February 24th – March 11th, 2023 – Highlights
Settled in at the lake. Nice little community of travellers. Most are what are called “snowbirds” i.e pensioners who migrate south in winter to find more clement weather and avoid severe winters up north! (today was 19 C ). Some people stay for weeks (though only a maximum of 14 days are allowed according to sign post), others use this spot as a stopover on their way back from Baja California ( Mexico) where they spent the winter. Quite a few people are here for fishing too and as we were walking by the lake one evening, one fisherman gave us a big trout he had just caught. He said his freezer at home was already full !!
The lake is about 18km from town and we are surrounded by huge fields of lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower, all made possible thanks to irrigation canals.(Colorado river is nearby)
We were surprised as we are in the desert but apparently Yuma has some good soil and is known as America’s winter lettuce capital. It produces over 90% of the lettuce, as well as citrus, and many cruciferous vegetables ( cabbage family) for the United States every winter.
Lunch in town – Lutes Casino
On Monday, we met Juanita ( Emily gave us her contact details) in the historic Downtown. We walked Main Street up and down, but most shops and restaurants are closed on Mondays so not very lively, apart from groups of pensioners like us coming for lunch at Lutes Casino!
Lutes Casino is a bit of an institution in Yuma. The building, constructed in 1901 as a dry-good store and hotel, became a casino and pool hall in 1920. It changed hand a number of times before the Lutes family took it over in the 50’s. Today it is a family restaurant, with a huge bar area, pool tables and a corner for live music. The décor is early eclectic, what might be called interesting junk. And it is everywhere. The 12-foot-high walls are plasters with posters, paintings, murals and memorabilia of every description.
We had a nice lunch and chat with Juanita and agreed to meet again before we move on.
Squaw Lake – Yuma Proving Grounds
Betsy, our neighbour, told us of a place where you can have a shower for $1. It is far : 30 km but it is a day out ! The road goes through Yuma Proving Grounds, a U.S Army environmentally specific test center and one of the largest military installations in the world (1,300 square miles).There are some tanks, rocket launchers and other military vehicles on display outside the Visitor Centre. You can walk around the display but you need a background check before you can visit the Proving Grounds.
When you go north east on US 95, you see a white aerostat balloon over the mountains. This state-of-the-art eye focuses on one thing: low-flying airplanes. It is part of a six-aerostat team forming a radar fence along the southern United States, it’s watching for drugs being flown across the international border.
Squaw Lake is further up the road, on the Colorado River with a series of lakes and reservoirs. The Colorado river is the border with California.There are plenty of RV’s camping on BLM land, in the middle of the desert. Pretty bleak and must be unbearable in summer when the temperature is in in the 40’s C, even with the proximity of water. There is practically no shade.
On the way back we took a different road, crossing into California. There, we passed large dates plantations. Date palms were planted in the Coachella Valley of California , which is approximately two hours east of Los Angeles in the early 1890s. (We are not in the Valley but plantations thrive here too) And now, plantings cover over 6,500 plus acres. These acres produce over 40 million pounds of our four primary varieties, which are the Deglet-Noor, the Medjool, the Barhi and the Zahidi.
Car problems
We started having problems to start the car. The engine would turn over but not start. Sometimes it worked first time, but eventually, we had to take it to a garage to get it looked at and once we got there and had to stop the engine, it did not start again… at all !!!
The garage where we stopped could not help but they agreed to tow us to another place, specialising in import vehicles, only 2 blocks away. it was 3 o’clock by then and they could not look at it until the morning. The car is our home and we could not use it so we were stuck !!!
Luckily, Juanita came to the rescue and agreed to have us stay overnight at her place, which , as it turned out was only 15 mn walk away. There, we had a pleasant evening and Juanita cooked some delicious enchiladas for us. Thanks Juanita, you were our saviour !!
The next morning the garage called to say the issue was the fuel pump, they could get the part and get the car fixed the same day. Not so bad but it came at a cost $$$$.
We had planned to leave Yuma but decided to stay a few more days to ensure the car was Ok and it is just as well, as we started to have more problems when starting the engine, on and off. We took it back to the garage. This time it was an electrical issue and they had to change another part…. Lets hope it is the last of our problems.
After over 2 weeks at Fortuna Lake it was time to move on and hit the road again….
