Sunday, January 13, 2013

Back to Yuma for the New Year!

Borrego Springs was not far from Yuma, Arizona, in fact Bob only had about an 80 mile drive. We decided to spend New Year's at Mittry Lake (where we also spent Thanksgiving) with another group of Boomers.

When we arrived, there were 4 rigs left from Christmas. Another rig arrived after us. As usual with Boomer gatherings, Happy Hour begins at 4 p.m. and there is a campfire after supper. Since it was chilly and the sun was still setting early, Happy Hour and Campfire became one and the same.

New Year's Eve we had a great campfire. We all agreed to celebrate New York New Year so we could be inside by 10:30 p.m. Some young people camped near us had other ideas. They came over and joined our campfire. They stayed until well after New York New Year so most of us stayed up and celebrated Arizona New Year, also!

New Year's Day we had a potluck dinner in the afternoon. Lots of good food and friendship were shared!
After dinner, a group decided to hike to the reflection sign at the top of a nearby mountain. Bob and I also got the goecache  near the sign. We had a great view of the campground in one direction.
Another direction gave us a view of Mittry Lake.
The view to the south was of the farmland beyond Mittry Lake.
 Bob and I spent another day at Mittry trying to retrieve a geocache put at the top of the mountain across the canal from the campground. It was quite a hike to get to Ken's geocache. Since there had been rain during the previous week, the ocotillos were greening up--they usually just have long thorns along the branches. Just a bit of water causes the leaves to appear.  A little more water and red blooms dress up the ends of the branches. We followed the path to the left of the ocotillos.
 This is a view of our motor home from the top of the mountain near the geocache. Ours is the on on the right in the back. If you enlarge the photo you will see our car.
 The geocache is between Bob and I in this picture. We were expecting an ammo can and were surprised to find an Altoids tin under some rocks.
 We took a shortcut down the mountain. I gave Bob a thumbs up when I made it down to the wash that would take us back to the campground.
 We stayed at Mittry Lake until January 7th when we moved to the Escapee KOFA  Co Op park south east of Yuma. While there, we did laundry, grocery shopping, and geocaching. One of the places we went to geocache was the Barry Goldwater Range. To enter the range, you have to have a permit from the Marine Corps Air Station. We have increased our caches by about 1000 since starting this trip in September.
Also, we haven't had an electric hook-up site since we spent the night at El Centro Naval Auxiliary Field in early December. We are doing well with our budget--$57.56 a day.

Tomorrow we leave the KOFA park and will spend the night on BLM land northeast of Yuma before heading to Boomerville in Quartzsite, Arizona. The plan is to stay in Q until the end of Boomerville and then begin the slow journey back toward the southeast.