Author: sandcastle

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Campground

The campground here is huge.  Google Maps shows it is bell shaped.  

The clapper is the dump. The two rows closest to it are for tent camping and have tent pads.

The next two rows are for small RVs that have no generator. The rest of the campground is for whoever wants it up to 40′ motorhomes.  

We parked in the first of the generator rows so as to be as near as possible to the amphitheater. That’s the line on the map leading off to the left toward a green belt. Unfortunately, we never went to a program because Dave didn’t think I should try to negotiate that path in the dark on my Segway. Also, it got really cold as soon as the sun set and there would be no warming campfire at the ranger program.

Here’s the view of the campground’s cactus forest from our windows.

 

The RV sites have concrete parking pads. In the handicapped sites, the concrete pads extend under the picnic table and grill. Both are metal. Ground fires are not allowed. Generator hours are 8-10 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. Water spigots are placed throughout the campground but there are no hookups per se. Our Internet reception was the best we’ve had in a long time and our cell reception was good enough that I was able to talk to our daughter until we lost the signal because the train she was riding went into a tunnel.

More later about the cactus themselves since I’m not sure how long it will take to upload this.

TTYL,

Linda

Misc. Notes

Here’s some bits and pieces that didn’t get included before.

We pulled up to a diesel pump and it said “low-sulphur” instead of “ultra-low sulphur” with a warning it was not to be used in vehicles built since 2007. So we went across the road to a different gas station while wondering if we’d ever put the wrong diesel in our tank.

Another funny street name: Sore Finger Road. I wonder how sore your finger has to be to get a road named after it?

Business name on a truck: Church Chair Industries. Do church’s really buy enough chairs to support them?

Billboard on truck: ad for Carl’s Jr with a picture of a burger and the slogan “It’s rude to stare.”

Warning sign on truck: “Long vehicle” with a picture of a dachshund.

Sign on a church: “Where will you be seated in Eternity–smoking or non-smoking?”

You’ve probably all been to a mall food court but have you ever been to a parking lot food court? We parked between Panda Express and McDonald’s and met back at the rig with our food.

Gated communities can take a long time to enter. We were almost late to the GNC operating session because of the time it took to get our pass. And that guard already knew we were coming.

The BLM Yuma Field Office has color coded maps of public lands in their filing cabinets. If you ask, they will give them to you. They gave us one for Arizona and one for the U.S. They also gave us a handout providing information on popular Yuma area places to camp including directions to them. We stayed in a free area across a pond from a members only park.  (For the Lavins:  read as Yuma Lakes)

On AZ Highway 85 just south of Gila Ben there is an aircraft gunnery range.  They have viewing areas with interpretive signs.  I was surprised to come across a border guard checkpoint near there.  I sure wouldn’t want to be trying to sneak through a place where airplanes practice shooting things on the ground.

We’ve discovered we can use our generator to charge my Segway.  I needed to do that to be able to get around the Yuma Quartermaster’s Depot.  We are doing it again right now in preparation for exploring Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.  More about that place some other time.

TTYL,

Linda

Quartermaster

A Quartermaster is the person responsible for supplying the military with all their goods. Back in 1864, when Arizona was still a territory, a Quartermaster Depot was established in Yuma. The site is now a State Historic Park and we spent the afternoon there today.

The building on the left in the above photo is the place where goods were stored. Behind it is the Colorado River. The goods came upriver by steamship and left by wagons. The building on the right was the Quartermaster’s Office. It also housed a telegraph office and a weather station.

Above is where the Quartermaster, his wife, and their daughter lived. In the main house, there’s a breezeway through the middle with the parlor and dining room on one side and two bedrooms on the other. Each of those four rooms is, I would guess, about 10 feet square and each has a fireplace across one corner. The smaller building to the right and in front of it housed the kitchen and laundry and the soldier who provided those services for the family. A veranda connects the two but there’s enough space to allow any breezes from the river to help keep the kitchen heat away from the main house.

Up to 900 mules were quartered here at any one time. The teamsters who handled them lived in small rooms behind the building below.

In the twentieth century, many other organizations have had offices here. Those offices now host displays about water and various attempt to manage it over the years.  Here’s some of the items in those displays.

  

The Yuma Quartermaster Depot Historic State Park is still under development. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend spending some time here learning lots of interesting stuff.

TTYL,

Linda

Give me land, lots of land…

We spent one night in the Escapees Kofa Ko-op using our privacy curtains to keep from looking into our neighbors windows before we moved here to the Pilot Knob LTVA. Here’s the views from our side windows now.

 

Is it any wonder we’ve come to like desert camping?

Yet we are only about eight miles from Yuma, Arizona, with all it’s sights and amenities. The best of both worlds.

TTYL,

Linda

Moving to Yuma

We spent all morning yesterday packing up and saying goodbye. About noon we pulled out of our campsite at La Posa LTVA near Quartzsite, Arizona, for the last time.  

Then we got in line there to dump our holding tanks. It was a long line. By the time we did that, filled our fresh water tank, and dumped our trash it was 1:30 p.m. So we decided to skip the book exchange and move on down the road.  

It’s a good thing we did. We pulled into the Escapee’s Kofa Ko-op park about 3:15 and their office closes at 3:30. They assigned us to their last available boondocking spot for the one night we planned to be there. We forgot we were supposed to register but not park so we could go buy groceries. By the time we remembered we decided to stay parked. Instead we did laundry and I hit their library for some new books. Everyone we saw while doing those tasks was friendly. Most said hello along with their smiles and we chatted some with other people doing laundry. I felt really welcome there.  It’s a very nice park; I could see coming back for a longer stay.

As the evening went on some people left the boondocking area to move into the full hookups area then more people came into the boondocking area. We could have been number four on the list for hookups but, since we only planned to stay one night, we decided not to bother.

This morning we left there about 10:30 a.m. to run the rest of our errands. WalMart, of course, and Love’s to buy diesel. The diesel was less than $2 a gallon. That’s the cheapest it’s been since we hit the road. Then we went over to In N Out for lunch.

Then we headed west on I-8 back into California to check out the BLM’s Pilot Knob LTVA. At the agricultural check station they asked where we were coming from and Dave said, “Yuma.” They sent us on our way. Apparently anything you buy in Yuma is acceptable; we could have bought more fruit than just bananas.

Then we turned south on Sidewinder Road. What is a sidewinder, anyway? Isn’t that some dirty, low-down something or other? If so, why you would name your road that?

That brought us into the Pilot Knob LTVA which is another permit area. Since our previous permit is good until the end of the month, the camp host here just waved us on in. Permits for the BLM’s Yuma District are good everywhere around here. We bought the first one in Imperial Dam and used it in La Posa. We bought this one in La Posa and are using it here. It’s nice to be able to check out the various areas without always having to buy a new permit. I don’t think we’d stay here otherwise since the only service you get here is a dumpster.  Lot’s of people stay in these LTVAs all winter. It’s only $180 for a permit good for seven months ending in April. Summer is free but I’m not sure anyone stays here then since it takes a LOT of solar panels to run an air-conditioner in these barely insulated rigs.

We moved to Pilot Knob primarily in hopes of getting a better Internet signal. My T-Mobile phone has five bars. Dave’s AT&T phone has five bars. Our Sprint aircard is just as slow here as it was in La Posa. Bummer. Maybe it’s time to break down and buy into the Verizon system.  That’s what we intended to get when we wound up with Sprint because a guy Dave trusts said Sprint was the best thing at that time because of their deal with All-Tel.  It’s not turning out to be such a good deal for us.  Of course, we don’t know whether Verizon would have been a good deal where we’ve been traveling so far, either.

Anyway, we here for however long we decide to stay. In case you want to come visit our GPS coordinates are N 32.74085, W 114.76034. You might want to check in first, though, to be sure we didn’t move on in search of a better Internet signal.

TTYL,

Linda