2/10/17 -2/13/17
Yuma Arizona
-We are trying to take at least one trip a month while we are both still working full time. February, we decided to venture East. This takes us from sea level up to 4200 feet in elevation then back down in less than two hours. We wanted to see how our truck towing the trailer would manage going up the mountain. Performance was better than expected but boy did it use a ton of gas.
We had originally thought Yuma would be a great opportunity to try “Boondocking” This is where you go onto federal land and just park somewhere. No power, no water, no hookups. The concept here is that you are surrounded by nature and it’s usually free. The down side to this is that the nature your surrounded by in the Yuma area is mostly desert. We still want to give this a try, however for this trip we decided against it. We knew we would be arriving after dark and did not want to our first ever experience boondocking in an unfamiliar area to be at night.
Reservations were made at Hidden Cove RV Park in Yuma Arizona. Making online reservations in Yuma proved to be a challenge. Many parks list “age restrictions”. This means that they are for age 55+. It’s a very popular destination for “snow Birds” looking to spend their winter in a warmer climate. Hidden Cove has an age restriction…mostly…. But once she heard it was just the three of us out for a family weekend not a group of loud partiers she guaranteed us a spot to park our trailer.
We arrived after dark as expected. Everyone at the park was so nice helping us get situated into our spot in less than optimal lighting conditions. The park was gravel with small concreate pads as the porch area. Spaces were close together and many guests appeared to be long term or permanent residents. Their friendliness was consistent all weekend making us feel welcomed and comfortable.
The Yuma Territorial Prison was on our agenda as the must visit for this trip. Below is a link to our video from this adventure. It is about 30 minutes long. I’m new to video editing and could use some pointers on how to make the sound smoother between live time and the slow time I added for reading. Please add to the comments if you can give me some guidance.
On Saturday morning Rebecka and I went out adventuring. I’ve become very interested in visiting second hand stores for hidden treasures that I might be able to resell to people on things like ebay or craigslist. (more on that later). While Rebecka and I were driving around Yuma we started running into many detours. It turns out there was a parade. Once we finally arrived at the second-hand store I asked the local women if she knew what the parade was for. Turned out the Rodeo came to Yuma for the weekend. Cool! Rebecka has never been to a rodeo.
We let Rebecka take control of the video recording at the rodeo. Let’s just say, that editing is going to take a bit longer. When the video is ready I’ll link it here. (unless she chooses to write her own post separately.)
The weekend was relaxed. No pressure to be somewhere at a certain time. We listed a few things we may want to see and do to each other. We didn’t get to everything, and that was ok. We didn’t take a minute for granted, just enjoyed each others company.
On Monday morning I took Rebecka to a nearby playground. It was awesome. Video to Rebecka’s playground review will be edited next. If your ever in Yuma you must see this playground. Then we went back to camp, packed up and headed home.
Our future adventures are always on our mind. We can’t wait to see the country and take you with us.
-Nicole