A Trip to the Market

WHERE ARE WE? Araz Junction, Yuma, AZ 

NEXT DESTINATION? Tucson, AZ

Our plan was to do the Arizona Market in Yuma today.  We wanted to be heading over there by 9 am so for Sue and me, it was necessary for us to set the alarm on our phones.  Now where we are camped, we are almost directly on top of the Pacific/Mountain time zone, but we have decided to do everything based on Arizona, (Mountain) time.  So, when we went to bed our phones were showing Pacific time, so I set my alarm for 7 am which would actually be 8 am in Arizona.  Well sometime in the night the phone wiggled or something and changed back to Arizona time and when our alarm went off, it was still dark.  Oh well we thought as we yawned and started to roll out of bed.  About that time Sue says, something is not right!  And she was right.  We were getting up at the equivalent of 6 am Arizona time!!!  I was back asleep in about 3 seconds and had an awesome hour more sleep!!   Anyway, we went to the Arizona Market this morning.

It is not very busy right now.  I guess a lot of people are still hesitant to hang out in crowds.  

We saw a lot of Canadian snowbirds who have just arrived in the southwest.  How can we tell?  First, they are as white as the driven snow, and second, they are almost the only people wearing a mask.  I saw this couple again about 10 minutes later and the masks were supporting their second chins.

This guy was taking a break to try to catch his breath and didn't want the wife to catch him with it off, so he thought if he sat at a table maybe that was a better place to breath than standing up!!  See the white legs??

This guy had already ditched the mask.  The string was hanging out his pocket.  And once again, the legs told the story!!  2 years with no sun!!!  

They had a mini golf there so I thought maybe I could get some ideas for CJ's Mini Golf.  Not!!  I would doubt anyone plays this one.  

I have no idea what the significance of the pirate ship is, but it was here.  It had a door to go inside but a sign said stay out!!

When lunch time rolled around, we decided to grab a burger and listen to the music.  They always have some sort of entertainment at the food court and today was no different.  Not a bad band.

Well once I got fed it was time to shop.  I had fun shopping.  First stop was for some suspenders!!!  Do I need them yet?  Not yet but soon!

Then to the Hat store!!  My shadow says I need a BIG HAT!!!  

I kinda like the pink one!!  Real men wear pink they say.

Nope, I'm not going fishing anytime soon.

And I'm a poor imitation of the Godfather!!

And I never was much good on a horse. 

And they just get bigger!

And bigger!!

And BIGGER!!!!!

Ok that was enough.  Sue sent me home with Harold to get out of her hair.  No hat for me today!!  Shucks, now I will have to have a nap!!!  On the way home we checked out the Romaine Lettuce harvest and some field work.  Farm work here is labour intensive and if you stop to watch you will hear the music blaring.  They love to work with music in the fields. 

On the way we discovered Old Yuma.  It looks quite interesting so we may have to go back there tomorrow and get some pictures.

Well that pretty much sums up our day.  And yes, I did work in a nap in the afternoon.  The evening was spent..............(I can't tell you until tomorrow what we spent our evening doing.)  Have a great night and now I'm sure you will be back tomorrow.

Moving on Down the Road

WHERE ARE WE? Araz Junction, Yuma, AZ 

NEXT DESTINATION? Toward Tucson AZ

Today was move day.  It is time to move on down the road and get ready for our departure to Mexico in 10 days or so.  George and Henny are moving as well up to the Parker AZ area to enjoy some time by the Colorado River.  We all gathered for morning Happy Hour for the last time as a group this time.  

It was soon time to say our goodbye's and off they went.  We sure enjoyed our time with them and look forward to meeting up in Mexico next month.  Safe travels.

Next it was our turn.  Man, we will miss Chuck and Angie.  They are staying around Q for the winter, and we did discuss the fact that we plan to come out of Mexico through Texas in the spring and maybe we will cross paths somewhere around Magnolia Beach or Falcon Heights.  Fingers crossed.  Angie took a picture of us as we were leaving.  See you later guys!!!

Some of you may recognize where we went by today.  The guns are iconic to Southwestern travelers.

Yuma is a very green area in a desert.  Lots of vegetables grown here.  The main ingredient to the success of vegetables is irrigation, and there is lots of that here.  The crops are rotated so there is always something being harvested.  The smell of something like cabbage or cauliflower fields is amazing.  It is that moist earthy smell that makes you smile.  

Everything is soooo green.

We are going to spend a few days in this country doing some shopping for stuff we will need in Mexico.  We want to take in the Yuma Market as well because we need an RV mat and some various nicks and nacks.  We are parked up at Araz Junction, which is just off I-8 by the road to Algadones Mx.  It is a boondocking area that lots of snowbirds use when they are visiting Algadones.

We have found out that when your sandwiched between a major interstate and a railway track, there is always noise of some sort.  We will survive I'm sure and trains are no stranger to us after living in Rivers Manitoba where the CN mainline passes through.  We had a short Happy Hour and then off to get our own suppers and some TV and bed.  More fun tomorrow.

Hey Jeremy G do you think I should grab it.  It puts my faith back in the money I spent last winter!!! 

I saw this the other day and it is a pretty good caption of how I operate.  If you know me, I think you would agree.  I do not take things at face value, nor do I buy the status quo.  There is always another explanation which follows the lines of common sense with a wee bit of wisdom gleaned from a lifetime of experiences.  The scary part is that sometimes I am not far off reality.  Hope you do what you believe in.

  

Let a Little Sun Shine In!!

WHERE ARE WE? South La Posa LTVA 

NEXT DESTINATION? Yuma, AZ

Yesterday Harold took delivery of his awaited solar panels.  He ordered them a couple weeks ago and doing his solar was one of the things we were planning to do here in Quartzite.  We have almost all the other wiring and breakers and stuff done, but the panels kept getting delayed.  Well, they are here and it's a nice day so, yup we are installing solar panels today.  We set up an assembly line and got all the mounts on before putting the panels on the roof.

Harold and Chuck worked at mounting the panels to the roof while I hooked up some of the wires that hadn't got done before.  George provided some much-needed supervision.  We have the dream team here.

Harold was on top of the world surveying the progress we made.  I think he is really looking forward to some solar power again.  Solar gives you a freedom that I can't explain when you are enjoying boondocking in the warm Southwest.  

One of the things the sun's rays do down here after a few years is to turn plastic into a brittle material.  That was the case of the cover over the roof vent that Harold placed his hand on.  Crunch it went and there was a hole in it.  

When we threw it down to the ground, it disintegrated.  Now we have a project for another day!!

By lunch time we had all the panels screwed and glued and ready for some wire.  Chuck let us use his ladder which made getting up and down easier.  We left the cardboard on the panels so they wouldn't produce power before we were ready.

Next, we had to drill a hole in the roof for all the wires to go into.  All the wires from the panels will go through the hole and down to the terminal block in a cupboard below.  We have a cover to go over it later.

We got busy crimping all the wires from all the panels together.  A year or so ago, I purchased a hydraulic crimper which has come in handy a number of times for various projects.  It came in handy again today.  Good tight crimp connections make sure that the efficiencies of the wire are maintained.

We got all the wire ran but we will wait until tomorrow to fasten them to the roof.  We were more interested in getting the electricity flowing so we could check out the system before the sun went behind the mountain.

The shadows were getting long by the time we got everything hooked up.  We turned on the switch and poof!  We had amps showing on the remote read.  Not very many amps, but enough to confirm that everything was working the way it should.  By then, there were no solar rays to be had.  

We had all ordered Pizza from Silly Al's pizza and George and Henny offered to pick it up on their way back from town.  We all sat around and enjoyed some pretty yummy supper.

Sunset soon snuck up on us and it was spectacular as usual. I remember a story of an acquaintance of ours back home saying that he couldn't figure out why anyone would want to spend time in the desert with the dust and dirt blowing.  Well, I'm here to tell you that this is a great place to be if you're with good people.  And yes, that is dust hanging in the air in the picture.  There is no wind, so the dust from a few cars is just staying suspended in the air.

George had picked up some wood in town and he was determined to get it lit without any fooling around with kindling.  George comes from a farm like Harold and I he doesn't fool around when there is a job to be done.  So out came the propane torch and like nobody's business we had a fire.

We straightened out a lot of the world's issues tonight around that fire. We made smores and smo-ho's and laughed a lot.  We have realized that we are getting closer to leaving for Mexico, and soon we will be on the beach.  Hope your day was as good as ours.

The Shortest Blog I have Ever Wrote!!

WHERE ARE WE? South La Posa LTVA, Quartzite, AZ 

NEXT DESTINATION? Yuma, AZ

Morning Happy Hour:  All present

Install doorbell

Do computer stuff.

Afternoon Happy Hour:  All present

Supper 

Bed