After that harrowing border crossing, I settled into my spot at Southern Mesa RV Park and soon found that I needed to move because the ground was too soft and my RV’s landing pads were sinking into the ground. But before that move happened, I took a few shots of the RV park. Fairly big. There I am parked on the left in space #95.
And here is a shot of the Wifi antenna from space #102. So I moved here after this picture was taken and after I’d arranged with the office to stay for an entire month. 
Don’t remember why I took this shot. I was just wandering around the RV park. This is a look back up the street where I’m staying. I’m in the last space in this row, on the left. Quite a walk so I’m usually riding my bike. 
And another aisle. There were four of these, most had many RVs in them. 
And here’s where I’m parked for a month at least. The Wifi isn’t that great, just usable for email, and a little FB is all, but it’ll do. Park is crowded too so lots of people trying to get online all day and night.
Here’s the club house, laundry, office, and bathrooms with showers. Behind the building is a nice pool. 
A bit past ‘bloom’. Still pretty. 
I wandered around the local area several times over the next month, filling my days in the sun puttering around and getting some minor work done on the RV, inside and outside. Funny how quickly that entire month passed by. Didn’t take a single picture either. I did find favored places to shop of course. Also found a barber and an alteration shop just across from the Marine base in a mini mall. Oh, and a nut shop a few miles away. Also found a large thrift store in a nearby town. Tried to find an auto shop that could upgrade my car with new firmware for the computer after I put in the cruise control steering wheel and actuator without success. Still working on that.
The drive into town was lengthy, 13 miles, and downtown was really not that interesting. Downtown Yuma is like a lot of small towns that have grown far beyond the towns original concept of course. Recently the decay has been halted and the town core is a ‘destination’ now, probably envisioned as for the young by the planners. But it’s not turning out that way as the entire town, even miles from the core, is filled with retirees as the 10’s of RV parks and thousands of RV spaces attest. So when you head downtown, you’ll find many old people there enjoying the numerous bars and restaurants in the core. Mostly in refurbished spaces that long ago gave up their original identities. One place I visited several times was an actual brew pub. Unfortunately, they don’t know what a good beer tastes like apparently. But still, it’s fun to wander around downtown and get a sense of how life use to be around here in the desert city center. Good food there too.
I did find a wine tasting store downtown, and well, well, they have Morgan wine. So went ahead and bought a bottle. Still sitting in the cupboard here at home. I’ll have to find someone to impress some evening over dinner with my own signature wine. Hehe.
This area does have an extensive history going back over 10,000 years. The Colorado river runs through here and the natives used it’s annual flooding like the Egyptians used the flooding of the Nile…to renew and deposit nutrients in the soil. It was a bountiful area with the capacity to feed thousands. Which is what the Spanish that pushed North from Mexico found when they got here. The natives fed them hundreds of watermelons they grew here along with many other foods stuffs. It’s hard to imagine what it looked like from the few artists renditions of the area I could find, but it’s a very large mostly flat valley so it must have been something before the river was mostly diverted for crops further north.
There is a museum just a stones throw from downtown and we’ll visit there next posting…
Thanks for reading!