Christmas with the WINs

This free BLM camping spot is the best utilized piece of government land in the US. About 75 WINs traditionally assemble here for Christmas and New Years.


Christmas Eve there was finger food, music and singing around the campfire. The tent is our "WINwam," an experimental games and gathering place.


One windy morning, 50 of us crowded in for our morning coffee get-together.


We all enjoyed a terrific Christmas dinner at the VFW, complete with turkeys, ham, and oodles of side dishes. The weather was 70 and sunny. The VFW is located next to the piece of land we're camped on. It's a great dancing spot, with a live band almost every day.



We hope you all had a very merry Christmas

And best wishes for a happy New Year!

War in the Woods

We are camped just at the edge a lovely, mysterious patch of salt cedar trees, just outside Yuma. Local would-be warriors come often to wage paintball wars. Diana braved the war zone long enough to get these shots.


Their hi-tech guns hurl 5 cent paintballs at an alarming velocity. But the warriors are all helmeted and armored. Multicolored tree trunks tell the story of many battles.

History Mystery

Curiosity drew us downtown to learn about Yuma Crossing. Why, we wondered, have millions chosen this place to cross the Colorado River? The answer is that all traffic west was funneled here by harsh geography–mountains and canyons. A glance at the map will confirm that this is the only reasonable place to cross.


In 1848, Gold Rush traffic at the crossing became so heavy that ferry operations began. One busy entrepreneur made $60,000 in one year–millions in today’s dollars. A railroad bridge made the ferries obsolete in 1877.


To this very day, Yuma is the only feasible crossing within 100 miles for both trains and cars.

We discovered something equally surprising about this historic point–an extraordinary engineering feat. Here, Yuma’s main canal flows under the Colorado River. Yuma’s water supply flows from Laguna Dam 15 miles upriver. Geological considerations put the canal on the wrong side of the river. To get the water across to the Yuma side, a reverse siphon was constructed in 1915, down 90 feet, across a thousand, and up the other side, where it flows via gravity into Mexico, gradually being used up in agriculture. None reaches the sea. We watched the cool, clear, precious stuff bubble up.

Randy's New Poem

Randy's most requested poem is "The Dance of Testosterone," which characterized men at their most foolish and vulnerable moments. So it's only fair------

The Dance of Estrogen

Ladies are wired by evolution
To carefully guard their favors.
‘Cause babies are big responsibilities
And fathers come in weird flavors.

So it’s no, no, no, no, no, no, no
Until—one blue moon night
When her estrogen kicks in
And the stars are lined up right.

And if the guy—is in her ballpark,
Her heart beats somewhat quicker;
The cha-cha’s so seductive and
She’s had 4 shots of liquor.

Then we see a different lady—
Gone is Miss Prudish Hen.
Out goes Miss Reluctance and
Miss Pussy Cat walks in.

Her dress is showing cleavage,
Perfume casting spells,
She seems so fascinated by
The stories that he tells.

One hand brushes back her hair;
An eyebrow rises high.
She lifts across one leg, revealing
An exciting flash of thigh.

With her bosom thrust forward,
Buttocks tilted back,
Wiggling as she’s walking like
Two piglets in a sack.

Swish and swaying on the dance floor,
Till the music turns to hot,
Then she’s wiggling and a jiggling all
The goodies that she’s got.

Now the guy goes kinda crazy,
So focused on the pink,
His mind drops down below his belt;
He can no longer think.

She’s hooked him and she knows it;
Just wind on in the reel,
One excited fishy-man
Floppin’ in her creel.

Oh, the power and the beauty
Of women courtin’ men,
The light and fancy stepping of
The Dance of Estrogen.

New to Our Blog?

As you may have noticed, winter is a time to relax, visit grandchildren, and catch up on projects.

For new readers, we have added a new section, "Favorite Episodes," in the left hand column, to instantly take you to a few of our more exciting and photogenic adventures of the last spring, summer and fall.

How to Find Great Camping Spots

Thousands of great camping spots like the one above are available everywhere. You can find them if you have a Delorme detailed map of the state showing BLM, National Forest, and state lands. An Arizona state land permit is $15 per year. We have returned to this free, quiet, scenic spot we found last year very close to Yuma amenities.

The World's First Mobile Codger Rendezvous

Randy, en route to the Codger Rendezvous, stopped in Calipatria, the lowest town in the US. The top of the 173-foot flagpole is sea level.


The Rendezvous went great, with more than 50 codgers and codgerettes in attendance. Lots of useful information was exchanged. For a complete report, click here.

A Naked Santa ???

Okay, so he's not really naked. But before we went to see Santa, we took Mara shopping at an ornament store. Out of the thousands of ornaments there, the one she liked best was of Santa and a moose taking a bath together. Hmmmmm.... She was just enthralled with it, and exclaimed "He's NAKED!!" She took the ornament to the mall to show Santa, while she asked him to bring her some "M&Ms" for Christmas.

Diana