and spend some time with my family before returning to Yuma.  

We now better understand why folks gather here every winter. It may be remote and has a small town feel but the weather is great and there is plenty to do and see.The skies are blue, the sun shines mostly every day, and the temperatures are in the 70’s and low 80’s. As someone pointed out to us, Yuma is about 10 degrees warmer than other popular retiree havens in the Phoenix and Tuscon areas. The sun shone brightly for us and except for a couple of massive wind and rain storms that galloped through here, the weather has been very pleasant. It sure beats the winter gloom, cold and rain of Seattle. The opposite is of course true in the summer when temperatures soar to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet some folks live here year-round.

At the many RV parks there are sites available for RV’s but there are also park models, which are small bungalow-type houses on a leased plot of ground. Folks seem to follow a pattern by first coming to Yuma in their RV, begin to feel comfortable with a particular resort and the friends they make, and after a couple of years decide to purchase a park model instead. We talked to folks from Oregon who have been coming here for the past 25 years! 

our home in Yuma - us and the Johnsons at Westwind

Typically each resort will have a club-house, a pool and Jacuzzi, and depending on the size of the resort there will be assigned rooms for various hobbies and interests: cards, billiards, quilting, painting, ceramics, lapidary, even woodcarving. We visited Alpine friends whose resort featured a bowling alley and a movie theater.
Many have golf courses, and outdoor activities like shuffle board, pickleball, volleyball, bocci ball and tennis courts. Some have snackbars, others have restaurants. And every weekend there are dances in the ballroom and various musical concerts and shows. The artists rotate through the different resorts and anyone from other resorts is welcome to attend. 

The resorts are active and folks appear to enjoy their days socializing, being active and participating in the various amenities. You certainly won't find older, retired folks rocking their days away on a porch! Everyone is involved in some type of activity and everyone is friendly and welcoming. Golf carts whizz about as a means of transport in the park itself. Walkers go out in groups in the early morning, while some participate in pool aerobics, or yoga. Others use the exercise room. Several folks also own ATVs which are perfect to explore the desert terrain beyond the gate. We heard them leave in the morning and return early afternoon. Or, you can simply sit outside absorbing the warm sun. The choices are many. 

We enjoyed our time in Yuma. We stayed at Fortuna De Oro RV Park for three nights and then moved to Westwind. Several of our Alpine friends were here in Yuma too. The Leggs stayed in the same two parks with us before heading to their next destination. While in Yuma, we got together with the Poeschl's, Royce’s, Sprague’s, Wynn’s and the Picha’s. The Johnsons arrived towards the end of the month to spend a few days. 

visiting the Royce's

with the Poeschl's and Leggs at the Fortuna De Oro restaurant

We went to the Date Festival downtown. Booths lined the main street and there was live music and entertainment. We enjoyed sampling the dates. 

folks come here in droves to shop and have dental and medical work done

We walked across the border at Andrade into Los Algodones in Mexico one morning. We discovered that this border town is well known for its medical and dental tourism. Based on the experiences and recommendations of others, Michael had his teeth cleaned and I got myself a new pair of glasses. Teeth cleaning with a full set of digital x-rays: $20. New pair of progressive glasses with frames and anti-scratch lenses, ready in two hours: $150. 

the long wait to cross back into the US

The experience was certainly interesting. On the California side, there is a huge parking lot to park your car so that you can walk across the border into Mexico. Just on the other side, you literally find yourself in a different culture and part of the world. 
Vendors constantly solicit and booths selling handmade crafts line the sidewalk. You can't pass without being solicited. Dental offices, vision clinics, medical clinics and pharmacies line two or more blocks of the town. As do liquor stores, bars and restaurants. Los Algodones does a brisk business daily as folks arrive in throngs from the US, particularly for dental work and to buy medications at a more reasonable price. The only glitch in the day was the hour and a half wait in the slowly snaking line to cross back into the US and through customs. Next time, we will take the advice others gave to do our business first thing in the morning and return before 11am to avoid the lines. 

We visited the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, situated along the Colorado River. In 1876, the first seven inmates entered the prison and were locked in the new cells they had built themselves. 







For the 33 year period that the prison was in operation, over 3,000 prisoners spent time here, including 29 women, for crimes ranging from murder to polygamy and seduction. 
The museum featured a film and interesting displays. The museum building sits on the site of the Prison Mess Hall and was built with 60,000 handmade adobe bricks during the Great Depression. 
I was most intrigued that the prisoners were self-sufficient. The motto was that if you couldn't make it yourself, you did without. The prisoners made their own clothing and utensils. 
It was also interesting to find out that for the times, this prison was considered a "Country Club on the Colorado" because it generated its own electricity, had a hospital and other modern conveniences. In fact, after lights out at 9PM, the city of Yuma purchased electrical power from the the prison. In effect, the prison lit up Yuma at night.




One display featured beautifully made delicate lace. Apparently the hardened criminal who created delicate lace spent his days doing hard manual labor, tried to escape, was confined numerous times for violations, yet during his free time knitted beautiful lace. The knitting needle was the diameter of a thin wire.


This is the view from the water tower in the prison grounds:

the wetlands and Old town Yuma along the Colorado River

clutter galore at Lute's Casino Restaurant

We ate at Lute's Casino, a colorful and popular restaurant in downtown. It has a colorful history too and features an eclectic accumulation of posters and knickknacks to keep you amused and occupied while waiting for your order to arrive.  
(Uncle Google has a good description:
http://www.lutescasino.com/history/)

with the Wynns, Johnsons and Spragues

guy chatter about... you guessed it, Alpine issues: the Spragues had a major
problem with their Vansco system that Sandy helped fix

We ended up staying here a month (except for the ten days we were on the east coast). We had a good time, though I am not sure that we are quite ready to spend an entire winter here. There are still too many places to explore around that next bend. But it is certainly worth another stop next winter for a couple of weeks. Or more. 
I enjoyed meeting the ladies at quilting group, and line dancing once a week. We went to a couple of social dances in the ballroom and also a great Crosby Stills & Nash tribute concert. We retirees sure know how to boogie and love hearing good music from our era. 
One of the resorts hosted a quilt show that was well attended and quite professional. Between the show and meeting twice a week in the quilting room here at Westwind, I now have more ideas for projects I would like to try. That's how ideas get exchanged, triggering our quilting muses into action.

Country Roads RV Resort quilt show

My major sewing accomplishment during our desert sojourn was completing the dash cover – finally! And a couple of embroidered towels. 

Tomorrow we leave and move on to the Cotton Lane RV Resort in Goodyear Arizona, the venue for the ACA Pre-Rally to the FMCA 95th Convention to be held in Chandler Arizona the first week in March.
The next ten days will be busy and active, first with our ACA rally group and then at the various seminars and booths at the FMCA Convention. 
Life on the road continues to be an adventure with a never-ending source for Alpine tales.