Chore Day in Yuma and Finding Abandoned Mines Near the Campsite

Friday, February 17

I rode as a passenger in Chris and Lori Z's overlander Stewie into Yuma to get some chores done.

We went to the storage yard and put away some stuff belonging to Chris and Lori that they did not need while in Baja California.

Next, we went to a FedEx print shop to print out documentation we had missed during the first round of printing.  I had missed printing out the actual FMM form, and Chris needed to print out the proof of payment for his and Lori's FMM.

The pickup of the package from Martha went fine as did the pickup of the Amazon package containing my replacement lens for the Sony A6000.

Then things got  annoying. While grocery shopping at Walmart, I went to stock up on RV toilet paper and there was none to be had!

I realized at that point that having so many RV campers in the Yuma area resulted in a lack of available RV toilet paper at Walmart even though I tried two different Walmart locations.  Finally found some overpriced TP after lunch at an RV dealership.  

I need to find, for the long run, better alternatives to RV toilet paper.  Septic tank TP will apparently do fine.

We got back to the campsite, and everyone was exhausted from all the people we had to deal with and be around today!  We also got more evidence of how many of the drivers in Yuma drive like idiots.

We were glad to be back in the desert!

Saturday, February 18

A pretty easy day today.  So much better to be out in the desert than in a crowded city!

I tried relocating the carrier for the TW200 from the front of the VRRV to the rear hitch point.  That went fine but the spare tire is in the way, so back to the front of the VRRV went the carrier.  I did reposition the front license tag so it's visible from the front, removing a possible excuse for police to pull me over while in Baja California next week.

After lunch, I went for some riding on Yagi, the TW200, and found an abandoned mine entrance not far from camp:

The BLM has barred access to the mine

A view past the bars....

View from near the mine entrance:

I returned to the hill I visited before, it still reminds me of a ziggurat. I was planning on walking to the top again, but some OHV swine showed up and ruined the mood.

I rode back to camp and relaxed with the Z's inside the gazebo for a while.  Later on, I went walking to the north of the campsite after taking this picture:

Found a couple more abandoned mine entrances in the hills pictured above.  The pictures didn't come out right, but just imagine man-sized holes in the ground, carved out of the rock.  The entrances had barbed wire strung on metal posts barring entry.  The obstacle really wouldn't stop the fools who'd go down these old mines.

I would be back up in among the mine-laden hills when the sun set, it's the weekend so there's more campers, more OHVs racing about raising large dust clouds and filling the air with noisy engines.