Winter in Arizona

Nearly a month has passed since our last blog entry from Las Vegas.  We hope you're still on board.  We waited to see if the world was going to end this month.  Now that it's clear that the Mayans miscalculated and the world is still alive, we'll add another page to the blog to let you know where we are and what we're doing.

We departed Las Vegas on November 27 and drove south to Quartzsite, Arizona.  It's an interesting spot of desert that comes alive with the arrival of thousands of RV "snowbirds".  We arrived early to take a close look at the many campgrounds, RV parks and miles of BLM land around Quartzsite where visitors from the frigid north claim a patch of ground to park their trailers and motor homes for the winter.  A very large gem and mineral show and flea market take place in January, so Quartzsite is the place to be (or to avoid) at that time of the year.  We hope to experience that event next month, so stay tuned.

Sonoran Desert and hills east of Yuma

After a couple days in Quartzsite, we continued down Hwy. 95 to Yuma, our ultimate destination.  Many of our  friends spend their winters in Yuma and urged us to give it a try.  So, we decided to do just that.  We always wondered why anyone would want to spend any time in Yuma, much less several months sitting in a recreational vehicle in an arid sandy desert amongst the scorpions and cacti.  There must be more to it than that.

We parked the motor home on Janet's property for the first week.  Janet is Bonnie's ex-sister-in-law.  After many years of cold wet Washington winters, she decided to buy some property with a manufactured home and become a full-time resident of Yuma.  Her property has separate RV hook-ups which made it very convenient and comfortable for us.

Janet lives in the Foothills, a large residential neighborhood about ten miles east of Yuma. Neighborhoods in this area are designed primarily for RVs. The streets are wide, lots are large and typically enhanced with colorful Mexican brick walls, nice paving, ironwork and desert landscaping.   Many residents park their motor homes on their lots in the winter and go home during the hot summer.  Others make the transition to a "park model" (small casita type dwelling), a manufactured home or a full-size conventional stucco home. It's a fascinating concept that seems to work very well here. 


 



A cold front moved over Yuma on Dec. 18

After settling in, we began exploring the area and learning about local history, which is always fascinating.  Yuma was listed in the Guiness Book of Records as the sunniest place on earth, averaging 340 days of sunshine per year.  With few cloudy days and less than 3 inches of rainfall, it's no wonder that nearly 100,ooo sun worshipers flock to this area in the winter and occupy about 23,000 RV sites.   It's also no wonder that most of them go home in the spring when the temperature begins to rise.  Summer temperatures often climb to well over 100 degrees in June, July, August and September (record high is 124).  It's not likely that you'll find us here in the summertime. 


Yuma lies in an arid desert environment, but it also has fertile soils, water and a good system of canals for the irrigation of farmlands.  Agriculture is the primary industry and busloads of farm workers cross the border every day to work in the fields.  Yuma County provides 90% of the world's winter lettuce, ranks third in the nation in vegetable production and ranks first in the production of lemons, tangerines, watermelon and cantaloupe.  They also grow corn, cotton, broccoli, cauliflower and other crops.  It's nice to be able to buy fresh veggies at local farmers markets or pick fresh oranges and grapefruit right off the trees.



The Mexican culture is alive and well in the Yuma area and the influence is everywhere.  Wally and Lois, a couple friends from the Bellingham area, took us over the border to Los Algodones one day.  We haggled with the street vendors and had a nice Mexican lunch (huge margaritas) at a central outdoor restaurant.

Los Algadones, Mexico

Lunch with Lois and Wally

Downtown Los Algadones is very close to the border and everything is within easy walking distance.  We first encountered the sidewalk vendors selling nearly everything with especially great deals on belts, wallets, hats, handbags, jewelry, etc.  Most of the buildings are occupied by  dentists, optical shops, drug stores and liquor stores, ready to meet the needs of American and Canadian visitors.  We both needed new perscription sunglasses, so we stopped at a small shop that Wally recommended and, in less than three hours, had new glasses at a fraction of what we would have paid at home.


Bonnie gets fitted for her new Mexican sunglasses.

We've met many travelers who get all their dental and vision work done in Algodones and say the results are excellent.  Dentists advertise very low prices for fillings, crowns, bridges and implants.  A cleaning costs as little as $20 and they do a lot of business.

We hadn't been home since July and wanted to be sure our house and family were okay.  So, Bonnie decided to fly home for a week to take care of some business and visit the family.  She took a shuttle bus to Phoenix to catch her Alaska Airlines flight and Ron picked her up in Phoenix a week later and had a leisurely drive back to Yuma.

While Bonnie was home, Ron was chowing down at the annual Tamale Festival in the small town of Somerton.  Thousands of people attended the festival, listened to live music, watched a tamale eating contest and sampled some of the 40 different types of tamales that were available.  It was a fun event and the food was excellent.

Tamale Festival in Somerton, Arizona



Lots of cooks serving thousands of tamales

In early December, we moved a few miles from Janet's property into Cactus Gardens RV Park. Our intent was to sample the social aspects of being a snowbird in Yuma, and the RV parks are where the action is. We soon found that our park, and most others, are very friendly and offer a full menu of daily activities of all kinds to keep everybody busy. We'll write more about those activities in our next blog.

As Christmas approaches, most RVs in our park are decorated with lights and trimmings. We've seen a couple lighted vehicle parades and our park's golf cart parade was excellent. We don't own a golf cart but it was fun watching the carts, quads and even a decorated and lighted bicycle. It may seem a little silly, but it's serious business and all about having fun.



Christmas Golf Cart Parade

We found a small artificial tree that fits nicely on our dash and put some lights around the windshield.  It feels like home, but on a smaller scale of course.  Now we're getting ready for the Christmas dinner, church services, New Years party and dance and, of course, Ron is looking forward to the football bowl games. 

We're getting into the spirit of the holiday season and the spirit of Yuma, and we can understand why so many people come here to spend the winter.  It's a whole different world.  We'll be here through January and will explain more in our next blog.

 

In the meantime, wherever you are and whatever you're doing, we wish you all a very . . .

 

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year