BACK TO THE DESERT SETTING

Thursday, February 9 – Well, here Marsha goes. She is going to try to publish the blog using Blogger for now. She may be switching over to another platform when she finds the time.

We had a short and nice drive this morning from Yuma, AZ, to Why, AZ. Why is a tiny unincorporated rural community in Pima County, Arizona. There are two buildings in Why. That’s all folks.

We are staying at Hickiwan Trails RV Park. This is a Native American park and at the end of one day here, we love this place!

Gravel roads and sights at the edge of the desert. The sights are nice and level with full hook-ups and a concrete patio. We even have a tree out our back window. We choose a 30 amp site because we liked the secluded spot near the end of the row. For the first time since we started full-timing, 2009, Marsha forgot to take photos of our site. She feels terrible. She went online and is borrowing the following two photos. They aren’t near as good as our site was but gives you an idea of the park.

There is a casino at the entrance to the park. We walked up to check it out. It is very small but there are mostly penny slots which we like. We may give it a try one evening.

We are ten feet from a walk in the desert and Bella, our cat, loves walks in the desert.Soon after getting set-up in our site (C13), we took her for a walk.

She is acting a bit shy.

We then relaxed waiting on the sunset. They are so beautiful in the desert! We weren't disappointed. To add to the thrill, there is a nearly full moon tonight. Tomorrow it should be completely full.

An additional attraction are the donkeys! Yep, the desert area around the park is full of donkeys. They come up behind the casino in the evening to drink the water dumped by the casino water filtration system. The neighbors say they “honk” all night. Ha ha! We've been warned to watch our cat too. There are many coyotes in the area.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

FEUD BETWEEN LIVE WRITER AND BLOGGER.

Thursday, February 9 – Well, it looks like Live Writer and Blogger have decided to have a feud. We have not been able to upload any posts for the past several days. If Live Writer and Blogger don't become friends again soon, Marsha will look for a new program to use. If anyone has found a solution to this problem, we would appreciate hearing from you. We are in Tucson until next Wednesday, Feb. 22.

Also, as soon as we find a solution, we are going to try to catch up with our posts. We hope to upload several posts at one time. You have been warned...lol.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

ONE OF THE LARGEST MILITARY INSTALLATIONS IN THE WORLD…YUMA PROVING GROUND.

Tuesday, February 7 – We continue our sightseeing around the Yuma, AZ, area.  Our second stop of the morning was the Yuma Proving Ground. The Proving Ground is used for testing military equipment and encompasses 1,307.8 square miles in the northwestern Sonoran Desert.

Two very large howitzers predominately displayed at the entrance welcomes visitors to the Proving Ground. The Proving Ground conducts tests on nearly every weapon system in the ground combat arsenal. There are about two dozen pieces of artillery, tanks, and missiles on displayed in the nearby field that have been tested here at the Proving Grounds.

The outside museum is free. We walked around and view the weapons. There are informative placards at each piece telling us about the weapon. We felt the amount of information was minimal wishing for more insight about the displays. For example, it would be nice to display the shell fired by each of these large guns to get a perspective of their destructive power.

M107, 175MM Self-Propelled Howitzer. Wt. 174 lbs. Used during the Vietnam War.

M386, Launcher 762-MM Rocket, truck mounted launcher. Self-Propelled base for launching surface-to-surface, large caliber, fin-stabilized, free flight rockets.

M42A2 “Duster” Antiaircraft, Artillery, Self-propelled Twin 40-MM Guns. Used extensively in Vietnam.

M112A1 Armored Personnel Carrier. This unit is capable of amphibious and air-drop operations. Used extensively in Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

Once a boy, always a boy.

Unfortunately, Paul failed to put our updated truck registration in the glove box (It's there now.) so we were not permitted to enter the active military base to see the additional museum displays. Regardless, we enjoyed our visit and when back in the area, we might finish our visit to the military base.

Our third and last stop for the day was the St. Thomas Mission. It was dedicated in 1922. Its design replicates the Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción, which once stood on the site.

This gentleman was working on the bell.

Located next to the Historic Yuma Prison, we found the Mission locked. We were able to walk around outside, but missed the opportunity to see the inside. Darn!

Gorgeous doors.

We spent the remainder of the day relaxing in the beautiful Yuma sunshine. We've been lucky since entering Arizona. The area suffered some unseasonable nasty weather in January, but the customary 70-80 degree weather has welcomed us.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!