Week ending Jan 29, 2015 Quartzite, Yuma

Thursday morning we headed to Quartzsite MacDonalds for breakfast, in order to use their wi-fi to post the blog.  Then we shopped for a few pieces of hardware for the solar system.  The hike yesterday had taken us to the top of a hill from which we saw a little town in the distance, time to explore. On the way back to the trailer we checked out the community of Rainbow Acres. It is a really interesting town, perfectly laid out, not a single business in sight.  There were several houses, but many of the lots had a couple RV's parked on them within the attractive standardized short brick fences.  It appeared to be larger in population than Quartzite, but there was no businesses to support the population.  We got back to the trailer so John could wire a pigtail to the batteries on to the front of the trailer to make using the solar system easier (i.e. don't have to leave the front cabinet door open for the wires to connect to the batteries). So far all seems to be working on that front. It is nice to have the space and silence of the BLM land, but the convenience of electricity without the noise of the generator.

Friday morning was cold, so we decided the best way to warm up was to go for a hike. We had found a hike in KOFA Wildlife refuge (KOFA is the abbreviation for the King of Arizona mine) to Palm Canyon. The rocky, steep trail, although not long leads to a viewpoint where  California fan palms, the only palms native to Arizona can be seen. This is the only official trail in Kofa Wildlife Refuge.

The palms

Looking out of the canyon

 After our hike we had a picnic lunch at the trail head and then headed further south looking for a lead mine and museum that had been recommended by our neighbours. We never did find the historic site, but we did find a little hamburger joint, with ice cream out in the middle of nowhere USA. This opportunity could not be passed up, so we stopped for a cold drink and an ice cream cone. By the time we got back to the trailer it was too late in the day to lay out in the sun, of course the fact that there was high cloud, so no direct sunlight may have made that an easy decision. We were impressed with our solar panels performance, even with a bit of cloud they are keeping our batteries charged so we can watch TV in the evening.

Saturday was cloudless and fairly warm. We hiked up into the hills on the west side of the BLM area where we are staying. It was an interesting walk and we found some claim stakes. Interesting that people can have claims on government land, although the BLM may surround claims. We are not sure what they are had found to justify a claim. 



We got a picture of Dome Rock that the BLM camping area is named for.

Sunday was cleaning day.  We found all sorts of things in the storage compartment in the front of the trailer. We emptied it completely, cleaned, vacuumed etc and then started putting things, that we need, back.  How do we accumulate all this junk? After we got things stored away, and the truck cleaned out we went for another walk.

Monday we headed into Burger King to use the internet ( a fellow in McD's told us that BK had plugins at every table, a bit of an exaggeration, but definitely less busy).  It was a cloudy rainy day. Rain in the desert?? Time also to explore Quartzsite a bit more.  We headed off a side street, and amazingly, there are real houses here. We had believed that this was a town that consisted only of flea markets and RV parks. Our historic stop was at the camel drivers tomb. Hi Jolly was a camel driver from Syria named Haija Ali, who was brought to Arizona with an experimental group of about 30 camel.   The camel atop the pyramid symbolizes the legend of the red ghost that roamed the desert, terrorizing man and beast.  Camels had been brought in to the desert here by the Federal Government for use in freighting and communications.  The experiment was a failure and the camels were let go to roam the desert.  



The rain stopped after this, so time for another walk.  We started out, but got sidetracked by chatting to a lady from B.C. Her husband had taken their rig into Quartzsite to use the sewer dump and get a refill of fresh water. It started to rain again so our walk was delayed. Eventually we did go for a walk.  Amazing with the advent of the rain, birds and rabbits appeared. We are wondering where they go between rainy days. Update on our solar system - cloud and solar panels do not mix, our panels were producing very little power.

Tuesday the clouds broke, nice to see the sun again. We headed out for a walk to the top of a hill that had a inukschuk on the top. The trail to the top was less than obvious, but walking in the desert doesn't necessarily require a trail. Eventually we worked our way up to the top. Sometimes its easier to see the official trail from the top looking down, not in this case. We did finally pick our way down off the hill and after a bit more than 2 hours got back to the trailer. Our batteries were being well charged now that the sun is shining.

Wednesday morning the desert was covered in fog. It was unusual because we always associate fog with moist air.  I guess the showers on Monday provided enough moisture to produce fog. Soon the fog lifted and we were back to a sunny warm day.

Vacation time. One of our neighbours on the BLM land are from B.C. We let them know we would be away overnight, so if they saw anything weird going on around our trailer, please take pictures and we would deal with it when we got back, not that we expected any problems.

Thursday we drove to Yuma.  Yuma is located where the Gila River flows through a gap in a range of hills to join the Colorado River, just north of Mexico.   We were surprised to discover that the Gila valley has extensive irrigation and produces 90% of the leafy green vegetables in the USA.

We started our time in Yuma to find Bank of America locations using our GPS, so we could use our free transaction privilege to replenish our supply of cash.   It turns out that in the last year, all of the BofA's in Yuma had been bought by Washington Federal Bank.   We bit the bullet and paid the $2 transaction fee rather than driving another 50 miles to the nearest BofA in El Centro, across the border in California.

We had booked into the Historic Coronado Motor Hotel, one of the original motor hotels built in the USA. In 1938, the Coronado was built with the beams from the old Southern Pacific Railroad Hotel. The hotel had a cottage, and 14 guest rooms. With the increase in business, the hotel expanded in 1940. Due to the shortage of rooms during the war, they received permission from the government in 1944, to expand The Coronado yet again. After the war in 1946, there was an increase in tourism and a need for further additions, including the restaurant. The Yuma Landing Bar and Grill restaurant was built on the site where the first airplane to land in Arizona landed on October 25, 1911. There was also a new brand of hotel called the 'Best Western' starting up and The Coronado Hotel became one of the hotels to join the Best Western group. With the need to modernize in 1963, a pool was added, a new lobby, and 14 guest rooms. One of the biggest advantages to this motel s that it is in the heart of "old Yuma".



We walked to the Territorial State Prison State Historic park, where we went on a guided tour

and then walked back along the Colorado River, which is about the quarter of the size it had been before a dam was built upstream,  

and then through historic downtown Yuma.  After a quick trip to Albertson's to get some Shiraz we came back to the motel to post the blog and then go for a nice dinner at the Landing Bar and Grill.