Historic Downtown Yuma

On Tuesday we went back to the old downtown for lunch, a little exploring and to get our weekly vegetables at the farmers market.  The fruit and vegetable selection was quite good and we stocked up on broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, peppers and a big bag of blood oranges.  All very fresh and delicious.  There is a formal tour of the historic downtown although we didn't take it on this trip.  Instead we just explored on our own.

A number of the premises are empty.  An obvious reminder of the recent financial crisis as well as the difficulty most cities have trying keep the downtown a vibrant economic concern.  We did stop in at Da Boyz restaurant specializing in Italian cuisine and I must say we found the food delicious and the decor very appealing.  Waistline aside a we may have to return.

The old Yuma post office.  

 A street shot with Da Boyz restaurant in the background.  In addition to fruits and vegetables vendors were selling many different types of crafts.

The desert flowers and trees are starting to bloom.  We are hoping to get out on some drives and hikes in the desert in the next week and hope to have some colourful pictures to show you.

 

 

We were searching for some pottery shops and ventured off the main street when by chance we came upon a block of arts and craft shops. The one above was located down a narrow sidewalk between two buildings which opened up to a beautiful courtyard.   In the back of the courtyard we found The Garden Cafe & Spice Co.  We are going to make it a point to return to have lunch in this beautiful spot.

 















On Wednesday it was laundry, general cleaning and maintenance day with a visit to friends, Betty and Richards place for supper.  They have been coming to Yuma for 8-9 years now and have made this their second home.  We enjoyed a great evening with them and they provided a number of suggestions of things to do and see and we have added them to our list.  They also volunteered to take us to Mexico on Thursday for lunch and some bartering.  Because of all the bad press Mexico has gotten the past few years Lori has developed a healthy fear of the Mexican border.  I knew there was no way I was going to convince her to cross the border however, as Betty and Richard have been there many times and assured us it was as safe as any other tourist destination, she agreed to step out of her box one more time.

Thats it for now.  My next report, if we aren't kidnapped by drug lords, will be about our trip to Mexico and our safe return.  

Later

East Wetlands Restoration Project

On Monday we headed back into Yuma to take a walk through the East Wetlands Restoration project. This area is in the flood plain of the Colorado river although now with all the dams and the heavy use of water the river seldom floods anymore.  In fact a few miles past the Morelos dam on the US / Mexico border, the Colorado River disappears into the sand and no longer flows to the Gulf of California.

According to the Wetlands website, at one time the Lower Colorado River supported 450,000 acres of native forests and wetlands.  By 1986 only 100,000 acres remained with 90% of this being non-native vegetation.

They are now in the process of reclaiming the land and growing native vegetation which is also bringing back birds and other wildlife to the area.  They are still in the early stages of restoration.

The Wetlands are located below the Yuma Territorial Prison.  On our walk down to the wetlands we came upon the prison cemetery.  No fancy gravestones here.  Just a pile of rocks covering a shallow grave.

 A shot of the Colorado River.  Pretty meek and mild compared to pictures of the white water rapids that I have seen rushing through the Grand Canyon.

 One of the trails beside the river.

 One of the canals taking water from the river to irrigate the fields.  Notice the Gazebo like structure on the left.  This is a reconstruction of the guard tower of the prison.  One of the pictures that we saw from the early 1900s show the river running along the bank just below the tower. That would make just about everything in the picture under about 40 feet of water.

 Lori and Charli along the banks of the Colorado.
The black structure is the railway trestle built in the mid 1920's and the bridge on the far side is the Sea to Sea bridge.  At the time of its construction it was the only bridge in the southwest to cross the Colorado.  It replaced a ferry.
In the distance is the Interstate freeway.





Later

Off to Prison we go....

On Thursday we headed to the Arizona Market Place which sounded very similar to the Mesa Swap Meet that we had gone to previously.  There were many of the same vendors although enough variety to make it an interesting way to spend the morning.  Based on the number of empty rows its obvious that this used to be much bigger.  Like the residential developments next door to our RV Park that look like they have been waiting for a few years for houses to be built this is another example of how Yuma has not yet recovered from the financial recession.  We didn't make any major purchases however we did take note of a few items of interest and as it is on our way into Yuma we will no doubt make a return visit.

Friday we decided to go to Prison.  The Yuma Territorial Prison was opened in 1876 and was partly constructed by the prisoners.  The prison was open for 33 years and during that time housed 3069 prisoners, including 29 women.  Apparently one of the women prisoners used her womanly wilds with the guards and superintendent to gain an early parole.  Hmmm.  Wonder what that means.  50 shades of grey perhaps.

There is actually not much left of the original prison.  Since it was closed it has operated as a hospital and a school.  Get this, the name of the schools sports team was the The Criminals.  Much of the prison was demolished in 1924 to make way for the new railway line.  It was home to hobos riding the rails and the homeless in the 20's and during the great depression.

 The view from the top of the guard platform.  In the middle of the picture is the Colorado river and in the foreground one of those canals sucking the river dry.

This is the front gate of the original prison and one of the few remaining original structures.

 An innocent man falsely accused.  Notice the mirror so one picture gets a profile and frontal shot.

A picture of the cell block and the interior of a cell.  The cells were about 6x8' with two triple bunks so each cell housed 6 people.  

One of the meaner looking prisoners.  Once she eats her Snickers bar she is actually kind of cute.

The Saint Thomas Yuma Indian Mission is a Catholic mission across the river from the prison.  It was dedicated in 1923. 










That pretty much brings you up to date with our trip.  More excitement to follow I am sure.

Later.

Imperial Dunes

On Tuesday we took a drive to the visitors centre to pick up some tourist information and also took a quick tour of the historic downtown and the farmers market.  We were told that whatever we do we have to have a Date Shake.  So off we trudged to find a the shake that would shake our world, ha, ha.  Well low and behold it was every bit as tasty and filling as we were told.  The old historic downtown is only about 2 blocks long and on Tuesday the street is closed off for the farmers market.  I think we will make a return visit, if for no other reason than to enjoy lunch on one of the many street side cafes and perhaps a date shake for dessert.

Standing in front of the old post office enjoying my date shake.



















On Wednesday we headed to California which is on the other side of the Colorado River and basically on the outskirts of Yuma.  The Imperial Dunes are just a few miles over the border and run north for more than 40 miles.  More than 127,000 acres of wind-sculpted sand are open to off-road vehicles and the occasional hiker.  The dunes can apparently reach over 300 feet high and are constantly shifting from the wind.  We climbed one of the dunes and it was 1 foot up and 6 inches sliding back down.  If you remember the Star Wars movies this landscape may look familiar.  Some of the scenes were shot out in the dunes.

 Camping in the dunes requires a pass for $35. p/w but services are limited to the pit toilets you see in the picture.  Despite the lack of services there are lots of RVs pulled over and parked in the middle of nowhere, most with dune buggies in tow.

 These were Lori's footprints where she walked up the dune just a few minutes earlier.  Doesn't take long for evidence of your presence to be obliterated.

Thats highway 8 running west towards San Diego.  Snow clearing equipment isn't required but they must have to use graders or street sweepers to keep the highway from getting devoured by sand.

Here is the All American Canal which runs from the Colorado river into California.  There are numerous canals like this so its no surprise the river never reaches the ocean.

 Later

3:10 to Yuma

We left Gold Canyon on Sunday, Feb 15 and made the 4 hour drive to Yuma.  The drive was a little longer than we had anticipated due to road construction but we arrived safe and sound.  We are staying at Westward RV & Golf resort.  This park is older and a bit larger than Gold Canyon with over 1000 spots which seem to be split almost 50/50 between RVs and Park Models.  Lori was quite relieved when 2 Work Campers(seasonal residents who work at the park in exchange for discounted rent) directed us to our spot and guided us as I backed in.  We got setup and unpacked and as it was Sunday the park office was closed so we couldn't formally check in until Monday.  

We had some problems with the Cable hookup but after reporting our problem to the office the Cable Guy dove up within a few hours.  He had us up and running in a few minutes and as we were scrolling through the channels I noticed that all the pictures were 4x3 rather than 16x9 and all were kind of snowy with wavy lines.  Reminded me of the old days with rabbit ears.  I thought something must still be wrong with the connection but the serviceman explained that in Yuma cable service is still Analog.  I thought that the mandatory date to switch to Digital had come and gone a few years ago but he said that because Yuma is such a small market and relatively poor, people don't want to pay the higher price for digital.  There are two satellite TV companies which do offer Digital but only one of these offers it in HD.  

The other issue we have had so far is our Internet connection.  The Park does provide WiFi but we had to pay $28. for service for 1 month.  My frustration is that, despite paying extra, the internet signal is so weak as to be almost useless.  Any posting to the blog will have to wait for a visit to Starbucks.  I have discovered that I can live quite easily with bad or noTV reception but I must have good Internet.  I can see that a WiFi Booster Antenna may be in my future. 

One nice thing about this park it that we are on the back row and right behind us is the wide open desert.  This provides us a great place to take Charli for walks and with a 5’ masonry wall separating us from the desert, we also have some privacy.  

I must admit that our first impressions of Yuma haven't been that favourable.  It doesn't have the stunning scenery that we had in both Tucson and Gold Canyon and while we have spent the past few days exploring we are not finding as many interesting things to do and see.  We may pull out those golf clubs yet and take advantage of the par 3 course here in the park.  This park also charges more for some of the activities and we have to pay for our electric usage so even though each day has approached 90F we are reluctant turn on the A/C.   We also find our thoughts are drifting back home more often so its quite possible that we have hit the proverbial wall and are just getting a bit homesick.  Then I check the weather back home and windchills of -40 snap me out of it.

The 3 main economic drivers of Yuma are Agriculture, Snowbirds and the Military. Yuma's has around 92,000 Yumans and this doubles during the winter months.  I always knew there were lots of snowbird parks in this area but I had no idea until we started to drive around.  They are everywhere and there seems to be a particularly high concentration of Canadians.   

Yuma is known as the Lettuce and Date capital of the United States and despite the fact that we are in the middle of a sandy desert one of the main economic drivers is Agriculture.  How do they manage this you might ask.  Most of the agricultural land is in the flood plain and after hundreds of years of flooding from the Colorado river the soil is very fertile.  Since the water level of the Colorado river is now controlled by a series of Dams they can develop their farms without fear of flooding.  The river, or what is left of it, provides irrigation which can be seen by a series of canals built off the river and running through the farm land.   

My impression of the Colorado river has always been this massive river forcing itself through the Grand Canyon complete with white water rapids.  What we see here is a river so depleted that it is only slightly larger that a stream.  A series of dams starting with the Hoover Dam in Nevada control the water levels and mitigate any flooding while using the force of the river to generate electrical power.  Then each state from Nevada to Ariizona to California take water from the river for irrigation, commercial and residential use.  Massive canals are built to cities like Phoenix and Tucson.  Once the river crosses the border into Mexico it is dammed and the remaining water is used up so that the once mighty Colorado river which starts high up in the Rocky mountains never does reach the Gulf of California.  Seems sad but this is the cost of progress.    

Another disturbing observation, although not exclusive to Yuma, is that people use the desert as their personal garbage dump.  We went for a walk in the desert yesterday and instead of walking through one of the residential developments we decided to trek through the dunes.  As we came over the rise what did we see.  Old mattresses, TVs, tires, broken concrete and piles of garbage.  As we walked along a trail made by dune buggies we saw garbage strewn everywhere.  Very depressing.    

A shot of our site.  Behind the truck is a concrete block wall and on the other side is the desert.  A gate a few sites down from us gives us access to miles of hiking.

 Everyday we see a couple of these balloons.  This one came right over our site.  If you blow up the picture and look closely you can see the flame.

Charlie waiting for the slow pokes.

 The sun starting its decent behind a bank of really cool looking clouds.

There are about 3 of these guys that fly over us every afternoon.  There are always 2 people and my guess is that, much like the balloons, for a few bucks we could be flying high.  

Later. 

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

I had previously posted about the Arboretum and the moonlight walk we took with pictures of the full moon rising over the old Thompson residence.  This post will be pictures I took on 2 different daytime visits to the Arboretum.  On the last visit we met Alane and John, friends from Selkirk, who joined us on a walk through the desert gardens.  Both visits were capped off by lunch at Porters, located in Superior which is a small town 2 miles down the road from the Arboretum.

I said in my Moonlight Walk post that we really loved this place and I hope the following pictures will give you an idea of how striking the desert landscape can be.  Since a picture is worth a 1000 words I will be quiet now.

 Lori, contemplating retired life.
All is good with the world.

 Standing next to a Red Gum Eucalyptus tree. These trees grow 6-10 feet per year when young and can get over 100 feet tall.  Native to Australia but didn't see any Koala feeding on the leaves.
Their bark peels away not unlike a birch tree providing a beautiful contrast to the surrounding vegetation. The make a striking feature in this garden.

Even had a palm tree section.

And an Australian Outback section.  This shed is not actually as old as it looks.  It was built to look old.

John, Alane and Lori next to Mr Big.  This Eucalyptus is over 100 feet tall, 8 feet in diameter and was planted in 1926.  At one time it was the largest Eucalyptus tree in the US.

 We went to Porters for lunch and I had the Superior burger and Lori had the Bar-b-que Chicken Salad.
Both were excellent but the burger and fries when combined with a beer does bring on an immediate need to have a nap.

Even though Lori is retired she hasn't lost that school teacher look of disapproval.  I see this look periodically, more often than I'd like to admit.  Very scary.

Brewing up some ice tea on the patio.  One thing to remember when ordering Ice Tea in the states.  Its not the sugary stuff we are used to.  

Porter's doesn't look like much from the outside or from the inside for that matter.  It has what you would call Atmosphere.  Don't think it would qualify for a liquor license back home.  Basically an old bar, old furniture and outside a concrete patio with some shelter from the sun  and old picnic tables.  But the food is fantastic and both times we were there we were lucky to get a seat.

The view from Main St in Superior.  For the most part its an old mining town whose most affluent days are behind it but the scenery is quite beautiful. 

Later