Tuesday, January 18, 2011

It has been a week since I posted a blog so I am doing a bit better with my updates. It is hard to write when there isn’t much to write about, it is not as exciting being in one place as it is being on the road and seeing new places and discovering new things.

I haven’t been doing a lot as my back has still been sore, one day it seems to be a bit better then the next day worse again – very frustrating, but yesterday I went for a massage and today it is much better so I have my fingers crossed that it is on the mend now.

Last Tuesday I finally talked to my brother in Australia on Skype and thankfully they are fine and not affected with the flooding, I certainly was relieved to hear that. I watched a video of some of the flooding in Brisbane and it was incredible to see how quickly the water rose and washed cars away, and a friend sent us pictures of some of the rail lines north of Brisbane and what the water had done to them. I certainly feel sorry for all the people affected by it.

The last week has been pretty quiet, John has been looking for a new grill but so far he hasn’t decided on anything; I have given up going out to look with him as it is frustrating watching him hem and haw about them. He is the one who uses it so it is his decision what he wants, just wish he would decide!

We are looking at shades for the new patio area as it is too sunny without them, John was out looking yesterday and is waiting for a call from someone to come out and give us a quote.

Yesterday when I got home from my massage just as I came in the back door there was a knock at the front and it was Bob across the road saying to come over for a drink, I said it sounded good but didn’t know where John was, turns out he was already there. I went over and they had a few other people there so it was nice to meet new people and visit, a very nice time.

I had an e-mail from Larry T. asking how we decided to come to Yuma so thought that I would put a bit about that in my blog. For some reason I have always wanted to visit Arizona but being the uninformed Canuck that I am thought that all of Airzona was warm (hot even) in the winter – NOT!

We left London ON on January 1st, 2006 heading for our first visit to Arizona. We had gone to London on Dec. 30th and moved into our new Airstream with plans to leave on the 31st but is was snowing pretty good that day so decided to wait until the 1st. On the 2nd of January it was 70F going through Indianapolis but we did know that was unusual for that part of the country. The next night we stayed in Springfield MO and again it was nice weather, we even turned the water on in the trailer.

A few days later we arrived in Alburquerque NM and again the weather was beautiful, in the high 50’s and low 60’s during the day but cold at night (I just checked my diary and it went down to 21F one night) – brrrr! We spent a week there thinking this was usual for that part of the country but were told that it was an unseasonably warm winter, worked for us though as we enjoyed our time there and found it a very interesting city with lots to see and do. Even Sandia Peak, which is a huge ski area there was green instead of snow covered! Had we been there a year later we would have been buried in snow up to our ying yang, apparently a far more usual winter for that area!!

From there we headed south to Arizona with no particular destination in mind, but the night we stayed in Deming NM on the way to Arizona we had an e-mail from our friends in B.C. who said they were heading to Yuma and had just made a reservation there at Desert Paradise RV from Feb 6th to March 6th, so we called and managed to get a spot there also at the same time. That is how we found Yuma.

When we arrived in Arizona we stopped at Benson and stayed at a really nice park there, Cochise Terrace. We were there almost 3 weeks and really liked the park and area, we were about 45 minutes east of Tucson and within touring distance of Bisbee, a gorgeous old mining town, Douglas, Tombstone, Chiricahua National Monument, Coronado National Monument, etc. There was so much to see and do in the area but the big drawback was the weather – it is a higher elevation there so the temperatures didn’t get much above 60F during the day, and it got very cold at night, not warm enough to spend a winter! Boy, are we learning that all of Arizona isn’t the hot climate that we thought it was!

From there we spent a week at Gila Bend, out in the middle of nowhere between Casa Grande and Yuma, but did day trips into Phoenix, Aljo, another old mining town, Petroglyph Park, Organ Pipe Cactus National Park and other interesting sites.

We arrived in Yuma in early February and really liked it, the weather was warm and sunny every day!! Yuma has the most sunlight of any place in the states and great temperatures, it isn’t as hot as Florida or the Rio Grand Valley in Texas but it isn’t humid, there are no bugs here and overall the weather seems to be more consistent day to day. One evening we did a dinner cruise on Lake Martinez and our friend Janet put it perfectly when she said she never imagined being on a lake in the middle of winter, in the middle of a desert and enjoying such beautiful weather and a gorgeous sunset.

We ended up staying here until late March, then went to Lake Havasu area for a week, then to Kingman for 5 days and then on to Williams for about 10 days. From Williams we did the Grand Canyon a couple of days, went to Sedona, did a steam train ride through the Verde Canyon and visited lots of ancient Indian pueblos – a fascinating area. The only problem with that area is the weather, our first morning in Williams around the 8th of April we got up to find the park covered in snow! Fortunately it was gone by mid day and after that the weather was beautiful. After that we spent a few days touring the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest before leaving Arizona to head home.

We have found Arizona to be a fascinating state, it has so many different faces and so much to enjoy. Not being big city fans we have no desire to spend time in the Phoenix area but would like to spend a few days there sometime to do the Apache Trail and other interesting things in the area. We did spend a couple of weeks in Casa Grande the next year on the way to Yuma so did see some of the Phoenix area from there. We also spent a week in Tucson a couple of years ago but prefer the smaller cities with less congestion.

So that is how we found Yuma and why we keep coming back. Our next problem was finding a park we like, we spent two winters at Desert Paradise RV park but found the sites very small and tight, it was built before trailers had slides, and there was a huge issue with trains as the rail line is just north of the park and there is a level crossing there. It is a very busy rail line with lots of trains and the trailer would literally shake when they went by and the whistles from the crossing were extremely annoying, especially the second winter there. The next two years we spent at Del Pueblo, which was far away from the trains but south of the marine/air base so lots of air traffic, but at least they moved faster than the trains! We didn’t find the park very friendly so last year decided to try Mountain Cactus Ranch and really like it. Again, the rail line isn’t far away, but farther than at Desert Paradise so the trains aren’t an issue, the people in the park are very friendly and the lots are huge, we have never seen a park in this area with lots this big. So this is where we are and we are really enjoying it.

We just had the fellow from Time Warner here checking out the internet and he seems to think our wireless router is the problem – great!! Guess we will have to get out and look for a new one as we need wireless with all our electronics that need the internet.

I think I have rambled on enough for one day so will go and get some work done.

And so ends more great gifts of days and we look forward to more good days to come.