I've been on the road two months now. I left Bellevue on August 10 and it is now October 11. Sixty-three days. I sit in my trailer and look around at the 120 or so square feet I live in and it is home. Today was also the end of the beginning. I completed my tour of U.S. Hwy 95 from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. Wow!
On Tuesday, I left my parking spot in Calexico, CA at Walmart and headed East. I thought I'd grab a quick cup of coffee somewhere. Imagine my surprise at there being nothing between Calexico and Arizona. I did stop just before the border at the Quechan Casino Resort and had breakfast and coffee (at last!). Then I had the problem of finding a place to stay in Yuma, Arizona. The first thing I learned was to buy wine in California and gas in Arizona. An $8 bottle of wine in Arizona is about $5 in California. A $3.95 gallon of gas in California is about $3.29 in Arizona. Had to put on my Arizona hat as soon as I got here!
There is no shortage of RV parks in Yuma. This is the heart of snowbird country and I was just about ten days to two weeks ahead of the influx. I found a spot at the Mesa Verde park for just $22. I'm pretty sure that "verde" means green or something like that, but there was limited evidence. Except on the shuffleboard courts.
I'll probably have to learn to play by the time I reach Florida. They were really proud of these courts. They'd just completed refinishing them on Monday. Ready for the season! Most of the people who show up in the next week or two have parked their trailers semi-permanently and are residents here for six months.
It might look kind of bleak, but there is opportunity for real socialization in this neighborhood. One resident I met from Spokane who had just arrived has been coming here for nearly 15 years to spend six months in Yuma's moderate winter climate. I have to admit, the weather was simply fabulous. And by comparison, the mobile homes really aren't much of a step down from the housing development across the street! Talk about everything looking the same.
I finished editing Mark Sawyer's next book, "Married to Islam," and got it off to him on Tuesday morning. He had it back to me by Thursday night and now I'm working on finalizing the manuscript and laying the book out. I wish there was some way to tell people how important this book is and get everyone in the country to read it. It is non-fiction, ghost-written by Mark on behalf of a Swiss woman who converted to Islam and then married a Moslem man. Her discoveries are enlightening and heart-rending.
Thursday, I picked up the trail of U.S. Hwy 95. I followed 195 down to San Luis, AZ where 95 ends at the Mexican border.
The site that greets people coming into the U.S. from Mexico is considerably different than that when you enter from Canada. There are a lot of factory outlet and grocery stores near the border and it is apparent that people come over from Mexico to shop in San Luis and then return. There's even a grocery cart return at the border.
I drove back up to Yuma on 95 and reviewed Mark's few changes to the manuscript, then headed for bed so I could get a good start on Friday morning. Much of the land between the Mexican border and the Yuma proving grounds is rich farmland, worked by hundreds of manual laborers, planting, weeding, and harvesting. There is little farm equipment here and what I saw is significantly smaller than what you would see in the Midwest. The rows are closer together because tractors don't do the cultivating.
As I came through the Yuma Proving Grounds--an area where the Army tests vehicles and new equipment--I kept seeing what looked like a whale floating in the sky a few miles away. Then I saw a second one. These are apparently observation balloons. They really do look like Moby Dick in the sky.
I also saw this dome or pinnacle or peak about the time I left Yuma, just barely peeking above the mountain range ahead of me. It doesn't look all that big, but it's visible from Yuma and from Quartzsite, 80 miles further north. I was also a little surprised at how I hadn't seen a Saguaro cactus in California, but I see them all over in Arizona. Hmm.
Tomorrow, I am wandering generally north and east through Prescott and on up to Williams AZ. Supposedly I still have an Uncle living in Williams (the last uncle). As I was named after him, I'd like to see him again but have been unable to reach him. I'll keep trying. It will be at least Sunday before I get there. Then I hope to go on up to the Grand Canyon if anyone has taken the tarp off and opened it up again. Sheesh!
Well, with the beginning ended, it's time to see what the next phase (wandering around Arizona and New Mexico) brings.
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