Pullin' Chocks

Welcome to Yuma, Arizona

We finally arrived in Yuma, AZ shortly after New Years Day. We are very thankful for a first year of fulltime RV travelling, that proved to be very safe and relatively trouble free for us. We have been fulltime RV living for about 22 months now, but our first 10 months we were sitting in Virginia finishing up our career tours at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

Our first year of traveling worked out pretty much as we had envisioned, the high points at least, which were: We went directly south to Florida right after we retired to escape the cold Virgina winter, obtained our Concealed Carry Permits from Florida just in case, visited our pals Beth & Chris in Texas, visited Junction City, Kansas for the first year warranty work on our new trailer, rode to South Dakota and changed our residence to that great state, visited with my high school pals John & Terri in Montana, finally visited Idaho after dreaming about that for 10+ years, visited Gari's dad Jerry and sister and brother-in-law Sandi & Sam in Yakima, Washington, saw Yosemite National Park and the giant Redwood forests, visited with Uncle Bob & Aunt Joan in Coarsegold, California, hit the jackpot during our visit to Las Vegas ;-) and spent the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year Holidays with Gari's mom Shilo in Sun City West, Arizona. Phew what a first year of riding around! We pulled the trailer over 5,000 miles this, our first year. I predict that our mileage per year will dimish going forward. I hope we try to do a few less countrywide projects and sit and explore more thoroughly each place that we visit this year. Also I hope we take a bit more time on the path from place to place. It was not unusual for us to move 700 - 1,000 miles or more before we stopped for more than a week. We will see... It is a fact that monthly lot rent rates are a much better deal than the daily rental rates, sometimes campgrounds have weekly rates that are better than daily rates but not as good as a monthly rate. Also, we have not boondocked nearly as much as we had envisioned, perhaps that will change this second year of RV traveling. This is a much more economic way to go, but there are less aminaties as well. In RV living we find everything is a trade off. For everything you get you must give up something else. Just the trade off discussion can keep us busy!

Our actual 2014 Route; we added an extra loop from KS to SD and traveled south via CA rather than NV as predicted back in January 2014 here http://pullinchocks.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html

But I digress, back to Yuma! We are very fortunate that Jerry and his girlfriend Yvonne are here in the area. They both know all the places to go and things to do and they have been very generous in inviting us along. This has given our socialization activities a jump start in this hopping town of Yuma. There is a free-ish dance happening most everynight, and I might add that there are a bunch of really good dancers hanging out here. We are not among the talented, but just being here and around these dancers will no doubt have to raise our level of dancing expertise. Yvonne knows just about everyone in a hundred mile radius around these parts so there are afternoon and evening get togethers many days and the evenings often have fun and games. Cards, dice and dominoes dominate the game scene here.

There are many, many RV Park and Resort options here in Yuma. We are parked on a privately owned lot in the Fortuna Foothills. The lot belongs to Uncle Bob & Aunt Joann and is for sale! We have another couple from Washington parked on the lot with us. They live in a 45 ft Monaco mothorhome, it is a fancy and bigun! Coincidentally they lived outside Lexington, KY for a while working on developing a horse farm there. They are a great couple and we have become fast friends. We play Farkle with them... it's a Yuma thing! ;-)

Pictures below are on the road to Yuma; GPS check, Dash Cam check, Rear View Cams check, Tire Pressure Monitor check, Sirius Radio double check!

We spotted another Solar Electric facility on the road to Yuma. This one was a different configuration. The Solana Generating Station is a solar power plant near Gila Bend, Arizona, about 70 miles (110 km) southwest of Phoenix, completed in 2013. When commissioned it was the largest parabolic trough plant in the world and the first U.S. solar plant with molten salt thermal energy storage. Built by the Spanish company Abengoa Solar, it has a total capacity of 280 megawatts (MW), which is enough to power 70,000 homes while avoiding around 475,000 tons of CO2 every year. Its name is the Spanish term for "sunny spot".

We stopped at a gate and got this closer look.... it was right after that we saw the sign that said no cameras, no pictures! oops!

Approaching the mountain range that we had to cross to get into Yuma. You can just see the microwave communication at the top of the pass a little to the left below.

A closer look at the microwave communication antennas at the top of the mountain pass going west into Yuma.

That's our Pepe and Penelope on the private lot in Fortuna Foothills with our new friend's 45ft Monaco

Various views from the lot and our coach; Below looking from front wall and then standing in the street looking east.

Looking out our front window from the dinner table.

Looking out our back window.

Below is an example of a boondocking spot, that which we may attempt to park in 2015. Hopefully these type spots will prove to be much more quiet and secure than I-15 Exit 213! This spot is less than 2 miles from the lot that we are parked on now. We found our RV friends we met in Junction City when we picked up our coach 18 months ago parked not far from this exact spot.

Partying with Yvonne and Jerry in nearby Wellton, AZ

We found John and Sharon our RV friends from South Dakota here in the Fortuna Foothills. We had a little NASA memoribilia left over and were able to make a cerimonious presentation to each. John received the Performance Award Medallion and Sharon received the Honorary Antartica Polar Program Patch. Sharon immediately informed me that she will not be going to Antarctica! Gari & I did not go away empty handed, John and Sharon produced an interesting desert rock that they named Igor. John had embellished the natural features of the rock to complete Igor's face! :-) Igor is now employed in Sun City West guarding Shilo's gate from any evil would be intruders.

We took a ride out to the Painted Rock Petroglyphs at Dateland, AZ. It is an amazing site, one of the best petroglyph sites in our Nation I understand. It is believed that the petroglyph work was done by the Hohokam people. The Hohokam disappeared about 1450 AD. They are responsible for a huge ancient canal system throughout the Salt and Gila River valleys. Some of their canals are still in use today. The Petroglyph site is located near the banks of the Gila River which made it a natural area for the Hohokam to pass by. In more modern times the river was still used as a natural area to travel and became known as the Southern Trail. The Butterfield Trail, an early stage route, passed by the site as well. The Mormon Battalion, a regiment of Mormons organized during the Mexican-American War, came by the Painted Rocks. Even earlier Juan Bautista de Anza led a group of Spanish settlers through the area on their way to colonize the western regions.