Yuma, Arizona, Cactus Gardens

Cactus Gardens RV Park in Yuma was a really different park. Most of the people in it had park models that stayed in the park all year, with the owners coming only in the winter, or they rented a lot for all year and just brought their RV and stayed for six months or so during the winter. Some of the places were fixed up really nice. It was also a 55+ park, so no one could stay (unless they were just visiting) if they were not old enough (whew! we were barely old enough!).

Everyone had little golf carts they ran around on. They looked like so much fun, I told Terry I wanted one, but he said I wasn't old enough! We were parked on the corner by the office and every morning we would get woken up by all these old people zipping around in their golf carts to come and check the mail! I just knew they were going to run into one another sometime!


They still had a few activities going on. Most of the organized activities end the first of April, but the residents do some on their own. They were all so nice and invited us to play volleyball in the pool and to play card bingo. Card bingo is really close to gambling, but we rationalized it deciding that $1.60 each was just entertainment (although we did win and came out $.50 ahead).









They are really having a big illegal
alien issues here in Yuma, since the border is only about ten miles away. While we were here, President Bush came in Air Force One. Our RV park was quite close to the airport, so I am sure that one of the planes we heard come in was his.









We went to Mexico to a town called Algodones. It pretty much caters to Americans. There must be a hundred dentists and optometrists there, also a lot of pharmacies. We got some really cheap drugs, some for us and some for our kids. Our daughter's inhalers for her asthma was 3/$6.38. She pays over $30 for one at home.











I decided to visit one of the dental offices. One of the ladies in the trailer park gave us a name of one that she has gone to for several years. She said she really liked her and that she did a good job. It was kind of scary, but now I have a new and improved smile!













We ate in a really nice restaurant in Algodones. I was trying to set the camera on the timer mode and get a picture of us and a nice man volunteered to take this picture. Two Mexican men played the keyboard and sang to us during the meal.












You can see by this picture that Terry enjoyed shopping in Mexico. He wore his white straw hat and everyone knew he was a sucker for the ceramics. I think he must be related to my Mom. He has decided that the turtle is a little lonely, though, and needs some family. We may be making another trip back to Mexico before we leave Yuma! The only bad thing is that if you don't get there early and leave early, you have to wait in line from 1-2 hours to get through customs. It took us over an hour but we visited with everyone around us so it didn't seem so long.