Category Archives: National Landmark

National landmark or historical place

We love Arizona! From Tucson to Casa Grande, and now a final stop in Yuma, our stay in Yuma has been wonderful! During the short drive from Casa Grande to Yuma, we continued to enjoy the interesting rock formations and views. Yuma is in an area near the borders of Arizona, California and Mexico. Guinness Book of World Records describes Yuma as “the sunniest place on earth” with an average of 339 days of sunshine and 3.01 inches of rain a year. Years ago Yuma was a popular place for gold rushers to cross the Colorado River because of the Yuma Crossing. Here there are two large granite outcroppings which squeezed the river into a narrow channel, allowing for a safer and easier crossing of the river. Over the years the Hoover Dam, as well as other dams have altered the flow of the Colorado River and therefore the water supply to the area. For example the Yuma Territorial Prison was once surrounded by water on three sides but today that area is dry desert. Other dams such as the Laguna Dam diverts water for crops into the Yuma area. The Colorado River is one of the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world because it is shared by 7 western states and Mexico. It serves about 25 million people and 90% of its water has been directed by the time it gets to Yuma, and it disappears as it enters Mexico. Yuma is home to the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalting plants which was completed in 1992 by the Bureau of Reclamation to ensure that the U.S. could meet their treaty obligations to deliver water to Mexico. The plant can produce 72.4 million of gallons of desalted water per day. The plant never has run at full capacity because it is expensive to operate and Mexico has enough water from normal river flow without the plant. Throughout Yuma, seemingly at every street corner, there are small buildings offering desalted water for sale.

The Yuma Proving Ground, formerly Camp Laguna, trains troops, and tests weapons and systems, as well as bridges on the Colorado River, before battle. It is located on 1,300 square miles of desert terrain. Also nearby is a Marine Crops Air Station. Yuma’s economy is made up of agriculture, the military, and tourism.

Speaking of agriculture, today farming is a $3 billion industry in Yuma. It is known as the winter lettuce capital of the world. Chances are very good that if you eat salad anywhere in the U.S. during the winter, it came from Yuma. This helps make Arizona second in the U.S. in the production of all kinds of lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli. At the peak of the season, 2,000,000 pounds of lettuce is processed at EACH of the NINE salad plants DAILY! Every day we saw busloads of migrant workers out in the fields working and fields of lettuce and other greens was a common sight. They flood the fields for irrigation and also have irrigation equipment actively watering the fields.

While in Yuma we celebrated Christmas. The RV resort where we were staying had a lovely Christmas Eve service which included placing luminaries along all the streets in the resort. It made for a beautiful Christmas Eve atmosphere. On Christmas Day the resort provided a delicious Christmas dinner of prime rib and ham. We were able to meet and talk with many snowbirds, and we are finding that many of then come down from Canada, Washington state, and Oregon. We have found people to be friendly here and we were inviting to Happy Hours and enjoyed talking with our neighbors.

The Yuma Territorial Historical Park opened in 1876, with the first prisoners building their own cells. The prison was open for 33 years and housed 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women. It was truly a hell hole, especially in the summer months with unbearable heat. It was surrounded on 3 sides by water and the other side by desert and quicksand. As mentioned earlier, today there is no longer water there, just dry desert.
There were few escapes. One area, called The Dark Cell, was a dark cave-like area where prisoners who didn’t follow the rules were placed for

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different lengths of time, depending on the severity of the misbehavior. It was such an unpleasant place that few prisoners were repeat

offenders and some were model prisoners after the Dark Cell experience.

Next door to the museum is a visitors center and museum. Nearby on the grounds was a small cemetery where they buried those who died there. Bill and I found visiting the prison a sad and somewhat discomforting experience. The Yuma Territorial Prison was home to the Yuma High School from 1910 to 1912 after a fire burned down their school. During a football which Yuma won in the final moments of the game, one of the announcers said it was criminal the way the team stole the game. At first the townspeople were insulted, but then decided to go with area history and they became known as the Yuma Criminals.

Close to the Yuma Territorial Prison Historical Park was the Ocean to Ocean Bridge. This bridge opened in 1915 and was the first and only vehicular traffic bridge over the lower Colorado River for 1,200 miles. Until then, people had to wait for a ferry to cross the river and it was the final link from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Later a railroad bridge was added.

We had heard so much about Quartzsite, so we drove the 75 miles to check it out. It normally has a population of 3,700. but during the months of January to March, the population swells to over one million as the area is inundated with RVers who mostly boondock in the desert on Bureau of Land Management property for no or little cost. Many vendors come to the area for those months and set up huge tents where you can buy jewelry and gems, antiques, arts and crafts, and anything and everything an RV owner could possibly need or wish for. We drove around and looked at some of the potential camping areas and checked out some of the vendors. Since it was late December, the area was still relatively quiet with few RVs and vendors. Calm before the storm for sure. We still can’t decide whether the experience in January would be for us. Before leaving Quartzsite we did stumble upon a historic part of the area while geocaching. Once again, finding a geocache caused us to find an area we not normally have found. The Hi Jolly Memorial is a memorial to Ali Hadji. In 1856 thirty-three camel were brought from Syria with Ali Hadji as their caretaker. They were brought to the U.S. aboard a federal supply ship as an experiment to be used for transportation in the desert. The idea was originally that of Jefferson Davis, but he was soon preoccupied by the Civil War and lost interest in the project. Later an additional 41 camels were brought over with the idea of using them to build a wagon road from Arizona to California. The camels were found to be difficult to manage and it is said that the sight of them caused horses and cattle to stampede. Some were sold to circuses and some were left in the desert to fend for themselves. Because of a communication problem, Ali Hadji became known as Hi Jolly. He remained in the area near his camels and worked as an army scout and miner. After 30 years of service to the U.S. government, he died at the age of 64 in Quartzsite. The Arizona Highway Department constructed the pyramid like memorial from chucks of ore minerals in the area, with a metal silhouette of a camel on top in his memory. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

We also heard a lot from fellow RVers about the small Mexican town of Los Algodones. We first started hearing about it when we were in Casa Grande and people continued to talk about it in Yuma. The town is very dependent on snowbirds and is therefore seen as a safe and friendly place to visit. We decided to give it a try. Los Algodones is 7 miles west of Yuma. It is known for having more doctors, dentists, opticians and pharmacies within a 4 block area than any other similar 4 block area in the world. It is very common for Americans to go across the border for dental work, to get eyeglasses, and their supply of pharmacy drugs at a fourth to a third of the prices they would pay in the U.S. Many of the doctors and dentists are trained in the U.S. and give similar care to what you would receive in the U.S. Next to the border entry is a large casino on an Indian reservation where you can safely park your car for the day for $6.00. We parked and walked across the border. We were a little surprised that no one in Mexico was at the border to check us. It was amazing to see all the stores advertising dental and optical care. There were many vendors offering you just about anything you could want to buy. We had been warned to haggle and never pay full price, and we bought each of us a jacket and Bill a hat and belt for great prices. Bill wanted some prescription reading glasses so we went to an optical business recommended to us by fellow RVers. For $29 he received an eye exam and prescription glasses which were ready in 2 hours. They have single vision, bifocals and progressive lenses available for low prices. Bill likes his new glasses and sees fine with them. We had a nice Mexican lunch where a margarita is included in the price of the entree, and the entree price is cheaper than you would pay in the U.S. later in the day before heading back across the border we decided to have another margarita and relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of the town. The two margaritas were the price of what you would pay for one here, and we found margaritas there much stronger than those made in the U.S. We struck up a conversation with two couples sitting near us. They were snowbirds here for the winter from Canada. After great margaritas and conversation, we got in line to re-enter the U.S. We were told this could take minutes or hours depending on the day and time of day. We only had about a 15 minute wait and then showed our passports to the custom agent. She did ask us what was in our packages and why we had visited Mexico, but that was it.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope; Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi; Flight to Phoenix, and Space Balls were all filmed in and around Yuma.

As I mentioned earlier, we have loved our time in Arizona. It can be a bit dusty from all the tilling and plowing of fields and lack of rain. It has seemed strange to see dirt, sand and cacti instead of grass and trees. But we agreed it is someplace we definitely want to come back to again and probably stay longer.

Campground: Araby Acres RV Resort

December 6, 2013 Tucson, Arizona

We loved Tucson! The beautiful mountains in the distance and the tall saguaros were fascinating sights as we pulled into the Mission View RV Resort in Tucson which is located on an Indian reservation.

The weather was a little chillier than we had hoped for, but their was the promise of warmer days to come.

We rode downtown and found some interesting photo opportunities.

Our last day in Tucson we went to the beautiful Mission San Xavier, a short drive from our campground. Construction of the mission began in 1783 and was completed in 1797. At that time Arizona was part of New Spain and became part of Mexico in 1821 following Mexican independence. The mission became part of the United States in 1854 and became a National Landmark in 1963. It is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona and is still an active church with a K-8 mission school with an enrollment of 135.

Bill found a county park nearby in the desert – Tucson Mountain Park which will give us an opportunity to experience camping in the desert, so we decided to leave Mission View and head to the desert.

December 6, 2013 Tombstone, Arizona

After staying an extra day in Deming, New Mexico due to high wind advisories against driving on the interstate with large vehicles, we headed to Benson, Arizona for a one night stay on our way to Tucson. We stayed at an Escapees Co-op park which was great for a one night stop. It went down to 24 degrees that night and we awoke the next morning to a car covered with a heavy frost. Bill had a package scheduled to arrive by UPS at the campground the day before, but for some unknown reason the UPS driver could not find the address, so we drove to the UPS store in Sierra Vista to pick up the package.

On the way back from UPS we decided to take another route back to the campground to pick up the RV. We wanted to see as much of the area as possible, and we were so glad we did because this route took us right through Tombstone, Arizona which we had thought about visiting.

On this cold morning not many people were out, but we did see a stagecoach and got feel for the old west feel of the town. If you enjoy seeing what the old west looked like and watching staged gunfights, this is the place to go. We stopped by Boothill Graveyard and peeked through the fence at the tombstones.

tombstones

We didn’t have a lot of time to explore since we had to get back to check out by 11:00, but we were glad we had a chance to see what Tombstone, Arizona was all about. If we are ever in the area again, it would be nice to spend a day strolling down the street like Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty did all those years ago!

We went through yet another border patrol stop, our third since leaving Texas. They are always very pleasant and we were quickly on our way back to the campground.

December 2, 2013 Deming, New Mexico

November 27, 2013 San Antonio, Texas

We spent Thanksgiving at Thousand Trails Medina Lake which is about an hour west of San Antonio. The campground was nothing fancy with gravel sites, but it was quiet and peaceful and we enjoyed seeing the abundance of deer who had little fear of humans and would come very close.

The campground provided a very nice Thanksgiving meal and it was fun to spend time with fellow RVers, exchanging stories, ideas and tips. This time of year many of the RVers we meet are full time, or at least full time half of the year. We met people who have been full timers for 7+ years and they are an inspiration to us as they describe their adventures and all the wonderful places they have been. We have also been impressed with some of the solo RVers, including several women.

Friday we drove into San Antonio. It seemed small and quaint after visiting Dallas and Houston, and I enjoyed the lack of traffic and the ease with which we were able to get around the city. We visited the Alamo where we had to wait in line which wasn’t a surprise on this holiday weekend.

While waiting we enjoyed a view of the city Christmas tree and live music. They do not allow any photography inside the Alamo Shrine which was just as well since the lighting inside is very dim and not conducive to good photography. It was interesting to read about the history of the Alamo since that is not something covered extensively in American history. We spent some time walking around the grounds of the Alamo compound. We didn’t see a lot of flowers, but plenty of cactus!

Next we walked along the famous Riverwalk. Near one of the entrances we found a band of fireman called “Backdraft” and we spent a few minutes listening to them and watching people dance to the music, including Sparky. The band was very good!

The Riverwalk is a lovely area. I am sure it is beautiful at night with the lights, but with the wind picking up, the temperature dropping, and the hour drive, we decided to head back home. One thing we discovered early on in this adventure is that wherever the RV is parked is home to us. We jokingly say if we don’t like the neighbors or the neighborhood, or we want to see something new or do something different, we just move! Nice!

November 4, 2013 Dallas, Texas Part 3

On Monday we awoke to the sound of rain. Since they were calling for rain for the next 3 days, we decided to go ahead with our plans to drive back into Dallas to visit the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

The Bush Library opened in May, 2013 and is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University, where Laura Bush attended college. They had over 300,000 visitors in the first 3 months.

The library is very well done, with friendly guides eager to share what they know, and many interestingexhibits. The library did not spend much time on Bush’s younger years or campaigns, but the majority of the exhibits talked about his time in the White House. The exhibits included information on the tragedy of September 11, including two mangled beams from one of the World Trade Center towers;

Beams from World Trade Center

defending freedom around the world,

Bush’s call to Americans to serve and help others,

An example of correspondence a president performs on a routine basis

Presidential Seal medallion on ceiling in Oval Office

life in the White House, and the Oval Office. They had an exact replica of the Oval Office during Bush’s presidency and we were allowed to walk around the room and look at all the items. There was a replica of the presidential desk that most presidents have chosen to use. There is a plaque on the desk that explains the wood the desk was made from came from an English ship called the “Resolute” during the time of Queen Victoria. Therefore the desk is called “The Resolute Desk”. An interesting side note about the desk is that a front panel was added during Roosevelt’s time to hide his wheelchair. The ceiling in the Oval Office has a medallion which is incorrect because an Italian artist made the stars with 8 points instead of 5. Everywhere else the seal’s stars have 5 points.

They allowed Bill to have his picture taken sitting at the president’s desk.

The Bush family will continue their public service through the Bush Institute located next door to the library. The Institute uses research to develop and implement policies that offer practical solutions to pressing national and global problems.

Unfortunately we left the museum right at rush hour, complicated by rain and fog.

No, this is not an accident. It is a machine that moves barricades from one lane to another to form HOV lanes during morning and afternoon rush hour.

The way they do their HOV lanes in Dallas is really strange. They have machines that move the barriers from one side to the other to create extra lanes depending on which way the rush hour traffic is moving.

We never saw an entrance to the HOV lane and never found another entrance or exit the entire time we were on the interstate. We could see the HOV lanes, which had very light traffic, while our lanes were bumper to bumper, but no way to get on. Very strange indeed!

After a quick stop for dinner and grocery shopping at Walmart, we finally arrived home. It was chilly and the rain had picked up to a steady rain, so we were glad to be home!

October 24, 2013 Dallas, Texas

Up a big hill and down a big hill all the way from Oklahoma into Texas. We passed through miles and miles of open land, with a few cattle now and then grazing in the rocky fields. We traveled down the Indian Nation Turnpike through various tribal areas, often driving for miles without seeing another vehicle in either direction.

We arrived at Lake Tawakoni, a Thousand Trails campground near Point, Texas. The campground was basically deserted so we had our pick of campsites.

On Monday we drove into Dallas

and our first stop was the Frontiers of Flight Museum, an aerospace museum affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and located at Love Field. It has a large collection of artifacts, information and vehicles related to the history of aviation and space exploration. Among many exhibits it has the Apollo 7 command module, a World War 1 biplane, artifacts from the Hindenburg, and over 200 World War II aircraft models.

They had a special exhibit for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. An Air Force One plane like the one that brought President Kennedy to Dallas on that fateful day and then took his body back to Washington. It was also the only plane in which a president was given the oath of office, the only time the oath was administered by a woman, and the only time the oath was administered in Texas. While not the actual plane, it was reconstructed inside to show what the plane looked like that day. It is interesting to note that Air Force One used today is about twice the size of the one used in 1963.

Next we went to Dealey Plaza and the 6th Floor Museum (JFK.org) at the former Texas Schoolbook Depository where Oswald shot from during the Kennedy assassination. The museum was well done with an audio tour that took you throughout the sixth floor and explained in detail the events leading up to that day, beginning with the start of Kennedy’s political career and ending with the aftermath of the assassination which included the shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby and the Kennedy funeral. My only complaint is they did not allow ANY photography. I would really have liked to take a picture of the area, enclosed in glass, where Oswald was sitting during the assassination. They found Oswald’s fingerprints here on some boxes and everything is arranged the way it was found that day. The area has been preserved so the floors and walls, etc are the way they were November 22, 1963, which was also Bill’s 10th birthday. The building is now owned by the Dallas County Administration Building. One exhibit they had that was especially interesting were 9 possible conspiracy theories about what really happened that day. The bottom line…we will never know for sure. When we finished at the museum we went outside to the Grassy Knoll area where Bill took some pictures, including the two X’s marked on the street to show where the Kennedy limousine was located during the shooting.

Bill added arrows to the picture to show where Oswald was located and the two X’s in the street marking the location of the limousine

This is where Zapruder was standing on the grassy knoll when he filmed the assassination

Building ahead and grassy knoll on the left

October 19, 2013 Tahlequah, Oklahoma

As we passed from Arkansas into Oklahoma, the difference in the terrain became very apparent. Instead of fertile farmlands with farms, silos and windmills, we now had large areas of open land with no signs of farming. Occasionally we saw cattle grazing in the fields. We passed through small towns with magnificent views since we could see for miles around.

We were a little concerned about our next destination, Cherokee Landing State Park outside of Tahlequah, because we had been unable to reach anyone by phone. A call to another Oklahoma state park assured us that Cherokee Landing was open, so we decided to take a chance. We arrived and were happy to see the park was open and about half full. We were delighted with our site, overlooking beautiful Lake Tenkiller, with a concrete pad, 50 amp service and water. Our first day here we decided to explore the town of Tahlequah and do some geocaching as that seems an excellent way to explore a new area. Our experience has been that geocaches often take you to places you would not ordinarily discover.

Tahlequah was founded in 1838 as the capital of the Cherokee Nation. It is also the home of Northeastern State University. One of the really neat things about the town is that all the signs are written in English as well as Cherokee. If the name sounds familiar to any of you, it is featured in the book, “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls. It was also voted one of the Top 100 Best Small Towns in America.

Sequoyah, a Cherokee who created a syllabary which made it possible for the Cherokees to read and write.

All signs in the town are in English and Cherokee. Muskogee is another name for the Creeks, a Native American people from the southeast.

We also visited the site of the Cherokee nation capital building, built in 1867. On the front lawn of the building we found a mini Statue of Liberty, which was dedicated in 1950 by the Boy Scouts “as a pledge of everlasting fidelity and loyalty”. Throughout the town while geocaching we found several beautiful murals.

When we arrived back at our campsite Bill went outside the take some sunset pictures and came back in to tell me there was a bald eagle in a tree right across from our campsite. We went outside and watched him for quite awhile. It is not everyday that you get that close to a bald eagle!

The next day we went to the Cherokee Heritage Center which included a Cherokee National Museum, a Tsa-La-Gi Village, and a Cherokee Genealogy Library. Bill spent quite a few hours researching his Cherokee heritage, without much luck to his disappointment. We took a guided tour of the Tsa-La-Gi village which was quite interesting. Among many things we learned:

the village consisted of seven clans,
how they solved conflicts using stickball competitions which is similar to lacrosse,
how to make arrowheads and blowguns.

We learned that Cherokees were very resourceful in taking worthless items such as European smoothbore trade guns which they took apart and made into many items they could trade and use in their everyday lives. The Cherokee Museum contained many interesting exhibits, including a fascinating one on the Trail of Tears.

The museum is located at the site of the original Cherokee female seminary which was opened in 1851 and destroyed by fire in 1837. These three columns are all that remain of the original building.

This monument is dedicated to the Cherokees who lived before 1907. The top of the monument has the names of the 7 clans.

October 10, 2013 Memphis, TN

We left Trail of Tears and drove towards Memphis. This time, instead of cornfields, we saw field after field of cotton. We crossed the huge bridge across the mighty Mississippi River into Memphis. We stayed at T.O. Fuller State Park, about 7 miles from Graceland. This park was about half full and we chose the first site which was an end site with plenty of green space. We were pleased to see no train tracks nearby, though we occasionally heard a train in the distance, but not close enough to shake the RV! We discovered our first night at the park that even though there was not a train track close by, we were over the nightly take off and landing path of the Memphis airport. Instead of train whistles, we went to sleep with the roar of planes taking off and landing. For some reason the worst of it appeared to be our first night there with less planes the second night and very little the last two nights of our stay.

Our first full day in Memphis we went to Graceland, which was our main reason for going to Memphis. I have loved Elvis for as long as I can remember.

I read reviews that Graceland is actually small compared to what one would expect, and they are right. Elvis bought Graceland when he was in his early twenties, and the house very much has a 60’s and 70’s feel to it. The kitchen was amazingly small. We were not allowed upstairs to the bedroom area.

Living room

Entertainment room…..when he read that President Johnson had 3 TVs so he could watch all three network news reports at one time, Elvis decided to do the same

The Jungle Room with a waterfall on the wall

They had exhibit rooms of his gold records and displays of the clothing he wore at his concerts, etc.

His music flowed everywhere from the minute we reached the parking lot. Across the street from Graceland was a large visitors center where you bought tickets and waited for a shuttle to take you across the street and up the hill to the house.

We were able to go onboard the Lisa Marie

At that same location were additional exhibits, his many cars, and his airplanes, as well as many, many gift shops. One of the biggest surprises to me was the area where he and his parents are buried. I was expecting something huge and grandiose. It was actually a small memorial area with a mediation fountain. It was nice to see something very simple and quiet. There were no huge displays of flowers and gifts left by fans that I expected.

A new fan!

In all, we spent about 5 hours at Graceland and the exhibits.

The next day we ran errands in the morning and then later in the afternoon we rode downtown to Beale Street where we walked around and had dinner. Bill had some gator gumbo with his meal…..I declined. There are no words to describe Beale Street except colorful, old, and a sensory overload of music blaring from the various restaurants and bars. On the street they had gold musical notes with the names of famous musicians who had played on Beale Street. This was very much like the stars on the streets in Hollywood. Some of the musical notes were so old and worn it was hard to read the names, but after much looking, Bill spotted Elvis Presley.

While downtown we also walked through the lobby of the Peabody Hotel where they have ducks parade down from the rooftop in the morning where they stay in the fountain until 5:00 PM and then they are paraded back upstairs to the rooftop. We arrived shortly before 6:00 and therefore missed the parade. Bill asked one of the employees about the Orlando Peabody and he said that hotel is no longer a Peabody.

We enjoyed our time in Memphis.

Through the Eyes of the Selphs

Bill and Diane's travel notes and pictures