Fortuna Mine

We took another ride out in the Barry Goldwater Military Range.  This time we went to the Fortuna Mine(top picture).  The mine was very successful pulling out tons of gold until the vein ran out.  The story goes that some ranchers were out looking for some cattle that wandered off.  It got late so they made a campfire and spent the night.  In the morning they noticed that gold had melted out of the rocks they used to build their campfire.  They went up a dry wash to find the source and found a large quartz vein with gold in it.  The vein was worked for many years until it ran out.  There are many other holes and shafts in the area such as the one in the bottom picture.  These other holes were attempts to find the original vein.  The miners were never satisfied that they had found all of the gold. 

I found a job in the area at the local CVS pharmacy.  It should be a fun place to work and the hours and pay are good.  Its only ten minutes away and I can get there without dealing with much traffic.  Traffic is the only bad thing down here in Yuma.  Everyone comes for the nice winter weather and the roads get very busy.  I'm sure that bigger cities like Phoenix and Tuscon deal with a lot worse but its always hard to get use to traffic after a summer of being out in the middle of nowhere. 

Barry Goldwater Range 4 wheeling

We got our range passes so we could 4 wheel out on the Barry Goldwater Military Range.  Certain parts of the range are open to the public but you need a permit.  The permits are free and you can get them on line.  We traveled from where we live right on to the range.  It is less than half a mile from us.  We traveled south about an hour and half so we got pretty close to the Mexican border.  Its very safe since its on military land.  There are always jets flying overhead and rangers on the ground patrolling.  I took a picture of the tire drags they use.  They drag the road so they can easily see footprints.

Next time we will try to get all the way down to the wall/fence at the border and take some pictures.  I'm glad all the craziness is happening over along the California/Mexico border.  We are happy to be in "fortress" Yuma.  We did have an earthquake here today Monday the 19th.  It registered a 4.8.  We didn't feel it where we were standing but most people did. 

New Rhino Lining RV Roof

We had the roof of our RV replaced including the roofing on our slidouts.  Our old roof -top photo- was rubber and badly spotted.  When we washed it there was so much oxidation that it would just run white down the sides of the RV.  Our rig is now ten years old.  We could have had it recoated but that wouldn't last for more than a few years and wouldn't do anything to strengthen it.  Now with the new roof it is much stronger.  It's basically the same thing they use to coat the beds of trucks.  So now we don't have to worry about hail damage or a tree limb tearing it or the caulking around the edge of the roof coming up and water getting in and causing damage.  The new roof has a lifetime guarantee and the warranty is good nationwide.  We have been researching this for a while and when someone finally opened up a franchise here in Yuma we were ready to get it done.

They had to take everything off of the roof so they could spray around the openings of all the vents, air conditioner, etc.  They also replace all the plywood because they can't get all the sticky off of the old plywood so that it is clean enough for the spray on lining to adhere properly.  We were surprised and pleased to see they had cleaned all the vents and covers before they put them back on so it looks like we have brand new vents.   We also had them spray the the refrigerator vent cover and the air conditioner shroud.  This will keep them from disentergrating from the sun eating them.  This brand of RV roof spray on lining is a pretty silvery color.    Other brands that we have seen are a sparkly white.  We are very happy with our new roof.