Home Is Where We Park It: Rancho Rialto RV Resort, Yuma

January 17, 2020

Temperature 67 Degrees

Around Our Community

On Our Front Porch

Yuma Territorial Prison State Historical Park – Part Two

It was evening time and we received an email message that let us know that our Amazon package was left on our front porch. Excuse me, we don’t have a front porch. We don’t even have a front bumper. Something was wrong. I went outside and I looked around and under and no package. Time to call FedX. Suffice to say they were about as helpful as the technicians who staff the help desk at Dish – in other words useless.

The saga continues this morning. Barbara receives a call asking if she was expecting a package from Amazon. The woman stated that her neighbor who is also a Barbara wasn’t expecting anything so she checked at the office and my Barbara was the only other Barbara in the park. Got all that. Hence, the call that final led us to

the wayward package. The company that shipped it put an incomplete address label on the box. Inside of putting our site number which is 273 they put 27 on the label. It’s getting hard these days to find good help. Thankful, the woman who received it didn’t send it back, but graciously took the time to track us down for which we were ever so grateful. Yes, grateful indeed for inside was just what we needed.

A fireplace. Now I can put my feet up and sit by the fire and keep warm on these chilly Arizona nights. Yes, it also has an electric heater. A neighbor of ours has one and claims it keeps his 40 footer warm all night. We shall see tonight. If not the flames are fun to watch.

Let’s go for a walk around the neighborhood.

First up, a lighthouse on the back of a class A. Let me think about this, I wonder what would look good on the back of Graybeard?

Here is something a little bit different.

Then there is this. A 2008 Fleetwood Discovery for sale. It has a full wall slide on the drivers side, and two slides on the passengers side. We’ve looked at it before but dismissed it. But we’re talking about it again.

OK, so much for all that. Let’s finish our tour of the

So, you’ve been misbehaving, caught and sentenced to prison

That’s what they all say.

Your mug shot was taken and soon enough you find yourself

behind bars in the main cell block. What was life like?

You were now no longer a name but a number.

Of course among the many a few always stood out, usually for the wrong reasons!

Women did indeed mean problems, largely because in the beginning no one thought they could ever be as bad as men so no provision was made for their incarceration.

Yet, as this list shows there were some in the general population who were far from being angels. However, look close and you will note that many of them never served their full sentences but instead were either pardoned or paroled.

This women’s cell was craved out of the granite hill by inmate labor. It used to continue on off to the right in this picture but that section was lost after the prison was closed. The railroad came through in 1922 and wiped out the whole west end of the prison.

WARNING, the following may be upsetting to some. If so just scroll as fast as you can past this section. Some women like the men, also stood out but for all the wrong reasons.

On the opposite end of things

With time on their hands

Yet for others it seemed there was no hope.

Still others spent their time trying to get out whenever and however.

Not everyone succeeded.

Then there were those who were forever sorry that they did succeed.

The attempted escape still talked about today.

Despite strict instructions to never open both gates in the Sally Port the guard on duty fearing for Gates life opened both and let the prisoners out.

I thought we would be able to wrap things up tonight but we’re far from finished. Tomorrow I’ll pull the rest together and take you from where we ended tonight to what happened to the prison and how it became a park. Till then.

Time to call it a day on The Road of Retirement. We had another relaxing day full of odds and ends. We managed to rescue our wayward package. We’re enjoying sitting in front of the fireplace tonight. Our laundry is all done. Another blog is in the books. Just another beautiful day in paradise. Thank you Lord.

Great having you along today. We always enjoy you riding shotgun and we always look forward to your comments. Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of Graybeard and it’s two intrepid travelers. Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before

See you on down the road!

TOUR AMERICA, 2019: YUMA, ARIZONA – THE GRAND CANYON STATE

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Places We Have Called Home In 2019

Home Is Where We Park It: Rancho Rialto RV Resort, Yuma

January 17, 2020

Temperature 63 Degrees

Yuma Territorial Prison State Historical Park

Today was a stay at home day. We needed to get our taxes done. Pick up around the LV. Do some more research on the Newmar Mountain Aire. We took the time to bounce thoughts back and forth about it. We also scheduled visits to two more rigs we want to check out. We’ll probably make our decision around the first or second week of February. The hunt is always the fun part. Making the decision is the difficult part. Picking up the new rig is the oh boy look what we purchased part!

Enough of that. Let’s go sightseeing. We’re going to the

Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park. This park is part of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. The Heritage Area is a place where historic, cultural and natural resources combine to bring Yuma’s history to life. We’ve already been to the Colorado River Park and Pivot Point Plaza and East Wetlands. This is the last park for us.

We followed the sidewalk

to the visitor center. Once we paid the price of admission

it was out the other door where we discovered this beautiful green lawn. As for that building off in the distance, come on we’re going to find out what it is.

The Sallyport. This was the way in, and the only way out – legally. It used to abut against the one prison wall. When you approached both gates were closed. The outer gates opened while the inner remained closed. Then the outer were closed and the inner were opened to allow access to the prison. This is one of the last remaining original adobe structures of the prison.

Once through

you find the museum awaiting you with all the fascinating history of the prison. This building is situated on the original site of the Prison Mess Hall.

After the prison was closed and subsequently rebuild, today’s museum was built on this site. It is constructed of 60,000 Adobe bricks using New Deal funds.

But once again I’m getting ahead of myself.

The prison actually came about through a slight of hand. When the original bill for the prison was presented to the Legislature in 1875 it designated Phoenix as the site for the new prison. Some, however, felt that it really should be built in Yuma.

This gentleman in particular wanted the prison in Yuma. So while the legislature was out to lunch he scratched out the name of Phoenix on the bill and wrote in Yuma. Back from lunch no one thought to reread the bill, a vote was taken, it was a unanimous vote for the construction of the prison in – YUMA.

The prison opened in 1876 and was in operation for 33 years.

This is a model of the prison as it used to look. It was built on a hill overlooking the junction of the Colorado and Gila Rivers. The water then was as brown as the water in the model. Look closely and you can see the Sally Port in the center of the front wall. Down in the center is a small white structure. That is the pump house that sent water to the reservoir on top of which sat the main guard tower (in the model it is the large, circular structure to the left of the sally port).

Another view of the same model. Once again you can see the Watch Tower atop the reservoir. Again, you can also see the Sally Port.

Here is a picture of the actual prison. Again, if you look carefully in this picture you can see the Sally Port, the main guard tower off to the left, and other guard towers on the walls of the prison. The main guard tower was connected to the prison by a catwalk that went from it to the top of the prison wall.

There were really two views of the prison.

The perspective of the prisoner.

The perspective of the citizens of Yuma.

The main cell block.

Look for #17, that was the main cell block with the hospital built on top of it. Next to it, #16 was the shop in which was located the electric light plant, shoe and tailor shop, laundry and bath house. Prisoners were expected to take a bath every Saturday – unless they were in the Dark Hole (more about this later).

These are two of the original cells that remain. What’s special about these? They are believed to be the first two built, built by the first seven prisoners that occupied them. That’s right, they were given the privilege of building their own cells.

I found this to be really comical. Know what it is? A chamber pot! Put here originally to demonstrate the toilet of choice for the seven prisoners who occupied each cell. Today visitors have turned it into a wishing pot.

There is more room in here then in a typical US submarine. Trust me, I know I’ve visited one in my wanderings around this great country

Wooden bunks could not be used due to termites. The straw for each bed was replaced once a week in an attempt to eliminate bed bugs.

What could put you in here? Take a look.

The one that intrigued me was prize fighting. So I did a little research and discovered: the unsavory reputation resulted in the widespread prohibition of prizefighting in the mid-nineteenth century, led by northeastern states such as New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York. Nearing the end of the nineteenth century, most states had banned prizefighting. My question, though, is Doesn’t it take two to box? What happened to the second one involved? I think I smell something fishy.

Another surprise, most of those in prison were between the age of 20 to 30. Very interesting.

There’s more to the prison but for now we’ll call it a night. It’s getting late and I need to get ready for my beauty sleep – no laughing!

Today has been another laid back day on The Road of Retirement. We did a bit of this and that. The big thing is our taxes are done and we don’t owe a dime. We talked and talked some more about what we want in a new rig. The picture is getting clearer with each discussion. We’ll know when we find it. If we haven’t already.

It’s been great having you along again. Thanks for the company and the comments. Catch you tomorrow.

See you on down the road!

TOUR AMERICA, 2019: YUMA, ARIZONA – THE GRAND CANYON STATE

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Places We Have Called Home In 2019

Home Is Where We Park It: Rancho Rialto RV Resort, Yuma

January 16, 2020

Temperature 68 Degrees

Around Our Community

Hiking the Wetlands

One More Coach to Check Out – Right in our Backyard

So there wasn’t much planned for today. We were going to check out another coach and that was about it. But before we get to that, here is more of our community.

Work of art in metal

I’m not sure what this is, but it is different and interesting.

A tasteful front yard.

Now, let me introduce you to

The Colorado River was at once friend and foe. At times the river was as much as seven miles wide in the area of the Yuma crossing. Yuma was completely destroyed at least four times due to river flooding.

Starting in 1905 dams were constructed on the Colorado that brought positive change. They brought a safe and secure supply of water and power. They also created one of the largest and most productive farming regions in the world.

I decided to see for myself what the wetlands were like today. So I decided to go hiking.

Here is the Colorado River today at the location of the original crossing.

Yes, I even took the time to dip my toes in.

Now we come to today and our continuing hunt for a new coach.

This is a 2005 Newmar Mountain Aire that we discovered in an RV park around the corner from us.

This is a one owner coach whose owner was a heavy equipment mechanic. He has meticulously maintained the coach and has a three ring binder about six inches thick listing all work done with receipts. The list of upgrades is extensive. What’s more he was upfront and honest with us and openly shared the few minor things that are wrong with the coach. We spent a good deal of time looking the coach over and envisioning what it would be like to live in it. We have one, maybe two more coaches in this area to check out but I’ll be honest with you this coach right now is on the top of our list.

Another day on The Road of Retirement is in the books. It was a different kind of day in that it was overcast with the sun only peeking out on occasion. The kind of day in which the Southern Pacific Hotel would probably be obligated to give out a few free meals. Its time now to wrap things up and get ready for some shut eye.

Thanks again for sharing our day with us. We always appreciate your company and your comments. Catch you tomorrow.

See you on down the road!

TOUR AMERICA, 2019: YUMA, ARIZONA – THE GRAND CANYON STATE

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Places We Have Called Home In 2019

Home Is Where We Park It: Rancho Rialto RV Resort, Yuma

January 15, 2020

Temperature 69 Degrees

Pivot Point Plaza

Yuma and the coming of the Railroad

Prison Hill Brewing Company

They were right on the money. We were told that the park would be full within a week. Ever so slowly they’ve been coming in. Most come from Canada. We, for instance, now have neighbors on either side of us. I guess we need to remember to keep the blinds closed at night!

A simple breakfast this morning. Just an English muffin with an egg. Add a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee and we were ready to go.

We went to a number of places today but we’ll start with just one.

If you want a quick orientation to Yuma history, you’ll want to catch the ghost train, now arriving hourly at Pivot Point Interpretive Plaza. The outdoor exhibit area opened in 2010 where Madison Avenue meets the river – the exact site where the first railroad train entered Arizona in 1877. It’s hard to miss since a very real steam locomotive sits on the original track alignment.

The plaza preserves one of the few remaining artifacts of the original rail line, the concrete pivot on which the rail bridge turned to allow boats to pass.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. If there was one event that significantly changed the course of Yuma’s history and put it on the map it would be

But there was a problem that needed to be solved.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

How it worked.

.The arrow points to the pivot point – the concrete column in the earlier picture.

When you realize that everything to the left of the concrete pivot point used to be underwater, you begin to get an idea of just how much the Colorado River has shrunk today. It is just a trickle of the former raging river that it used to be.

Today’s bridge.

We finally found our train!

Travelers needed to be provided for.

Build it and they will come.

Based on my time here to date, I don’t believe too many, if any, were ever given out.

Today, this is all that is left of the hotel.

Our day was not over yet.

We headed to historic Yuma in search of lunch.

A historic fountain in the middle of town.

Art Work.

A word of welcome.

More art work.

Our lunch stop.

This is a burger plus! Everything and I mean everything was absolutely delicious. A perfect place for a mid day stop. You’re right, this is definitely not on the diet.

After lunch we walked a block or two and to see what we could see.

Then we were on our way home.

We also made another stop today but that is for tomorrow.

Time now to call it a day on The Road of Retirement. A wonderful day of new discoveries. Yet another opportunity to feed my insatiable curiosity. Just my kind of day. Time now for a glass of wine and some down time. My knees need a rest from today.

Thanks for coming along with us. Hope you enjoyed it. We always enjoy sharing our day with you and hearing from you. Catch you tomorrow.

See you on down the road!