Sunday, February 10, 2008

Yuma, Arizona





We stayed in Yuma nine days, arriving on February 2nd. Yuma is located close to both the California and Mexico borders, only minutes from each one. The Colorado River runs along the California/Arizona border. We had heard that Yuma was another magnet for RV’ers who are looking for a warm climate to spend their winter months. That makes a lot of sense because the average high temperature in February is 75 degrees. Beyond that, and realizing that Yuma is part of the desert, we didn’t really know what to expect. What we found out is Yuma must be the RV magnet of the WORLD!! We have never seen so many RV’s in one city before!! There are literally thousands and thousands of RV’ers in the numerous RV parks all over this town. The estimated population for 2006 was 87,423, but more than 85,000 winter visitors make Yuma their winter residence, literally doubling the number of people. Agriculture is huge here. We were again very fortunate to have access to lots of fresh citrus and many other varieties of locally grown fruits and veggies.


While we were here, we visited the Yuma swap meet, which is like a huge garage sale; we drove 80 miles to Quartzite (another winter haven for RV’ers, and in January and February each year where 2,000 vendors of rocks, gems, minerals, fossils and everything else imaginable create one of the world's largest open air flea markets); we visited Mexico again (this time in Los Algodones, in Baja California); we toured the Yuma Territorial Prison (now a museum); and we ran in the cooler mornings along the irrigation canal behind our RV Park – miles of flat road, a runner’s delight!


Tomorrow we begin an easy three day journey to Sacramento where we will stay a couple of months to visit family, ski in the Tahoe basin, visit with friends.

No comments: