Four Wheeling ??

Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs.

Hmmm. Well, well, well. You all know we went 4-wheeling yesterday. Oh, I’ve done that before but on an ATV. It was dusty. It was dirty. It was on little hills and I was driving. Thus, I knew where I was going. It was a blast and I would definitely go again.

Let me tell you the sand dunes we were on yesterday were not little. These dunes were about 5 times larger with huge drop offs. Jerry was driving. He drove up them, straight up, then straight down, and then rolled around. He did circles. Sitting in the back seat you couldn't tell when you were going up if you were going to fall down one of those drop offs or just trek down. Was I scared? Take a guess. I kept wondering when he and Terry would yell "Hee Haw”. Terry now wants a 4-wheel drive. He can’t have one!

The USA shares a border with Mexico for about 2,000 miles. We rode along the fence that was built to separate part of this border. Border Patrols monitor it by patrolling the area as well as through the cameras that are set up. We couldn’t see how it could keep anyone out who really wanted to cross other than just slowing them down to allow the Border Patrol time to arrive. It would be easy to skim over it if someone wanted to. The bottom of the fence has footings to help their climb. And, there were notches to even tie the rope.

The Old Plank Road was built in 1916 to make travel possible through the sand dunes for the mules and Model T’s traveling between Phoenix and San Diego. The roadway consisted of wooden cross ties laid to a width of 8 feet with double-width turnouts every 1,000 feet. They were laid in 12 foot long sections. This road was used until 1926 when the paved road was completed for travel …. currently called I-8.

The American Girl Mine is not far from Yuma. It’s close to BLM land and several RVs were parking in the area when we visited. The mine itself is on 140 privately held acres. This is a mine that has returned thousands and thousands of dollars of gold. We did our best to search for some but with no luck. Jerry was in charge of bringing his metal detector but it was left safe and sound in his motorhome. It is assumed that there is still quite a bit of gold left in the old mine. The problem is getting it out without spending more than the gold is worth. Mining stopped in 1996 because the cost of gold went down. However, with the price of gold climbing, it might eventually resume. If interested, the mine is for sale.

On our way home yesterday evening we passed an army tank. There’s not much unusual about an army tank … except this one had a “Student Driver” sign on the back. Now that’s unusual!

Student driver driving a tank ------>

Today we may do another visit to the Gypsy Rally. We’re interested in looking at inverters and perhaps adding a couple more batteries. Maybe there’s someone there who can give us some advice. Nope .. still aren’t interested in solar panels. We enjoy those current bushes too much.

Salvaging the Perfect Motorhome

It is hard to understand how a cemetery raised its burial cost and blamed it on the cost of living.

Yesterday Yuma was definitely the windy city. The winds ripped through the town. Even though it wasn’t necessarily a cool day, it felt that way with the wind blowing. Obviously, when it’s very windy, there’s not much you want to do outside. And, that’s exactly how we felt. However, we did find a few things we could do. We decided to check out the local motorhome market. What a fun day it was after all …. as you will see.

We went shopping with the Hyders … well, kind of. I guess you could call it that. Or, they went shopping with us. Trying to keep up with our friends can be very difficult. The Sands just bought a new Winnebago motorhome. So, we wanted to look at motorhomes too. Our idea of checking them out yesterday was probably a little different than how others do it. We even found a Winnebago. Now it doesn’t look anything like the one Linda and Dave just purchased but we thought it had potential so we chose this one. Just imagine what you could do with a little elbow grease and LOTS of money! (Not much.)

<------Look at what we found

So many people on the forum “argue” about what motorhome and what 5th wheel manufacturer is the best. (They argue about many other things too but that’s a topic for another day.) This place held no preference. They treated all of them fairly … well, almost. We didn’t see any Monaco coaches or Alfa coaches here. I’m not sure what that means except maybe they won’t allow them in or they never make it to the graveyard. You can draw your own conclusions.

Jerry and Janice were a little harder to please than we were. They actually wanted one they could take along both a boat and a toad with. (Dixons might consider one similar to this one.) That made the search a little more difficult but we finally found one that would work. This is what they decided would be perfect for them. And, they got a 2-for-1 deal … just like at the casino.

The Hyders getting ready to roll ------>

The difficult task would be launching the boat. You’d probably need a crane.

Now these motorhomes aren’t available everywhere. Searching out a unique one takes a little “salvaging”. And, we certainly did our own salvaging. Now don’t tell me you didn’t already figure that one out. We had an absolute gas at the Motorhome Graveyard. That’s what we called it because that’s where all motorhomes will end up someday. There were many more to choose from and we had so much fun checking them out. We did leave a few top models for the rest of you to pick out. We even left another Winnebago … and one more boat. Even lots of toads could to be found at this place.

There were many types of RVs here. Quite a few had been gutted by fire. It made you hope the owners had gotten out alive.

After our motorhome shopping we went to another casino. Yes, I did say another casino. Pahrump isn’t the only place that has them. We stopped at the Cocopah Casino to check out the RV park and the buffet. And, you can never go to a casino without donating at least a little. That’s what we did but Jerry ended up winning $100!! Win a few, lose a few. All in all we were quite impressed with the RV park at the casino. It’s a gorgeous boondocking place. The first night is free and the next three nights only cost you $5.00 total. Then, if you decided to stay longer, you just started all over again. And, they even have their own dump!

Dinner was spent at Chretin’s Mexican Restaurant. It was fabulous. If you visit Yuma and love Mexican food, this is definitely a place to go. Maybe they’ll even add your name to the list of famous people they have posted as visitors to their restaurant. Even John Wayne ate there or so they said.

Check out the food we devoured. If you are really hungry, you can double click on it for a meal-size portion.

The day was filled with laughs. Today we’re heading out to the sand dunes for a little four wheeling.