Hello from Yuma, AZ

Hello from Yuma, AZ

Saturday evening January 31, 2009 (sixth travelogue of this trip)

We are staying with some good friends (Ed and Stevi Hackenbruch) in an area called Foothills in Yuma (map) . There apparently is not a good satellite view of this area. It is too bad, because it is a great area.

We left Quartzsite on Monday (January19) and drove about 80 miles south to Yuma. We stayed here last year as noted in our blog (here) . We had so much fun last year, that we quickly accepted the offer to stay again.

As we noted last time, the Foothills is a very unique area which is focused on RV owners. Each lot is quite large and is set up for two RVs with water and sewer as well as 50 amp electrical service. At least 50% of the lots remain setup for RVs but many have either modular or adobe style houses. Some have both. Many of the RV lots have casitas which are small buildings (primarily adobe style) which have a small room, and bath room. Ed and Stevi have a washing machine and refrigerator in theirs and Stevi uses it for her art studio (beautiful wood burned spoons and forks, and equally beautiful decorated gourds). Most of the lots have short brick walls surrounding the lot.

We have been doing a bit of sight seeing in the area, including a day in Algadones, Mexico, the local flea market, and some shopping for supplies. We have also been doing a lot of relaxing and enjoying the great weather. I have done several small projects on the bus and have a few more to attack.

Ed and Stevi have a ritual where if someone draws blood, they both go for ice cream. Those who know me very well, know that I have made sure we get to go for ice cream fairly often {grin}.

I have been doing a bit of bike riding and Pat and I have been walking at least 30 minutes most days. Some of you may recall that Pat broke her foot in October and it was not treated properly at the time(emergency room in MO). When we got home we saw a specialist and she had to be in a special boot until about two weeks ago. She is enjoying walking without that d*#n boot!

Yuma has a large agricultural base. They grow a huge amount of lettuce, and cabbage. They also have some great orchards, and we stopped by today to pick a bucket of oranges. You use a special orange grabber with a basket that plucks the oranges from the tree. You go out in the orchard and fill a 5 gallon bucket to the brim for $5. I have posted a picture of Pat with the picker (not great quality, but you can get the idea).

We will be here for another week or so. From here, we are not sure what we will do. We had planned to go to Shoshone (our favorite hideaway in the Death Valley area) and maybe Bakersfield to see some friends and go the the famous drag races. That is quite a long way out of the way. Since we have to cut back quite a bit (terrible economy), we may stay here a bit longer and then head home so that I can generate a bit of income by preparing some of my project cars for sale.

That is all for now.

Pat picking oranges
(sorry about the picture quality -- not the best lighting situation)