California, Winterhaven Feb 4 - 17

Pilot Knob RV Resort near Winterhaven, CA located about 8 miles west of Yuma, AZ.  It is good to see lots of green fields.  Yuma is the lettuce capital of the USA.  The Colorado River runs though the valley here and provides the water for all these green fields. The river is one of the reasons we like coming here. We are traveling with John & Terry Edwards and Mark & Mary Nichols for a few weeks.  John, Terry, Kay and Marty kayaked the river three times during our visit.  We found a place about 7 miles north of Yuma to launch the kayaks.  Our take-out was at a city park in Yuma where Mark had parked the truck.  Mark's shuttling us sure made it easy for us to kayak.  He was our official driver.  Thank you so much Mark.

Yuma, AZ

Picking lettuce.

Unloading the kayaks with John - Marty - Mark

I ain't going to tell you what I am doing.

All ready to hit the water.

Mark and Mary Nichols.  Mark sure has been a good help running the truck around for us.  He will come to the drop off point and help us unload, then drive the truck down to the take out point.  That saved us a lot of time in traveling back and forth.  Thank you again Mark and Mary.

 

Kay enjoying the day

John and Terry's two man kayak(optical illusion).  But they seem to never get anywhere, one paddling one way and the other paddling the other way.  But they had a great time doing it.

Train going over the bridge into Yuma.

John just taking it easy.

Sign on bridge over the river.

John trying to push the bridge up river.  He did not move it a fraction of an inch.

Looking at the under side of the bridge on Hwy 8 going into Yuma.

Palm trees and rocks along the river.

Looking at the river bank.  Most of the river bank looked like this.

Marty and John looking for snail shells for Terry.

John found a nice big one.

American Coot

Church up by the old prison.

Kay had to find at least one flower.

The water fall behind Marty and John was from one of the irrigation canals.  It runs back into the Colorado River.

Tina Clark, Chef, Archaeologist and Historian, is passionate about historic preservation and good food. She has found a way to combine these interests in her historic kitchen, Tina's Cocina at St. Paul's Cultural Center. At the school Tina indulges her interest in history by offering classes in heritage cuisine where she invites local grandmothers (and grandfathers!) to teach their traditional dishes as well as share their memories of old Yuma.

John and Terry with Tina.

Kay and Marty with Tina

Tina owns the oldest church in Yuma, old St Paul's and uses it for her many classes.  It was a beautiful setting to enjoy our dinner.  The dinner we attended was Farmer's Wife cooking class.  It featured the Daily family one of the long time families of Yuma area.  The dinner included old family recipes and a demonstration of one of those recipes.  The meal was fabulous but the best part was that we got to take home those recipes.  Kay has made both of the salads for us all to enjoy.

John and Terry enjoying a glass of wine before dinner.

John Edwards

One of my favorite things to do, fish in my kayak.

Looking at the California side of the river.

Juvenile White Ibis

Great Blue Heron

Kay got this one in flight.  Nice picture Kay.

Blue Dragon Fly on rock.

I really like this picture that Kay took.

Stopping for lunch along the river.  Lunch always tastes so good when doing it on a kayaking trip.

This picture is of one of the fishing lagoons where we put in the Colorado river on the long trip.

Well that was the last of that margarita.  They were very strong in Mexico.
Kay and Marty and Orin and Francine took a day trip to Mexico.  Both Kay and I got new glasses for less than Kay paid for one pair back home in Colorado.

Orin and his new hat.

Of course Francine had to try it on.

I got my hair cut.

After the margaritas Orin got me a new tattoo.  Not too bad looking, and it did not hurt that much.

John and Terry fixed jambalaya for supper. We've been enjoying lots of shared meals.

Our Saturday night outing with Orin, Francine, John, Terry, Marty and Kay

A cool way to bring the flag in.

Francine and Kay.

John and Terry

The winner of the first race.

It was a good stay at Pilot Knob RV Resort.  Kay and I really do like this area of the country.  I think we will try and spend more of the winter months here.