Dates aren't correct but I was trying to get things in a logical order to view as my trip progressed with the first things I did at the top instead of the bottom.

This is going to be my Hotel Prius, by removing the rear seats I can add a platform for about a queen size sleeping area and have quite a bit of storage underneath for clothing, food and other necessities.  101,000 miles on it when purchase but new Michelin tires on it.

This is my latest addition for my 2016 trip out west in May and the Prius now has 115,000 miles on the ODO.  Now have a  3" sleeping pad, before I had an 1-1/2" mattress and it was really a little too thin.  I have also removed the front passenger seat and added a padded platform that can serve as extra sleeping area plus I have room under it for my Dometic cooler, my 5 gallon water container and my extra 55 amp hour battery and a little extra room for maps etc.

This is an addition to the Prius, gives me another 32" of  sleeping area  and some storage underneath where the passenger seat goes.  The addition has 3" of foam to rest my upper body/head on.  I have tried getting into my sleeping area from the drivers seat and I was able to do it so if need be I can get in the sleeping area without getting out of the car so if there is a Grizzly outside I won't have to confront him!

 Here is what in where the front seat used to be and I have added a couple more things here since this picture.  I have checked and when I have this battery plugged into the cigarette lighter it is pulling about 4 amps when charging so not bad at all, I plan on running the Dometic cooler with this battery.

This is where I can use my porta pottie and shower, I have a solar shower bag which will hang on the post and the post is adjustable for height.  I have cut a hole in the top of the shelter to get at the bag.  The Pop-up snaps down to a circle only a half inch thick or so and I can store it underneath the mattress while traveling.

The shelter from the rear with the door unzipped, sitting in my driveway, it came with 4 small tent stakes to fasten it down in soil, I am also taking along a couple of weights to sit inside to hold it in place.

Added a storage compartment for my maps and atlas's within in easy reach of the drivers seat. 

This is my Hotel Prius. about 115,000 miles on her right now in Apr 2016

My latest addition this year is a 3" thick mattress, what I had on my Alaska trip was 1 1/2" thick and was a little too thin for my liking, this is about queen size and I have also removed the front passenger seat and made a padded platform there for additional sleeping area plus underneath I have my 35 quart Dometic cooler, my 5 gallon collapsible water container, a 55 AH battery and some extra room for other things, maps etc.

This will be my route to Yuma Arizona, blue line, it's about 2400 miles and a 4 day driving trip.

Well here it is Wed. May 4th so I should be leaving in 5 days on my trip,

I did leave till the 12th though.

My trip in my Hotel Prius:

Slept in the Prius except for 6 nights which I spent in a motel in Yuma and then one night in Surprise, AZ while getting the Prius repaired.

I made use of Walmart parking lots quite often and found them to be safe and fairly quite.  I did use Home Depot once which was next door to a Walmart in Sidell, LA  that I didn't like that well, I stayed at a National Park campground for 4 nights near Prescott, AZ and it was nice, $7 a night.

I used McDonalds often for WiFi so I could update my wife on my where-abouts.  Once or twice I was able to use Walmart WiFi but they don't all have it.

Planning on leaving home on the 12th of May which is Thursday so maybe not so much traffic?  Time is getting closer and I was planning on stopping by nephew Kevin Arthur's place in Daphne, AL but he is still living in Gulf Shores, AL which is a little farther out of my route so I will probably drive all the way to the Mississippi welcome station and spend the night there.    My plans aren't concrete by any means so who knows what the heck I might do.

Well this was close to Kevin Arthur, Mobile Alabama and his is south and near the beach in Gulf Shores.  Kevin and his wife are building a new home farther north in Daphne, AL but the contractor has been a little slow on getting things done.

I will be leaving day after tomorrow so getting the Prius loaded with my things.

I put in a couple of dividers to separate my food breakfast, lunch, dinner, some cooking things.  A board lays over this opening when I am ready for bed.

This is where the front passenger seat used to be so I got some valuable room here for various things, maps, water supply, cooler, cooker and misc other things and gadgets.  I have a padded platform that lays over the top of these things when I'm ready for a nights sleep.  I have some of my clothing behind the drivers seat and other misc things.  I will take enough clothes for a week or 10 days and I can find a Laundromat to wash things on the way.

My trip out west in May/June 2016 (my last one I'm thinking)?

Well heck I'm 86 years old now and it gets a little more difficult traveling especially in a small automobile like the Prius, however it's hard to beat the economy of the Hybrid, by keeping the speed in the 60's I an average about 50 mpg's.  I was even getting about 59 mpg's up in northern Arizona through Flagstaff and on east on I40, I finally did wake up to the fact that I was actually going downhill!  Losing altitude and the Prius sensors recognized that. 

Now, I am in Yuma Arizona 2400 miles from home and it was a 4 day trip of around 600 miles per day.  I Slept in the Prius 3 nights at Walmarts and got a decent nights sleep, the last night was in Yuma, AZ at a motel.  Yesterday was my longest drive of almost 800 miles from Sidell, LA to Kerrville, TX.  So I was a little bit tired!  Today wasn't a very long drive about 350 miles from Benson, AZ and got to Yuma at noon after making a couple stops along the way to look at interesting things and West of Tuscon I saw the largest solar farm in the world according to the lady guard at the gate and then drove north for about 11 miles to see some Petrogylples,  It was a pile of rocks with scribblings on them and the placard said that people had traveled this route called the "Southern Trail" for thousands of years.  So at least I saw some history.

Well here it is Wed and still in Yuma, AZ.  I had to hold over till Friday to go back to the dentist in Los Algodones because of a "root canal" so I am staying at the same motel till Saturday morning, ended up having to be at the dentist over a 10 day period because of the root canal and removal of an old crown to do the root canal and then to get a new crown put on and the was the last thing I had done.

I just imported a bunch of pictures from my camera so will post some of them.

This was one of my sleeping spots in Sidell, LA there was a Walmart next door but I liked this parking lot better.

Next day May 13th I was up early and heading for Texas

And this is the welcome station for Texas on I 10 and I think I have been here 4 times on different trips

I'm in Kerrville,TX and stopped at a Walmart this time, Kerrville is a about 65 miles west of San Antonio and it was a mess getting through Houston and San Antonio!

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May 14th, Saturday and heading west and I decided to drive all the way to Arizona so off we go!

I think I'm in AZ here at a rest stop, needed some water!

My newest sleeping area, about 8' to the front so lots of stretching out room.  I was in Benson, AZ at a Walmart and Benson is east about 45 miles on I 10 from Tuscon.

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May 15th Sunday and I'm heading for Yuma, AZ

My cousin Phillip Kelly lives on Ina Rd in Franklin, Indiana so I thought this was funny in Arizona.

I was west of 

Tuscon and spotted this airport with gobs of airliners out there so I just had to stop by and take a look, I think it was some sort of rebuild facility, I had to find a rest room anyway and finally snuck into an army training facility and no one inside so found a Mens room !

This was a big old 747 parked right by the fence but no markings on it.

There were gobs of these big 

Cactus west of 

Tuscon but they fizzled out on farther west toward Yuma?

Typical desert country in southern Arizona.

This is a large solar farm west of  Tuscon I talked with the security guard and she told me it's the largest in the world?

Petrogyplh site north of the solar farm abt 10 miles, they say humans had come by here for at least 12,000 years.

Got to Yuma about noon but couldn't check in till 3:00 so I went to Walmart and bought this Acer that I'm using right now since I forgot and left my Asus laptop at home.

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16th Monday morning I drove to the border to go to Los Algodones, Mexico to have some dental work done, I didn't know exactly what I needed but knew I had Periodontal disease in my gums so I headed for a Dr. Rubio's Clinic where I had an appointment to check in with the Periodontist.  Got stopped on the way by a hustler on the Mexico side wanting me to go to their Clinic so I let him take a couple of Xrays and then he quoted me a price of $3900 to give me new crowns on all of my teeth! They would grind down all my my teeth and glue crowns to them, YUK!  Well since I'm already 86 years old I was only interested in getting my problems fixed and no new teeth.  He told me that Dr. Rubio would hit me for at least twice the price but I told him I was going over there anyway.  I got in to see the Periodontist at Dr. Rubio's and he promptly took a "panoramic Xray" and said I had an infection below one of my lower teeth and would need a "root canal" to take care of that problem and then he quoted me $1200 for every thing, the root canal, laser cleaning of my upper and lower gum plus removing a crown to do the root canal, a new crown and teeth cleaning.  So that's what I decided to do.  They were very professional plus they had a very clean facility and excellent staff members.  The cost to get the work done in Mexico is typically 70 to 75% less than in the states and I had planned a trip out west in May anyway so I just modified my route a little bit to go to Los Algodones, Mexico.

This was in Rubio Clinic reception room., to anyone that is in need of dental work especially Implants etc. that can be $30,000 to $40,000 or more in the states a mouth of Implants here in Los Algodones might be around $10,000.  I would definitely recommend Dr. Rubio.  His prices are fair and he and his staff are very professional and it's clean.  You can save 70 to 75% or so on dental work here in Los Algodones vs the states,  its in Mexico and near Yuma, AZ.  I had laser cleaning of my gums, a crown removed and then a root canal preformed on that tooth then a new porcelain crown put in plus teeth cleaning for $1265 Typically $2000 or more here in the states for a root canal and crown.  For the Laser Gum treatment full mouth I have seen from $2000 to $8000 here in the states.  So I could have spent anywhere from $5000 to $6000 or more for what I had done if I had it done here in Florida!  Yikes! too much for me.

Rubio's building, a nice building compared to some of the places here and there are gobs of dentists in this little town.

I thought this was funny because this couple brought their little Yorkie along with  them, people from all over come to Los Algodones for dental work and the little town was full of people when I finally left in the afternoon.

This parking lot is on the US side of the border and run by the Quechan Indians, they charge $6 to park there all day, you can just walk a block or so to the border station.  When I got here early in the morning there was one other car there besides me but when I left the lot was jammed full.  The Indian's also have a Casio up the road a few miles if you like to gamble, this is in California.

This was my written quote from the clinic and I paid them $300 on this day, so I didn't have to pay for all of it up front, they do take credit cards but add on 2 or 3% so I took cash with me.

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May 17th and I am back in the motel and I have to stay here in Yuma until Friday when I go back to the dentist for a follow-up on the root canal and also get a crown and my top gums lasered.

So needing to kill some time I drove downtown Yuma and took this picture of a place across the Colorado River, the river is the border between Arizona and California as well as Los Algodones.

In Downtown Yuma there is this place right next to the Colorado River and it was established in 1864 and supplied provisions to army post all over Arizona, Colorado, California, Texas etc. and was called the Quartermaster Depot.

This was the Quatermasters home and was made of 2' thick adobe walls, it has been restored to it's original condition. 

A colorful cactus at the quartermasters place.

I have seen a Roadrunner a few times down here and I don't know if they can fly or not but this one just kept running along in front of me.

There were a lot of steamship that came up through the Gulf of California and up the Colorado River which was before dams were built so it was a really big river back in the 1800's.

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May 18th, Wednesday and I decided to take a run up to the Yuma Proving Grounds about 30 miles from Yuma.  It is a huge facility and run by the Army and encompasses about 900,000 acres.  They do all kinds of testing here, guns, missles, vechicles, tanks, trucks, etc. During WWII there were over a million soldiers trained at this facility.

This was out by the entrance.

This was a monster thing and was called an overland railroad train.

This gives you an idea of the size of the tires, probably 10 tall.  inside there were sleeping quarters, a kitchen and everything needed to live in it.  Don't know if it was ever used or not.

Inside the Museum there were a lot of exibits, munitions, clothing, old pictures of soldiers that trained here and a few writings like this from soldiers that were here.  Just a bunch of sand and scrub with a few Rattlesnakes and Scorpions thrown in for good measure!

This was the gate that I went in to get to the museum, I had to show my drivers license and proof of insurance to get in.  

So this was the end of my exploring for today. ________________________________________________________________________________

May 19th Thursday - what will I do today to occupy myself?

On my way north out of Yuma I spotted this neat little church, shoulda stopped and prayed for my Prius!  If I would have know it was going to break down on me later in the week.

My camping spot in the Prescott National Forest, White Spar campground just 3 miles or so south of Prescott, AZ  I decided to camp instead of staying at a motel in Yuma waiting on my dental appointment on the 26th so I'm here for 5 days at $7 a night instead of $43 a night in the motel, it wasn't a bad place for $43 either, free breakfast every morning so that was nice.

Well this morning I took a short drive out north through farm country to a place called "Betty's Kitchen"  just had to go there because it's my wife's name!  It is just a little recreation area with a few picnic tables and camp sites.  No one was there but I did take a picture of the sign to show my wife.

Sign at entrance.

This explains the name.

This whole area out to the north of Yuma is irrigated with water from the Colorado River so lots of these canals out there.  They laser level their fields to be able to properly irrigate the crops.  

I saw fields of wheat, sudan grass and other vegetables that I didn't recognize.  They say that this area supplies 90% of the winter lettuce for the country and many other crops, some 175 different kinds.  

Also the Durum Wheat it exported to Italy because they really like it for making Pasta.  Majool Dates are also grown here and supply some of the Middle East countries.

It is a multi billion industry here in this area.

Field of vegetable that I saw in bloom but I didn't know what it was.

They have 350 days of sunshine here in Yuma, they say more than any place in the world!  And they have some very fertile soil because of millions of years of silt deposited by the Colorado River when it used to flood before being dammed at several places now-a-days.

Found some wood at deserted campsites so made me a fire, I had taken along my butane torch to get a fire going and that worked good!

Bought some hot dogs so that's my supper, hard to see in this picture but I have a hot dog over the fire.

I didn't have any hot dog buns but this worked out okay!

There are a few trails so walked some of time to kill some time, I have to walk slow because I get out of breath pretty quick, it's a little over 5000' altitude here.

Court House in Prescott, not a very large city but pretty place to visit.

We were here several years ago, Betty, Jayne and me and we got us something to eat here in Sept 2006 on the square downtown.

Betty and daughter Jayne in Sedona, AZ Sept. 2006.  This is just a picture of when Betty and I and Jayne were out this way.

Well didn't have anything to do so I decided to drive up to Jerome 25 miles or so north of Prescott, an old Copper mining town turned into a tourist destination now and it sits up on the side of a mountain.

Part of Jerome

Thats actually a big 'J' on the mountain top

Me taking a break in Jerome, I was out of breath from climbing some stairs.

Old hotel in Jerome

There was an old ghost town near Jerome and I saw these little Donkeys.