After leaving Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument we drove to Yuma, AZ on December 1st for a seven week stay.  This was our third trip to Yuma so we were already very familiar with the area.  Along with the typical name brand stores and restaurants Yuma has three Walmart Supercenters.  It is a thriving snowbird community.

Our first couple weeks we were super busy with yearly medical exams, dentists and eye doctors.  We are just about finished with all the appointments, follow ups and lab work.  We feel extremely blessed that we both received good results.  Now we can take a big breath and relax for the remainder of our time here.

Along with the medical stuff we did manage to have a little fun and social time.  Bill met with the Yuma Amateur Radio Group and helped them one Saturday with testing for those trying to receive their amateur radio license.  He also met the group for breakfast one morning and attended one of their meetings another Saturday.

There is a very active Escapees Boomers group here in Yuma.  They meet every Wednesday afternoon for a movie then an early dinner we have joined them three times so far.

The South Western Area Geocachers are also an active group in Yuma and we met them at an area park for one of their events.  We plan to join them at a breakfast get together in January.

Our RV park, Mesa Verde RV Resort had a welcome back snowbird ice cream social one afternoon and we had a chance to meet some of our neighbors.  

Bill even won a door prize which he shared with several people at our table.  

They invited us to join their Happy Hours but we just haven’t had time yet!  The RV park is having a Christmas Eve Hors d’oeuvres get together which we plan to attend.

As snowbirds often say, if you are bored, it is your own fault!

We have taken advantage of being in one spot for a while to order to complete some things we need.  Bill ordered a camera to mount on the front of our Honda.  I love our rear backup camera.  We ordered a new mattress and Santa brought me an Instant Pot for Christmas.  I am used to my crockpot so it will take some getting used to.

We made several trips across the border to Los Algodones Mexico where we both got new eyeglasses for less than half the price quoted in Yuma.  I got a haircut and a new hat.  Bill enjoyed some shrimp tacos and we both enjoyed the margaritas.  During one visit we ran into some Escapees Boomers from our Wednesday movie and dinner group and joined them for some margaritas and music.  The central plaza was full of snowbirds eating, drinking and dancing to the music.  

And there are always plenty of people walking among the throngs selling jewelry and just about anything you can imagine.  I was plenty happy with just a new hat!

We have been attending church here in Yuma.  The First Methodist Church had a social one Sunday after church and had on display over 300 nativity scenes owned by church members.  All beautiful!

We wanted to get this blog posting done in time to wish everyone love and a very Merry Christmas.  Thanks for following along in our travels and taking the time to read our blog!

Yuma facts:

• In the Guinness Book of World Records, Yuma is called the sunniest place on Earth, with an average of 339 days of sunshine a year.  It is the country’s driest and least humid city, but not the hottest.  Miami wins the prize for the hottest.
• Yuma sits near the end of the 1,400 mile long Colorado River in Arizona’s southwest corner and shares borders with Mexico and California.  It is about halfway between San Diego and Phoenix.
• Spanish explorers first visited the Yuma area as early as 1540 and over the years many have passed through the area on their way to California including 60,000 gold rush prospectors in 1849.  In the 1930’s thousands fleeing the Dust Bowl passed through Yuma.
• Yuma was acquired by the United States from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase in 1854.
• The first railroad bridge across the Colorado River was built here in 1877.
• Yuma is home to one of the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalting plants to ensure the United States could meet treaty obligations for water delivery to Mexico.
• Yuma is the winter lettuce capital of the world.  If you eat a salad anywhere in the United States in the winter, there is a good chance the greens grew in Yuma.  Yuma’s winter produce production is the main reason Arizona ranks second in the country in production of head lettuce, leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli.  It is the world’s top producer of gourmet Medjool dates and the major exporter of durum wheat to Italy to be made into premium pasta.
• Movie makers have been making movies in Yuma since 1913.
• Yuma’s population doubles in the winter when the snowbirds arrive.
• The number two economy in Yuma is the military with both the Marine Corps Air Station and the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground located here.