Sunday November 17:

In the morning I was up early uploading the website.  Both main and mirror sites went easily, and shortly after Claire awoke my net business for the weekend was finished.  We shopped Fry's for a few things, mainly fresh veggies, then discussed going to Alodones Mexico for the day before going back to Sqaw Lake Campground for two nights.  I wanted some terrycloth rags from Sam's before we left, and needed to check Pep Boys for a battery hydrometer calibrated in real specific gravity numbers.    On the way out of Sams, Claire wanted to check at the airline terminal to see if we could POSSIBLY take a backpack on the flight in addition to the kitties and her newly purchased BIIIG purse. To save walking, I pulled into a deserted commercial truck lot with much open space this Sunday.  She found the airline would allow the small backpack too.  :-)  As I pulled out onto the street over the steep berm in the driveway, I heard heavy scraping from under the RV.  :-(((  Fortunately I was going slowly, and I quickly backed up, and got out to inspect for any damage.  I had bad thoughts about broken sewer lines or valves, but apparently the muffler had dragged first;  we repositioned to go over the berm at a more oblique angle, and reached the street with no further problems.  Pep Boys parking was easier, I bought a hydrometer, and they said they DID accept crankcase drain to recycle..  :-)  Now to change the vehicle engine oil, and we'll drop off all the waste oil before we store.  By the time these "trivial" tasks were finished around 1PM, we both decided that Mexico today would be too much.  We opted instead for Historic Yuma, along the river that we needed to cross anyway to get to the BLM lands in California.  We found the visitors center closed (this IS Sunday, after all), but that left plenty of room for us to park. We took the bikes down to tour the historic area; we found the historic district was almost deserted.  One shop owner said the antique dealers were usually closed on Sunday, and Monday as well. The area has it's pretty spots;  this fountain is one.

 However, Historic Yuma did not appear to be a big tourist destination...  :-)  We did step into Lute's Casino, mentioned as an attraction in "Road Trip USA".  This may have been a Casino in old Yuma; today it is a quirky family restaurant, with lots of kiddies running around.

 The elk head looking down from the high ceiling caught my attention...  :-))  It was the only busy place we saw in the historic district, other than the line in front of the vintage movie house.  It appears this is the place for casual family relaxation on Sunday in Yuma;  it does not seem to be attracting crowds of weekend tourists.  :-)  We proceeded back to the RV, electing to skip the footbridge across the river to a mission in California.  We replaced the bikes on their racks, and the GPS revealed we had traveled 1.2 miles round trip to see historic downtown Yuma; at least we encountered no traffic jams.  :-))  We crossed the "mighty" Colorado river (well, it's pretty mighty for a desert)....and drove on towards Squaw Lake campground.

On the way past the acres and acres of vegetables we came upon a pair of wild burros feeding on hay apparently dropped in the field to feed them.

This guy looked like he would approach for a handout, but per direction, we don't feed the animals on federal lands...  :-)  I do wonder if they are fed to keep them out of the vegetable fields?     We checked into Squaw lake and ate dinner, then decided to drive back to the high ground after dark to use the cellphone.  I had a few emails to send, and Claire had some calls she had not completed.    We completed our business, and as we drove back down the hill to the campground I suddenly noticed some motion at the fence on the dam we were crossing, and in a flash a deer with quite a few points on his antlers climbed over the fence, and started across the road 50 feet in front of us.  I hit the brakes FULL HARD as Claire struggled to find the right words of warning....  We looked down on the deer that seemed to crawl low across the road in front of us;  fortunately it ignored the bright beams of our headlights and kept moving.  Before the RV could reach a full stop, the deer had disappeared into the shadows over the opposite side of the earth dam.  We rode much slower across the rest of the dam, and down to our campsite.  After backing in, I walked back to our bedroom;  the mattress had slid up against the bedroom doorway due to the deceleration of the braking.  I am not pleased we had to test the brakes this way, but I'm sure glad they worked when needed.  :-)    Sleep was again difficult tonight; more anxieties?  :-)