Week ending Feb 14, 2019 Yuma

Friday we went to the Arizona Marketplace, sort of a big flea market with a bunch of small vendors.  Joan picked up a sundress.  She looked for a replacement for her card wallet which got run over east of Tucson, but not of the leather goods vendors had anything suitable. 

Saturday we ran into town for a few groceries and diesel at Fry's.  We noticed that they had downloadable discount coupons available for one of the products we wanted, so got an on-line account setup for our discount card, and downloaded a coupon.  Although it wasn't the advertised one, at least we still saved something doing it.  Then we drove back past the Cocopah Casino to check out the location for Sunday.

Sunday we went to the Cocopah Casino for their breakfast brunch (available every day).  For $11 each, they have a nice selection.  After breakfast we spent $20 on the slots, and were losing quickly until Joan won $15 on a play.  We figured that was the time to cash out.  On the way out John noticed that his sunglasses were missing and realized they were in his coat.  He backtracked, and found his coat hanging on the chair of the first slot machine he had used.  Then we headed north to the visitor center to park while we walked west along the canal south of the river to the Yuma West Wetlands Park.  There were a lot of people there, and someone on the PA system.  It turned out there was a geocaching event in progress, so quite a few people wandering around following their clues.  However, there weren't too many for us to enjoy a walk along the Colorado for about a mile until we reached an RV Park that marked the west boundary of the wetlands.  They are trying to grow a new grove of trees in the west end of Wetlands park, with extensive irrigation.

 Puff ball flowers

Flower with insect

 

Little Egret

Apparently there is a resident bobcat, beaver and burrowing owls in the park, but all we saw was the interpretive sign about them.  We spent over an hour and half there, and there are still areas we left for another visit. We had done the river walk east of the visitor center when we were here in January 2015 since our hotel was just south of the visitor center, and the historic points of interest were on the east side along the river.   See our blog the week ending Jan 29, 2015 from that week.
After our walk, we stopped for treats at Dairy Queen.  This time we found one that was open.

Monday we went back to the wetlands park and walked a different route.   We walked by the Hummingbird Garden, but didn't see any hummingbirds.  The east end of the park is also a work in progress but far behind the work in the west end, so nothing to see here.  Back at the main pond, we saw a couple of remote-controlled sailboats.

  We came back along the canal instead of through the park.  Along the way there were several simulations of petroglyphs.

  We came back into the Wetlands park at the west end, and went over to the  demonstration solar garden.  We thought it was ironic that the sign describing it was faded out by the sun.

Faded sign

  We did like the decorations around the fence.  Here are just two of them.

 
In the evening we discovered that our fridge and freezer weren't working.

On Tuesday morning Joan baked a whole package of frozen bread we had purchased recently.  Later she cooked all of the defrosted meat.   We arranged for an RV tech to look at the fridge issue.  He only took checks or cash, so we headed into town to get some cash.  The tech arrived around noon.  He discovered that the cooling unit was leaking ammonia.  He pointed out the residue around the bottom of the unit.   To replacing the unit would cost around US1500, while a new fridge would cost US2500, both installed.  90 day warranty on the cooling unit, but 2 years on the fridge.  We decided to go with the new fridge option.   We will have to go to the bank for a few days to withdraw cash since we can only take out $500 each per day.   Time to get ice to keep the fridge closed until the new one arrives.
Getting to be an expensive winter with RV repairs and the issue with the truck.


Wednesday, we went back to the Tumco area, but this time we went into the main boondocking area along American Girl Mine Road.   We started out by walking up a little hill with the remains of a an ore chute on it. 

Hill with Ore Chute

Ore chute

The access road wound around the hill to a shoulder, where we could look down on the plain we had come across.

Boondockers

   Once we came down, we went toward a work site further into the hills.   As expected based on what we had seen from the top of the hill, there was a sign on a gate into the site forbidding access to anyone who wasn't authorized.  It didn't have anything to identify the company or what they were doing.   We figured this might have been the American Girl Mine site, as there was a large pit next to it.   There was a few processors and storage tanks labelled AlMix.  When we got back to the trailer we found this was equipment for making asphalt, and the company had a contract to repave I-8, which runs east-west a few miles to the south. 

Excavation in front of plant

Asphalt Plant

We continued a few hundred yards along their fence, then headed along an ATV trail heading toward a mine we could see from there. 

Mine entrance

Barrier

We stopped on the way home to pick up some more cash and some ice for the fridge.

On Thursday, it was overcast, drizzly and windy, so we decided to go shopping for a few clothes, to pick up the last batch of cash to pay for the fridge, and another bag of ice.  Later in the afternoon, we confirmed with the RV tech that he will have the fridge this evening or tomorrow.   He will come to install it either Friday afternoon or first thing Saturday.