Kool Corner - Yuma, Arizona

We spent the middle part of February boondocking on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land just north of Yuma, AZ at a place known as Kool Corner. We took walks, visited with friends, shared meals with our neighbors and ate lots of lettuce. If the center part of the country is known as America's bread basket, this area must be it's salad bowl. It's incredible how fast the vegetables grow, are harvested and almost immediately a new crop is planted. This is amazing as the annual rainfall is only about 3 inches. Water for the crops is supplied by an extensive network of canals connected to the Colorado River. Yuma has the reputation of being one of the sunniest places in the country with over 330 bright days each year. Quite a difference from central New York, where it seems there are over 330 cloudy, dreary days annually. Well, maybe not that many, it just seemed like it. Almost every day was blue sky and sunshine, (we haven't gotten tired of that yet) but we did get one unusual heavy rain. We didn't plan for this and ended up with a moat around our door. Careful placing of some large rocks, provided some stepping stones to get to dry land.

Our spot at Kool Corner overlooking the valley.

This hummingbird was a common visitor.

Hard working laborers picking broccoli. Yum!

Patches of red and green lettuce makes an interesting pattern in this field.

Baby greens are picked by a machine that looks like a giant vacuum cleaner. It cuts off the small leaves and sucks them up.

Saguaros and Missiles near Tucson, Arizona

As is common for us, we visited two very different places today. The first was the Saguaro National Park and the second was the Titan II Missile Museum.

The Sonoran Desert is known for the saguaro cactus. For a desert, it has a large variety of plants and animals that have adapted to the small quantity of rain, and call this place home.

Here is a forest of saguaros. If you look closely, you can see they extend all the way up the sides of the hills.

Saguaros grow very slowly, but can have many interesting shapes. By about 50 years, they can be 7 feet tall and start to sprout arms at about 75. If they get to live to 100 they will be about 25 feet tall. Some live to 150 years or more.

The spines protect the waxy skin from the sun and drying winds and discourages animals from taking it's moisture.

The saguaro has a shallow root structure, about 3 inches below the surface, but extends as far as the cactus is tall. The many ribs expand to hold water in the spongy flesh. After heavy rains, a single cactus can absorb up to 200 gallons of water which will sustain it for up to one year.

Coyotes are one of the many inhabitants here in the National Park.

For a drastic change, we then went to the Titan II Missile Museum, south of Tucson. We arranged ahead of time for a 90 minute tour which was very interesting. These missiles played a large role during the Cold War Era, as a deterrent. They were decommissioned by the Air Force between 1982 and 1987.

Looking down the 10 stories from the top of the silo where the only remaining Titan II is housed for exhibit. The nuclear warheads these missiles carried were 200 times more powerful than the bomb that devastated Hiroshima.

The area at the top of the silo looks different than it did when active, as the museum has added vehicles for display. Concrete barriers have been put in place next to the silo doors, so as not to allow them to open more than half-way.

The double blast doors at the bottom of the stairway leading to the control room. Even though they are 6000 lbs each, they are so well balanced on the hinges that one person can close them.

Claudia as the 'Crew Commander' in the control room.

A "real" retired Crew Commander, Chuck was our very informative guide.

The long hallway between the control room and missile silo.

Casa Grande and Sky Diving in Arizona

While spending time in Casa Grande, Arizona, friends Jean and Joe took us to see some of the sites. They were great tour guides. Our first stop on this day was the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. It was named by early Spanish explorers and the four walls face the points of a compass. In the "Great House" which is four stories high and 60 feet long, there is a hole in the west wall that aligns with the sun on the summer solstice. Other holes align with the moon and sun at certain times of the year. Did they follow the skies for planting and harvesting or perhaps religious reasons? There are ruins here of a large walled compound in which the house lies. These ancient people were farmers and irrigated their fields with water from the nearby Salt and Gila Rivers. The Hohokam built a series of canals for this and other compounds that have been found in the area. They also hunted animals and made use of the variety of plants found here. Archeologists have also found evidence that they traded goods with others traveling through the area

A steel and concrete canopy was built in 1932 to protect the Great House from further erosion. They are making great attempts to save the ruins by adding supports between the walls inside the structure.

Here you can see what remains of some of the other structures in the compound.

The main construction material is caliche, a concrete like mixture of calcium carbonate, sand and clay. They used 300 tons to build the Casa Grande. They piled the caliche mud in many layers which were allowed to dry. The walls are 4 feet thick at the bottom and taper towards the top. These hard working people floated and carried hundreds of logs from trees 60 miles away for floor and ceiling supports. All that remains of these are the holes in the dried caliche.

A close up look at an ocotillo sprouting new leaves. To conserve water, this plant, also known as devil's walking stick, drops all it's leaves when it is dry. Within a few days of rain, it sprouts them again.

From the ancient ruins we went to this sky diving facility. No, we didn't go for a ride, but it was fun to watch.

Here is a brave soul coming in for a landing. Looks so relaxed!

This must be someone taking their first jump, as they are strapped to an experienced diver. At least we hope so.

If you'd rather have the experience without jumping out of a plane, they have this indoor facility.

Las Cruces, New Mexico

We spent a couple of days in Las Cruces, New Mexico on our trip west. We stayed in our friends' side yard and had a great time. In the evening we played games and caught up on what we've each been doing since we stopped by a couple of years ago. We visited the White Sands National Monument and the White Sands Missile Range Museum on a windy day. Highway 70 was a pretty ride and the valley in which the Missile Range lies is very vast. This is the site where the atomic age began with the detonation of a plutonium bomb. The area is still used by all branches of the military as well as private companies for testing purposes. The road is closed for 2 hours whenever there is a test. As we approached the National Monument, we could see the wind blown sand for miles. It was different than other sand dunes we had gone to, as the sand is very white and the wind was blowing it around. It kind of looked like a blizzard from up in New York, except it was warm. It is the largest gypsum sand dune area in the world, about 300 square miles. The gypsum is carried from the nearby mountains by water run-off and it collects in a lake with no outlet. As the water evaporates it leaves the gypsum which then blows into dunes.

Our rig parked next to Paul and Stephanie's house. What wonderful hosts!

Their nicely landscaped back yard.

Looks like snow drifts, but it's really sand.

The picture is made blurry by the sand in the air.

Sand dunes all the way to the mountains.

We climbed to the top of one of the dunes.

At the Missile Range Museum, which is located inside a military base. We could take photos here, but had to make sure the mountains were the background.

Lone Star Corral

It's been fun being "home" on our lot here in the Lone Star Corral, even though we consider home to be wherever we are. Thanks Doug and Willie, you were our first RVing friends to visit. (Actually, Tom and Nancy visited our lot first, but that was before we arrived.) Last Monday, eight members of the Perkins family were our first family visitors and we had a nice visit on our porch. The plants have been pruned and look much better than we arrived. We'll have to see how much they grow in the next year, as we don't plan to be back here until next winter. We have done much sorting and our shed is being weighted down with many treasures. The RV should float over the road now that we have lightened it's load.

After spending a little over three weeks here on our lot, it's time to head west. We will wander in the desert like nomads, visiting friends along the way.

The cheapest gas we've seen in quite a while. This was in Spring, Texas between Christmas and New Year's.

A cardinal in one of our sage shrubs. They are a favorite perch for our feathered friends.

The red tip shrubs are another place for birds to feel safe.

The yucca at the front of our lot. It took us part of two afternoons to trim all the dead leaves and expose the trunks.

This yucca is closer to our shed and has shorter leaves. Like most of the other plants on our lot, it bites!

Our young palm tree. We have not determined what species it is, so are not sure how tall it will grow.

Our rough agave with it's many thorns along the edges of the leaves, which resemble shark's teeth.

The other agave on our lot. The annual rainfall here is about 30 to 33 inches and in 2008 we only had 13. Glad our plants like it dry.

Our little piece of Texas

We are now the proud owners of a 'little bit of Texas'. This last summer, our name got close enough to the top of the list at the Lone Star Corral, which enabled us to purchase a lot. This is one of the Escapees RV Club Co-op parks, near Hondo, Texas. Our visits here will vary in length, depending on what else is going on in our lives. This year we will only stay a short time as we want to travel to the desert southwest while the price of gas is this low. Future winters when the costs of travel are higher, we can stay put longer. Our main purpose now is to sort our RV so we can leave items in our shed that we don't need with us all the time. As you can see, there are some wonderful plants here, which we are in the process of learning how to care for. They are certainly different from anything we grew in our gardens in New York State. After we get them trimmed, we will post new pictures.
For those of you that like data, the lot is 50' X 70'. Our shed is 8' X 14' with a 10' X 14' porch. There is a 6' X 10' concrete pad for our wheels to park on and a 10' X 46' concrete patio with a sidewalk out to the park road.

Our shed

Nice large patio with plenty of privacy on our porch.

Better view of our untrimmed plants.

Beautiful stained glass we received from our favorite daughter.