YUMA with the Woodbury's

Jan 24th thru Monday Jan 28th

Yuma is really lovely: all the amenities you can wish for along with thousands of acres of desert and foothills to explore. John and Wynn's lot is very pretty. It is surrounded by an "Adobe" or "Mexican" brick wall. This is a lovely, colorful red, yellow, gold (and other earthy colors) brick. It's heaven for the dogs to run free in the yard.

We enjoy long walks through the foothills lots, and in the desert too. John and Wynn are incredible hosts. There is never a dull moment. We unload the RZR for the first time. Paul finds out it is legal to drive the 4 wheeler on the roads of Arizona, with modifications to make it street legal. John obligingly takes us to the Polaris dealer to purchase what we need to make it road legal. A few hours later we are driving down the streets of Yuma and into the foothills of the Gila mountains. I love this new terrain! The mountains are purple, and the desert is full of colorful rocks and varied species of plants and cacti. Not boring, this desert: no way!

We enjoy eating at the Golden Corral buffet, and later at Texas Roadhouse.

Both were excellent.

1/26/08Today we explore the desert in the Barry Goldwater Range West. It is a test range for the Marine base there. We had to obtain permits to enter the range. It's a pristine landscape here...in places it looks like gardens of cacti, and of course, the lovely mountains always in the distance. We put about 80 miles on the RZR here, reaching speeds of nearly 60 MPH!! FUN!! (The RZR starts skipping at 60 for some reason) We drove all the way to the Mexican border, where the huge fence has been built. What a joke! You can crawl under it or go around it. Too funny. Paul and I crawled under it to say we were escaping to Mexico...then back to the US.

1/27/08

Today we visited "Dateland" and enjoyed a date shake, made with the dates from the date palm trees there. Really delicious! We drove to California to see the wonderful sand dunes there. 4 wheelers and rails were everywhere, having a blast on those dunes. We will have to come back here to try this!!

1/28/08

We are a bit sad to leave John and Wynn's lovely lot and hospitality, but George and Rachel are waiting in Brenda, so off we go, looking forward to meeting our good friends there.