End of Quartzsite and Now Yuma

Well it has been awhile don't know where the time goes.  Before I headed back to Yuma I went 4 wheeling out into the mountains.  There are abandoned mines all over the area so four cars (4W) did an all day trip.  You can tell where there was a mine by the tailings that are outside it.  Our leader had a GPS and a book on 4 wheeling so he tried to find all the places.  Let me tell you it was a rough ride, very narrow paths that were filled with rocks and the washes were so deep that you needed the high clearance cars to drive them.  Well our car had a flat tire, thank goodness there were a lot of guys there to change it.  I was worried that the donut that they put in cars now would not last either. The only place that was the worst was the one we had to go back over to get out.  The tire held and we were back just before the rain started.

Notice the picture of the guy, he has a small catcus on his butt.  They were all over the place and thank goodness we found it before he sat down they hurt like hell and they are hard to get out.  I had some on my shoes but they came off fine.  You needed gloves to take the one off the butt.  It was a great way to meet new people and learn about the area.  There were lots of holes in the rocks, that looked like they were test holes to see if there was anything worth mining for.

This was just off the side of the trail, amazed that it was still there. There were a few areas with just foundations of houses.  Would love to know the history.

I packed up that night and left the next day to avoid the storm.  It was a beautiful day to drive and only just over an hour to Yuma from Quartzsite.  I will stop by there again over night when I head up to Vegas in April and will check out the vendors that I didn't get to see.


The storm hit that night and boy did the wind blow, up to 50 to 60 mile an hour gusts with torrential rains.  They lasted for 24 hours so I just sat inside and enjoyed it.  You don't get rain here at all, but they got over 2" in that time.  The most they have had has been .75 in for the whole year.  The washes were running and a lot of sand in them and rocks.  We now have dew in the morning, an unusual thing for this part of the country.

Yuma is in  Arizona and on the border of California, less than 200 miles from Phoenix and San Diego and only 15 miles from the U.S. Mexico border.  Yuma weather is the best in the U.S. from January to April with average daytime temps during these months of 76.5 F and average nights of 43.3 F.  Perfect for sleeping. There is the odd fly, but  you can leave your doors open and no bugs.   I am renting a lot in the Foothills for $300 a month everything included.  Try and find that price on the east coast. The campgrounds are a little more expensive and you are very tightly parked.  The lot is double wide and I share it with another motorhome, but we have lots of space with a gate.  The view of the Gila Mountains is something to see when the sun comes up or is going down, it changes every minute.  The sun doesn't get over the mountains until about 8 and then it warms everything up.  Yuma is know as the lettuce capital, 58 % of its gross income comes from farming.  There are thousands and thousands of acres of different lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and seed plants.  In the spring and fall they pick melons.  Workers are brought in from Mexico every day and they earn from minimum wage to $13.00. An estimated 50,000 workers work the fields during the peak season. They are hired through an agency so the farmers don't have to do all the payroll work.  The people are skilled at picking the right produce, people are very picky about what they will purchase when it comes to lettuce so you will see some left in the fields.  They used to let you pick them but that has stopped some people abused it. It is so nice to have day old produce it lasts for weeks. Asparagus is $2.00 for a big bunch and it has a really fresh favour.  Its so good it doesn't last long. I took a bus tour out into the fields and learned a lot about how they grow the produce.  The farmers hate it when it rains, it makes the fields mud bogs and the produce rots faster.  They buy a certain amount of water from Lake Havasu and it come from the Colorado River.  The fields are all irrigated.

Gas is $2.69/ gal, but Sam's has it for 10 cents cheaper so I bought a Sam's card and go there now.  Too bad the motorhome won't fit at the pumps. Paid $2.73 the last time I filled up.  There is lots to do in Yuma so will fill you in on the next blog.  Happy Valentine's Day everyone.