More About Yuma

High: 86.  Low: 51.    Site: 113.  Foothill Village RV Park

Any time we are in an area, we try to learn more about it if we haven't been there before. Yuma has some interesting facts about it that perhaps you didn't know.

If you like salads, chances are that the lettuce/greens in it were grown in Yuma. More than 91% of North America's leafy greens are grown on Yuma farms. Agriculture is a 4 BILLION  dollar industry here.

There are two military installations here, the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma and the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Grounds. Can't beat the superb flying weather! The Yuma air show is every March, and is one of the area's most popular. Yuma is the "sunniest place on earth", according to the Guiness Book of World Records. The sun shines 339 days a year! Year long average high is 88. 

Sparky is going to try to check out a biking trail/path or two with the few remaining days left. There is a LOT of hiking in the area. Many trails require "high clearance" vehicles to get to the trailhead so that means very rocky, rough backroads to get there. We don't like to take our truck on those roads, even if we could. Just too rough.

If you get the local magazines from the Visitor's Center, or consult the All Trails app, you will find them.

The other beautiful guide with SO much useful information, is the Arizona "Yuma" Magazine.

There are three national wildlife refuges in the area: Kofa, Imperial, and Cibola. If you visit these areas, you MIGHT see bighorn sheep, wild burros, desert tortoises, bobcats, and many different bird species. We went to the Kofa Refuge and it was all desert and really rough driving roads as far as we could see. There's Mittry Lake Wildlife Area with three scenic mountain range backdrops. There are three casinos in the area if you are feeling lucky. The Center of the World is here in Felicity, CA, just a few miles away--one of those kitschy road side attractions you won't want to miss. The eccentric owner has built granite slabs etched with the entire history of the planet with unique formations of the stone. There's Martha's Date Farm, where you can get a delicious date shake and a tour. Check out the Imperial Sand Dunes National Recreation Area. It's on the Bravo TV list of "22 Essential Places to Take a Selfie Before You Die". This is one of the most popular off road riding areas in the country and the terrain used in a couple of the Star Wars movies. And of course, the Colorado River is here for boating and fishing activities. Then there's the gustatory scene--many great Mexican restaurants and other delicious offerings! So many things to see and do, and not enough time to do them. 

Hiking to Telegraph Pass

One awesome challenging hike is just a couple of miles down the road from the Foothill Village RV Park where we were staying. About three miles from the park, on North Frontage Road, is Telegraph Pass. It's about a 5.3 mile hike total up to Telegraph Pass and back down. The trails aren't marked at all, but most lead one way or another to get you to the base kiosk where the trail REALLY gets serious. It doesn't look too bad here at the left, you are heading for the towers at the top of the mountain. And the serious climb begins....

Once you get to the base of the mountain where the kiosk and fencing are, which has some elevation from the parking lot, but not bad, you then take an old paved gravel/cement road which travels almost vertically to the top where the electrical towers are. It is a GRUELING  climb and Sparky's heart rate got up to over 152 bpm just with every few feet of elevation change. Lots of very sharp switchbacks.

But she wanted to complete the hike to the top, a total of over 1220 feet in elevation. Getting closer to the top!

The one thing that spurred her on, was a young woman with a BABY in a loose slung baby carrier across her front. There were also two guys who JOGGED to the top and back down TWICE while Sparky was navigating her way to the top. GEESH! And--Eldo was sending Sparky encouraging words, "YOU CAN DO IT!" which really helped while she was huffing and puffing. Believe it or not, there was a cellphone signal just about all the way. That was a good thing, in case Sparky should fall off the mountain, but seriously, the trail was fairly wide, no worries there. (WHEW! says Eldo. I always worry about her.) And....here was the payoff at the top....

Sparky made it!

It took her almost 5 hours to climb to the very top and back down, but it was worth it! The next day, time for a bike ride....Sparky has no idea who Yuma "Charles" is, but because she has a brother, Charlie, she liked this bike and so took this photo. Her Charlie is a BIG bike rider! He just competed in a 100 mile bike ride in the California desert last week!

Bike trail past Yuma Prison State Park

Sparky checked out recreational bike riding in Yuma, and it's kind of chopped up as far as how you can ride for any distance, but you can get a lot of miles in by mixing up the trails and spurs.  Ride a little ways on one paved trail, pick up another spur, ride along the canals or levees for awhile, ride through the city parks closely connected to each other,  pick up another spur, etc. You also can ride very quickly (less than 6 miles?) between a set of city parks. One of the nicer riding areas is in the West Wetlands Park. 

West Wetlands Park

Some of the park is under construction, but a lot of it is completed. Beautiful duck pond, an awesome children's castle playground and plenty of space to ride around to check out some things at the park, like the Solar Garden--simply an array of solar panels fenced in with metal plates posted on the fencing with awesome Native American signs/designs/motifs all the way around it.

Solar Garden

a Yuma bike trail

We will say that our current park location, which is east outside of Yuma, in the unincorporated Foothill Village area, is a bit of a drive to do so many of these things. You have to hop on I-8 and drive 15-25 miles or more to get to trails and it's about 14 miles to downtown Yuma and the California border, so just keep that in mind. Be sure to check out Slab City, or "The Slabs" near Niland, CA, 1.5 hour drive from Yuma, a VERY kitschy famous American road side attraction. 

It's an off-the-grid alternative bohemian lifestyle community consisting of mostly snowbirds in the Salton Trough area of the Sonoran Desert. Supposedly 3500 people winter in "The Slabs".   During the rest of the year, about 50-100 people live there year round. The entry section looked like people REALLY down on their luck to us. Dusty full junk yards, a real mishmash of stuff. Maybe a couple of eccentric snowbirds in the bunch, but the living conditions seemed pretty destitute with the RV's we saw. But, for the residents, they are absolutely fine with their lifestyle. No judging meant here, to each his own, whatever you are comfortable with! There were all kinds of yard art laying around, heavily painted and decorated with biblical sayings and thoughts. 

There were more RVs appearing to be clustered farther away. There are actually 3 parts to the Slabs--a religious art installation, the East Jesus Sculpture Garden, and the "city" itself. The community started in 1942. If you look deeper, you would find artists, homesteaders, and retirees living off the grid. More power to them, to be able to do that in the desert! There are NO city services, no water, no electricity, no garbage. You live there, you pack it in, you pack it out, or make it on site. Sparky loved all the paint cans left that were used. They were very much apart of the art.

The Salvation Mountain religious art installation was very interesting.

 Leonard Knight, the "founder" of the community, loved Jesus and believed in asking for forgiveness. He felt compelled to build a monument out of sand and adobe attesting to his beliefs, hence the Mountain. It is crumbling and decaying a bit and was damaged recently by a storm, (they have storms in sunny, sunny Yuma????) we are not sure if they are trying to maintain that part of the area or not. Leonard died in 2014, but seven volunteers keep the site going. There is a library, too, that takes book donations and has a list of desired items on an Amazon list! What a place! This guy seems to be connected to the world in his own way....

And with that, we head back to Tucson, AZ for another couple of weeks where Sparky will revisit the Loop biking trails and we will enjoy a little bit cooler weather now that we are away from the Mexican border. See you later!

Eldy Goes to Prison

 Yuma, AZ.  High: 76. Low: 45.  Foothills Village RV Park.  Site: 113

We drove just a little under four hours today to go from Mesa to Yuma, AZ. Eldy did not follow the exact route the Garmin RV GPS suggested, but rather, we took the 202 loop out of Mesa to I-10, then to I-8 all the way to Yuma. Sometimes the GPS wants to shave off some time for you and have you do the "state road shuffle", Sparky calls it. But sometimes we prefer to take a route which seems the easiest to us, even if it adds a little time.  And, the roads were in very good condition so it was a decent drive. So here we are in Yuma, ready to see what there is around us. We came to be closer to Sparky's brother, Charlie, for a possible visit, but since Sparky had been suffering from a stomach bug, and Charlie was participating in a 100 mile awesome bike race in a few days, we had to postpone a get-together so Charlie wouldn't get sick. We will try and hook up later.

We are in a Thousand Trails/Encore membership park for the week. It's a smaller one, but very friendly. It's called Foothill Village RV Park right off of I-8 outside of Yuma. There are so many HUGE RV/geared to retirement people parks here in Yuma, it's mind boggling. We kind of like being in a smaller park for a change. Many, many of the parks in the southwest, Arizona and Texas, are basically gravel parking lots with a few palm trees thrown in and are situated very near main highways. Foothill Village RV Park is right next to Interstate 8 and there is a LOT of road noise. But as far as we can tell, lots of the RV parks here are near the interstate so you are going to be dealing with road noise in many RV parks in this area. And if not highway noise, train noise, or air force base noise based on some of the other reports we've heard about nearby parks.

There are about 131 sites here at this park as compared to 331 at the last park (Viewpoint Golf and RV resort in Mesa). There is a nice BIG modern laundry room, a very small pool, shade gazebos with couches at the ends of the site rows for anyone to sit and enjoy the daily breezes, a small activity center and a little restaurant you can walk to, which has tasty food. We are very happy with our stay, despite the highway noise. On to seeing what's in Yuma.

Yuma Territorial Prison State Park Open 9-5, seniors 6.00 entry fee. You read that right. It's a former prison that sits on a bluff beside the Colorado River. It was built in 1876. The prison operated for 33 years. You can walk thru an original cell, see the history of the inmates, and take a mug shot of yourself (you used to be able to don a prison uniform to do that, but no longer). 

It was VERY interesting to see and read about the inmates, like the "Shotgun Sister"--Maria Moreno, 16 years old, whose brother didn't like the way she was dancing and told her to stop. She threatened to kill him, and he said, "So kill me then." She shot him in the face, killing him instantly. Or Elena Estrada who stabbed her unfaithful lover, cut open his chest, pulled out his heart and threw the bloody mass into his face. Sentenced to 7 years for manslaughter. Wonder if she really did that? Or was it just sensationalized news of the day? How about  Pearl Hart, the most famous female bank robber? Or this guy....C. E. Hobart, a lifer...murdered a man, spent most of his days making adobe and quarrying rock. Tried to escape twice. But in his "spare time"? He knitted lace!!!! Beautiful lace.....Kinda creepy, the way Sparky's reflection is right behind him....

Yuma Prison was one of the top and most up-to-date prisons in its time, despite it being known as a "hell-hole", more for the weather, snakes and desert and impossibility of escaping, than for actual living conditions. It was considered the "Country Club on the Colorado." It had electricity, forced ventilation, sanitation including two bathtubs and three showers. It had a library of 2,000 books, the most in the territory at the time, a progressive administration, and even a prison band! But the terrible heat made the place an inferno and tuberculosis was the #1 killer. They had 6 guys in one cell block!

OK, one more thing, want to know the science behind a hanging? No? Well, gonna tell you anyway just in case. For Jeopardy or something. The day before they hung a man, they would weigh him. Then they would get a sandbag that weighed the same and test it out to determine the length of the "drop". If the rope was too long, the inmate could be decapitated. If it was too short, the strangulation would take as long as 45 minutes. The rope was boiled and stretched to eliminate spring or coiling. If they planned it right, the prisoner's weight would cause a rapid fracture and dislocation of the neck. BOOM! And he or she was a goner. (Sorry about that, Sparky thought that was interesting.)

Eldo wasn't too happy about taking the tour today.....But he made the best of it. Actually, he did enjoy the tour, we both did! 

After the tour, we were hungry. Eldo decided to buy some jelly beans at the shop. He said, here, have some! They might be a LITTLE hot. he says. HOLY MOLEY! They were on fire! He laughed and laughed at Sparky gasping for air.....NOTE: a few snacks available in the gift shop but they are ALL hot and spicy snacks, REALLY hot. Then he shows me the jar....Funny man, that Eldy.

A couple more stops to see art installations around town before heading back to the rig....Yuma has beautiful murals all over town. Stop at the Visitor's Center on Main Street for a map. Here is Sparky's favorite....You can't see all of her, but she's a mermaid. 

Some more art work outside of the Visitor's Center....In the back of the center nearby.

And a cool building facade...A cool shot would be to capture someone walking past it, but nobody came by.

While you are at it, stop by Lutes Casino. It's not a casino, but has the most eclectic assortment of art, posters, mechanical sculptures, weird characters hanging from the ceiling, movie star memorabilia and neon plastered all over the place. Very good tri tip steak sandwich. That's right nearby on Main Street after the prison tour.

Sparky was thrilled to be at Lutes as she didn't have to cook, but disappointed she missed the ice cream which Eldo participated in while she went to get some photos. (just kidding....) Here is the inside of Lutes from one angle...Sensory overload, for sure!

Aren't the bike racks outside all over town, pretty cool, too?

Lots to see here in Yuma...we have a few more days, need to see what a couple of hikes and biking trails look like. Sparky is finally feeling better and might be able to handle a little bit of that...See you later!

Last Day in Mesa

In our little family, Sparky is usually the "events" planner, and Eldo, the "trip planner". But he reminded Sparky of a unique restaurant we went to years ago, that was in the Mesa area called the Organ Stop Restaurant, and he asked if Sparky wanted to go. Of course she does! That means she doesn't have to cook, (HAHAHAHAHA, she very seldom likes to cook, laughs E., as he's rolling on the floor) and she remembered that it's the home of the WORLD'S LARGEST WURLITZER ORGAN, and that a VERY talented organist plays the coolest songs while you eat decent pizza. Without boring you with a ton of information about the organ itself, because probably only serious musicians would appreciate the details more than the average person, here a  few of the most interesting facts about this particular Wurlitzer, a theater style organ.

When silent movies first started, there used to be pit orchestras and pianists to provide the music to accompany the action on the screen. That became too expensive, so the theater organ came into play and was designed to be part military band, part symphony orchestra, and part sound effects. The Wurlitzer organ was considered the best by far in its time and still is today.

The Wurlitzer at the Organ Stop was built for the Denver Theater and installed in 1927. It was used regularly till the 1930's. As talking pictures came into play, it was seldom used by then. A later fire caused some damage, but in the 1970's the instrument was recovered, rebuilt and installed in the restaurant in 1975.

The organ has four manual consoles--that's FOUR keyboards you have to simultaneously rotate between or blend using just your two hands!

Over the years several rare sets of pipes have been added  and today the organ has over 6,000 pipes! The ceilings in the restaurant are 43 feet high, so the acoustics are great for the amazing sounds pouring forth from the Wurlitzer. It is very noisy in the restaurant because of that, but who cares? The dominating sound is that fabulous organ. 

The huge quantities of wind needed to operate this massive Wurlitzer are provided by four humongous turbine blowers. The organ is installed in four chambers at one end of the restaurant. The platform that the organ is on rotates back and forth as the organist plays, on an 8,000 pound rotating hydraulic elevator. AND--he takes a break for ten minutes every hour by slowly descending down into the organ "pit" and then ascends back up shortly after his break and resumes play. 

You may or may not be an organ music fan, but you gotta see the world's biggest Wurlitzer when you are in the Mesa area, that's for sure! We loved it, and highly recommend it! And then...there is the scenery......

Apache Trail Scenic Drive

We love scenic drives. They are always scenic and in many cases jaw dropping or awe inspiring. We decided to revisit a drive here we took over ten years ago, when we first started full timing in the motorhome. It's called the Apache Scenic Trail and is 39 miles long. From the Viewpoint RV Park in Mesa, take US 60 east to Idaho Road, exit 196. Go north to Arizona 88 and follow AZ88 through the Superstition Mountains. The road ends about 9 miles after Tortilla Flat, so you will turn around and head back once again to the valley. Sparky had her regular camera, the Nkon Coolpix 900 on the wrong setting so NONE of her landscape photos turned out today....phooey! Take our word for it, it was a terrific drive! Don't miss it when you are in the area....

We leave Mesa tomorrow for Yuma, AZ, for a week. The weather is warming up both in daytime and nighttime temperatures...(About time! says Eldo.) Sparky is still trying to recover from some sort of stomach bug, but hopes to be out on more trails in the Yuma area soon. So we don't really have any great restaurant suggestions for Mesa, because Sparky has been under the weather, (I know she is pretty sick when she doesn't want to eat out! explains Eldo), but you know, there are fabulous ones out there to find. Next time, we will be checking that out more. Thanks for following us! See you on the road.....

A Tough Hike

 Sparky has been under the weather the past two days with some kind of stomach bug. But today, she felt half way normal, so time to find a hike!

There are some really great trails in Usery Mountain Regional Park, which is just like a state park. Arizona state parks charge 7.00 for admission per person. The park is just a few miles from our RV park that we are staying in right now--Viewpoint RV and Golf Resort. All Trails app lists the top hike in the state park as the Wind Cave Trail--listed as a moderate hike. Sparky has done a lot of moderate hikes, so this one seemed to fit the bill. It's listed as a 2.9 mile hike, with a gain in elevation of 807 feet, and takes an average of about an hour and a half to two hours to complete.

So off Sparky went. It was a perfect day for hiking. Not a cloud in the sky, 0% chance of rain for the next WEEK! Today's temperature high was 57, with a little breeze.

The first indication that this might be more than a moderate hike was the sign:

At first, the trail was not too bad, Sparky expected rocks.

And she got rocks....The view ahead and up was beautiful...

The rocks increased....along with the size of the boulders....

At some points, you couldn't even tell where the trail was except to follow the people ahead of you. The trail was not crowded on a weekday at 1:00 in the afternoon, but it was a cold day, barely in the fifties, and that might have kept more people away...

The Wind Cave is at the top of the mountain where the dark oval circle of shade is on the upper left of the above photo. Gotta have strong ankles, and good balance for this hike. People say the cave is not much at all when you reach it, but the views are fantastic if you make it to the top.

After about a mile and a half, Sparky started feeling a little dizzy. She thinks she was dehydrated even though she had water with her and was drinking it. Or--the steep climb of 435 feet so far with the elevation change and many switchbacks was bothering her along with struggling with stomach problems the last two days. A mile and a half in, and she started thinking maybe it's time to turn around. Down came a hiker and Sparky asked how much further to the cave outlook. He said about 30 minutes. At this point, Sparky really wasn't feeling very well, and he added that the boulders and rocks were a lot worse before leveling out as you approached the cave. Not only that, but in the last couple of days, he had seen a helicopter ferry out hikers from this hike. That sort of sealed the deal. Time to head back down. Sparky did not want to be a statistic today with balance issues and dizziness. She was super disappointed in herself for not making it all the way, especially after seeing a guy RUN the trail, another lady with gray hair speed walk it up and down while Sparky was still going up and people walking their dogs on the trail like it was no big deal. Sparky felt sorry for the dogs, it was a rough trail. But hey--this was quite the hike as far as she did get!

After coming back down, Sparky took a quick look at the trail map that the park provided and saw that the PARK rates this trail as HARD! Sparky totally agrees, especially if you are a senior. 

Sparky highly recommends a visit to Usery Mountain Regional Park. There are other trails in the park, and if Sparky gets to feeling better over what appears to be some kind of stomach/flu issues, she might try another, less difficult trail before we leave. There are very nice picnic areas with shade, a pretty nature center, awesome trails and campgrounds there. Next up, a visit to a famous organ pizza palace...Come back and see us before we leave for Yuma, AZ early next week.

Mesa in the Mix

Mesa, AZ  High: 60's to low 70's  Low: mid 30's-40's. Site: 2608

Viewpoint RV and Golf Resort

AT&T hot spot on iPhones--SLOW   T-Mobile Mi-fi-not bad

Well-l-l-l...after enduring VERY cold temperatures in Cottonwood at night most nights, we headed to Mesa, a distance of two hours south, for some warmer weather. We will be here for one week. We are trying to figure out a way to change our itinerary from heading back to Cottonwood after this week and going to Yuma instead, but so far, our membership parks are full in Yuma. it looks like we will be returning to Cottonwood maybe. 

Along the drive today, we saw some more beautiful concrete work and overpasses that reminded us of the beautiful drive when we went to Tucson. It made the short drive today very enjoyable. 

Even the sides of the road leading up to the bridges and overpasses had beautiful stone work inlay designs....arrowheads, Native American symbols, etc. laid out in stone arrangements of different colors. None of Sparky's iPhone drive by photos turned out on the stone designs, darn it! Here's one bad one, but it gives you an idea.

Arizona certainly knows how to make their infrastructure reflect their art and culture! Every bridge, every overpass on our route today reflected beautiful southwestern motifs and/or Native American symbols. Sparky loved the lizards under the bridge. (see at right)

Even retaining/sound walls that are usually pretty ugly, were beautiful.

We are at the Viewpoint RV and Golf Resort. Because it's part of our membership Thousand Trails  sisterhood of parks system, we stay here for 20.00 a day with full hookups. It has an 18 hole championship golf course, 10 tennis courts, 9 pickle ball courts, softball field, golf pro shop, 4 swimming pools, 7 spas, on-site restaurant, over 100 clubs and classes, on-site beauty salon, 2 fitness centers, a massage therapist reflexology person, library, laundry, woodshop, deluxe shuffleboard courts (beautiful, but not Sparky's thing) and probably more, haha. 

Nice to experience the full enchilada sometimes as opposed to being out in the woods or the boonies as we often are. We like civilized "glamping", too!

Sites are roomy enough in the park, but some are tight to back a fifth wheel into, and we had to make a sharp turn to get into our site because park model homes are directly in front of us across the street. You could get a 45 footer RV into the park sites, but you'd be right out to the road's edge. Here is our site:

We are on a back wall, but we don't mind that at all. There is a suburban neighborhood directly behind us. We have a really nice concrete patio, quite large, but the drawback is the location of the sewer. It's under the rig, that is the case for a lot of the sites, the hookups are not necessarily the most convenient. Sparky had to crawl under the rig to hook up the sewer hose! We have our own trash can and recycling bin. It does feel like a neighborhood!

There are a LOT of park models here, (tiny or small homes on leased land--usually--, for people who are snowbirds or live here seasonally. The newer park models are beautiful and have spacious patios.

We will certainly enjoy our stay here, and Sparky has found some good hikes for later this week--NOTHING like the mountain hikes in Sedona, but good ones all the same. We'll see you on the trail, or on the road somewhere. Bye for now!