2/25/2014

February 23-25, 2014 Casa Grande and Another Move

On Sunday, we left our spot in Yuma and headed east in the early morning sun.  We made a stop at Dateland to pick up date shakes for Katy and Gary and one for ourselves.  I had never had a date shake and let me tell you - it was delicious!

We arrived at the Casa Grande SKP Park and after signing all the papers moved to our new lot.  I am hoping that this is our last move but you never know – HAHA!

Sunday afternoon we spent setting up and visiting.  It was great to see everyone.

On Monday, we spent the morning moving all our “stuff” from lot 97 to our new sheds on lot 117.  Our friends, Nora and Dennis, were the previous owners of the lot and it is in excellent shape.

Our new lot (yes it is a cloudy day):

02-25-14 B Casa Grande (6)

02-25-14 A Casa Grande (6)

Our back yard (next season I will be looking for a nice patio set):

02-25-14 A Casa Grande (9)

My shed:

02-25-14 A Casa Grande (10)

Andy’s shed:

02-25-14 A Casa Grande (13)

I really like this lot – Smile

Monday afternoon and today found us organizing and reorganizing – Smile.

We will be here until March 17 doing a couple items on our list of things to do.  I will not be blogging daily unless we are playing tourist or have some great pictures to show you.

We have been talking about what our plans are going to be for the next few months.  We will be heading to Congress next for Bead Week, then back to our lot to summer-ize our sheds.  After that we are hoping to do more national parks in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada.  I know that sounds like a lot but knowing us, we will pick a few parks and stay for a while exploring.  And since this is a travel blog, I will be updating more often.

So stay tuned and enjoy today.

Stats for Sunday:

Miles Traveled: 182 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Arizona: South Avenue 8 1/2 E; East County 6th Street; South Laguna Dam Road; US 95; Fortuna Road, I-8; Thornton Road (for fuel); US-84; South Montgomery Road 

 

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February 14-22, 2014 Yuma and the Colorado River

I have been a little lax in updating – Sad smile.  Sorry.

One of the big touristy highlights for us during the past 9 days was our trip to Draper Cabin with Yuma River Tours on Tuesday, 22nd.   This has been on my Yuma bucket list for a few years and so glad we were able to get on one of the trips.  There were around 30 of us with the biggest group being the Yuma Singles – what a hoot they were.

We all met at Fisher’s Landing on Martinez Lake:

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Our jet boat:

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A little history from the internet:

“The Colorado River was a waterway of major commercial importance in the late 1800's and was plied by steam ships from the mouth of the river at the Sea of Cortez, all the way up to the Mojave area, a distance of over 250 miles. The river was for the most part navigable, but the level and flow fluctuated dramatically with the snow pack and snow melt and could be a raging current in the spring and a mere trickle in the winter. As the railroads developed, and the river lost its importance as a waterway, the need for water for irrigation and the desire to control the river and eliminate flooding resulted in a series of dams that were completed in the 1930's. As a result, the Colorado River is the most utilized river in the world relative to irrigation, human consumption, and the creation of power. The river and its drainage basin encompass 8% of the total area of the United States. It is a magnificent body of water that includes Lake Powell, Lake Meade, the Grand Canyon, Lake Mojave, Lake Havasu, and the Imperial Reservoir.

When the Imperial Dam was completed in 1935, Martinez Lake was formed as part of the Imperial Reservoir and the Colorado River System. Martinez Lake is a lake 1/2 mile by 3/4 of a mile, immediately off of the Colorado River, located 8 miles above the Imperial Dam and 65 miles south of the Blythe diversion dam. A large portion of Martinez Lake was formed as a result of the Imperial Dam. The land on which Martinez Lake Resort now is developed was an original grazing lease parcel managed by the Martinez family, and patented in the 1920's. It was the only piece of fee land privately owned on the water between Ehrenberg, south of Blythe to the Imperial Dam and on the Arizona side.”

The smoke in the above picture is from a control burn in the Imperial Wildlife Refuge.

Our captain, Ron:

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One of the local residents:

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And we are off:

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The river is higher than normal due to the hot weather and amount of water needed to irrigate.  The All American Canal which serves as the main irrigation channel for the southwest starts at Imperial Dam which is south of Martinez Lake.   Our trip took us north/northwest – upriver.

Ron explained that the river is very shallow in the center.  One of the safety items was “if you fall in, get to the center and stand up.” – Smile

These birds are standing in about 3 inches of water – on a sandbar.

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Painted rock area near the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge Center:

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One of the reasons that there are very few saguaros near the river is that for a very long time, snakes were killed.  Since there are so few snakes, the rodent population exploded and they made their nests in the saguaros.  There were so many rodents that they ended up killing the saguaros.   A few miles from the river, nature has balanced itself and there are many saguaros.

Today, because there is so much recreation on the river, the snakes continue to be killed and the rodent population continues to expand.

More sites along the way:

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The sand hills above are known as the Grand Canyon Formation.  Studies have shown that this is silt that was deposited from the floods in the northern Colorado River areas.  (That was before the Dams were built.)

Our first stop – Picacho State Park in California – for coffee and donuts and a bathroom break.  The flag on the hill is a gravesite for memorial for a miner’s dog:

02-18-14 A CO River Tour Yuma to Draper  (270)

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More info here:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19940517&id=cklWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KesDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5985,3860454

The view from the flag area:

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We continued upriver:

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To our second stop – Draper Cabin.  The landing beach was under water but our captain got us to one area where we unloaded from the front of the boat.

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The cabin was built in the 1800’s using the building techniques that Mr. Draper learned from the Indians.  He farmed this land for many years as well as raised hogs and smoked their meat.  He pumped water out of the river and there are still some old pumps laying around.

The cabin still stands today:

02-18-14 A CO River Tour Yuma to Draper  (244)

No Leaks in this Roof:

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The view from above the cabin:

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After our tour of the cabin, we ended up losing a person.  She decided to go back to the boat by herself and got turned around and headed to the hills.  Thank God she was seen and found before she really got lost.

From here, we headed back downriver.   You can really see the sandbars in this photo:

02-18-14 A CO River Tour Yuma to Draper  (251)

Past another part of the Grand Canyon Formation:

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Donkeys on the hill:

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Into another passageway to Norton’s Landing where we had lunch:

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Norton’s Landing was established as the port for nearby mines and named for G.W. Norton.  It was the location of the first bridge across the Colorado River.

Norton’s Landing is now a Boy Scout Camp.  Yuma River Tours donates $25.00 of each person’s fee to help a scout go to this camp or to go on trips on the Colorado River – how cool is that.

The boys have built facades on the trailers to make it look like it was in the late 1800’s.

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02-18-14 A CO River Tour Yuma to Draper  (305)

They even had flush toilets and showers here.

Our boat:

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We continued on our way:

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We learned so much about this part of the Colorado River – what a great trip and we highly recommend it.

They also have shorter trips to Norton’s Landing and also a dinner cruise on this stern wheel boat – Smile

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We pulled in to Fisher’s Landing at 4:30 PM – what a nice day!

Our other highlights of these past days was spending a few days with Bill and Shelly after their Mexico trip and getting caught up with each other.  We also got to spend some time with Sandy and Raul, our son-in-laws parents.  We are so blessed with the friends we have.

Tomorrow, 23rd, we are heading back to our new lot (yes, we are moving again) in Casa Grande.  I promise I will blog more often.

Stay tuned and enjoy today.

02-22-14 Yuma (3)

2/13/2014

February 8–13, 2014 Our Time in Yuma

Our highlight of the past few days was the MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) tour on Tuesday, February 11.  They do 3-4 public tours per year and we always seemed to miss the date so this year I found out the tour dates early and we made our plans to be here.

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma is the busiest air station in the Marine Corps and the third busiest in the Naval service.  There are over 4500 Marines and Sailors stationed here.  Their average tour here is three years.

This station is primarily a training base used by all services of the Military as well as a number of the United States allies.

MCAS Yuma is also home to the first F-35B squadron in the world.  “MCAS Yuma will host five F-35B squadrons, each with 16 aircraft, and one operational test and evaluation squadron with eight aircraft. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 is the first operational F-35 squadron on station and completed the first-ever F-35B vertical landing conducted outside of a testing environment.”   The F-35 is the world’s most advanced multi-roll fighter and will replace many of our current fighter planes.

We arrived at 8 AM and were treated to coffee and muffins.  At 8:30, the community liaison greeted us and talked about the history of the base, our tour, and answered many of the questions.   

02-11-14 A MCAS Tour (1)

The base commanding officer was next.  He greeted us with a welcome, told us a little more about the base and their mission, and answered even more questions:

02-11-14 A MCAS Tour (2)

Since there was so many people for the tour, we were split into two groups – the first group went to the buses and the second group stayed for the canine demonstration (we choose the second).

All of the canine training is passive response.  Each dog is trained to detect one of three items: narcotics, explosives, or tracking.  The passive response is that they are to sit and stare when they find narcotics or explosives – thus alerting their handler.  The tracker dog is one who follows the scent of the person who planted an explosive – right back to their home.  (WOW!).

The dogs are trained to look up to and follow their handler, either by voice or hand signals.   They are also trained to go after the bad guys.  

So that was our first demonstration: 

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The next demo was the obstacle course and how the dogs handle the commands from the handler:

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A great demonstration.   We then went to the bus where we met our tour director who told us more about the base and the buildings we passed.  We made a stop at the flight field where we were able to see the plans on display (no F-35s – Sad smile).

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Back on the bus, we went past the different squadrons – this one is for the F-35:

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Our next stop was to learn and see about the troops martial arts training (with and without weapons):

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To learn and see the obstacle course:

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And the endurance course:

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Back on the bus we made our way back to the start – all the while learning about the services on base for the soldiers and their families.

Back at the start – a true Hummer – Smile:

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Another wonderful tour!

We continued our day by having lunch at the Moose Lodge and then checking out some roads that were calling my name – Smile.  This is the road to Fortuna Pond:

02-11-14 B NE Side of Yuma (7)

Past the pond, we just kept going past the farm fields:

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Then to this pond:

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Andy and I both said – we were here before only on foot.   As we followed the one road, we ended up on some of the BLM land north of Yuma where we used to stay.  Since we got our membership in Colorado River Adventures, we have not stayed out there and sometimes I miss it.

So that was our Tuesday.  The other days were not really exciting to write about so I am not – LOL!!!

Stay tuned and enjoy today.

ATT00022