Road to Yuma

Jan 25/17 Weather sunny, 63 and 40 at night.  Great for driving. 
What is in Yuma, Az?  We don't know but we do know lots and lots of snowbirds go there. Over 100,000 snowbirds!!  Weather statistics state it is on average the sunniest and warmest spot in the United States.  

road to Yuma,,,, mostly nothing but mountainous landscapes

From Buckeye, our drive is short about 150 miles south then west to our  RV park in the Foothills of Yuma; Las Quintas RV Resort.  Must be busy, this was the third park I called to find a pull thru spot for the week.  
There are no towns or cities along the way. Nothing.  
What there is out in the middle of nowhere is a massive jail, massive solar panel field and massive cattle factories.  You cannot call these ranches or farms, truly they are 20th century animal factories.  

Arizona State Prison - Lewis Complex

The Lewis Arizona State Prison - is the jail we went by.  It has close to 5,000 inmates who are kept in 8 different units depending on severity.  Did you know in Arizona there are 10 state prisons and 6 privately owned state prisons???  In AZ 48,000 people in jail at a cost of $1 Billion dollars annually.   That is mind boggling.  But not as mind boggling as 1,600,000 in the entire United States in prison.  Highest % of people in prison per population than any other country in the world. And unlike China or North Korea where many are political imprisonments.   Makes you think doesn't it?

1,920 Acres of solar panels

Solana Generating Station

The Solana Generating Station is a 1,920 acre solar power near Gila Bend completed in 2013. When commissioned it was the largest parabolic trough plant in the world and the first U.S. solar plant with molten salt thermal energy storage. 

cattle feedlots - factories?

In the Wellton area the JBS Five Rivers Cattle Feeding company have a capacity of 120,000 cattle.   That is a factory!!!!!    The company has a total of 980,000 cattle in the USA, in 6 states and another 75,000 head of cattle in Alberta, Canada. 

The analogy of today's drive is that when you think you are in the middle of no where - look around.  What do you see?  What is going on?  What is that?  What are they doing?  Why?  You just never know.  That's what we love about moving around.

West of Phoenix

Jan 24/17. After a successful stop at Chucks we decided to head a short distance west of Phoenix to Buckeye.  A lucky omen as our good friends are Buckeyes!  The town was named after a fellow who developed the nearby canal , called Buckeye canal.  He used the moniker of  his home state of Ohio.  

This park, Leaf Verde RV Resort, is quite nice and for many reasons we will come back in the future.   The area is near Indians and Reds baseball spring training and the NASCAR track.   The park has so many activities it takes 2 pages, one morning and one afternoon.  Gives you lots of choices to get involved.  There is a shuttle to the airport, on site warehousing, huge long level pull thrus.  Everyone is very friendly.  Elevation is 1100 feet which would be a good spot to be around our time to fly back at Christmas, no worries about frost.  Monthly Price was reasonable too, we will keep this place in mind for another year. 

Love the Plate on this Big Rig - 1FNTRK

Now that is some transportation

RV park has a beautiful mountain surrounding 

RV and Speed. Really?

Jan 24/17  Weather  - sunny but cool-ish.  60 high, night 35.  Winter storms seemed to have passed and the forecast is warming up.
Hooking up and moving on from Val Vista RV Resort in Casa Grande was so easy, everyone around us was very helpful pushing the trailer out and getting us connected.  Long time in one spot for us, since Nov 13. 

up ahead is the old GMC on a hoist, us lined up for service

this Vette is in cause it had no reverse

We have an appointment in Phoenix to work on our Banks Power System.  Basically this is an add on to boost our performance and horsepower on the engine.  You could say we have our engine "chipped up".  That is where RV and Speed come together!    It makes such a difference; without it Billy thinks our coach has no umph!!!   Since Little Rock, Arkansas our unit has been disabled since it malfunctioned.  Billy called Banks help line and they suggested Chuck's RV and Speed; he has been in the business for 50 years and that is the place we need to go to.  It turns out that Chuck's is "excellent".  They did some trouble shooting and determined no fix is needed AND they have our Banks system back up and running.  For now they suggest we drive it and use it and let them know down the road if any glitches happen; we have to return back this way in a month so we can always come back.  Happens we were the minority vehicle there.

 One other motorhome was up on a hoist - an old GMC classic that the owner has invested over $250,000 to date and much more funding to come to finish it.  Chuck's had all kinds of old muscle cars being worked on.  The shop was spotless.  They invited us to walk around and take a look.   Very impressive, and they have a Dyno too.

this one sounds good - quite a rumble

cool

and another one and look behind it - 4 corvettes on the racks

Winter in the Desert

San Tan Mountains

Weather - last 10 days (Jan 11/17 to Jan 21/17)  sunny, cool, cloudy, rain?  yes rain..... in fact it reminds us of Scotland.  We have had all 4 seasons in 1 day.    Mostly it is jeans and sweatshirt weather.  We had 1 day at 69 and most have been around 60.  We are glad the nights are not too bad at 45 +.   We have never spent time in Arizona in January.  Apparently this is considered their winter weather and often January is not a warm month; and they get storms from Southern California every few days; we didn't know that.  We actually had one day it showered all day.  To us this was "amazing".   We have never seen it rain in the Desert.   So we haven't done too much riding since we returned from home.

nice riding into San Tan Valley

 The warm day we did throw on our leather jackets and ride up to San Tan Valley, just east of Phoenix.   Friends we made in Maui in 2010 have stayed in touch and we spent the afternoon sitting in the sun at a an outdoor bar/grill.

walking into San Tan Flats Bar and Grill

San Tan Flats Bar and Grill - lots of country music

We had a roadrunner who kept us company the whole time - guess he was looking for some scraps.  He was very bold; sitting right up beside our picnic table just checking out our food!

our little Road Runner

When a Deal is not really a Deal

Dec 13/16 to Jan 11/17  Christmas Trip Home
Weather in Ontario was not that bad.  When we first got home it was snowy but that quickly went away and for a couple weeks was mild enough to walk outside each day with a winter jacket.  The second week into January did get a cold and windy spell.  All in all not that bad.
We thoroughly enjoyed staying in Rondeau at Bye the Bay B & B.  This is a 3 story log cabin home.  We had the top floor to ourselves, and the 2nd floor and the 1st floor.  The owners were gracious enough to let us stay the month while they were in Florida.  How nice people truly are when you tell them your situation.  (We want to come home to see our 90 year old mom for Christmas).  Inside the rooms are all wood too. 

our suite

Weather in Arizona was mostly in the low 60's and down to 33 at night.  This is the neighbours report when we returned back to Casa Grande.  Apparently there were a few cloudy and rainy days too.   So a touch of winter in the desert as well.  Good news is that it was never freezing as we did not winterize our coach before heading home.   We could not find an indoor warehouse in Arizona to store it so we left it hooked up on our site.   The park is gated and secure especially since we have two little dogs next door that literally go crazy everytime we walk outside!!!  Watch dogs........   what can we say. 

Frontier airlines

So the Deal was the flight from Phoenix to Detroit non-stop on Frontier Airlines.  $122 usf inclusive of all taxes.   We could only take a bag small enough to fit under our seat.  No bags, no seat selection.  Really that is an incredibly cheap price for a flight of 4 + hours.   Check out the tail on each plane, they have a different animal painted on them.  We had a Husky going home and a Killer Whale coming back.  The kids flying can also get the collectors card for the animal when they board.  Other than that it is a no frills flight.  Oh yes you do get a free glass of water.  Ha ha.  Bring your own peanuts!

Westin Detroit Airport Hotel

Remember going home is a process.   We had a shuttle from the RV Park to Sky Harbour Airport in Phoenix.  Then the airline ticket.  Then we took Detroit Limo Service from Detroit Metro to Windsor since we didn't get in till almost 1 am.  (Time change of 2 hours).  A night at the Holiday Inn Suites in Windsor.  Next morning our son who lives in Windsor picked us up and took us to the farm.  Then we use the car left at the farm for the month.  Going back is a reverse process.  We take the car to the farm and put it away.  Then my brother gave us a ride to Chatham Bloomfield stop to get picked up by Robert Q shuttle.  The shuttle took us to Detroit Metro Westin Airport Hotel.  Next morning we had a 7 am flight back to Phoenix and then the same shuttle picked us up and took us back to the RV park.  Here is the total cost for that month travel excursion $2500 Canadian funds.  Sounds crazy when you look at the cost but there is no cost that can replace having your Mom at 90 years old.

Wildlife in Rondeau

Jan 2/2017 looked out our B &B window this morning and what did we see?

4 deer sauntering along