Yuma - San Luis and Wellton

 02-12-2019 - 2-21-2019

Tuesday – 2-12-2019 - Shared a wonderful dinner of barbecue spare ribs with Steve and Li. Dennis is becoming an expert at cooking ribs on our Traeger Smoker Grill. Later we were visited by Mike and Terry. They were spending their last night in Yuma then will be heading east to Tuscon then on to New Mexico. Safe travels Mike and Terri!

Monday – 2-18-2019 – Steve and Li left this morning. They have reservations at a park in Cedar Key Florida in a couple of weeks. They plan on taking a couple of weeks to get there which will include a stop at Big Bend National Park. Save travels Steve and Li!

Tuesday – 2-19-2019 – Today we visited another Mexican town just across the border. San Luis is south of Yuma about 15 miles and was an easy 26 mile drive from our park. There is one pay for parking ($6) lot near the entrance. Most of the streets were parked full, we assume for field workers. After driving around we found a spot on the street then walked about 6 blocks to the border entrance.

San Luis is nothing like Algodones. A fairly large town with quite a large down town area with lots of stores for purchasing everyday merchandise. Not the tourist shops you find in Algodones. We walked around and did some window shopping. A few blocks off of main street we found a nice central park. Around 11 o'clock the small sidewalk kiosks opened selling street food and trinkets. We stopped at a sidewalk food stand selling beef tacos and sheep stew. The stew looked good and I would have loved to try it but I typically do not like lamb so both Dennis and I opted for beef tacos. The corn tortilla shells were made to order from freshly made dough. Five tacos and a bottle of Coke was 120 pesos which comes out to around $6.50. We gave them $10 as we did not have the right change. Right around on the corner was a bakery. We stopped in and purchased two large cookies and three other treats for a cost of $2.76.

Wednesday – 2-20-2019 – Took a drive today to check out some other RV parks in the area. First we headed to Wellton, a small town 15 miles east of here. Here is some info on the parks we liked.

Rancho El Mirage – Wellton – $335 a month. This is a new park, only 3 years old, with 184 sites. There is a very nice clubhouse with nice amenities which include a heated pool and hot tub, 4 pickle ball courts, tennis court, shuffleboard, bocce ball, horseshoe pits, billiard room, bowling alley, exercise room and a very small laundry. The RV sites are very large as it was originally built for park models. There are a few park models in the park. As of our visit only about half of the sites were occupied. Apparently not all the sites have working electricity but they are working on getting them hooked up and inspected. Next year they should have another dozen or so sites available. A couple of things we did not like is there is not concrete pad on the sites and on some sites the electric pedestal is on the wrong side of the site. This means you need 40 to 50 feet of cord to reach the pedestal. The park has extra cords they will provide for a refundable $170 deposit. It was also a little sparse on trees and vegetation however we were told the new owner is going to work on this. Also this park is fairly close to the interstate so there is some highway noise.

Pioneer RV Park – Wellton – $360 a month. This is a little older park but not as old as most of the other parks in Wellton. It has 336 nice sized sites with nice amenities which include 2 pickle ball courts, shuffleboard, horseshoes, billiards and heated pool and hot tub. It was full at the time of our visit.

We also checked out a few of the RV parks in the Foothills area. Most of them are older parks with very small spaces or more expensive than the $675 we are paying here at Fortuna de Oro. We did find one that we really liked.

Carefree Village Resort – Yuma – $575 per month. This park is only 5 years old. Very nice clubhouse and amenities which include 8 pickle ball courts, 4 lane bowling alley, bocce ball, volley ball, horseshoes, billiards, and miniature golf. The sites are large as they are planned for future park models. Some sites have a concrete pad but some do not. The roads are all paved. This seemed like a very active park as when we visited around 2 in the afternoon there were lots of folks around. Some were playing pickle ball, there was a water volley ball game going on and the bowling alley was busy with a league.

The temperatures have been colder than normal here in Yuma. Highs only in the low 60's but lots of sunshine.

Where we are parked: Fortuna De Oro RV Park – Site 313 – This is a very large RV resort with all the amenities: Golf, boccie ball, shuffle board, pickle ball and tennis courts, two swimming pools, a restaurant and bar. Also lots of activities in one of several clubhouses. RV site rates: Daily $42, Weekly $275, Monthly $675 plus utilities. There are other rates for extended and fall only stays.

VISIT TO SAN LUIS

HANGING OUT AT THE RV PARK

Getting the rig washed....

....so Dennis can chill!

Mike, Terri and Kes

Playing shuffleboard with Steve and Li

Braving the chilly weather in Yuma

02-05-2019 - 2-11-2019

Wednesday – Friday – We have been enjoying our time at this park, playing pickle ball and bocce ball, attending the music nights, enjoying a dip in the hot tub and visiting with friends and neighbors. Tuesday we went with Steve and Li to Quartzsite. Since we talk about it all the time they wanted to see what it was all about. On the way back we visited the Imperial National Wildlife Area. They have a nice visitor center but we did not see any wildlife.

Thursday was a trip to Algodones Mexico just across the border for our dental cleaning. We made appointments for Steve and Li as well, this was their first visit for dental work. Our appointments were at 11:00. Li got in first. Dennis was last and by the time he was done it was almost 12:30. None of us liked the wait but the price is right. Cleanings were $65.

We ate lunch at one of the many Mexican cafes in town then did more browsing and shopping in the markets. Dennis purchased some more inhalers ($2 each). We pay $20 each with insurance in the states. Also purchased a bunch of our favorite liqueur filled chocolates as well as Kahlua ($6.99) and Tekali Tequila ($6.99). All this stuff is non-fattening of course!

We finalized our purchases and decided to leave around 3:00. The line to cross back to the U.S. Was HUGH! I thought it would take at least 3 hours! It was almost 2 hours but was pleasant enough as there is shade and we spent it talking to a nice couple from Canada.

Saturday – Earlier this month I purchased another Native American Flute (NAF) from High Spirits Flutes. This company is located Patagonia AZ which we stopped at when we were in Benson. I discovered that there are Flute Circles that gather throughout the country. A Flute Circle is a group of NAF enthusiasts that meet on a regular basis to play and share music and information about NAF. After some research I found a Flute Circle in Yuma and this morning Dennis took me to the Yuma Public Main Library so I could check it out. There were 6 other folks there. Some have been playing for many years, others for less than a year. It felt very comfortable as I was not the only rookie. I was nervous to play but I did OK and really enjoyed it. One of the participants lives in Quartzsite but is from Wisconsin and will be moving to Bowler this summer.

Monday – It has been pretty chilly here this past week. And it is not just me as the folks that have been coming here for years say this is the coldest winter they can remember. Highs in the 60's but it seems every day there is a cool wind from the north. This morning seemed especially cold. Still better than the weather back in Wisconsin. It seems as if its not bitterly cold, its snowing or warms up and rains. Yuck!

I have been having pain in the right hip and knee so this morning I went to see a chiropractor recommended by my Dr. in Sheboygan. He did a few adjustments so we will see if it helps. Afterwards we met Ira and Evelyn for lunch at the Black Bear Diner. They are staying at the Pilot Knob RV park west of Yuma.

Where we are parked: Fortuna De Oro RV Park – Site 313 – This is a very large RV resort with all the amenities: Golf, boccie ball, shuffle board, pickle ball and tennis courts, two swimming pools, a restaurant and bar. Also lots of activities in one of several clubhouses. We are staying free for 3 nights. RV site rates: Daily $42, Weekly $275, Monthly $675 plus utilities. There are other rates for extended and fall only stays.

Waiting in line to leave Algodones

The line at the border crossing

Our purchases in Algodones

A field of lettuce

Top: Cedar flute in the key of F#
Bottom: Walnut flute in the key of C

On to Yuma

1-29-2019-2-4-2019

Wednesday – Today we visited Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. It was established in 1964 as mitigation for the channelization and dam construction on the Colorado River. It is located south of Blythe CA on the Colorado River floodplain. The Refuge encompasses 18,500 acres located on both the Arizona and California sides of the river.

We stopped at the visitor center to get information on what to do and see at the refuge. After chatting with the visitor center volunteer we headed out on the 3-mile Goose Loop Auto Tour. It took us past a pond jam packed with waterfowl. We saw lots of Canada and Snow Geese, American Wigoen, American Coot, Mallard, Northern Shoveler and Northern Pintail. We stopped and walked the Corn Field Nature Trail to an observation deck overlooking another pond. As we proceeded along the Auto Tour we saw large flocks of Sandhill Crane in the fields. Along the drive there are several man made Burrowing Owl Burrows but we did not see any owls. From the visitor center we proceeded south and drove along the river for a bit then made a loop back to the visitor center.

We wanted to check out the nearby Oxbow BLM campground which is located on the west side of the river. On the way we spotted another camping area on the east side of the river. We stopped and talked to a camper and found out this is a free camping area. This camping area is referred to as the Hippie Hole does not have services but does have a few shelters and access to the river.

Friday – Moving day. After saying goodbye to our gang in the desert we pulled out of our spot in Quartzsite around 9:30. We had reservations at Fortuna de Oro RV Resort in Yuma. We arrived in Yuma around 11:00, to soon for the noon check in so we stopped at Walmart to pick up a few groceries. Once we got set up in our site we met some of our neighbors. Reggie and Elizabeth were from Canada and had just arrived at the park as well. They were having trouble with there electric service and had not unhooked yet because they had to power to put down the jacks on their camper. Dennis offered to take them to find a new power cord. While they were gone I started wash.

Once he returned we went to find a AT&T store. For the last week and a half my phone has been saying No Service. I could not make phone calls but could get texts and data if I was connected to WI-FI. We had called AT&T support last week and they thought it might be an issue with the Sim card. Once at the store we performed a software update. It took forever but once complete there was service again. Yeah! Just to be safe we replaced the sim card as well.

Our friends Steve and Li are at this park as well. They were invited to a get together a few sites down from theirs and they told us we were invited too. We were the last to arrive and met the host and some of her family. Most of them were from Minnesota. We thought it was just a happy hour but they add snacks and then brought out food as well. The son had made these yummy smoked ground beef wrapped around different fillings such as mushroom-swiss and pepperoni. I believe they called them fat boys. They were awesome!

Saturday – We went for a walk around the park in the morning and stopped by Steve and Li then we decided to go to the Arizona Marketplace with them. After strolling through the marketplace we took them to our favorite Mexican Restaurant in Yuma, El Senor Taco De Tijuana. It was pretty windy most of the day got windier in the evening. It also rained overnight.

Super Bowl Sunday – We played a little pickle ball this morning. This park has an amazing sports complex with pickle ball and tennis courts, horseshoe pits, bocce ball and shuffle board along with a large patio area.

Where we are parked: Fortuna De Oro RV Park – Site 313 – This is a very large RV resort with all the amenities: Golf, boccie ball, shuffle board, pickle ball and tennis courts, two swimming pools, a restaurant and bar. Also lots of activities in one of several clubhouses.  RV site rates: Daily $42, Weekly $275, Monthly $675 plus utilities. There are other rates for extended and fall only stays.

Cibola National Wildlife Refuge

Fortuna de Oro RV Resort

French fries smothered in seasoned beef, guac, onions and salsa