Yuma

We did make it out to Camp Bouse on the second try. There is very little left of it--the desert has really taken over, which is pretty amazing because mostly the desert looks, well, like a desert. During WWII, the camp was a top-secret training site for a tank battalion with a "secret weapon." The tanks had modified turrets with a slit in them that flashed extremely bright beams of light at the rate of 6 flashes per second. They were to be used in night combat, and the theory was that the bright flickering lights would make them harder for the enemy to get a fix on them, thus making them harder to hit. Although it was a promising idea, they were never really used in that capacity. We didn't do as much poking around as we would have liked because it was pouring rain! We went back to Bouse and had lunch again at Country Kitchen, and stopped at the intaglio on the way back to our camp. It wasn't as big as I thought it ws going to be --maybe 30 feet tall? but it was very interesting. It's a figure holding a spear that's pointing toward the ground; there's a wavy line to indicate water, and two fish. Above the figure ids a sun and what looks like mountains in the distance. Information at the site indicates that it may depict an ancient god, who supposedly drove his spear into the ground and started the Colorado River flowing. We couldn't get a good picture of it. You may be able to find it on the web, under Intaglios and/or Bouse Fisherman.

The next day, we left Quartzsite and drove to Mittry Lake, about 15 miles north of Yuma. It's a Bureau of Reclamation area--a nice little lake with lots of birds. No waterskiing is allowed, the only motors were on little bass boats, and there were a fair number of kayaks and canoes, making us wish we had brought ours. Ellie spent her time patrolling our beach and keeping it free of ducks and coots.We spent two nights there, and moved over to Pilot Knob, a BLM dry camping area just west of Yuma, this morning. That puts us one freeway exit from Algodones, Mexico, where we'll head tomorrow morning to get our prescriptions filled. Hopefully that won't take too long, and I'll be able to drop Steve off back at camp and check out the quilt shop in Yuma.