We're at the Gypsy Journal Rally, Yuma, AZ

Today was a much different southwest day, it rained, almost an inch here in Yuma. But guess what, we drove on grass and parked and left no tracks. We're at the Yuma Co. Fairgrounds and the soil looks to be very high in sand. Where we're parked has grass, only about an inch tall and kind of thin. It also looks like it has not been mowed in a long time, no need to mow it, it hasn't grown.

Last time we talked about the new TV we bought. We love it. We could go into lots of details, but suffice it to say, it is great. Now I can surf and watch TV at the same time without killing my batteries.

The Yuma Co Fairgrounds is across the road from a Marine Corp Air Station, where they train on several different airplanes, one of them being the near vertical take-off and landing Harrier. The approach pattern brings the planes right over where we're parked. The ability to land or takeoff vertically is because they deflect the jet engine exhaust downward. The amount of racket it makes is indescribable. Shall we just say that when we're with people, all conversation stops.

This evening we watched one plane land that seemed to be much slower than most of them. As I watched it, you could see the airplane rock for and aft as the winds near the ground affected it. Remember, a helicopter has the rotor on top, lifting it. In the Harrier's case, the airplane is riding in on a jet of air being spewed out the center bottom. The airplane is literally being balanced on the jet of air, with some support from the wings. Today was one day early for the rally, so we'll have plenty of opportunity to watch them tomorrow. I'm sure that by the weekend, we'll have seen and heard enough of them, that we'll be happy to get out of here.

We were parked for the last 6 days at the local casino on a gravel lot. When they predicted rain for last night, I was a bit concerned, as the gravel surface has a few soft spots in it where the soil seems to be very loose sand and not a mixture of sand and gravel. So when it started raining this morning, we hurried along and left before there was any standing water. We talked to some folks that left much later and because of the standing water, they observed one RV getting stuck when they failed to noticed the soft ground under the large pond.

Gene