(Sorta) Chillin’ in Yuma

One good thing about a city that caters to snowbirds – there are lots of RV parts and repair options. Unfortunately, nothing was open when we arrived on Sunday, 3/17, so we had to keep the refrigerator limping along until businesses opened up Monday morning. We opted for a private RV park so we’d have full-hookups and AC for puppy boy.  Blue Sky RV Ranch was a decent park with a nice pool and hot tub, a large laundry room, and best of all, a small off-leash play area for dogs with a wash station for the puppers! I did our laundry on Sunday and on Monday Riley got the spa treatment.  

Dog washing station - I need one of these at home!

Rog hit a nearby RV parts place in the morning and picked up a new Thermistor. He spent the next several hours cussing and sweating getting that installed while I cleaned an inordinate amount of desert dirt and Riley DNA from the inside of the rig. Both efforts were successful! Clean rig, clean puppy and a working fridge – Yeah us!

On Tuesday, we decided to test the fridge on gas. For those of you who haven’t dealt with RV refrigerators, ours is dual fuel – it has two cooling systems and works either on electric or propane, at least it’s supposed to. We left around 9:30am for a trip across the Mexican border to Los Algodones. We’ve read a lot about the town on full-time RVer blogs. It is a mecca for snowbirds who want  less expensive options for dental, vision, and pharmacy services. It has the highest concentration of dentists you’re likely to see anywhere and we were curious.

Welcome to Los Algodones - dental capital of the world! Lol.

There were lots of folks hustling for business, but smart visitors do their homework ahead of time and know who they’ll be seeing. We didn’t need any dental work or glasses, but I did get a prescription filled for about 20% less than the discount pharmacy I normally use and 70% less than retail price. Wow. It was super fast and far less hassle than I usually have filling a prescription on the road. Something to remember for next time! We spent the morning checking out the vendors. One of the gimmicks is to offer buyers a free shot of tequila, so when Rog bought a T-shirt he declined but said I would take it! So here I am taking a 10:30 AM tequila shot (yes, it was excellent tequila too!). I can see how that could put you in a buying mood. Lol. After that we had a nice and much-needed lunch at the El Paridisio courtyard. 

Lots of street vendors, dentists, optical shops, and drug stores.

A happy camper at lunch. 

The only downside was the long line to get back into the US – we waited about 45 min or so and were told it can sometimes take up to 3 hours! It was quick and painless once we made it to customs, but there were only two people checking folks through. Ugh! We've seen a gazillion border patrol agents in their white and green vehicles, agents out running around the desert in four-wheeling quads, temporary check-points set up on highways, and only TWO people clearing folks at the official point of entry with a line over a hundred deep. No I don’t feel safer, I feel annoyed! Less wall, more staff please. 😊

The line stretched far ahead and plenty more behind us too.

Anyhow, when we finally made it home Tuesday afternoon, we were dismayed to find that Murphy wasn't finished with us yet. The refrigerator had climbed over 10 degrees to a not-so-balmy 50+. So the fridge worked fine on electric, but not on gas. At wits end, Rog called a mobile RV repair service that specialized in refrigerators. The earliest he could see us was Thursday morning, the day we were due to leave. Instead of staying longer, we made arrangements to meet him at the local library parking lot.

We switched back to electric and the fridge cooled right down, so we decided to take a day trip to Kofa National Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday, 3/20.  Now remember, Kofa is where we had originally planned to go after Clark Dry Lake Bed.  There are tons of awesome boondocking spots all through the refuge… here’s the view we would have had at Kofa instead of being packed in like sardines in Yuma. Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow.  Sigh.

Would you rather be here .....

... or here. Thanks Murphy.

At Kofa, we took Riley and did the short Palm Canyon hike. California fan palms, the only native palm species in Arizona, are found in the steep ravines along the sides of the canyon. They are remnants of an earlier time when the area was cooler and wetter, now they survive in only a few places where there is sufficient shade and water.

The hike is right up the canyon in the center.

The palms are high up in ravines along the sides.

Palms in the desert.

Handsome boy on the trail.

View across the valley. 

Riley agrees with the palms, he wants more shade and water too! We also enjoyed the display of desert wildflowers and added a few new ones to our list.

Skip the bowl, Riley wants his own water bottle. :)

Ahhhhhh...  resting in the shade.

Rock Daises.

The elusive Ghost Flower on the left and two more I couldn't identify.

This guy has on his fancy pants - he was almost neon blue!

We were going to take a 4WD route out of Kofa but ended up turning around and opting for the graded gravel road. Our Acadia has 4WD, but it’s not exactly “high” clearance. Hmmmmm… no armor on the undercarriage, no cell service if we run into trouble, miles from anywhere, and only a few hours to dusk… Nope.  Or maybe it was the attitude and hairy eyeball this desert jackrabbit gave us. 

He sat right in the middle of the road and stared us down.
Scary bunny!

Thursday morning we met Martin, our RV repair guy, at the library as scheduled. I took advantage of the library’s wifi to work on the blog while Rog learned more about our temperamental refrigerator.  Martin was able to check things, like the gas pressure and control board, that Rog couldn’t. He cleaned it and generally gave everything a thorough check-up. Bottom line. All the parts were working. He said it could just be a weak cooling unit, but there wasn’t anything broken. Rog had been searching the RV forums for ideas and read about one person with a similar problem that moved the thermistor (that sensor we just replaced) to a lower (warmer) position in the fridge. Martin thought it was worth a try. In about two minutes Rog had it zip-tied to a lower shelf. Our next stop is Organ Pipe National Monument with no hookups. Fingers crossed this works, or we’ll be buying lots of ice!