We Move On

All the gear has found a spot in the truck or camper and we are ready to hit the road. 

We said our good byes to Jodi and Steve, gave Winnie a scratch behind the ears and we were off. 

We followed Hwy 95 north and drove 75 miles to a flat dirt spot just outside of Quartzsite. It was a short day. We wanted to make sure all was travel worthy and packed tight. 

The dirt spot is a BLM camp area called Hi Jolly. It has no amenities, just a place to stop and watch the dust blow. You can't argue with free, though. We start the longer days tomorrow.

Leaving Yuma

Over the past few weeks, Linda and I have made travel lists and focused on our travels north to Post Falls.  Linda has mapped out our route home and reserved campsites for our overnight stays. She has made reservations where needed and contacted parking lot security at the casinos where we will be boondocking. 

All the camper projects are complete, and it is in the best shape it's been in a long time. I have my schedule for loading up on our calendar, and there is not much left to do to get on the road. The countdown starts, and we are ready to launch.

The last couple of days the temperature has been in the high 90's. It is a good thing  we have air conditioning in the casita. 

I will post when I can, and hope we can have a smooth trip home.

Things We Have Been Doing

We drove out to Martinez Lake and hiked a short trail. This trail was part of the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge. The day was beautiful! We were able to do the hike, only meeting two other hikers.

Tortoise living at the park headquarters.

Linda had a welder artist create a roadrunner for our backyard. It was fascinating to watch as he cut it out, then polished and finished it. Linda helped in the process by operating the water hose. As he sprayed the metal with something that caused a reaction and changed the color, Linda would spray it with water when she liked the color. That would stop the reaction. 

Here are some photos we gathered as we went on hikes and such.

The bridge to nowhere.

The cacti in our yard are flowering.

Loud Fun!

We got a great opportunity to try something different this weekend. We grabbed some food and our chairs and met up with Jim and Wanda, two very nice people we met through Steve and Jodi. They led us to a spot west of the Yuma Fairgrounds and directly across from Yuma International Airport, where we set up to watch the Yuma Air Show. We've been to an airshow with my sister and her family near Portland. We were excited to see what this one would bring us.

The location was great! We didn't have to pay and we saw all the action that took place above us and on the runways. We couldn't hear the announcers from the air show, but that was not needed. We could see every flyover and demonstration provided. We used our phones to look at the events schedule to pinpoint what type of plane or jet was above us.

The big takeaway from this was that jet aircraft are loud beyond belief. When they push the engines to climb, the sound is unbelievably loud. So loud that you can only hear the jet engine and feel the sound throughout your body. It was amazing. Something hard to explain. We watched in awe as they flew right over us.

We watched the sky and found that when a jet plane is flying, you do not hear them approach until about 1.5 seconds after they are past.  Totally amazing. Then when they open the jets up, they are gone!  The sound of the engines is deafening.

It was a difficult location for photos. The speed made it nearly impossible to capture good photos. The lens I had also made distance shots challenging. 

Here are a few shots that showed some of the fun.

Military Free Fall School demo.

USMC MV-22B Osprey

USAF F-16C Viper

This Viper was so loud and fast!

Patriots Jet Team

USMC F-35B

USMC F-35B