Friday – February 10 – Another beautiful day, sunny and in the 80’s. John and I went out about noon to get groceries, went to Fry’s and it was a total zoo, but we did get most of what we needed.
We came back and John fixed the awning and I did a few things around the trailer. Janet and Dave came down for dinner and we had another great visit and evening. Dave has a tee time for tomorrow at 12:30 and Janet wants to go garage sale-ing first so will be a busy day. We are going to go to Cracker Barrel for dinner so at least we don’t have to worry about cooking.
Thursday – February 9 – Well, today was overcast so a good day for driving. We were on the road by 10:30 and about 20 miles down the road John pulled over to make sure everything was okay and oh, no the back compartment was wide open. He had opened it at the last minute to get out the mirrors and forgot to put the box back in and shut the compartment. The box also contained our warm jackets. So we turned around at the next exit and went back to fetch the box. Fortunately, Jack across the road had seen it as soon as we left and as we pulled into the park we were waved down and given the box. That added about another hour to the trip, but oh well, another lesson learned, if you take something out at the last minute put it back right away!!
We arrived at the park in Yuma about 2 and just as we were pulling away to go to our site Janet came up and gave us the devil for blocking their way. It sure is good to see them again. She and Dave came down right after we got parked and we had a good visit and then just like old times we put our food together and had a great dinner at their trailer. Lots of tongue wagging going on tonight!!!
The park here is very nice but the sites are close together. It was a good challenge for John to park the trailer but the fellow giving him directions was really good and John did an excellent job of backing into a narrow space.
Tomorrow I have to get groceries, the cupboard is getting bare and we are down to about 3 bottles of water and the one thing you need here is bottled water as the water here has a high alkaline content so not good for drinking or cooking. Dave is going to try to book a tee time for sometime in the next few days so we are looking forward to a game of golf.
We arrived at the park in Yuma about 2 and just as we were pulling away to go to our site Janet came up and gave us the devil for blocking their way. It sure is good to see them again. She and Dave came down right after we got parked and we had a good visit and then just like old times we put our food together and had a great dinner at their trailer. Lots of tongue wagging going on tonight!!!
The park here is very nice but the sites are close together. It was a good challenge for John to park the trailer but the fellow giving him directions was really good and John did an excellent job of backing into a narrow space.
Tomorrow I have to get groceries, the cupboard is getting bare and we are down to about 3 bottles of water and the one thing you need here is bottled water as the water here has a high alkaline content so not good for drinking or cooking. Dave is going to try to book a tee time for sometime in the next few days so we are looking forward to a game of golf.
Wednesday – February 8 – Today was a lazy day, we did some odds and ends and John went into Gila Bend and fuelled up for tomorrow. The weather was nice – sunny and warm. We went for a walk around the campground and looked at all the big rigs. There was one large motorhome that came in towing a pickup on a flatbed, with dirt bikes etc. in the truck and then a boat on top of the flatbed. They were certainly prepared for anything. It is very dry here – 113 days without rain which is a record. The longest period prior to this was 101 days.
Tuesday – February 7 – Today we drove down to Organ Pipe National Park. It is about 80 miles south of Gila Bend (pronounced Hela Bend) and about 30 of that was through the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Base. We saw lots of jets doing training, quite interesting. The park borders Mexico so the Border Patrol was very visible when we got near there.
Organ Pipe National Park is named for the cacti there that look like organ pipes. This is the only place they grow in the United States, mostly they are found in Mexico and parts south. We took a 10 mile scenic drive through the park and saw a lot of different varieties of cacti, including a lot of saguaros. We checked out the campground in the park and will try to come back there another year for a few days as it looked really nice. There are no hookups but they have a dump station and a place to get water so wouldn’t be too bad for a few days.
We stopped in Anjo (pronounced AHHO) on the way back and walked around the square where the train station is and different stores. When we got back to the park a lot of new rigs had moved in. There is a Wi-Fi rally being held here starting tomorrow so they have been coming in for the last few days. Talk about huge trailers, there are a number of 5th wheels and there are at least 6 being towed with mini freightliners, and the rest are huge motor homes. I know that by tomorrow night we will looked lost in the mass of 5th wheels and motorhomes. They all seem to have Direcway Satellite systems so guess that is what the wi-fi rally is all about. Unfortunately, they will be doing all their meetings in the clubhouse so I won’t be able to go in and use the internet so will probably not be able to get caught up on my blog and e-mail for a couple of days.
Organ Pipe National Park is named for the cacti there that look like organ pipes. This is the only place they grow in the United States, mostly they are found in Mexico and parts south. We took a 10 mile scenic drive through the park and saw a lot of different varieties of cacti, including a lot of saguaros. We checked out the campground in the park and will try to come back there another year for a few days as it looked really nice. There are no hookups but they have a dump station and a place to get water so wouldn’t be too bad for a few days.
We stopped in Anjo (pronounced AHHO) on the way back and walked around the square where the train station is and different stores. When we got back to the park a lot of new rigs had moved in. There is a Wi-Fi rally being held here starting tomorrow so they have been coming in for the last few days. Talk about huge trailers, there are a number of 5th wheels and there are at least 6 being towed with mini freightliners, and the rest are huge motor homes. I know that by tomorrow night we will looked lost in the mass of 5th wheels and motorhomes. They all seem to have Direcway Satellite systems so guess that is what the wi-fi rally is all about. Unfortunately, they will be doing all their meetings in the clubhouse so I won’t be able to go in and use the internet so will probably not be able to get caught up on my blog and e-mail for a couple of days.
Monday – February 6 – Today was brutally windy, but warm. I did some laundry and then spent time in the clubhouse on the internet, it was really slow so took me a long time to do what I had to do.
John was into more repairs. This morning the vent in the bathroom wouldn’t go down – GREAT!!! He had to cut out the screen on the fan as it wasn’t removable from the inside, the only way at it was on the roof and without a ladder that was impossible. He then had to repair the fan, go to the hardware and get a new piece of screening and put it back together. It works for now, but heaven only knows how long it will last, another repair when we get back to Can-Am in the spring, put in a Fantastic Fan and get it over with. Then the shower door wouldn’t close again, so more time spent adjusting that. Not a boring day for him!!! We had a call from Janet that they had arrived in Yuma so we are looking forward to meeting up with them on Thursday.
John was into more repairs. This morning the vent in the bathroom wouldn’t go down – GREAT!!! He had to cut out the screen on the fan as it wasn’t removable from the inside, the only way at it was on the roof and without a ladder that was impossible. He then had to repair the fan, go to the hardware and get a new piece of screening and put it back together. It works for now, but heaven only knows how long it will last, another repair when we get back to Can-Am in the spring, put in a Fantastic Fan and get it over with. Then the shower door wouldn’t close again, so more time spent adjusting that. Not a boring day for him!!! We had a call from Janet that they had arrived in Yuma so we are looking forward to meeting up with them on Thursday.
Sunday – February 5 – Today we drove into Phoenix and stopped at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast, that is the first time since last November that we have stopped at one for breakfast so really enjoyed it. Drove around Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa and found them to be really nice, clean looking cities. Did a bit of shopping then came home via Maricopa so saw more of the country.
Saturday - February 4 – Today we thought we would take the desert drive which was listed on things to do near here, but they didn’t say you need 4-wheel drive to do this one! We drove to the entrance to the Sonoran Desert then went for about 2 miles on an extremely rough road and when we saw the road going straight up the mesa we decided this was not for us. There was an area where there were a lot of trucks and one trailer and there were all kinds of big and little kids driving dirt bikes, ATV’s etc., we couldn’t help but think that our son would love this (both now and when he was a little guy).
We turned around and went the other way to Painted Rock which is a National Park with a large area of petroglyphs. It was extremely interesting and hard to believe that these petroglyphs are thousands of years old.
We passed a number of huge farming operations on the way, as well as a cotton gin with bales of cotton piled up as far as the eye could see, so I guess we did see cotton fields yesterday. It was a very interesting day.
We turned around and went the other way to Painted Rock which is a National Park with a large area of petroglyphs. It was extremely interesting and hard to believe that these petroglyphs are thousands of years old.
We passed a number of huge farming operations on the way, as well as a cotton gin with bales of cotton piled up as far as the eye could see, so I guess we did see cotton fields yesterday. It was a very interesting day.
Friday – February 3 - The weather here is certainly much warmer than Benson. Today it was in the 80’s again and hopefully it won’t get too cold tonight, so far at 10:00 p.m. it is still 61.
Today we needed groceries so went into Gila Bend, drove by the grocery store and decided we would go to Buckeye which has a large new Fry’s. It was a really nice store so got loaded up for the next week as we don’t want to have to drive 35 miles to get more groceries. It was a nice drive and the highway was interesting, started out as 2 lanes, then 4 lane divided, then 2 with a passing lane (even though it was perfectly flat), then back to 4 and on and on. We passed a huge penitentiary just outside of Buckeye, sure looked like it could hold a lot of people. We went through a large farming area and it looked like cotton along the side of the road so think maybe some of it had been cotton but it is now all picked and the ground plowed under again.
I haven’t taken any pictures in the last couple of days, must get at it again but so far there has been nothing to take.
Today we needed groceries so went into Gila Bend, drove by the grocery store and decided we would go to Buckeye which has a large new Fry’s. It was a really nice store so got loaded up for the next week as we don’t want to have to drive 35 miles to get more groceries. It was a nice drive and the highway was interesting, started out as 2 lanes, then 4 lane divided, then 2 with a passing lane (even though it was perfectly flat), then back to 4 and on and on. We passed a huge penitentiary just outside of Buckeye, sure looked like it could hold a lot of people. We went through a large farming area and it looked like cotton along the side of the road so think maybe some of it had been cotton but it is now all picked and the ground plowed under again.
I haven’t taken any pictures in the last couple of days, must get at it again but so far there has been nothing to take.
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