Green Fields!

Craig and I continue to relax and enjoy our winter surroundings here in Wellton, AZ.  The Tier Drop Park is full of friendly people and we are still getting to know them.  They have their own church service and bible studies and we are reading and exercising and pondering things. 

Just a few miles south of the park there is this huge area where we watched remote controlled airplanes fly and maneuver and land.  

We can walk a long way in the RV Park, but there are sand paths which are actually earthen dividers to walk on around the fields.  The couple that owns the RV Park also owns the land around it.

If I sound a little winded in this video, it's because I am.

This is our Tier Drop RV Park in the background. It's alfalfa hay in field.

The fields are literally "tiered" so they can run the water from the Colorado River through major canals, along the fields and then from one field down to the next and not waste a drop.

Rows of seed onions.  I didn't know how rich in farm land southern Arizona is.  In the hot summer months, these fields are planted with cotton.  They have a year round growing season.

It's a little overcast and windy today and it's only 75 (tongue in cheek), so Craig is working on taxes and I'm catching up and blogging and reading.

It's been great to have time to read.  If you need a faith boost, I can highly recommend my favorite scholar, Derek Prince and his book, "War in Heaven".  Amazon has the Kindle version, too.

Thinking of you all and praying that you might know the height and depth and width of the Lord's love for you.

Kathy

Pole Dancing, Lizards and Thorns

That's just some of what we experienced today.  I even took a picture of Craig pole dancing.   I cant' decide whether to post it at the beginning of this or at the end.  It was a warm day today, so after a slow morning of coffee and reading, we headed out to do some geocaching.  There were several of them marked on the GPS all in a row and they were labeled "Pole Dancing".  That's just what Craig did.

Here's is one of the many poles that we found caches around the bottom under rocks.  So, do you feel better now that you have seen the picture.  Had you going?  Probably not.

We looked for one geocache out in the desert around a burn pile and never found it.  I wondered if it didn't get burned up when they burned the brush pile???  We left there empty handed after driving and then walking along some paths in the sand.  Craig and I both were startled by lizards darting out when we disturbed their homes.

Just behind Craig in this picture was this huge canal system.  It's very impressive to see how these were constructed through the desert which turned this area into rich farming country.

We found the ground along the canals full of small shells.  Pretty interesting to see these miles away the ocean.  The water in the area is salty and that's not from the Colorado River.

One of the HINTS to a find was that is was on an overlook.  We followed the GPS to the Butterfield golf coarse area and up on a hill that was full of some prickly bushes Craig found the hidden treasure.

The golf coarse looks very nice, but our clubs are in storage.  We bought some Smarties candy today so we can start leaving a pack in the caches we find.  People leave all sorts of treasures and you are free to take them if you replace them with something else.  Not sure if food is an acceptable thing to leave.

We are looking forward to church in the Park tomorrow.  Have a great day of rest tomorrow.

Kathy

Geochacing

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

We have done some geocaching in the past with Tana's family in Texas.  In looking through some APPS, I found the geocaching APP and decided to pick it up.  I called Barry to get some advice on which one to go with.  We have found some treasures.  It's all really about the hunt.  We use the GPS on our phones and it's a little iffy around Wellton, AZ to get it to work consistently.  Our first couple were found in parking lots.  Then, we ventured a bit out and found this one.  The treasures are in different sized packages.  You sign a log that you have found it and enter on the APP that you found it.  Some have little trinkets inside that you can take if you have something to trade.

Sometimes there are some HINTS to help you know what you're looking for.  This one was in an ammo box under the bush and it took some time to find it.

This one said you could get to it on a 4 wheeler and it was in a place where you had to go through some soft sand.  We had some trouble keeping our GPS signal out in the desert, but we kept looking and finally found a plastic jar under this brick.

We didn't have any treasures to share, so we just signed the log and marked on the APP, "found it".  There's LOTS of caches in this area so we'll have a little something to do as we walk the area.

It was a hazy overcast day here and a high of ONLY 70. We felt lazy... like that is something new, so we didn't venture out of the RV until later in the afternoon.  We went out the back gate of the RV Park and walked along one of the many water canals.

We stopped and chatted with another couple from Canada.  They were walking their dog.  Very nice to chat with so many new people.  They have been coming to this park for nine years.  We learned that this alfafa field and land belong to the same people that owned the RV Park.  We wondered which business produces the most income.

Tomorrow we have no plans.  That still sounds good to me.  Maybe we'll do a little geocaching, swim a bit and sit on our porch.  The only scheduled event is the RV Park's Church service at 10am Sunday.

Whale in the Desert

Yuma, Arizona

We took a twenty minute drive into Yuma, AZ today. We lived in Arizona from 1978-1980 in Glendale at Luke AFB when Craig was still an Officer in the US Air Force.  This was the first time we have been in Yuma.  We enjoyed our trip.  Yuma spreads out along I8 for several miles.  Google has the population at nearly one Million.  I think most of them are "gray hairs".... retired people.

We went to see a movie today that was pretty good.  It was, "Jack Ryan".  We then had lunch, bought a few groceries at the busiest store I have ever been in before called, Frys.  

I haven't cut my hair since Aug and I always think I'm going to let my hair grow out.  Well, it looked so badly all of the time, and I came to same conclusion that I have come to every time it gets to this length.... where can I get my hair cut???  We found a shop.... I was a walk in (which I never like to be), but she seemed to do a good job.  Morning will tell more.

Here's a few photos Craig took for me today.

There is a small group of mountains between Wellton and Yuma.  This is on our way back to Welton coming up on the Dome Valley.

While we were at Martinez Lake yesterday, I asked why it's call Dome Valley.  I was directed to a mountain that has a "dome" on the top and I took a picture.  It's over the top of the palm tree.

It was a bit overcast here today and I found myself feeling guilty to be in 70 degree weather while it's so cold in most of the rest of the US.  I'm understanding "snow birds" better than I did before.

We came back and were invited to a chat outside at our neighbors.  They were all Canadians.  Probably 75% of the RV park is Canadian.  So pleasant and very nice and we had a nice time of getting to know one another.  We then hit the hot tub and I didn't get in any lap swimming since it was getting late and it does cool off after 4pm.

Tomorrow is Friday and we have been here a week already.  Mom seems to be keeping busy and doing OK.  We talked about how Tuesday was the second month anniversary of Dad's passing.  So much has taken place during that time, that it seems like it was much longer ago.

Have a great evening,

Kathy

Martinez Lake

Today we were asked if we wanted to go to Martinez Lake for lunch.  Why not?  There were three cars of us that went.  It's a strange thing to be in the desert and have someone talk about a Lake.  We wanted to see that.

We drove for nearly an hour.  We drove through what is called, "Dome Valley".  This is a farming community and they grow Alfafa, cabbage, cotton, lemons, oranges and beets and probably lots more that I haven't seen, yet.  The desert is a system of canals and irrigation ditches.  We learned they farm year round.

Orange Groves

Tim Claus, there's lots of work for you to do down here!!!

We also drove by an Army Testing grounds and then turned at the Martinez Lake Road sign.

It was another lovely desert surprise.  We had lunch at a restaurant and then walked around a bit to take in the sights.

We only knew two of these people until today.  Now, we have a few more people that we know.

I thought of Mom when I saw all of the Bougainvillea around.

This is a huge home on the Colorado River side of the Lake.

This is where the river and the Lake come together.  You can take a boat up river and they told us there are places where you play a "service" to pull your boat out to go around dams.

I think Craig was trying to figure out if he could fish from this high off the lake.

The restaurant is part of the Marina and the food was OK.

It was a beautiful day and fun to see things green and blooming in the desert.

Blessings.

Tierdrop RV Park

We had a very nice first full day at our new home for the next month.  A couple we know invited us to go to the Tractor Pull contest in Wellton.  I'm not sure I have been to one of those since one I saw at the Lake County Fair one time.  They had some wonderful "old Bessies" to see.

This was a 1949 tractor and we were routing for him.

This one is for sale.

A Howdy Doody Kaliopi Antique

We looked around town a little and then came back to the RV to have some lunch.  Midge, you were asking more about the park, so here's a few pictures I took to show you.

This is what we see from the front of the Whale.  There are green fields all around us with canals that water the vegetables. There are many of these Park Model homes here for sale for people who want to spend the season here.

These are the gardens around the pool.

Craig was testing out the hot tub.

We walked over to the pool and enjoyed the day and swam a few laps.  We also enjoyed meeting a couple from Canada and had a wonderful chat with them about the Lord.

This is the view of Tierdrop RV Park from I8 bridge.

We finally got hooked up with a WiFi password and signal today so, we are all good.  Now to watch the Broncos somewhere tomorrow.  We don't get TV reception were we are.  Maybe we can watch on the Internet.

Leaving Las Vegas

We were awake early this morning (Friday) and waiting for the sunrise to start on our trip to Wellton, AZ where we know one other couple who have suggested coming to southern Arizona for a month.  We met them in Duck Creek RV Park.

We were hooked up and ready to pull out at 7am.  We will lose an hour going to AZ because they don't participate in Daylight Savings Time.

The Honda (tail) in tow.  We pull it with 4 wheels down.  We have installed a Brake Buddy to help with quick stops and so there are several things to hook up and plug in.

Mom had warned us about the bright early morning sun as we headed east.

We also had a morning Moon as we pulled away.

It was a long and sometimes winding and very dippy road out of NV into CA and then into AZ.  I don't think CA does much to keep up route 95 that just cuts through the corner of the state.

We came into AZ

Crossed over the Colorado River

This was about a 300 mile trip today.  Quartzsite is a place we have been hearing about.  RVers come from all over to attend events that are put on in town.  They park all over the desert.  There were hundreds of RVes as we passed through.

Wall to wall campers and there are lots more on the way.

Dry Camped (no hook ups) in the desert.  I was glad we got to see it and also thankful that we weren't stopping there.  The traffic was a bit slow going through town, but otherwise it was a steady driving day and we made it in good time... just over 5 hours.

We were greeted by friendly people.  Tierdrop got it's name from the "tiers" of ground that the park is built on.  I'll take more picture of the park in the future.  The ground is level and the couple that we know have been here for a month and they gave us a tour around the park, introduced us to several people and took us to a free hot dog dinner at the club house.  We also met a couple next to us, retired Air Force, a bit older than we are and have come here from their ranch in Montana for 20 years.  Jim and Willie are very nice, too.

We may not need to put our awning out because we are turned in a way that we are shaded.  We'll have to see how the sun is in the morning.  We may sleep in a bit later tomorrow because of the time change..... we'll see.

I missed seeing Mom today, but otherwise it was a good day of travel and we arrived to an 80 degree day.

The Whale has left Las Vegas.