Kathy & Eric's travels: Nogales,Az to Yuma, Az

I will post this onSaturday instead of two blogs in one day so ...this was written on Friday.

Thursday was a shorter day as we had enough time to take the scenic route to Yuma. We weren't up real early as we didn't have to leave Nogales until 9:30ish. Mar was heading off to Laughlin, NV as a stop on her way home. I had coffee with her while she ate breakfast and then Eric joined us and we discussed routes to Laughlin. I use Google Maps on Android and she is Apple and the mapping system is not similar. Mar has a paper map and as it is quite small Eric loaned her one of our atlases. Mar had been through the Laughlin area on her way to Las Vegas before but never into Laughlin. In the end we wished her well and told her to let us know when she got there.

Heading north on 19.

We took old highway 86 which is the southern route and it goes through a number of small towns until it joins up with 85 and heads north to Gila Bend.

We turned off 19 onto 86 and you go through a small town but I couldn't find it's name!

The moment you start to go up in elevation the Saguaro cacti start to appear. Look at how many arms this one has that would be an "old guy!"

The Palo Verde are in bloom.

An old asphalt road which was good for the most part.

Getting higher so ....more Saguaro.

Now that's a grove.

I saw dead looking bushes like this and it turns out they are some type of Choya cacti which is a different color...not dead at all!

We could see that the Saguaro were coming into bloom which I haven't seen before or if I have I don't remember. 😁 This was the best I could do at speed out the side window. That's a very prickly Choya in front...very ouchy from experience🤣

Lunch was at the casino right next the the Hickiwan Trails RV park in Why. We used to stay in the RV park on our way south when we were travelling with the 5th wheel. We spent a lot of time in the Why to Ajo area and we really like it here. Nice and quiet except for the burros....heehaw!!

Turn right for Ajo and left for the border. Lots of traffic on this road as lots of people head south to the border and also to Rocky Point or Puerto Penasco.

On the way to Ajo.

On the right up ahead you can see a long pile of white mine tailings from the now defunct copper mine. I looked it up and it's silica which is used in the copper mining extraction process. They are repurposing some of it into something that is black and granular. Turns out it has many uses but I guess it has to be profitable as well.

The pretty main street in Ajo another small town that we stayed in with the RV. I especially like the Olsen's Market. I have an affection for small town grocery stores that supply almost anything a town would need. Groceries, hardware etc.

The town square.

North to Gila Bend. We were stopped at the US border patrol checkpoint. Usually we are just waved through but this time I had to dig out our passports. He asked a couple of questions which he knew the answer to 😁 and looked at the passports. He mentioned we didn't have long until they needed to be renewed which is on my to do list for when we get home. I said we'd be back in Canada before they expired. However, he didn't even ask us what was in the trailer or run the drug dogs around us!

Left to Yuma on I8.

Lots of wide open ground with forage crops for the many dairy barns and maybe feed lots as well. Lots of alfalfa that they cut when it's really short. Have water....have hay!

This is just a grass hay. We're always interested as we used to cut hay on our place when we were running our small farm. In Terrace, BC it grows like mad but you only get one crop and it's always dicey to get it cut and dried without getting rained on.

We needed to top up the fuel so we stopped in Dateland. Why is called Dateland well, because there are date trees. 😆 The diesel in Nogales, AZ was $3.29 a gallon and as Eric was filling I noticed it was $4.99 here!! Eric only put 5 gallons in when he saw that. 50% more here and that's pretty excessive. 🤨

It's a long wide open road all the way to Yuma and we were checked in to the Ramada just after 4pm. Beer, a curry dinner in the "in house" restaurant aptly named Curries! We are staying three nights in Yuma to relax and do a bit of shopping.

This morning we had a good complimentary breakfast and then we were off to Walmart for beer which is still $21 for a 30 pack and $55. In Canada so even with exchange its still a good deal. We'll buy Canadian when we get home but we're not going to stress about it while we're travelling. Next up was the Sketchers store so I could find more flip flops. Eric says we're to need a trailer to haul my shoes but " we already have a trailer!!" 🤣

While I'm doing this blog he's unloaded the Tiger and gone on a little ride to clear his head. It was smoking hot yesterday but a little cooler today.

Tonight Vietnamese at the Saigon Pho...yum, my favorite!

This is last Friday night at Saigon Pho...an appetizer plate to split and Beef tenderloin Chow Fun for each of us. 😋 Delicious.

As we were finishing up the owner came to see how his family was doing. He's a very personable guy and comes around to the tables. He said he remembers us and was happy to see us. He's been in US for over 33years and his family was sponsored by a church in Oregon. He's a real success story and he came to Yuma as it was a good business move not because he likes it here😁 We think he has another restaurant in California as well but he wants to retire in Oregon in a couple of years. As we were leaving he came by in his car...a bright red new corvettes!! He waved and bored off into the night...too funny and to fast for a picture!