Hanging around Yuma…

I’d arrived in Yuma just in time to enjoy balmy weather…if you can characterize any weather in a desert area to be ‘balmy’. It was nice though. Even so, I did need to run my electric space heaters overnight and in the morning for a while to take the chill off. The snow I’d passed on my way down was enough to prove that I’d made the right choice in coming.

And I paid for 30 nights so as the month passed, it got warmer and warmer. Eventually, I was turning on my heat pump basement A/C for a couple hours per day. Which brought up a problem. It was making much more noise then I was use too. And the neighbors behind me started to complain, I told them there wasn’t much I could do. Eventually they complained to the RV park owner and she came out to complain to me. And that’s when it occurred to me that I could switch to 30 amp service so only one A/C compressor out of the two that run on 50 amp service would turn on. Which meant it would be a tad quieter. So I did that and spent the rest of my stay in Yuma on 30 amp service. Not really a big deal, expect I had to be careful and not run the MW and toaster or coffee pot at the same time for fear of popping the breaker.

But aside from that, there was some stuff to do while I was here in Yuma, one of them was to head downtown and enjoy the flea market they set up here on a regular basis. It’s intended to get people to come downtown and it works, mostly.

I’ve tried a couple of their brews in the past but they’re not very good. But the food is great.

And there was this antique car, or rather hot rod. The only one out today though. Had myself a nice lunch of homemade chicken soup. Wandered around for a couple hours but didn’t see anything I wanted or needed at the market.

A couple days later, on a weekday figured it was a good time to go visit Mexico. As I was staying at an RV park only 5-6 miles from the Mexican border, and needed to get my basement door painted, so I made a couple of sorties over there in my car just to check out how it went. Here’s a map of the area…Araz Junction. As you leave the freeway and turn south, there’s a big casino with plenty of RV parking if you are interested in that sort of dry camping thing. Then you pass a really large RV park that’s been closed for quite a while from appearances. I wonder why it’s closed? Maybe sewer difficulties, or perhaps the water rights were lost?  Taxed out of existence? There’s a canal/river flowing next to the road. It is or contains the Colorado River right across the road from the park but maybe it wasn’t allowed to use that water. Or maybe they couldn’t afford the water purification plant that would be necessary. The river crosses over into Mexico here at Los Algodones.

What I did my first visit was to park in the huge parking lot on the US side and walk across the border. The parking costs $6 and is reasonable as I was there for several hours. There’s room for RVs to park here too, but it costs more, like $10. There’s really nowhere close to park for free and as you get close to the border there’s government signs warning that anyone parking will be fined and towed. But even though it’s a long hike from what little free parking there is, still, many do so.

Here’s some pictures of Los Algodones. The border entrance for pedestrians is easy, no steep hills or anything. There is a stairway but there’s also a ramp next to it. The customs office on the Mexican side doesn’t really do much other than wave people through. There is a cash machine near here but every time I passed it, it was out of order. But you don’t need pesos, as everywhere here takes USD’s. Not sure that machine dispenses pesos anyway…forget I said anything. Just bring cash and your passport! (Only because it’ll take you much much longer to cross back into the US without it).

After crossing the border, I walked down this street and turned around for this picture. The border is up that street where the white building is and around the corner to the right. It’s pretty tight here and looks scary for a large RV if you wanted to cross in that instead of your car or on foot. And that’s 1/2 of the purple drug store. It’s just one of many many pharmacies everywhere in town. I bought myself my blood pressure med while here for $3.50. Less then what I co-pay through the VA. There’s another one of the purple stores on the right side of the street. Fairly well-known I guess. I was getting hungry as I hadn’t had breakfast so was checking out the restaurants as I wandered.

My first visit on foot this is where I had a very nice traditional Mexican b-fast for $3.50. Very good food too. I sat out in the courtyard. They also have blazing fast Wifi here. It was over 30 Mbps. Really pisses me off that you can’t get decent wifi in most of the US without paying $30-$60 per month for it but here a little restaurant in Mexico has free 30 Mbps for their patrons!

Lots of trinket vendors. They must make money at it or there wouldn’t be so many of them. There are over 200 dentists in Los Algodones and there must be as many pharmacies. Not as many MD’s but they’re here too. This town is a hot spot for dental work.

It was time to head home and there are so many tourists that you have to wait in line as they cross and get checked on the US side. Took me 45 minutes on weekdays the two times I crossed on foot. I was told that it’s much longer on a weekend. I did learn that I can drive across the border and not have to worry about buying insurance if I’m not going to leave the area of the town. That’s great because I needed to drive to carry the RV basement door across for painting. It’s a bit to heavy to lug across by foot. Here’s the Colorado River. Much of what you see has been ‘worked’ by humans so it’s nowhere near natural anymore. There was a time that the US farmers tried to take ALL of this water before it crossed over into Mexico but that was eventually prevented.

Showed my passport, and headed home. After crossing on foot on my 2nd visit, I wandered up and down the streets checking out the shops and restaurants along with peeking into the dentist offices. And I found a local shill (a guy who tries to get you to go into the purple pharmacy just down the street from the crossing) and asked if he knew where there might be an automotive paint shop in town. And he did! Up the main street too so easy to get to. I also asked if I had to have Mexican insurance if I drove across and he said no. Sensing my doubt, he checked with an American sitting nearby relaxing he knew that spent a lot of time in Los Algodones and the guy asked me if I am a safe driver. I say yes, he says not to worry about it. So I didn’t.

I did want to get my teeth cleaned and the painting to my RV basement door, I walked up the road to the shop and talked to the owner of Navarro’s Body Shop while watching for a dentist office that looked nice. The body shop is a fairly big business, with another large shop of his across the street that handles body work and painting on RVs. I could see 3 RVs over there. Anyway, he needed to see the door before quoting.

The 3rd time I visited a couple days later, I drove over in my car with the basement door in the back seat. Drove up to the body shop and showed the owner. He tells me that I should buy the paint myself over in Yuma…because I wanted an RV color so he couldn’t easily get it himself. He quoted $200 for the job. Now of course I know I could have come back with “I’ll give you $100”. And we probably would have settled on $150 for the job but…I was lazy that day and not in a mood to negotiate. While I was there, I asked their mechanic to reattach the right fender on my car that was detached that I’d stupidly pulled loose by hanging the front bumper up on a low curb. Pulled it half off. That cost $30. Not bad for body work he spent an hour on. Lucky for me it had only pulled away from the car’s frame and didn’t tear the plastic bumper or quarter panel.

I’d also skipped b-fast that trip. After parking at the lot near downtown decided to have a late breakfast here at this restaurant. Good food here too. Name escapes me. You can see it from the street so can’t miss it as it’s the only restaurant with a bright yellow decor. On the way out there’s two pharmacies and at one I bought 100 of my blood pressure pills for $3.50. Less expensive then the co-pay I pay at the VA pharmacy. Neither of them had the capsules I use for my prostate.
Discovered a dentists office right next to the parking lot I was in that I liked the looks of so went in and asked for a cleaning. They took me right then and seemed to do a thorough job. Cost was like $30 as I recall.

So drove back across the boarder…this was on a Wednesday, and it only took 55 minutes waiting in line on the Mexican side. The line was miles long but moved fast. Headed to the recommended paint store in Yuma and they couldn’t come up with a cross for the color. They had me bring the RV to them to match it by eye. Which I did. Kind of a bitch but…whatever. They matched it up and I kid you not, it was $110 PER PINT! Wow.

Anyway, the next day, drove back to Mexico, dropped of the paint and basement door at the body shop. The guy tells me it’ll be ready on Saturday.

Couple days later was wandering around Yuma and happened to notice this rig…very strange. Must be a race vehicle. Yes, that is an air scoop behind the cab.

Huge engine right there. Rumbled like a snoring giant. Pretty cool. Must have a nice shop to do that kind of custom work. I think the truck frame is from the 1930’s.

So that was my two trips into Mexico on foot and one trip by car. All in one week. The next trip will be in my car again to pick up the RV basement door all nice and freshly painted.