Yuma
Never having been to Yuma, we decided to head to that corner of Arizona. Having good luck with the BLM (Bureau of Land Managment) camping areas, we decided on going to the Imperial Dam LTV (Long Term Living) Area near there. It is actually just across the border in California and is similar to the other areas. For a fee of $42 you can stay for two weeks. The sites are all boondocking (no services at all) but with the LTVAs they have water available and dump stations to empty holding tanks when needed. It’s a really good deal for an Rv location.
The weather didn’t require air conditioning so we didn’t need to run the generator for that. The solar charging system was doing a good job in keeping the batteries charged but we did run the generator at times to keep the batteries up. There is a plan to upgrade the solar charge control for more effective use of the panels we have. More about that in another post.
Yuma is an interesting town, much more history than I realized. For example, it was an Army Quartermaster base back in the late 1800s. One of the reasons why: it was on a water route to the southwest! These days, after a lot of dams have been built on the Colorado River, it no longer even reaches the ocean. Prior to that, and the “taming” of the Gila River, at times the combined river was over a mile wide at Yuma.
That’s a story in itself, but before using the river as a source of irrigation for a significant portion of our food supply, it was navigable to Yuma by river boat. So cargo could come from California around the Mexican peninsula, up the Sea of Cortez, and on to Yuma by water all the way. This was much more desirable than carting goods over the Sierra Nevada mountains. Yuma was a supply base for the entire southwest of the US.
Two things, together, ended that route. One was the damming of the rivers for irrigation. The other was the building of the railroad. We spent some time at the old Quartermaster fort which is now an Arizona historical park. Very interesting to look at. It’s also a beautiful site now with a lot of very green and well watered grass.
The other site, which was pretty terrifying, was the old Arizona Territorial Prison. It’s hard to imagine life there as a prisoner. This is another state historical park.
Arizona Territorial Prison State Historical Park
Ironically, in spite of the harsh conditions, the locals in Yuma called the prison the “country club.” They had running water (the prisoners got a shower once a week) and electricity. The town had neither.
One side note about Yuma. The RV hasn’t been washed in several weeks, nor the Jeep. We’ve been on a lot of gravel and dirt roads so there is a lot of dust. I got a local mobile RV wash company that would wash and wax the RV for a very reasonable rate. The only problem was they didn’t come into California to work. So I arranged to meet them at a local WalMart and have it done there on Saturday morning. Later we ran the Jeep through a car wash and I waxed it by hand back at the Imperial Dam LTVA. Took me longer to do that then it took to do the RV.
Two guys showed up and basically eachone did a side. They completely washed and waxed the 40 foot RV in a little over an hour. They did a great job on it in record time. They worked hard and fast.
Yuma AZ
February 2017
