Don't fence me in

We stayed in Yuma an extra day, again because of wind.  This is obviously not the part of the country for wind phobic Dalton!!

I forgot to show you the picture of a golf course that I took north of Quartzsite.  We couldn’t stop to get pictures of the craziest tees.  There would be a little natural mound (I don’t know how they got up to them.) and the tee would be on the top.  I think it would be an interesting golf course to play.  Ity might be difficult to use a golf cart though.

Yesterday we saw the Yuma Territorial Prison.  It was used from 1876 to 1909.  Then (if you can imagine) it was used as a high school from 1910 to 1914.

Today we went to the Quartmaster Depot State Historic Park which supplied the military posts in the Arizona Territory from 1864.  The railroad coming to the area in 1883 brought an end to this function but it then served as the headquarters for building the area’s canals and dams.  There is a very extensive canal system around Yuma that serves the city and the agricultural lands around it.

We also went to the old Yuma downtown.  We stopped at a famous bar for a beer ( Jimmie D’s) and looked at all the old stuff on the walls.  We then walked around but there was little to see except a few shops.  They don’t seem to have done a very good job of getting the people who come for the winter to go downtown.  As in other places in Yuma, there were lots of empty stores and buildings.  Actually we have seen this from Texas on west.  The downturn in the economy has hit hard.

It's a Date

We stayed in Quartzsite an extra day because the wind came up and blew with gale force.  It did not see to be a great day to drive a 13 feet tall motorhome!!

To entertain ourselves for an extra day, we drove north to Lake Havasu which is about an hour and a half drive north of Quartzsite.  We stopped along the way at the Parker Dam and then continued on to the tourist area  - Lake Havasu.  The drive up went through some pretty wild country.  Dry, but really beautiful in its  own way.

Lake Havasu was created by the Parker Dam in 1938.  It is fed by the Colorado River. The lake is 45 miles long and 3 miles wide at the widest part.  It supplies water to Arizona, Las Angeles and smaller cities.  The land in the area used to be an Army Air corps landing strip but industrialist Robert P. Mc Culloch Sr. (of chain saw fame) bought the land in 1963 and turned it into a recreational and retirement community. 

In 1968 McCulloch bought the London Bridge. It isn’t much to look at and I wonder if he thought he was buying Tower Bridge. One couple we know drove over it 3 times before they realized that is was THE London Bridge! Lake Havasu is a real tourist town with all the required fast food places, etc. that you expect in such a place. The lake area is beautiful though and the beach is pristine.

                                                           London Bridge

We drove to Yuma on Saturday and got settled in a nice camp.  We contacted a couple (Wilma and John) that we know from our RV club who are here for the winter and we visited and then went out for a buffet dinner.  It was nice to see them.

On Sunday. we visited a couple (Eileen and Ernie) who used to live in Saskatoon.   They live in southern  Alberta now so it has been a few years since we have seen them.  Their daughter used to babysit our kids.  They have a fifth wheel and travel around the southern U.S.in the winter.  Last year they won 3 months at a park here so they have been here since January. 

Yesterday we went to a date farm.  We had a date shake which was more like a Date-Banana Blizzard.  Very tasty.  We also bought some dates just to eat.  It was in the 80s today so it was nice to sit in the shade and eat ice cream.

So here’s what I know about date palms and their farming.  They are pollenated by hand from the male date palm to the female flowers.  As the flower bunch grows, it is thinned out to ensure larger dates. When the thinning is complete, 8-9 inch wire separator rings are inserted to spread the strands and allow for more circulation.  In August, cotton bags are placed on the bunches to protect them from birds, insects, dust and the elements.  The harvest begins in September.

The type of date that is grown on this farm is from Morocco.  They are about 2 ½ times the size of the common date.  They are very sweet and an excellent source of potassium.


We went to an old prison today but I have not taken the pictures off the camera yet so you will have to wait until the next time I have some sort of internet service.

Today we are expected a lot of wind again but so far it has not materialized.  We hope that if it does come later today, it will settle down so that we can move on again tomorrow.  We are going to Hemet, California.  We could not find a reasonably priced place to stay in San Diego.

Quartzsite

We are in Quartszite, Arizona now. Quartzsite is 125 miles from Phoenix, west on Highway 10.  It is a town where people camp in the desert and is now a service town to all the people who come to camp, search for rocks and escape winter.  I had a vision of a quaint little town but it has a McDonald's so you can imagine how quaint it is.  It does have a few interesting places though.  The book store is one such place.

This store has a really large selection of old books and magazines.  The drawing card is the owner though.  He walks about , naked from the waist down except for a .....  tea cozy - I guess you would call it-  over his private parts. (OK Now none of you will ever be able to look at a tea cozy in the same way again.  Sorry.) He is skinny as a rail and it is quite a sight.  People were having their picture taken with him.  I think he is one of the few things left of the old Quartzite.

We drove around the area and saw some people dry (no services) camping in the desert.  Some areas seemed OK but since it is the off -season it seemed a bit lonely.  I am sure that all the Americans had fire arms so I suppose that they worry less.  One area was quite flat but another was near the mountains (hills) and was more picturesque but more difficult to find places to park.

Here is the area where people camp for up to 2 weeks that is just to the west of Quartzsite.

We opted to camp at a place in town, fairly primitive but it has good wifi!!  We missed the high season which ended in January with a huge swap meet, RV show and a rock show (that would be the hard natural rock, not music), among other things.  Thousands come for that.  A bit of the swap meet is left so we had a walk through but it had merchandise like the one we saw on Mesa.

Tomorrow we are off to Yuma.

Towerpoint Festival

Towerpoint is the name of the RV Report where we have been staying  since January.  Since we are leaving tomorrow for Quartzite, I thought I would post a bit about the resort.  Here is our site:

There are many activities here – clubs etc and they recently had a festival that had a showcase of some of the activities here as well as a parade and many other events.  Considering that there is little space to create a parade, they did a really good job of  having a fun time.  It is Arizona’s centennial year so that was the theme.  Did you know that in 1940, the population of Arizona was under half a million and is now (2010) over 6 million?    How is that for growth!!  Dalton says that industries were moved from the west coast during the Second World War so that the Japanese could not easily bomb them.  That began the growth for the area. 

we visited all the displays from the various activity displays but we only took quilting pictures. (Wonder why?!)

Anyway, first I will show you some pictures of the display  from the quilting group.

These were done at a class.  for $25 you can join the guild and take any of the classes offered.

The entries in the show were all amazing.

Now here are some pictures of the fesival parade.

A real cowboy who could do tricks with a rope.

This is supposed to be the state capitol building.

Isn't it amazing what few resources but lots of time can produce?!

Tomorrow we are on to Quartzite to camp in the bare desert (with hundreds of others).  Should be interesting.

Arizona Oprey

We have been having a good time, just living here in Mesa.  Visiting, potlucks, etc.  The weather continues to be uniformly lovely.

On Wednesday we went to the Arizona Oprey put on by the Braleens, a talented family who have 15 people involved in the enterprise, some behind the scenes.  We went to a noon show that had a Rock and Roll theme. (They have a country show, a mixed show, and others.)  The performers were all seasoned musicians.  The one who acted as MC could play countless instruments, including the keyboard, trumpet, sax (several sizes), and the guitar.  There was one stage and then large screens on each side so that you could see everything.

There were 500 people at the show and they served a full meal to them in, I think they said, 22 minutes.  Wow!  And the coffee, tea and lemonade flowed throughout the meal.  Each table sat 8 or 9.  We went with two other couples and there were four others at our table.  They were friends of our friends.  Since you can see that the numbers don't work, Dalton sat on the end of our 8 and one man sat at the next table where he knew people.

The show was fabulous.  They sang and played all sorts of old R&R, with the arrangements that were from the original hits.  Great voices and talent on instruments!!

I didn't get great pictures - I was enjoying the show and didn't feel like concentrating on pictures.  Here are a couple to give you the feeling for it.

It is a bit hard to see but there are a line of instruments all across the front and they play them all.

This is  man who was the MC.  He was with the Tokens years ago and is the high voice on the Lion King song,  The Lion Sleeps Tonight or Aweemewheh (sp??). 

We were obviously over to the side but this gives you an idea of the set-up.

The tickets were $32 each and you got a full hot meal for that and about 2 1/2 hours of entertainment. Well worth the price.

Copper Mine II

I can upload pictures today.  Hallellujah!

Here you can see a few more of the "stairs".

You can see a little of the natural vegetation in the foreground.  The soil doesn't support much.

Here is a bit more of the ground showing.  This is up the valley to the east.

I wonder how they complain about the oilsands when they do this. (Dalton thinks the mining area was about 20 miles long.)  This is apparently one of several mines in the area. I think one is underground though.

The man we met said that if they find a crystal or gem pocket they usually just wreck it because it is too time-consuming and expensive to bother saving.  If any crystals are saved, it is usualy because a worker puts it in his picket.  The company apparently doesn't mind if they do this if they don't interfere with production.

Copper Mine

We have had such beautiful weather and then we had some rain yesterday and it is cooler today.  I know, it is still warmer than where you are.

On Monday we (three couples from Saskatoon) went for a drive in the country and decided to see if we could find a copper mine that was in the area. (We started out going tothe casino in Globe.) the copper mine was a bit of a drive but we found it south of Globe which is east of Mesa.

This is what the country looked like on the way.

After asking one of the locals, we found our way to the copper mine operated by Asarco.  They had a visitors' viewing area and we were fortunate to arrive there while a man who worked looking for gems and crystals happened to be there. He may have been a geologist, I think.)  He was telling the person he came with about copper mining but he soon had an audience of about 10 so he talked to us all.  From what I understood, you can mine copper by taking it out as an ore on trucks or you can use acid to make a slurry of it that you pipe to a processing facility.  This mine had both.  I think which process you use depends on the formation that the copper is in.  If I had better internet access, I woud have looked this up for you but as it is, I can barely get the pictures to upload.  (Did you ever see an upload progress bar move backward??)

Sorry the quality isn't better.  The little dots are huge trucks that carry 300 tons of ore at a time!  The "steps"are each 50-60 feet high.  Dalton counted 18 steps in one place.

I will try to upload another picture.  The slowness is excruciating!!

No luck so I will have to try again next time.