Evacuated!

10 02 2022

Winterhaven Fire

On Wednesday we had scheduled a cleaning/exam appointment at Simple Dental, across the border in Los Algodones. Mexico.  As we’re leaving for our appointments around noon, we notice thick heavy smoke boiling up just to the north of the RV park.  Worried that the fire might spread, we quickly tucked our laptops in the truck, handed the RV keys to friends that we’re traveling with and departed for the Mexican border.

About 1 hour later, just as I’m getting settled into the dental hygienist’s chair, my phone rings.  Our friends have been notified by the fire marshal that they are providing voluntary evacuation notices to the RV park, and that the smelly, eye burning, thick black smoke is likely to be present all night.  After a quick conversation with them, we decide to move to whatever accommodations they can find.  Within a few minutes, we are confirmed at the Cocopah Bend RV & Golf Resort, about 8 miles away.

After our dental appointments, we arrive back to the pedestrian border crossing to find the lines even longer than they were on Saturday.  With the prospect of waiting nearly 3 hours, we were quite appreciative of a dental office shuttle van that offered to drive us across the border for $5 each.  Filling the van with 4 other Americans, he had us back to the US parking lot in about 10 minutes.

“The Wall” in Los Algodones, Mexico

After an anxious exercise of packing things up, by around 4pm we were on the road to our new home.  More from Cocopah as we explore our new location!





Sans End RV Park, Winterhaven, CA

5 02 2022

Sans End RV Park, Winterhaven, CA

In search of the warmest spot in the western US, we’ve arrived in Yuma to temperatures forecast into the high 70’s this week and high 80’s next week.  We’re actually on the California side of the Colorado River, which defines the boundary between Arizona and California at Winterhaven. Technically Winterhaven is in the Pacific time zone and Yuma, 4 miles away is in the Mountain time zone. Confusion ensues when our phones seem to randomly set Pacific or Mountain times.

We’re parked in site 143 along with friends in 144 at Sans End RV Park.  We were booked at Sans End last year and opted to cancel due to Covid concerns.  Owners/Managers here were awesome, allowing us to cancel penalty free and then make a new reservation for 2022.

Sans End RV Park, Winterhaven, CA

Sans End RV Park, Pool

This is an older park, and being located between I-8 on the south and a very high traffic rail line to the north, suffers from some noise.  Sites are simple gravel, with good 30/50 Amp connections, water and sewer port. In our opinion, some of the best sites are 130-142 which are back-in and tree covered.  Specifically site #134 provides a great view across a grassy area of the park.  Sites 114-129 aren’t optimal, requiring door to door configurations because of shared utilities.  Lower numbered sites 1-12 share a lot of privacy backed up to open, grassy areas.  And sites 17-32 are nice back-ins, but would suffer the most traffic noise from I-8.  PARK MAP

Sans End RV Park, site 111

Sans End RV Park, site 104

Sans End RV Park, site 134

Sans End RV Park, site 21