Midland sunset
I arrived in Yuma to visit my friend Larry, whom I met during my first adventures boondocking in Quartzsite. I had a small list of things to work on for the RV, plus one new upgrade that was going to have to be done at some point anyways. Then it would be off to boondock in some new areas around Blythe.
Fortuna Foothills residential
Yuma is now familiar surroundings to me, having visited down here every year since I started my adventures. Yuma is a small city, sprawling out to the east along Interstate 8 to Fortuna Foothills, the local area I was staying in. It’s a growing part of the Arizona, I’d say mostly due to all the snowbirds coming down here in the winter. In recent times, a fair bit of new retail has gone in, so you don’t have to drive the 10 klicks to get into Yuma proper for most shopping. I had high confidence I’d find my fridge relay for starters, but it turned out to be a bit more difficult. I managed to avoid having to order one in by hitting up a local repair shop that had a bunch of dead RVs on their lot for spare parts. I’m willing to try a used part for $5, which turned out to work just fine. As I mentioned previously, once I figured out the loose connection to the relay was heating things up, I was done with that repair and the DC side of the fridge has worked fine since.
Pre-repair cleanup
My main ‘to-do’ item was to repair the crunched up bit of my RV on the passenger side between the passenger door and the coach door. That had been the consequence of me holding off a little too long heading south, but hey, no risk, no reward. I had been delaying this repair, as I knew that I was going to be in the desert out of any moisture damage danger. There is a lot of different caulking to buy in the RV store. I bought “flex paste” which sits firmly once applied, more like putty. You don’t want to get anything that states on the tube that it flows – that is more for roof repair where you want the caulking to penetrate every nook and cranny.
Post repair
Being at Larry’s also was good in that I had access to a caulking gun – so I just bought a standard tube for $16 rather than restricting myself to the more expensive toothpaste type squeeze tubes. While my repair isn’t “like new”, it is functional in sealing the area and holding all the bits together with a couple screws and a bit of re-bending of metal. ‘Ugly but functional’ will do just fine rather than paying an RV shop to rebuild the corner of my rig nicely.
Not the wide angle effect I was looking for
On the non-RV front, I had cracked part of my cell phone glass on my brand-new Pixel 9 Pro XL while I was camped near Needles, CA. I had only dropped the phone off the chair, but those sharp desert rocks managed to crack the glass cover on the camera bar, putting a nice ‘bullet hole’ right in front of the wide angle lens. While my bumper case and screen protector cover most of the phone, the camera is vulnerable to a hit from a flat drop hitting the back of the phone. At least I had still been able to use most of the camera as the cracks did not cover the main and telephoto lens. $60 later in Yuma I’m out of UBreakiFix in central Yuma with a new glass bit.
New seat cushion, back rest was done after
My upgrade was a set of new cushion covers for my back dining area. The vinyl covers were starting to crack on the seats so it was only a matter of time until they broke down entirely. I commissioned Larry’s wife Diane to make new covers, deciding to go whole hog and do the back rests as well. Diane had all the equipment to make covers, along with the skills needed, even though she said these are the first seat cushions she’s done. I’d say she did a pretty good job for her first time. The cloth certainly feels nicer to sit on. As a bonus, I had a little left over material that Diane made into a new curtain to replace the awful venetian blind over the kitchen window.
Not Wheezys but an interesting sign on a trailer stored down the road from Larry’s
There was socializing, going to visit Larry and Diane at their bake sales, and our usual night out at Wheezys, a restaurant that had a half decent selection of beers at a decent price. I had a good time visiting my friends in Yuma, but it was high time for me to head out on my own again. I had enjoyed the warm weather: there is no place warmer than Yuma in the US desert winter.
Leaving Larry’s
I decided that it was time to explore around Blythe a bit, as anything near Quartzsite was out of the question with the Big Tent event just ended (too many people). The previous year, I had scouted out an area with my Grom out past the Midlands LTVA area that looked promising. Midlands LTVA is one of the less developed LTVAs (long term visitor area should the gov link go dead) in the area, having just a dumpster and camp attendant. The plus is it is less used too, not being very busy at the beginning of February. You are not very far from Blythe, which is definitely less busy during the Big Tent show in Quartzsite. I’d definitely hang out here if I wanted a quieter LTVA for the winter.
My neighbor from above
But I was not paying for an LTVA pass this year, so I continued past to the spot I had marked the previous year, going off pavement down the cart path to the a little hill. I find someone camped on the spot, a bit of a surprise as there are not that many people out here, and most spots look lightly camped upon. No matter, I went around the hill we were beside to get out of sight. The only other person in the area was one who was there last year, a likely perma-camper in the area.
Gypsum veins, I think
I had a whole new area to explore, both walking and motorcycling, so had lots to occupy my now solo time. It actually took me a couple of days to get use to being on my own again – I had spent a month among people, a long time for me out in the desert! The spot I had picked was quiet – not much for shooting and only the occasional ATVs driving by in the distance. I could hike around, climbing the not so little hill for a nice view, and taking the motorcycle to explore further afield. There were some small abandoned mines near me I visited. I also passed by one small active calcium carbonate mine, which makes me uncertain as to what I’m looking at with these white veins in the rocks. All I know for sure is they are of minor value at least, as the mines all dig up the larger deposits around here.
I took the Grom motorcycle into Blythe to play tourist one day. Blythe is mostly a farming town, but was once a rail center, with mining in the area adding a boost to the local economy too. There is less snowbird activity here than I’ve seen elsewhere. The main drag is kind of empty and the stores definitely are less busy. The local Albertson’s grocery is more low end than most, catering to the low end economy of the area. It doesn’t help that being in California means you are highly motivated to head over to Ehrenberg to fill up for the at least $2 per gallon gas savings.
Palo Verde museum overview
But it’s not all bad, the Palo Verde Historical Museum was a nice stop for a local history lesson. The museum is housed in one of the many old buildings in town, with lots of room for displays. Kenny the curator had lots of time to tell me about the place, with me being the only visitor that hour. In fact, we chatted long enough that it was past closing time by the time I left.
Midland school chimney
I took the Grom to explore Midlands, the ghost town that the LTVA south of it is named for. The ghost town is situated near an abandoned gypsum mine. A drywall plant was here, using the gypsum mined near here too. A railway served the town coming in from Blythe, it even brought water in for the local residents. There isn’t much left of the town with the plant having shut down in 1966. There is one old rounded trailer that serves as a museum. It’s not staffed, you are on the honor system to make sure you latch the door shut when leaving. There are a few perma-campers on the south end of town, away from the museum. It has a feel of Slab City, what it might have been the first few years before it got overrun with people. There is still some minor activity in the area, it is possible they will mine there again someday. I explored around there with the Grom and found some boondocking, but nothing great near the ghost town.
Mystery fire far away from me
My spot at the bottom of the hill was just high enough that I had a pretty good view looking from the southwest to the northwest. I could see the ATVs going by on the distant trails from me. I had lucked out picking a spot that they didn’t really go down, even though the road did continue past me to meet up with the loop most of them drove. I was out enjoying the setting sun one evening when I noticed a fire in the distance. The fire was far away, so it was not going to be a 911 call from me for this one. Even from my rig over 10 klicks away, I could see the flames shooting into the sky – it was a huge fire. I expected there to be something in the news about it, but I found nothing. Talking to a local about it later, they speculated that a farm was burning off brush and/or stubble. If so, that was a lotta fuel to make that kind of flame and smoke pile. Even my friends over at Quartzsite could see the smoke cloud from their camp.
Patched up hopper beside abandoned Railroad to Midland
My first week out on my own again had been pretty nice. In my explorations with the motorcycle I had found a new camping spot to the west of Midland, with a nice road to it as well. There wasn’t much else out there, other than just enough cell signal to get by. I was looking forward to getting even further out there in the solitude. See you there next time.
You can see more of my pictures on Flickr. More recently, I’ve been throwing up the short videos I take once in a while on Youtube. Instagram is my “occasional good recent pictures” feed, if you want a clue as to what I’m currently up to.
