Thursday, April 21st, 2011
We were up at 6:45AM to another beautiful Arizona morning. The birds were chirping to the world but did not seem near as annoying as yesterday. We may be getting used to it already.
We got around and on the road at 8:53AM. In order to pacify the navigator we went left instead of right from the Bonita Mesa to Barneys Flying J for fuel. We came out of Barneys and back past the Bonita Mesa to where we knew we were to go. Of course we got screwed up. We pulled over and Joan programmed her GPS. That brought us back to Barneys and where we turned right we should have turned left. It was not long and we were on 95 North out of Yuma bound for Quartzsite and all points north. We departed Barneys at 9:23AM and pulled into the Rest Area at Quartzsite at 11:24AM.
North of Yuma on highway 95
The 95 brought us up through a military gunnery range. We could see something just hanging in the sky for miles. It was a drogue of some description and they were probably watching us. We could watch it with the binoculars but neither Joan nor I could get a photo of it. The camera just would not pick it up. Crazy I know. The other weird thing was that it had no visible means of propulsion. It just hung there several thousand feet in the air as though tethered on a rope but none was visible. It was as weird as weird could be. We pulled over and watched it for awhile.
Neither one of us saw anything at Quartzsite that made us want to pull over and stay awhile. We found the free camping okay but simply kept coming north. We relaxed at the Rest Area for one hour and departed at 12:24PM. 95 and interstate 10 are the one and the same for some distance out of Quartzsite. We did not get turned around, mixed up or anything but it was a bit nerve wracking.
Coming north of Quartzsite there is a lot of farming. It appears that the biggest crop is alfalfa hay. There were a lot of large diesel trucks pulling two flat trailers known as high boys. Some were loaded with large bales of hay and some empty headed for another load. These were large rectangular bales. Larger than any we had seen. We saw several machines used to collect them from the fields and one was actually doing just that in a field. Unfortunately we did not see the equipment used to load these truck trailers. We saw no cattle so these crops must be trucked to the animals. We did pass three or four of those long water spray rigs that slowly roll over a field. But most of the fields seemed to be flooded now and then for irrigation. All the fields were irrigated with water from the Colorado River. There were canals full of water around some of the fields. Very interesting but unfortunately Joan did not take any photographs.
The truck claimed the temperature was 90F most of the day and the trailer stated the same, 90F. A beautiful warm day.
At 13:42PM we decided to call it a day and pulled into The Sandbar Resort, 6400 Riverside Drive, Parker, Arizona. This is right on the Colorado River on the Arizona side. Just across the river is California.
The front entrance to The Sandbar Resort on route 95.
The river side view of the office, bar and grill.
There were a lot of very loud boats both at the resort and running up and down the river. One guy said it was a lot of fun running up and down the river providing you can afford the gas. Most of the boats appear to have souped up car engines. If any have a muffler it isn't much. How in heck they can talk in one is beyond me. They are much louder than the loudest crotch cart motorcycle I have heard. They should create a lot of tinnitus for those associated with them.
Moving down the river
A lot of that coming out the exhausts is noise.
This was the nicest boat there. It was not running and simply laying at anchor.
This was noisy probably the nosiest boat there.
After we were settled in I took the camera and walked around for awhile. The lady in charge came out and we had quite a chat. She said this was the first Nova Scotia vehicle to come to the resort. She said it has been about seven years since they had a bad accident. Amazing! Nearly every boat looks like an accident trying to find a place to happen.
The truck and trailer at site 41 The Sandbar Resort, Parker, Arizona.
This is a pickup with a camper and trailer going over the road on the California side of the river.
Joan had a great supper fried outside on the picnic table next to the trailer. After supper she noticed a lizard climbing the palm tree next to the trailer door but the photograph of it is not clear. The darn thing was more or less camouflaged into the same colour of the tree.
We did a walk around the route we plan to take in the morning out of here. There are few good looking camping rigs here. Most of them are old and look worn out.
The mileage for the day from Yuma to Parker was 251 kilometres.
The day ended with the evening movie. We still have one or two we have not seen. It was warm. We still had all the hatches and a couple of windows open and the thermometer read 86F.
Another interesting day was history.