Winter Vacation

Our Winter Vacation '04 - Page 5

After our two-week stay in Casa Grande, we got up early in the morning and headed toward Tucson and Beaudry RV where we had bought our motor home the year before. On one of our previous excursions from Casa Grande, we had stopped in to schedule some warranty maintenance that we needed. It was now time to get a few things fixed, especially our propane heater, which had stopped igniting (which we would never had known about if the nights had not been freezing cold). We also pointed out a couple of other things, such as the underpowered living room slide, which seemed to be under great strain when attempting to close. As it turned out, we were accepted for service, even though openings in their appointment schedule were several weeks into the future. While waiting for the service to be done, we looked for the sales man (Pierre) who we had dealt with the year before, and found him. He greeted us warmly, and then we gave him a couple of 8 x 10 pictures we had taken of the motor home on our travels to Sedona, Arizona and Mt. Rainier, Washington. He seemed to be impressed to get them, and then he directed us to the parts department where we were able to pick up our new Beaudry jackets. In late afternoon when we checked on the motor home, we found that all our concerns had been fixed, even the replacement of the slide motor (which had been under recall). We were appreciative to Liz, the service representative who remembered us from the year before when we had bought the motor home. And, we were surprised that Bob, one of the service technicians who deals with new customers also recognized us and greeted us warmly. It was really a great feeling to come into a place like this on your vacation, be treated like a valued customer, and then be given a bill for several hundreds of dollars that says "no charge". It is not something you would necessarily expect from a large place like this that has 50 service bays and deals with many, many customers each day, and includes a 5 star resort complex next door. At the resort, we explained that our motor home was there for service and that we needed a spot to stay for the night, and they quickly assigned as a place despite the fact that they were booked almost solid for their Western Barbecue celebration, which is their highlight event of the year. After picking up the motor home from the service department, we then parked it in our overnight spot and then went to dinner at the resort restaurant. While eating, a man in a cowboy hat came to our table and asked how everything was. We said that the food was great and then we asked who he was. He said that he was Bob Beaudry. We then thanked him (the owner of this huge complex) for the great service we received from his service department. When we later talked to the waiter of the establishment, he said that Bob often shows up to talk with customers and look after the place. The kind of treatment we received here does not leave much doubt as to where we will come when we decide that a newer motor home is needed.

The next day, after being a day behind schedule because of our detour to Tucson, we headed out early toward our destination of Wellton, Arizona, about 30 miles east of Yuma. Most people might think that the Arizona desert is quite boring to travel through with nothing but the same cactus, and similar distant views. But, we entertained ourselves along the way by reading out loud to each other from the book on Arizona roadside geology as we took turns driving. To us, it is really interesting to read about geologic formations and descriptive features and then be able to spot what has been described to us. We stopped for a hamburger at Gila Bend, and then in mid afternoon we arrived at Wellton for our 6-day stay at the M&M RV Park. We soon found out that this RV Park is not necessarily the best one to stay at for any length of time, especially if you intend to get any sleep at night. We backed the motor home into our spot next to a thick row of bushes not realizing that just on the other side were railroad tracks that became a railroad freeway at night. Trains seemed to pass by at least every 10 minutes, with screaming horns and loud rumbling vibrations shaking our new home base. The only respite we had from all this was during the weekend when some of the engineers must have stayed home. Wellton (originally named Well Town) was originally named because of the wells, which were drilled to service the Southern Pacific Railroad steam engines with water.

Street scene in Algadones where we had lunch

The next day, we decided to head toward Yuma and then to Algodones, Mexico. We had heard from several people that Algodones is an interesting place to go and easy to get to. Shortly after crossing the Colorado River going west on highway 10, we turned off the freeway and then headed south on a small road. After about a mile, we came to the Mexican border, then turned around and parked alongside the road. We then walked up to the border and entered Mexico. Of course we were approached right away by some Mexicans, but this time they were trying to hand us business cards and to entice us to visit some dentist or eye specialist. We were amazed at the number of dentists and eye doctors in this small town. The whole town was filled with signs advertising their services and we noticed that their office waiting rooms were filled with patients. Obviously, many Americans cross the border just to make use of these services, and then use the various pharmacies scattered about. We noted that you don't necessarily need a prescription before hand because some of the pharmacies will direct you to a doctor who can give you a prescription. We passed by one dentist on the street and we asked him if he was "painless". He laughed and said that there is always some pain involved. At least he was honest. We later came to understand that a majority of the doctors in town are from Yuma, and they have set up their practice here where customers are attracted with low prices. We enjoyed walking around town and we were not intimidated like we were in Nogales, mostly because there were so many Americans around doing the same as us. We looked at all the various wares being displayed on the sidewalks and shops. Diana bought a "solid gold" ankle necklace chain that she bargained down from $25 to $5 (then noted it suddenly changed to a dull silver color after a couple of weeks).

And, Dave got a badly needed haircut for $3.00. Then, after passing by the great smells of chicken being roasted on an open barbecue along the sidewalk, and with some great convincing by the proprietor, we decided to have a lunch of barbecued chicken. It was actually very good. Then, after purchasing a couple bottles of cheap Kahlua and a bottle of vanilla, we got in line to go through customs and recrossed back over the border after showing our drivers license. During our stay in this area, we again visited Algodones on one other day, but the goal this time was to accumulate more of the cheep booze and to revisit some of the shops where we thought we might be able to bargain some good prices. It turned out that our bargaining skills were not good enough because no one seemed to be interested in our prices. Perhaps business was too good with other Americans who did not haggle.

Lunch with Gene and Carol in Old Town Yuma

On the next day, we again headed out toward Yuma and then decided to give a call to our new friends Gene and Carol Brock who we had met at dinner one evening while at the Casa Grande RV Resort. They had indicated that they would be in the Yuma area about the same time as us and had suggested that we give them a call. After making contact we decided to meet at a local Wall Mart parking lot, and it was not long before we had found them. They were already quite familiar with the Yuma area and they agreed to show us around by getting in our car and taking us first to the old town historic part of Yuma, where we found a unique place to have lunch. We ate in the outside courtyard where it was not quite so crowded with people. They then took us to a giant swap meet that is located east of town. Here, there is a big parking lot and then rows and rows of tent canopies where people can browse all day out of the hot sun to find almost anything (new and old) under the sun. Dave bought two pair of sunglasses for $5. Gene was able to find a small fan for his RV refrigerator. After about an hour of this, we then headed further east and a bit south to where there were miles and miles of "snow bird" sanctuaries in the desert. Actually, these were like residential areas where some lots had regular homes, but many were vacant lots with an RV pad and hookups. Most of the lots had small, low brick fences surrounding the property. This was a unique experience for us to see this and we traveled for miles and miles, and block after block just looking at the various lots and the configurations and designs that people had laid out on their properties. We gave special attention to those that had a "for sale" sign and tried to imagine what it would be like to live there. We must have bored Gene and Carol with our amusement at these retirement areas, but it soon got late and we delivered them back to their car at the Wall Mart parking lot. These people, who had just recently been strangers to us, became like good friends and we hated to say good by, but perhaps we'll see them again down along the road sometime.

From our base camp at Wellton, we took one more trip into Mexico, but this time we went to San Louis, which is about 20 miles south and a bit west of Yuma. Before crossing the border, we parked near a Burger King and then had lunch. When we entered Burger King, we soon felt that we were in Mexico because all the customers and those behind the counter were speaking Spanish. However, when it came time to take our order, we were spoken to in English. Evidently, we did not look like we could speak Spanish and we didn't need to try the few words we knew. After lunch we walked toward the border crossing behind a border patrol officer who was escorting a woman and a small girl back into Mexico and shutting the gate behind them (which led to a holding area). After crossing, we were a bit surprised because there were no Mexicans to welcome us, as there had been in our previous excursions. In fact, there were no wares for sale on the sidewalk and no people at all close by who had any interest in us. So, we just kept walking straight ahead because we could see an interesting church a couple blocks away and a nice park. Just before getting to the park, we passed by two young men who were having a discussion next to a car when one of them looked up and said, "welcome to my country!". Dave said "thank you" (he should have said "gracious") and we walked on. We were amazed at what a different experience we were having in this town. Although there were no Americans around that we could see, we felt totally comfortable, especially after receiving the friendly welcome. After walking past the church and then walking through the park with large shade trees, we then doubled back more toward the business district where we went into a department store that reminded us of JC Penney, and then later we found a fabric store. Here, Diana was in her glory as she browsed among various yardage goods (except it was really all in meters). She ended up buying about 3 meters of one material and another meter of another (which she later turned into a table cloth and napkins for our dinning room table at home). This experience in San Louis was wonderful, and we wouldn't mind coming back here again. Perhaps this was the "true" Mexico that we saw in this town.

Diana watching pioneer day parade in Welton, Arizona

Our next adventure was the annual Wellton Pioneer Day parade through town. Wellton really does not have a town center with large buildings, but the town is more spread out with a residential area that covers several blocks and stores that are scattered here and there. But, there is a main street, which is a local highway that traverses the town in an east/west direction that they shut down for several miles to hold this parade. We got to the parade route early and backed up our jeep to face the street and sat on the tailgate and waited. Soon, there were many others pulled up to the street as we were and lots of kids who were all holding large sacks. We were curious about the large sacks, but we soon figured out that they were for. After the parade started, just about everyone in the parade was throwing candy out to the kids, and the kids were darting in and out of the street in a frenzy to fill up their sacks. We cringed at times when we saw them encounter horses, tractors and cars in their dash to gather the candy. Parade participants seemed to be careful to dodge the kids, but we were a bit surprised to see the mayhem. All in all, we enjoyed the parade and we chalked it up as another interesting experience in our travels.

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