Back To The Desert Boonies…And An Arctic Blast??!! Yuma, AZ
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.
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?
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.
“as far south as we can really get” In reality you are at least 400 miles to the north of the lower part of Texas. Your lattitude is more like Dallas Texas and Savannah, Ga. Actually a lot of the USA is more south than Yuma.
True, true. It would be more accurate to say as far south as we can get here in Yuma. I was using it more as a figure of speach, but I admit to the faulty geography. Many parts of the US much further S than us.
Nina
P.S. Updated the phrase in the post to make it a “little” more appropriate 🙂
Stay warm, you two! Polly’s got a fur coat, so she’s probably good. You will notice a distinct lack of trees…ever wonder if earlier folks might have burned them all up trying to stay warm when the weather was like this?
Mostly desert shrubbery around here. I guess there might have been more of it around in the past before all the mining towns sprung up. I wonder?
Nina
How long will you be in the Yuma area? We will be there on 6 Feb for a month. We are not boondockers and stay at Cocopah. If you are still in the area I would enjoymeeting up with you. Based on your blog we contributed about $13K last year to the economy at Elite, extended warranty, camping at Armitage, meals in Bandon and so on. 🙂
Ronnie (also member of iRV2)
We’re only scheduled to be here about a week, then heading to the big show in Quartzsite. LOVE the fact that you spent all that time in OR last year. Pretty neat!
Nina
Flip flops and socks ? How do you do that ? Am I missing something? I would like to use flip flops and sock :-/
Well since you asked I just tuck my sock between my big toe and the other toes, and then slip into the flip flop. If I were more advanced I guess I could sew myself a custom sock, but this has always worked for me 🙂
The sock in flop technique…[/caption]
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You will be able to find some toe socks (Socks that have toe sleeves kind of like gloves) while you are in Quartzsite! I bought a couple pairs last year. We will be in Quartzsite the end of January. I am a rock hound and love, love, love the rock and gem show! We go every year and it is the highlight of my year!
Oh how neat! Toe socks! Ok, I’ll be looking for those at the show.
Nina
Hey, come boondock in Mt. Shasta, where it was 8 this early morn! Bright and sunny, though! Happy trails!
Oh brrrrrrrrr….waaaay too cold for me. Stay warm up there.
Nina
Not so sure it is much warmer in Q….my friends said it was in the 20’s at night….but it was 56 today…we leave for there either monday or tuesday….I was going to tell you about the toe socks but someone beat me to it…
Pretty much the entire SW is getting the blast. Forecast is calling for warmer temps next week, so hopefully will be back to normal by the time you get to Q.
Nina
Whoo, really you are here in Yuma? I know it’s been very very cold hence we are not boondocking. We will be going to Mexico on Monday for some dental cleaning without appts 🙁 Are your appts with Happy Smile ? Since you are near the border maybe we can meet up with you before or after our border crossing on Monday. We plan to park our car on the US side and walk to Mexico. Let us know.
Yup we’re here!! Our appts are not until Tues and I got another appt in El Centro on Mon, but would love to see you. You’re welcome to come out in the boonies and visit tomorrow if you don’t have anything else planned? I’ll send you an e-mail.
Nina
That sounds great. Let us know your coordinates and we will be there tomorrow. What time is best ?
Just sent the e-mail. Shall we say around happy hour? 4PM or so?
Nina
We dropped below freezing here last night, so at least you were warmer than Bandon! If that’s any consolation?
A small consolidation 🙂 you guys must be getting some of that blast too.
Nina
It’s not unusual for us to get a few cold spells, but they usually don’t last long. This year that arctic blast seems to have slipped further south than usual. Can’t wait to hear about your dental visit. I have several friends who rave about their dental work south of the border.
Cuddling with the fur balls…like that 🙂 or Papa in his cap …cozy up. I’D trade a day there instead of the Midwest any day…glad your back to the boonies.
Cuddling is ALWAYS a good thing, although at these temps the cats are more like velcro than lap-warmers. Always amazes me how they manage to miraculously stretch to twice their body length when they need it haha.
Nina
Love Yuma….the hummingbird garden in the West Wetland Park is my all time favorite place for photographing hummers…Hope to get back again when we start fulltiming in February!
Thanks for the tip! Altho’ we stayed in this area last year we didn’t really get out and explore Yuma much. Hoping to get a bit more exploring done this year.
Nina
Well you are not the only nutters boondocking in this weather. We just got to QZ and yes indeed it’s cold. I think we’ll need to bring Bear in bed with us tonight for some extra heat……brrrrr.
We’re headed your way next week some time. WIll you warm it up for us please? And have the hot tub ready too?
Nina
The Margaritas are chilln 🙂 Safe travels, Ingrid
This cold spell gives a whole new meaning to tequila on the rocks 🙂
Nina
Ay caramba. I just griped about this myself. We actually WENT TO A STATE PARK for electricity to run heaters overnight. 16°, and I’m not talking Celsius. Really, Tucson?
Oh Lucky Ducks, I am glad to hear that you have power for heat. It’s COLD out there.
I Just read your blog post…too funny! At 16 degrees I don’t blame you for seeking some electricity. We dry camped a night of 17 once (and once only). That’s bleedin’ cold! At least we’re only forecasted down to around 33 in Yuma.
Nina
Oh sure, use up all the cold! We won’t be down there until late February and it’ll probably be blazing hot by then. I suppose I could try and bring some Oregon cold with us to moderate the temperatures.
Hope you have good luck with the dentist. Will be interested in your experience. Take care, guys.
You know at this rate late Feb will probably be juuuuust right! Could use me a bit of heat right now 🙂
Nina
We are heading to your area for two night of boondocking on our way to Tucson. We leave Anza Borrego Tuesday. So we’ll stay Tuesday and Wednesday night. We’ve never been to YUma. Are you near RV Sue or in that area? She sent me directions for that area since we weren’t sure where to boondock. A whole new area for us. Maybe we can say more than hello this time. If you have any better area, please let me know. Thanks!
Hi Pam,
We’re in the same general area as RV Sue (altho’ we haven’t spotted her yet…this is a BIG place). We’re down by American Girl Mine. I have info and coordinates in my post from last year here:
Boondocking Site Review – Ogilby Road, Imperial County/Yuma, CA/AZ
DO come by and say “hi” once you get set-up out here. We will be here for at least a week.
Nina
Be thankful your not just a little further north in AZ where nights are in the teens. Even with cold water running all night my hot water line froze. Take me someplace warm, please.
Yeah this arctic blast is really affecting everyone here in the SW. The teens are waaaay too cold for us!!
Nina
My dirty little secret is that DH and I wear Crocs when we RV. I prefer to keep shoes out of our RV, and Crocks are uber easy to slip on and off. 🙂
Crocs are nifty that way. May have to pick some up myself. It’s hard to kick the flip-flop habit tho’ 🙂
Nina
Stocking cap and wool socks… somethings gone terribly awry. It can’t last for ever, tho.
Box Canyon Mark
Two more days…two more days…then we should get back to more civilized SW winter temps.
Nina
It’s 28 again this morning in Quartzsite, the guess is the high 40’s for today and below freezing again…but the guess is 70 on Friday! 70 is a nice number for January.
On a side note if I have to put socks on I’ll dig the shoes out too… .
You guys are only a tad more north than us, but looks about 10 degrees cooler! Brrrrrr! We hit just below freezing this AM. Really looking forward to that warmth later this week.
Nina
LOL 🙂 Socks in flops! 🙂 Your new home looks pretty nice. What brand is it? I work for a Florida dealership that sells RVs and we mostly carry Georgetowns and Encounters. That’s what it reminds me of, but yours might be nicer. 🙂
It’s a Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40PDQ. We’ve been very happy w/ the rig overall.
Nina