Yuma, AZ Has Grown On Me

Another great sunset in Yuma

It’s time to wrap-up our time here in Yuma so we can make it to the big show in Quartzsite. This is our second trip to this area and I have to admit it’s grown on us. Yuma is, in many ways, an odd kinda town…it’s a rather featureless valley that’s a huge snowbird destination, mostly for its costs and southern location. When you drive through town you see packs & packs of RV parks (many 55-and over) with RVers mashed together surrounded by flat desert, a spattering of flat farmland and somewhat nondescript strip-malls. At least that was the impression I had first time I came through here.

Who’d want to winter in Yuma….really?

But if you take a bit of time to look around, you realize there’s more to it than  meets the eye, and believe it or not it starts with nature. Once you get down to it Yuma has tons of open space around town for exploration. In the west there are the impressive Imperial Sand Dunes and the rich gold history by the Muchacho Mountains. In the north you have large wildlife refuges (the Imperial Wildlife Refuge and the enormous and rarely visited KOFA Wildlife Refuge), and in the east the landscape opens to pretty foothills and some excellent hiking (for more trails check out this PDF download too). Add onto that some pretty decent golf courses and a bike path along the Colorado River and you’ve got quite the diversity of outdoor choices.

Hmmm…this place ain’t looking so bad after all.

Oh yeah, that’s my kinda fiery heaven

Yeah, this is the life!

Taggart enjoys some afternoon warmth

And then there’s the boondocking….ahhhh….the boondocking. This is really what clinches it for me. I don’t think I would enjoy staying in one of the big RV parks in town, but once you get out into the wilderness it’s a whole other story. The area around here doesn’t have nearly the scenic beauty of some of our other favorite spots, but there’s so much space that you can easily find a secluded spot to spend those perfect winter days all by your nature lonesome. And when the winter weather does what it’s supposed to (which means a nice sunny mid-70′s during the daytime) and the wind isn’t being crazy (which it does get out here) it’s simply the most relaxing place. Walk the hills in your flip flops, bike around and explore the dirt roads in your shorts and then knock back in a chair with an appropriately adult beverage to watch an eternal horizon of fiery sunset.

Oh yeeees….I can see the draw now.

Boondocking w/ buddies. That’s us, Alex&Ellen (behind) and Watson’s Wonder in the far left background

And finally there are the quirky little things that make Yuma…well Yuma. Things you didn’t even remotely expect and that might even save you some dough:

American Gold Mine just west of Yuma

Crazy Los Algodones…I love it!

• Inexpensive dentistry just around the corner in Los Algodones. What a deal!
• The cheapest place (in the US?) to get your rig washed and hand-waxed. Can you say ~$40 for a wash and ~$130 for wash/wax of a 40-footer!!
• The salad Capitol of the US (~90% of all leafy veggies in winter for the entire country are grown here) with no less than 3 weekly farmer’s markets (here, here and here).Who would’ve thunk?

Ok…you had me at hello.

When we first came here we never thought we’d come back. Then we came back anyway, then friends came to join us (The Lowes, Alex&Ellen, OhThePlacesTheyGo, Watson’s Wonder all came by to visit…plus RV Sue, Ivan&His Kitty, & Metamorphosis Road have blown thro’ this joint in the past week!) and then we were hooked. Yuma has grown on us and we’ve decided we’re probably going to come back every year. I mean with so much going on, who wouldn’t want to winter here…really?

My great new smile!

Update On My Los Algondones Dentist Appt 1/21: I got my new crown installed yesterday morning and I am over the moon. This crown is 100% better fit than my old one (which always felt too big & awkward in my mouth), feels perfect and looks great. Dr. Urena did an outstanding job making sure the fit and look was just right. She even sent out the crown for some re-work in the AM to re-file the inner side and improve the fit. No-one can tell which tooth is the crown unless I point it out. We’ll see how this holds up, but for the moment I am very, very happy with the results!

An evening fire at our boondocking site

Playtime in the desert!

Gold in the hills

Gold in the sky

Back In Time To The Heyday Of Gold -> Hedges/Tumco Ghost Town

“One in every five miners who came to California in 1849 was dead within six months.”
Quote from a writer of the Sacramento Bee

Paul poses by the old hospital in Hedges/Tumco

We’re in the heart of some of the oldest gold mine history in California and y’all know how I love those wild west stories. This is my kinda hard, crazy history filled with the dreams of fools looking to make it rich. Last year we did some local prospecting around our boondocking site, but this time around we decided to make the trek ~5 miles north to the ghost town of Hedges/Tumco, a site that takes us right back to the start of it all.

Ghosts of the past. View of the Hedges/Tumco town.

Yours truly by the massive cyanide vats that used to process gold ore

Gold has always been a draw in these hills. In the 1600′s the Spanish explorers discovered gold in the Sierra de San Pablo Mountains (now known as Cargo Muchachos), and in 1780 established the first mission in Yuma. The Spaniards exploited the area, but war and strife followed leaving the ores largely undeveloped until much later….right up until 1849. It was the start of the gold rush, one of the biggest migrations in the history of the US. The “49′ers”, as history would remember them, were the very first, the most hardy souls that led the chase. These idealistic madmen named themselves after Greek mythology, the “Argonauts” -> a band of heros in search of a golden fleece.

And seek they did, oh yes they did. In 1849 Fort Yuma was established followed by the railroad in 1877, and hundreds of thousands of prospectors on the western trail. Most of the early migration went further northwest, but by 1880′s interest revived in the Tumco valley and the first claims were opened here.

Ellen poses by the remains of the old saloon

Site of the old cemetery

From there it was a typical gold rush story. In 1894 the valley settlement named Hedges had established ~31 tents, a large stamp mill capable of crushing 100 tons per day and over 12 miles of water pipeline. By the turn of the century the town had grown to one of the biggest mines in the state with 500 people, 100 stamp mills, a school, a church, two cemeteries and massive cyanide plants for ore post-processing. Then, as quickly as the riches had amassed they disappeared, things turned downhill and by 1909 the town was mostly abandoned. Interest re-surged briefly in 1910 with a new set of investors who re-named the settlement Tumco, but it was a short-lived dream that shut down again only a year later.

After this time the mine saw several years of sporadic development, but never quite reached the heyday of the early 1900′s. It was finally abandoned as a ghost town in 1949, 100 years to the day after the start of the big rush.

Alex, Ellen and Paul walk the trail in Hedges/Tumco

Paul checks out history at the Gold Rock Ranch

We headed out on our ghost town adventure with our buddies Alex&Ellen on the day the cold weather broke here in Yuma bathing our site in warm temps and gorgeous blue skies. The mine is on BLM land just a few miles north on Ogilby Road. Although most of the structures have vanished to rubble, there is a nice hiking trail with well-marked sites that take you around the whole town and gives a great feel for what it was like. The whole place is a wild, crazy, lonely spot and apart from the ghosts we were the only souls there. We spent a good hour walking around and imagining the harsh life in the old mine before heading a mile across the road to historic and quirky Gold Rock Ranch to putter around the shop, check out the history knickknacks, scope out the RV park and meet the locals.

A very, very cool ghost town which is most definitely worth the trip.

NOTE/ Since Tumco is on BLM land you can actually boondock right next to the mine for free (so very cool)! If you want more civilization the quirky RV park across the road has a dump and full hookup sites for $40/night ($20/night with Passport America).

The excellent trail at Tumco

Oh, the stories this old earth could tell!

Getting Dental Work In Mexico Part I – Clarifying Myths & Facts

Should you go get your dental work in Mexico?

So we finally went to the dentist in Mexico and I know many of you are very, very interested in the results. I’ll start off by saying I don’t necessarily have the fear that many might have of getting care in a “foreign country”. I was born in a foreign country, grew up in Asia, have been to the dentist in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, UK, US, S.America and have received both good and not-so-good care in my past. So going to get work done in Mexico is not that big a deal. But I do think there are general precautions everyone should take up-front and there are some significant $$ advantages which makes it worth looking into.

Walking into Los Algodones, Mexico

What I want to do in this first post is try to clarify some Myths and Facts about Mexican Dentists before I delve into details about our own experience and how you can go about making your own choice in dentist. This post will be mostly related to the town we visited, Los Algonodones although I will try to touch on some general points too.

1/ Myth Or Fact: It’s Not Safe At All To Go To Mexico

Answer: Myth
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that all of Mexico is a safe place to visit, the same way I’m not going to gell you that all parts of New York are safe to visit. There are certainly many towns that are not safe at the moment, and (just personally) I won’t be taking any RV trips to Mexico anytime soon. But I can absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt tell you that Los Algodones is fine. This is a tourist town right by the border of only ~5 square blocks with literally thousands of people coming through everyday. There are more tourists than locals here, and everyone depends on the business. We did not feel the faintest touch of worry down there and I would be quite happy to visit by myself (which, in fact, I’m going to do next Monday for my last appt).

2/ Myth Or Fact : You Can Get Any Kind Of Dental Work Done in Mexico

Answer: Fact

Many people go to Mexico for implants

Yes, you can get just about anything done in Mexico. The border town of Los Algodones caters specifically to dental, prescription drug and eyeglass tourists. In this small 5-block town there are over 300 dentists with every kind of specialty imaginable from basic cleaning to full dental implants. Many tourists actually go for major work mostly because of the cost advantages (see #3 below) so it’s common to see people having multiple implants and other large cosmetic procedures down there. Paul and I both had cleanings in Mexico yesterday and I’m in the middle of having some more serious work to remove a crown, re-do the root canal and re-do the crown (work I’ve been putting off for a long time). It will be a week before my work is complete so I will report back fully at that time.

3/ Myth Or Fact: Dentist Work Is Alot Cheaper In Mexico

Answer: Fact
Typically any work you get done in Los Algodones will cost ~1/3 of US prices and this is true of most Mexican border towns. How are they able to do it? Mostly because of lower operating costs, lower insurance, lower labor costs  etc. As an example here are some costs:
Cleaning $25-30
Root Canal $200
Fully porcelain (no metal) Crown $300
Dental Implants $1200-$1700
And for more major work? We know a couple who were quoted ~$50,000 for a major restoration (with implants) in the US and got them done for $17,000 in Los Algodones. Work costs will vary somewhat from office to office, so ask around before setting-up your appt.

4/ Myth Or Fact: All Dentists in Mexico Have Been Trained In The US

Answer: Myth
This is actually a common myth that’s perpetrated on the internet forums. The vast majority of Mexican dentists are trained in schools in Mexico. They may come to the US for specialty training or post-grad training, but almost all the dentists in Los Algodones will have degrees from Mexico, and you’ll see these hanging right on their walls.

5/ Myth Or Fact: All Mexican Dentists Are Good

Answer: Myth

Do your research before picking an office

This should really be self-evident and applies to any dentist in any country. You can get good and bad care just about anywhere. In fact my botched crown job that I’ve been living with for ~15 years was originally done in the US (this dentist also destroyed some of my other teeth, unfortunately). Not that that says anything about US dentists in general. I simply made a bad choice and was stupid enough to stick with it. The same is true in Mexico. You can certainly get bad care there, perhaps more easily than in the US since they don’t have the same agency oversight that you have here. So, you do have to be picky about your choices. In Los Algodones many dentists are specialists, so if you’re looking to have implant work done, for example, I would look specifically at dentists with specialties in implants. And further, I would go with established dentists with an established reputation. There is alot of  competition in Los Algodones and literally thousands of tourists travel there everyday. If your dentist has been operating for many years with a good reputation and is still in business he/she is likely to offer pretty good care.

6/ Myth Or Fact: You Need To Make An Appointment

Answer: Depends
I would say if you’re just travelling down for a dental cleaning, you can get by without an appointment. There are plenty of offices offering this simple service and you can walk in right off the street to get it. If, however you’re travelling down for specialty work, then I would definitely do your research beforehand and make an appointment. In fact I would go one step further and make sure you get to see the exact dentist you want. Some of the larger offices (e.g. Sani Group) house several dentists and each may have their own speciality. Make sure you book the actual dentist, not just the office.

7/ Myth Or Fact: You Can Get Everything You Need Done In A Day

Answer: Myth
Some work can be done right away, but Mexican dentists are no more miracle-workers than American dentists. I was able to get my root canal re-done the same day my dentist took off the crown (and saw what was underneath), but I have to wait a week for things to heal up before I can get my crown. If you’re coming for implant work you WILL need time. Sometimes the mouth requires significant healing time (6 weeks to 6 months) before you can take the next step and you should be aware of that before you start the process.

8/ Myth Or Fact: You Need To Bring Foreign Currency

Answer: Myth (but do bring cash)
Los Algodones, like many tourist border towns, will happily take US$ for everything you do down there. Many dentists offices will ony accept cash or check so do make sure before heading down (some will take credit cards, but often there is an extra charge). All the local vendors and shops will deal in US$. You won’t need foreign currency, but DO remember your passport. The border crossing will require it on your way back.

9/ Myth Or Fact: There Are Horror Stories Of Care In Mexico

Answer: Fact

You can definitely find horror stories of trips to Mexico

I know I kind of addressed this in #5, but I want to touch on it again since this is probably the number one issue that comes up regarding dentistry in Mexico. Yes, you will find plenty of horror stories on the net, and yes, you can most certainly have a bad experience. But you can also find thousands of people who’ve had very good experiences and rave about their results. Simply speaking, if all the care in Mexico was that bad, no tourists would come and these offices wouldn’t exist. DO YOUR RESEARCH before you go -> get recommendations, ask around on the forums, look at experience, how long the dentist has been operating, credentials, what his/her specialty is etc. Don’t just go down, walk into the first office you see and expect to get great results on major dental services. I wouldn’t do that in the US and I certainly wouldn’t do it in Mexico.

My next post will cover specifically our personal experiences in Los Algodones and how we found our particular dentist. Feel free to comment on your own experience or myths/facts that I missed.

We May Be In The Boonies, But We Are Not Alone….

A gorgeous, but very chilly sunset

We’ve managed the first few days of the Arctic Blast without turning into boondocking ice-cubes, but we’ve got a couple more to go before things (hopefully) return to normal. Today will probably be our most testing day since temps this AM started just below freezing PLUS we’ve been rewarded with a brisk 25 mph wind to ensure we know who’s boss. Yes, mother nature…we bow to your most fabulousness superiorityness.

And we are out there…really, really out there.

The place we’re currently boondocking (reviewed last year in THIS POST) is quite large. It’s somewhat stark in nature without the intimate prettiness of some of our other fav spots, but it’s got LOTS of space which means plenty of opportunity to get wild and lost. Right up my alley, in other words. Many boondockers here seem to congregate together nearer the entrance, which probably says alot about human social nature:

Many bondockers like to stick somewhat together

And then of course there’s us. We are different, in so many ways…and we push “The Beast” to where many others would never go. I guess our choice of location shows it too?

And then there’s us…can you see us? Look closely in the middle there.

One of the officially marked geoglyps in the area

But despite this solitude we are not alone. The area around here is bursting with ghosts of history past and even a few living souls that you might know too. The hills around this area are littered with gold and have a rich mining past, but the story goes even further back than that. Many centuries ago the native indians (in particular the Cocopah and Quechan tribes) roamed these desolate lands and their shamans left memories of their passing with rare earth carvings that etch the landscape around our boondocking location. Coooool! I set off in search of these Geoglyphs on my bike and found not only several fascinating spots, but a couple of interesting (and unmarked) etchings with a more modern twist (see below).

Somewhere out there are others…

And as for living souls? Somewhere out in this BLM wonderland RV Sue And Her Canine Crew have set-up shop (in fact she just met her neighbors), plus Ivan and his kitty are hanging here too (and he just had a rather interesting AZ security encounter). As large as this area is I’ve yet to spot them, but we may well knock into each other during our time here.

Hanging with our new buddies, The Lowes

In more civilized digs MonaLiza and Steve of The Lowes RV Adventures are staying in an RV Park in Yuma and popped over for a happy hour sunset at our rig. We followed their travels through Alaska last year and have kept in contact via the internet ever since, but this was the first time we got to meet the vivacious couple and share some time together. Always a joy to meet like-minded folks on the road.

And as for today? We’re buckling up and riding out the wind before our trip south of the border tomorrow, I’ve got an irritating (but necessary) trip to El Centro and then this afternoon (if the weather holds) our ‘ol RV buddies Alex&Ellen are coming to join us. Who says life is boring in the boonies?

Sunset and plunging temps

A more modern geoglyph perhaps?

Back To The Desert Boonies…And An Arctic Blast??!! Yuma, AZ

Our new home…

So we’ve left San Diego and can once again breathe the sigh of wide-open spaces and a relaxing desert sunset. Ahhhhh…in our beloved boonies once again! Nothing quite like expansive views at zero cost to make a boondockers heart a-flutter with joy…it’s glorious, it’s gorgeous, but it’s not all-together perfect. Oh no, it is certainly not. As Shakespeare most likely would have put it (had he been RVing that is), something is rotten in the state of AZ, and it’s all the fault of those pesky northerners.

You see we’re scheduled for a rare “Arctic Blast“. It’s a highly unusual situation where icy-cold winds descend like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the north and engulf the poor temperate-loving, surf-short and flip-flop wearing folks of the south. At the same time a wonderfully warm thaw engulfs the East creating a yin-yang of temps across the US. Granted it’s not exactly snow-weather, but I’m a total temperature wimp.

Chilly morning hike in the hills by our boondocking spot

Here we are, clustered right next to the Mexican border (as far south as we can reasonably get here), with our nighttime forecast scheduled to be COLDER than New York City??!! I mean, seriously??!! We may be the only nutters on the entire planet who decide to go boondocking on a week-end like this, and I’m worried my usual sock-in-flip-flop attire (as fashionably fetching as it is) may not be enough.

But what is life without a few challenges, eh?

Sunset looks deceivingly warm, doesn’t it?

Open views….aaaah!

Thankfully being the experienced cold-weather boondockers we are, we have an entire RV-ready arsenal at our disposal. Reflectix insulation for all the windows, new insulating MCD shades, a cozy Mr.Buddy heater, a full propane tank and enough solar power to re-charge those batteries even with a whole night of running the furnace. Oh, and sock-in-flops of course. At night all the animals and us squeeze into the back bedroom with the furnace on and create a 3-foot-high human-fur pile of mutual insulation. It may be a little harder to sleep with two cats super-glued to your chest, but it sure is warm….

We’re going to spend the next few days just relaxing and enjoying our boondocking spot before making our way to our dentist appts in Mexico. That is, if we don’t freeze into ice cubes first.

The kitties discuss the Arctic Blast

The road view from our boondcking site

Polly scans the horizon for rabbits

Sunset ain’t too bad, I must admit