Week ending Feb 28, 2019 Yuma

On Thursday  Joan found a recipe for cooking yucca root we had bought.  It tasted okay, but it had to be boiled, then cut into strips and fried.  We concluded it was more work than it was worth.

Friday we walked from the visitor center through 'old' Yuma historic district Brinkley. The houses were not as picturesque as we expected. 

old Yuma City Hall

Church

A passerby told us he worked at Lutes Casino on main street, and we had to see all the stuff inside.  He worked there for 2 years and hasn't seen it all yet.  Main street was closed to traffic to set up an event for the weekend.  One of the businesses whose headquarters is in Yuma is Gowan.  It was started by an entomologist over 50 years ago. It grew into a global agriculture product business which is still family-owned.

Hotel San Carlos

In Gateway Park, there is the remains of the Blaisdell Slow Sand Washing Machine, which was used to filter water through sand while stirring it to produce drinking water. 

Sand washing machine

From main street we headed across the Ocean-to-Ocean bridge constructed in 1915, the first bridge across the Colorado between Arizona and California,

Ocean-to-Ocean Highway and RR bridges

then up to the St. Thomas Mission and Church. 

St. Thomas Mission and Church

While there, the replacement camera battery died after only a few pictures, so we had to switch to the phone for pictures.  There was a sign pointing to the Quechan Indian Museum, but no evidence that it is still operational.

Saturday we picked up a new camera battery so we would still have two.  

Sunday was spent watching Scotties finals and Nascar.

On Monday we drove about 20 miles north on US95 to Castle Dome Mines Museum.  The admission is $15 each to walk around the mine village, with building brought in from several mines in the area, and around an adjacent area with many shafts, and several more old buildings.    For $75 each, we could get a mine tour, but we like to go at our own pace, and they had lots of descriptions of the history.  Worth doing the washboarded 6 mile road into the mine, across the Yuma Proving Grounds and into the south edge of the KOFA Wildlife Refuge.  

Mining in the Castle Dome region was started around 1858.  It grew to around 300 shafts, and a town larger than Yuma at the time.   It was mostly silver and lead mining, and continued through both World Wars with the demand for lead. 

Castle Dome

Castle Dome Mines Museum

One of several saloons

Pipes for church organ

Doctor's office upstairs

Tuesday we went shopping for stuff to prepare to boon-dock for a few weeks.

On Wednesday morning, while Joan did laundry, John watched Franco's RV Wash crew wash the trailer since the doves have been all over the top for the last month.   Franco also recommended some Carnuba-B protector to help cure some of the decal fading and crazing.  We'll see if that helps revive them. In the afternoon, John got some gasoline for the generator.  He found out there was seepage from the gas container, since it has been expanding and contracting over the years due to the cool mornings and hot afternoons in the desert.  Fortunately the split was fairly high on the container, so it was slow, and the bulk of the gas was transferred to a new container.

Thursday morning we got everything packed up, paid for our electric use for the month, and pulled out.   We had a low pressure warning for the front right tire.  It looked okay, and the warning went off as we drove north from the park.   It came back on a few miles toward town, so we headed to Discount Tire to get it checked out.  It was going to be a while before they could check the tire for leaks, so we checked the pressure on both front tires.  Since they both looked okay, we headed into California.  Our plan was to park near the Tumco Mine site we had visited our first week in Yuma.  However, we figured the cell signal wasn't as strong here as we had seen on America Girl Mine Road, about 4 miles south.   We headed there, and found a spot with a decent Verizon signal.  When we set up the solar panels, the new controller had an 'alarm' that the battery voltage was too low.  The old panel showed it was charging at 14 volts, so there must be a loose connection in the circuit for the new controller.  To be investigated at leisure tomorrow.  
We figure that with the cost of maintenance on our trailer, maybe we should look at something creative like this sporty RV. 

Toy Hauler