I-8 to Yuma

Traveling west, we made two stops in Arizona. Our first stop was at the Casa Grande RV Resort for one night. Due to high winds and predictions of blowing dust, we got an early start and arrived at the resort at noon. We had the place to ourselves since it was off-season.

This was a great stop for less than $20.

We made a two day stop in Yuma. While there we toured the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historical Park, the Quarter Master Depot and Martha's Gardens Medjool Date Farm.

Prisoners built cell blocks in 1876.

Six prisoners lived in 80 square foot rooms
until 1909 when the prison was closed.

No trip to Yuma is complete without a stop at one of their famous date farms. Martha's Garden is one of the best to tour with over 100 acres of date palms.

These date trees are descended from ones imported
from Morocco in 1927.

Next Season's Fruit

Our Summer Adventure to Washington State Begins

After leaving the Rio Grande Valley March 21, we stopped in Austin for a couple weeks to visit with our daughter and her family and then on to our old stomping grounds outside the Dallas Metroplex.  We stayed at East Fork Army Corp of Engineers park on Lake Lavon in Wylie, Texas. Unfortunately, Wylie made National news on Monday, April 11. Grapefruit and baseball sized hail rained down on Wylie for ten minutes. We watched, helplessly as these large stones hit our trailer, truck and car. It looks like our Rhino Roof on the trailer paid off because the trailer suffered little damage, just a broken vent cover over the shower and bent fins on the air conditioning units. The claims adjuster estimated the combined damage on our two vehicles at over $9,000. We were thankful they were not totaled, just a broken windshield and many dents, but still fully functional.  

These are the biggest hail stones we have ever experienced.

After the storm passed, we had a beautiful sunset.

Leaving Wylie on Tuesday, April 19, we headed west on I-20 and joined up with I-10. We drove three days, and then stopped in Deming, New Mexico, for a four day weekend. Deming is a nice little town of 15,000 in the southwest corner of New Mexico. The Escapee Campground is level, clean and friendly. There are four interesting New Mexico State Parks all within 35 miles of the campground.

Escapee Dream Catcher RV Rainbow Park
Deming, NM

City of Rocks State Park was formed by erosion
of ancient volcanic activity.

Pancho Villa State Park, contains exhibits which commemorate the 1916 Pancho Villa raid of the town of Columbus, NM. After the early morning raid on the town, General Pershing was sent to this small border town along with 10,000 troops. They pursued Pancho Villa 500 miles for 10 months before giving up and returning north to U.S. soil, just in time for the U.S. to enter WWI.

Columbus, New Mexico

The Original Border Custom Station in Columbus, NM

Desert Bird of Paradise in Columbus, NM