Tag Archives: Cocopah Casino

Arizona

Super Bowl Sunday, Cocopah Casino (Yuma, AZ)

On Super Bowl Sunday, we just hung around the Coach until game time at the Cocopah Casino.  I used the morning to get a little waxing done on the Urban Escape Vehicle.  Stilla took a picture for your amusement:

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I called the Military Fam-Camp at Yuma Proving Grounds to tell them we wouldn’t make it in today as previously planned.  Naturally, no one was in the RV park office, so I had to leave a message.  It’s a little over 30 miles to the North on I-95 from here and we’re going North anyway eventually, so why not stay down here in the Yuma area for a while longer we thought… there’s so much to see and do right here.  I’ll call again to be sure we can get in later this week.

We think we’ll follow through on our idea to go over to the other casino in the area that we checked out on Saturday.  It’s called the Quechan Casino Resort.  And it’s closer to the Imperial Sand Dunes that I hope to check out with the ATV.  A link to the Wikipedia site for the sand dunes is here, or click here for images.

But first, we have to fill the water tank and dump.  I didn’t want to travel with a full water tank (100 gallons) when we left the Fortuna De Oro Resort, so I only put in a half-tank.  We’re already on a quarter-tank now.  So if we’re going to do some more boondocking, then I better fill it up.  Our Alpine friends gave us the scoop on a service station near us here, that allows RV’ers to take on water and dump.  We’ll plan on doing that enroute.

At super bowl time we took advantage of the Cocopah Casino Super Bowl Party that they held in one of their conference rooms with big screen projection TVs.  Our Alpine friends decided to hang around their Coach(s) to watch the game because of the crowd.  We were pleasantly surprised.. it wasn’t entirely too crowded, they had free food, (hot dogs, wings, chips/salsa, little burgers, veggies/dip, etc.,), and they had door prizes.  Unfortunately, we did’t win anything… we just enjoyed the game and company around us.  They also had $2 beers and $3.50 margaritas.

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Stilla took a break during the game to give little Coach (our dog) a pottie-break.  She took this nice picture of the evening sunset and the casino’s lighted palm trees.

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That’s all for now.  Until next time…

 

Arizona, Mexico

Los Algodones, Baja Mexico (Yuma, AZ)

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After enjoying some time at the casino and its’ buffet on Friday, we woke up Saturday to a parking lot full of cars and activity.  There was a marathon going on and the Casino was the Start/Finish line.  Runners were doing a 26 mile route.  Here’s a picture of the main entrance from the day before.  Today, it was cordoned off and full of EZ-Up tents and tables, banners, grandstands, etc.,

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We watched some of the activities and then wandered over to talk with our Alpine Coach friends.  We got the scoop on visiting Los Algodones Baja Mexico from them.  They had visited several times.  Be sure to click on the name above for some interesting information on this place from Wikipedia.

It was a little less than 20 miles from the casino where we’re parked.  Of course, we took the Silverado with the ATV still loaded on the back.  Here’s a picture of the border crossing into Los Algodones, taken just before we saw the signs that said “No Pictures”:

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And here’s a picture I swiped from the Wikipedia website of the border crossing.

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It’s been many years since we visited Mexico.  The last time was in Laredo Texas where we crossed into Nuevo Laredo, back in the early ’90s.

We parked the Silverado in the huge parking lot before the crossing and paid our $6 parking fee.  Then we simply walked through the fence and around the entrance building into Mexico.  Voila! Here we are… didn’t have to show anything or talk to anyone.  Makes you wonder how many people forget their passports and then can’t get back in, eh?

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We wandered through the crowded sidewalks while trying to avoid most of the vendors attempts to get us to look at their “stuff”.  It almost became annoying at times… you couldn’t just look at anything without getting pressured to buy it… and every “no thanks, just looking” was followed up with a lower price offer or the item was pressed into your hands.

We hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so we followed the tip we got from our fellow Alpine Coach friends, and found one of the Taco restaurants.

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The tacos were delicious.  I tried one of each; a shrimp, a fish, and a beef taco.  Stilla had the Chili Relleno.  And the margarita was great.  So were the prices 🙂

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After lunch, I couldn’t say no to a $2 shoe-shine.  Especially since the guy followed us for a block.

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Here’s Stilla checking out some wares.  Notice the vendors in the background waiting along the sidewalk to “pounce” on you as you pass by.  Just kidding, of course.  All the vendors were very friendly, but persistent.  One guy called his store the “Mexican WalMart”.

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We even broke down and bought some of the cute kid’s little bobble-head toys.  Many of the children there were selling trinkets of some sort or another.  They’ve got their marketing technique down.  We couldn’t resist.

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Now where are we going to put these in the Coach?  Oh well, maybe we can gift them…

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Here’s a few more pictures of some of the items for sale along the sidewalks and alleyways of Los Algodones:

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We made it out of there with a few shirts, a new hat for Stilla, some sleepwear, and I couldn’t say no to a $20 silver & turquoise Harley-Davidson belt buckle.  And, oh yeah – a shoe-shine.

We found another open-air restaurant/bar of sorts, complete with tiki hut and palm trees, to enjoy some more refreshments.

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We walked back through the border crossing without incident, luckily Stilla remembered her “green card” 🙂

On the way back to the Cocopah Casino where we parked the Coach, we stopped to check out the Quechan Casino that is located at the Interstate 8 exit to Los Algodones.  It’s just a few miles up the road from the border.  We noticed a huge amount of RV’s either parked in their lot or surrounding area(s).  And it looked like there were lots of ATV trails in and around the parking area(s).  We drove through the Casino RV parking area to check it out.  We were flagged down by a group of people sitting outside their RVs enjoying adult beverages.  They noticed our Colorado license plate.  They were also from Colorado and invited us to come park near them if we decided to bring the Coach over.  Hmmm, we might just have to do that…

We had tentatively reserved a spot at the Military Fam-Camp in Yuma Proving Grounds for a week beginning on 1 February, but that still left us an open week before we go back North to Lake Havasu for the Fireworks Rally on the 11th.  So we might just revise our near-term plan and stay South for a while longer.  Stay tuned…

Arizona

Cocopah Casino (Yuma, AZ)

After our trip out to the Yuma Proving Grounds and Castle Dome City Ghost Town on Wednesday, we got back to the Fortuna De Oro RV Resort just in time for steak dinner.

The Resort has a restaurant that was having T-bone night and we had made plans earlier to meet our friends from the Alpine Coach group that got here a day or two ahead of us.  We met our friends on the extensive deck area of the resort’s restaurant/bar.  Included in our arrival packet was a $5 dollar “cactus cash” coupon and a couple free drink coupons, so dinner was very reasonably priced (after using the coupons).  We lit the propane heaters on the deck and enjoyed our friend’s company for a while and then retired to the Coach.

Thursday was a stay-at-home day while we caught up on laundry.  The Splendide washer/dryer combo in the Coach takes longer than traditional washers and dryers.  We also took advantage of one of the local RV mobile wash businesses.  The prices were relatively good compared to what I’ve experienced at other parks.  Probably due to the large amount of competition.  I saw several different company logos on trucks and vans cruising around the park and washing and/or waxing rigs.

The Coach hasn’t been washed for at least a couple months, probably three.  So I bit-the-bullet and shelled out $40 for a power wash.  It was $45 after tip.  Now I can get bad to waxing the Urban Escape Vehicle… one section at a time.  It will take me several (or more) wax sessions before I can get it all to my satisfaction.

We also checked on the rates to stay another day or so at this nice resort, but they don’t offer the Passport America 50% discount until after March.  So, at $40 dollars a day, we decided to move on.  Our Alpine Coach friends that we’ve been following since Quartzsite told us about the Cocopah Casino located just South of Yuma.  They left to go there on Thursday.  Therefore, on Friday we followed them again, albeit a day later…

On Friday, after pulling in the slides, raising the jacks, and hooking up the Silverado, we made the short drive to the Cocopah Casino and RV Park.  When we arrived, we saw our Alpine friends again but the RV park was full.  We decided to join a few other rigs in the adjacent parking lot.  Actually, all the parking here is “dry”, meaning no electrical or water hook-ups, so it wasn’t any different in the parking lot as opposed to the designated RV lot.  And we actually came out better for it because we parked right next to the open grass area between the two parking lots.  Little Coach likes that 🙂

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This Casino offers three nights for $10 at the RV parking lot, but it clearly isn’t following up on this very closely.  Many rigs in the parking lot didn’t have the tags in the windshields and after talking to some folks, they’ve been there for a week or more.  We checked inside and were told not to worry… just park in the lot and come inside to spend money.  And Stilla did just that…

Tomorrow, (Saturday), we plan on going across the border to visit Los Algodones.  Stay tuned…