Friday, December 17, 2010

The Weather is Good

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NEW and exciting!
"Jacob's Tails . . . (Back-to-the-Land)"
is now in E-Book formats
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Did you know the weather in Yuma is reputed to be the best in the USA? Oh, yes, we are still here – in Yuma and at the Escapees Kofa Ko-op Park.

How come we’re still here?

Good question!

I was surprised too when I went to pay our rent – Holy Cow – this is our fifth week here – we never stay in one place that long. Oh, well we may as well stick it out for the holidays.

My legacy to the park is the two creative workshops I did. Now someone else can take over.

I was asked to do a feature article on the Canyons for the RV Lifestyles Mag. and got it off to them last week. We won't see them until next year, but that's okay.

We have caught up with some of the folks we couldn’t find in Laughlin and reconnected with a bunch of old friends. We have found more folks we hope become as good friends as the old ones. That does sounds schmaltzy, doesn’t it? Oh well, you know what I mean.

We’re on the south edge of town surrounded by citrus orchards (and wanna be housing developments that have been abandoned because of the economy). Did you know it is a felony in Arizona pick fruit or vegetables? So, we’re not going to do that.





The last couple of mornings we woke up to the rat-a-tat sounds coming from the military base just over the hill.

Oh, talking about waking up (or nor waking up) – apparently last week there was an earthquake and we slept right through it. It was a magnitude of 4.9 and centered about 35 miles away in Mexico. I think that was the first earthquake I’ve ever experienced and I didn’t even know that it happened until someone told me.







By now, we probably know Yuma better than we know Lethbridge (our home address). We seem to spend a lot more time exploring.

Our first new venture was off to the Saihati Camel Farm. It is a small family operation started about 20 years ago by a woman from Oregon and her husband, who was from Saudi Arabia. He wanted to do something that would remind him of home, so he started raising Arabian camels (the camels with one hump). Actually, Arizona has a long history of relationships with camels. In the mid-1850s, camels were used as beasts of burden on an expedition to survey a road from Fort Defiance, New Mexico, to Fort Yuma, Arizona, and then out to the Pacific coast. There were 25 camels on that trek.

The farm is not that well laid out but has a menagerie of odd and different animals. (http://www.rvwest.com/journeys/rvtales/see_the_exotic )


Jacob Four-Horned Sheep




Zebra-Donkey




One hump Camel




Funny chicken




Big horns!



We had never been past El Centro on Interstate Highway #8, so one day we just took off in the car. Fred had a route he wanted to go in his mind but he forgot to tell me. I was looking for a Visitor Information Center. Oops, I forgot California is an hour earlier than Arizona so that Center wasn’t open yet. On we went – ah, a Visitor Information sign – let’s find it.

Oh, my – no Center but we did find a new Casino.

“Oh, $5.00 free-play for new players and $5.00 free-play for seniors.”

We could do that. We walked out half an hour later with about 30 extra dollars.

Back onto the highway I saw an interesting looking road (S1) up to the Cleveland National Forest.

Holy Crap! Back and forth; round and round; up and up we went. The first sign said elevation 1000 feet; around four more switch-backs in the road: elevation 2000 feet – rocks, rocks and more rocks.





We went up 7000 feet to the resort-type settlement at the top of Laguna Mountain.





And just as quickly we wound down the other side and into the desert again.






Our next stop is going to be the desert probably Gunsight BLM down by Why.

We have never spent much time around Tucson – who knows!!

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