From Yuma to Parker!

This post isn’t going to have many pics because we simply forgot to take them! After leaving Slab City we drove south and west towards Yuma. It’d started getting dark when we left the Slabs and we were exhausted, but really didn’t want to stay there. No offense to those that love the Slabs; it just wasn’t our cup of tea. We stopped at a rest area a few miles from our turnoff to the Chocolate Mountains and a free camping spot. We discovered that one of our 7 gal. water jugs had somehow left us along the road..odd considering that it was strapped down. Anyway, we filled up the remaining jug and headed through the Imperial Sand Dunes. It was pitch dark by then, so no pic, sorry. It is a beautiful area, and is very popular with the off-road crowd. We drove to our campsite on BLM land, about 15 miles farther towards Yuma. We’d stayed there for a week the previous year and were planning on doing the same, but the heat was just too much, over 100 degrees during the day, and no shade other than our awning. Up to Quartzsite we went! We set up camp in a large wash in the LTVA (long term visitor access). There are three of them very close to Qsite. We chose the one to the southeast because of the facilities that are available there. When we set up camp everything was hunky-dory, but by the time evening came we were attacked by a HUGE colony of biting red ants! They came out of the woodwork, and there was no safe place outside of the trailer. We also had a noise issue from our neighbors’ old generator. They ran it ALL DAY LONG for the air conditioning, and man, was it loud. They finally shut if off late evening, but started it up at 7AM the next morning. To top it off, no TV signal at all…

We got to talking about it, and decided to head 35 miles north to Parker. There’s lots of great camping available there, and it’s relatively close to town, where there’s all the services we need (food, fuel, etc.). The solar Desert Bar is also there. Here’s where the fun began…we missed the turn to the BLM access road and had to turn around. The road had a slight dip, and when we were in the most vulnerable spot in the turn, the inside corner of Howie’s nose came in contact with a corner of the toolbox. Ouch! I’d been afraid of the possibility of that happening; should have left the toolbox at home. A couple of days after the incident we bid a fond farewell to the box; gave it to the first person I approached at an auto shop. There, that won’t happen again!

How disgusting! I bought a fiberglass repair kit for $15 and went to work..

I pulled out the smashed fiberglass, applied resin and matting, waited for it to dry, then spread Bondo, sanded, applied the glazing putty, sanded that, then painted. There, that’s better! So glad I put in all those hours in my Dad’s body repair shop that he worked at for so many years. Funny how skills like that can come in handy.

We decided to spoil ourselves a bit and rented a space at the La Paz County Park. $340 for the month, not too bad for such a beautiful place.

A view of the Colorado River just upstream from the park. On the north side of the river are over a dozen RV parks, and on the south side are many dozens of million-dollar homes perched on the river.

The view of the river from our site . I took a swim in it and boy, was the current ever swift! Felt very refreshing, but the bottom was quite muddy.

Here’s where the fun began… just after we got set up the speedboats started racing up and down the river. For some reason, the boat owners didn’t feel the need for mufflers, and the sound reverberated off the cliff walls. There was no escaping the noise, which kept up until well after dark.

At about 8 PM the real noise started! The community hall was rented out for a wedding (no warning for the campers). There was a DJ with the loudest stereo system we’d ever heard, There was a bass that shook our trailer (and every other trailer in the park, I’m sure). There are clearly posted rules that forbid noise after 10 PM, but there was no change in volume at all – on the contrary, once the wedding ceremony was over the party moved to the beach, 150′ from our site. We listened to the noise and felt the chest compressions from the bass until 2:30 AM, when it finally stopped. We got a couple of precious hours of sleep, then at 6 AM the speedboats resumed with gusto. I was still torqued from the noise from the wedding, and paid a visit to the office. The Camp Hosts apologized but said that there wasn’t anything they could do about it, and that it was a regular occurrence on the weekends. They also told me that there were two local Police Officers there to provide security! Grr… I had a very nice chat with the Ranger about how disappointed we were, and he graciously offered to refund our monies, which we gratefully accepted. Lesson learned.

We have been camping now for a week on public lands about 8 miles from town, and are still chuckling about our adventures so far. There’s many thousands of acres available for up to 14 day stays at a time, and right now our closest neighbors are about 300 yards away, with 5 other neighbors spread out over the acreage. Happy are we!

An incredible sunset, one of many we’ve enjoyed here in the Az. deseret.