We arrived at Fortuna De Oro RV Resort in Yuma, Arizona on Monday afternoon. The drive from Tucson to Yuma was a piece of cake, about three and a half hours, mostly desert with minimal traffic. My driver enjoyed it.
Our goal for Yuma was to get a serious spiffing for the Big Rig. Other Half and I had unanimously decided – somethings are best paid for. We expected it to take a couple days to get a wash and wax scheduled. Nope. Within 15 minutes of getting set up, two guys were on the job.
With the Big Rig sparkling and a couple of days to spend in Yuma, we got our tourist on.
We started with the Yuma Territorial Prison. It was interesting, but felt creepy. Legend has it it’s haunted – but only if you’re wearing red. Lucky for us, no one in our tour group wore red.
Over 3000 inmates served time at the prison for crimes ranging from a misleading marriage proposal to murder. Ages ranged from 14 to 88. The Yuma Territorial Prison housed prisoners for 33 years and high schoolers for 4. That’s right, high schoolers for 4 years.
In 1910 the prison was shutdown – the very same year the Yuma Union High School burned down. The prison seemed an obvious choice to house the high school. Makes perfect sense to me.
During that time the Yuma football team played Phoenix and “unexpectedly” won. In a stunning example of sore losers, the Phoenix team called Yuma “criminals.” It stuck. To this day the Yuma High School goes by the nickname The Criminals.
After a day at the prison, the next day we walked to Mexico. Los Algodones, aka Baja California, is a village just west of Yuma. We’ve been to Mexico in the past by way of a cruise ship. This was our first time walking across the border. We parked our car at the Quechuan Tribe parking lot and headed over.
The border is intimidating, gates, barricades, barbed wire and armed guards. Not sure what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it.
The village of Algodones is known for a heavy concentration of dentists, opticians and pharmacies. It is also known for a heavy concentration of hustlers. You can’t walk two feet without a barrage of “You need dentist? You need glasses? You need pharmacy?” Followed by “You need blankets? You need earrings? You need bracelets? You need Flamingos?”
Our favorite was the guy who asked, “You need genuine Mexican art, made in China?”
We spent a couple hours saying, “No thank you,” before we gave up on shopping and went for Margaritas and nachos. Now there’s something we could say yes to.
Next time we walk to Mexico, we’ll know what to expect. Who knows, we may even say yes to new specs.