Labor Day at the Colorado River

Last year, we seemed to get away more for 1 or 2-night RV trips, but this year we worked nearly every day. After we checked the last rental out on the Friday before Labor Day, we rolled away in the 40' Monaco Camelot diesel pusher, towing a wakeboard boat. Jeremy and the kids insisted on driving the little Geo Tracker separately, even though it has no air conditioning!

Our destination was the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona (about 3 hours from home), a favorite boating spot for Dan and the kids (Lesley is a little more delicate and does not appreciate 115-degree heat!). There were no campgrounds with hookups to be found, so we tried the old family standby spot, Squaw Lake, which has non hookup spots for RV's, bathrooms, showers, etc. To our surprise, there were no other campers at Squaw Lake when we arrived. Later, some brave souls arrived and camped in tents on the beach. The camp host said if we parked at the far end we could run our generator all night and keep the a/c on. We launched the boat and tied it up at the beach.

Unfortunately, we soon found that the Monaco generator had a problem and would not run both air units at the same time, and the front air was not fully cold. We made do using the rear air, running the generator 24-hours a day. (We proved Dan's theory that the generator uses about half a gallon of fuel per hour.) The fridge didn't do too well, either. Good thing we discovered those flaws before we rented out this RV to someone!

Dan and the kids like to get up at sunrise and go out wakeboarding and waterskiing before any other boaters make the water choppy. By the time they come in for breakfast, Mom and Nick are up.

Boating on the river is fun as long as you stay wet and moving. When you stop the boat, you dry off in a few minutes and start to roast.

Squaw Lake is near the Imperial Dam and just across from Hidden Shores. You can take a quick boat ride over to Hidden Shores for fuel, groceries, cell phone coverage, etc. Farther up the river are other campgrounds with facilities too. Dan likes the stretch of river just upstream from Squaw Lake because it is wide and deep, with few sandbars to get in the way when skiing. Other people like to go upstream to the big sandbars, where they set up chairs and awnings and sit in the water with their friends.

Nick can swim well with his life jacket, so he had fun jumping into the water and he even took a ride in one of the tubes with Melissa. Lesley took her first tube ride, but we ran out of gas before she really got going and we had to get towed in by the sheriff's boat.

One day, Lesley and Nick took the Geo into Yuma (hot!) and shopped a bit. On Sunday, we packed up the RV and took the whole family to the evening Mass at St. Francis of Assisi parish in town. We also found out that there is a 9:30 a.m. Mass at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground chapel just 10 minutes from Squaw Lake, but we were not able to make that one. Next trip we'll try that.

After the final run Monday evening, Dan took Melissa and her friend, Julia, out to learn how to drive the manual transmission Geo while Jeremy and Lesley backed the RV down the launch ramp and retrieved the boat. We fed the rest of our carrots to the friendly wild burros who came out to see us off. When the bag was empty, though, the burros became less friendly and chased us into the RV.

For the next trip out here, we will be sure to check the status of the a/c and fridge first! And, next time, rather than the Geo, we should bring one of the trucks with good air conditioning, perhaps using the truck to bring a second boat (like the little jet boat repair project Dan has not finished yet). If we can plan ahead, we can get a site at Hidden Shores with hookups, internet access, the laundromat, etc.

As an aside, I'm glad Jason was able to come to our house and dog sit for us for this trip because this environment is not safe for dogs. Even if you leave them in the RV with the air on, a circuit breaker could pop very easily and the dogs would be in big trouble!