Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The population of the city was 77,515 at the 2000 census, with a 2008 Census Bureau estimated population of 90,041. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona Metropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of Yuma County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the 2008 estimated population of the Yuma MSA is 194,322, though more than 85,000 winter visitors make Yuma their winter residence. The area's first settlers were Native American tribes whose descendants now occupy the Cocopah and Quechan reservations. In 1540, expeditions under Hernando de Alarcon and Melchior Diaz visited the area and immediately saw the natural crossing of the Colorado River as an ideal spot for a city. Later military expeditions that crossed the Colorado River at the Yuma Crossing include Juan Bautista de Anza (1774), the Mormon Battalion (1848) and the California Column(1862). Following the establishment of Fort Yuma, a town sprang up on the New Mexico (now Arizona) side of the Colorado. The townsite was duly registered in San Diego, which could not have been done if both banks of the Colorado River just below its junction with the Gila had not been recognized as being within the jurisdiction of the State of California. The county of San Diego collected taxes from there for many years. The town, initially called Colorado City was renamed Arizona City in 1858 and took the name Yuma in 1873. From the 1850s through the 1870s, the Yuma Crossing was known for its steamboat crossing, and spot for them to stop on the way up and down the river. The steamboats transported passengers and equipment for the various mines and military outposts. The Yuma Quartermaster Depot, today a state historic park, supplied all forts in present-day Arizona as well large parts of New Mexico, Colorado, New Mexico. Yuma served as the gateway to the new Republic (later State) of California, as it was one of the few natural spots to cross the very wide Colorado River. The Southern Pacific Railroad bridged the river in 1870. Yuma became the county seat for the area in 1864. Farm labor organizer Cesar Chavez was born in Yuma in 1927 but grew up in Somerton. Having spent most of his adult life in California, he died a few miles south of Yuma in the town of San Luis, Arizona in 1993. Yuma is one of the hottest cities of any size in the United States, with average July high temperatures of 107 °F (42 °C) Average January highs are around 70 °F (21 °C). According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Yuma is the sunniest place on earth. Of the possible 4,456 hours of daylight each year, the sun shines in Yuma for roughly 4,050 hours, or about 90% of the time. The near perfect flying weather year round attracts military interest in training their pilots here. On average Yuma receives about 3 inches of rain annually. On July 28, 1995 Yuma reached its all-time high at 124 °F (51 °C). The lowest recorded temperature fell to 13 °F (?11 °C) on the Yuma mesa in January 2007. The temperature fell to 13 °F (?11 °C) for approximately 2 hours and was detrimental to the many crops grown in and around Yuma. The crop that suffered the most damage was the citrus on the Yuma mesa, most notably the Lemon crop which suffered a 75 to 95% loss of not only crop, but trees and stated by the Arizona Department of Agriculture in a February 2007 report. In 1997, the desert city sustained a full tropical storm after Hurricane Nora made landfall at the mouth of the Colorado River and quickly moved due north along it. The extraordinarily rare event cut power to 12,000 customers in Yuma, and dropped 3.59 inches or over 90mm of rain at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. Yuma contains the historical Yuma Territorial Prison, the Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park (formerly known as the Yuma Crossing Historic Park), and a historic downtown area. Yuma is an Arizona Main Street City. Near Yuma are the Kofa Mountain Range and wildlife refuge, Martinez and Mittry Lakes, and the Algodones Dunes. The city is also the location of the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, which conducts an annual air show and many large-scale military exercises. There is also the Yuma Proving Ground, an Army base which tests new military equipment. Another point of interest in Yuma is the Colorado River which runs along the north and west side of town dividing Arizona and California. Yuma is an important station for trucking industry movement of goods between California, Arizona, and Mexico. The Rialto once owned a Kilgen pipe organ, one of the most glamorous and expensive pipe organs to have ever been made, historically; though originally it was played as an accompaniment to silent films, it has since been relocated to the Yuma Theater in Yuma, Arizona.

Some times you just get lucky. A few roads I travel close to home, I use because they have nice scenery or interesting points of interest. The intersection of Lyell St. and Washington st. in Adams Basin, NY is an area I pass by often because that is where the state of NY often ties up there tug boats on the canal and also it is a pretty spot with picnic tables, people hike or bike on by or different water craft have to slow down here to wait for a lift bridge to rise and let them pass. On this beautiful November afternoon I took this route and as I approached the lift bridge it was beginning to go up. That means traffic has to wait, a boat is coming. So I pulled off into a parking area and got out of my truck, camera in hand and waited at a picnic table for the craft to approach. I could see this craft coming around the bend of the canal and knew it was not your normal, fine line, salty, canal craft. Here comes this, camping trailer on floats, brightly painted, aluminum box. I had to have pictures. As I raised my camera, the gentlemen in the front, seated on the upper deck (roof), raised a beer bottle and yelled "no pictures" I yelled back, as I clicked away, "Why, did you steal it?", He laughed and said something else I couldn't make out, then he raised his beer higher and shouted "I love you", I shouted back "I love you too" and they motored on. As to the name, it is painted on the back of this craft. I saw the graphics painted on the side of the cabin and thought it looked like a dead woodpecker. I didn't know the name until I enlarged my second photo. (see picture below)