We’re In Yuma

 

Sunday, January 24, 2010                                                                                         Lorraine’s report

We moved here to Fortuna De Oro in Yuma, AZ on Wednesday, leaving Quartzsite, AZ earlier than we had planned, due to the incoming inclement weather. Today it’s about 64 degrees, sunny and beautiful out.

Last Sunday we were still with the group at Quartzsite. We spent the day going through all the stands at Tyson Wells, which is full of enough stuff to tempt even the most frugal shopper. I think we bought a new flag pole and a new carpet for inside the coach. Our flag pole broke last year and the rug inside the coach was loosing the backing from being washed too many times.

We got home and had 5 o’clock with the group; having had only two Happy Hours and campfires there at Quartzsite. The best news is that I had a call from my son saying he was finishing his sixth week on the pipeline at Prudhoe Bay and was heading home Monday for a weeks rest. This was good since he has been working 14 hours a day 7 days a week since he went up there. His call made my day!

Monday we headed over to the big tent and the RV Show there at Q. We ordered new insoles from one of the vendors. Both of us have sore feet and hopefully these new ones will help both of us. It was very cold and windy and showers off and on, so no campfire or Happy Hour.

Tuesday, we headed back over to the big tent and then the sides to check out those vendors. While at the big tent, I had a call from our friends, Jim and Annie M. They had moved from up north to seven miles north of Q. They were so kind to both of us last March when I got so ill in Chula Vista, CA. They fed Chuck and they also watched Misty when I was in the hospital. When we finished at the big tent, we went on over to where they were packed and visited them for a while. We had a nice meal with them and then they taught us a new game, Hand and Foot. We barely learned the game when the wind came up strongly, then the rain started pounding their coach. Jim pulled in the big slide, since it was rocking so much. We said our goodbyes and headed for home.

The ride home was wet and windy, and parts of the road were covered with water running across the whole road. Several of the gullies we had to go through were also covered with running water up to mid tire. We hunkered down for a long wet and windy night.

Wednesday, we woke up to sunny skies and nicer weather. Most of the group came outside and visited for several hours, since several of us decided we had better get out of Dodge while the getting was good. We followed Virgil/Sharon and Sue S out of Q about noon. We were headed for Yuma. They left us at the War Memorial on 95. We tried to get into the park our friends, Joe/Alice told us about, Sans End, but no luck. It had rained hard in Yuma and there were parts of the RV Park that was flooded, and they were also full. So we headed on over to Fortuna; this is a big park, about 500 or more sites.

We set up and headed out to have a bite of dinner. But right behind us and one coach over was our friends, Jag and Bev and their coach. So we went in and visited with them for a while. Jag and Bev went to Alaska this summer, they left after us and it seemed like we just missed them all over Alaska. They followed us down the Oregon coast and they were behind us by several weeks. It’s taken five months to finally meet up with them.

Thursday, we woke up to rainy, windy and just a nasty day. This storm was the big storm that was dumping all the rain on the CA coast and the snow in the CA Mountains. We stayed in all day; Chuck venturing out in his rain coat to walk Misty, and then they weren’t out long at all. I made up a big pot of beef stew and we watched movies all day.

Friday, I had my dentist appointment in Algodones, Mexico with Dr. Ramos. He was the dentist that did my five caps two years ago. While in Alaska this summer, I broke two teeth, the fillings, and have been needing them fixed. He examined them and we started work. I want most of my teeth fixed; and he’s sure working hard to get them done. I made another appointment for more work on Saturday. We went home and had dinner.

Saturday, it was back to Mexico for more dental work. Dr. Ramos is doing all the prep work for a bridge and several caps. I go back on Wednesday for setting the bridge and the crowns, then back an hour later for more prep for the rest of my teeth. Next Friday he will place all the caps and I should be done. Chuck sure has been taking such good care of me; I’d be lost without him. He pops in to the room where I’m having the work done to see how I’m doing and offers encouragement. It will be nice to have my teeth fixed so they aren’t hurting me all the time.

I have to tell everyone that waited last year in the line for up to two hours to get back into the United States, that this year we have walked right up to the turn stile, and have had to wait five maybe ten minutes tops. Having four inspectors that are working sure has made a big difference for the travelers coming back from Mexico.

We got home and I rested. We had made plans to go to dinner with Sharon and TJ R, our friends whose place we stayed at last year. We went for Mexican and had a nice visit and a nice dinner with them. We hope to visit with them again; I was just too tired to go over to their place for a hot game of Pegs and Jokers.

Our heartfelt sympathy and prayers go out to our good friend, Richard L and his family in the passing of his Dad.  We stood up for Richard and his new wife, Sandy last June 27 in Bellingham.  It is so hard to loose both your parents and become an orphan, but the best part is knowing that your mom and dad are now together forever.

So that was our week…Until next time…..Lorraine

 

1/24/10                                                                                                                               Chuck’s report

I offer our sympathy to a good friend of ours for the passing of his father.  Richard called last week to report his father had just been diagnosed with cancer and they were running lots of test to see where it had spread.  Later this week Richard developed pneumonia and had to go to the emergency room for treatment.  While he was in the ER he received word his father had just passed.  What a sad thing and terrible timing but I guess there is no good time to loose a loved one.  You know we are with you and your family in spirit as we can’t be there in person. 

I’m sure everyone has either heard about or experienced the storms that hit Southern California this past week.  Well, the storms also affected our gathering in Quartzsite and a couple of days later us here in Yuma.  We only had two happy hour gatherings in the evenings due to either wind or rain or both.  We really missed this year’s fellowship around the campfire, usually that’s when/where all the fun stuff happens.  We still enjoyed our time there, just missed the campfire camaraderie.  Oh well, blame the weather, not the people.

We did manage to go through most of the vendors and the big tent in between the storms, got the stuff we needed and of course, some stuff we didn’t know we needed.  It appeared to me that more people were at Quartzsite this year than last, maybe the economy is better or the weather back home was worse, who knows.  Anyway, the crowds seems a bit denser and I think there were more people boondocking in the desert than last year. 

We got a call from our friends, Jim/Annie on Monday.  They were parked on BLM land a few miles North of us and wanted us to come out and visit them.  We quickly agreed as we haven’t seen them since Lorraine got so sick with her liver problems and they helped us out all they could.  Anyway, we took off to find them and really enjoyed our visit.  The next day they invited us out again and fixed us dinner as an added bonus, thanks.  They also taught us a new card game called Hand and Foot, the gals beat us guys pretty badly.  The weather turned bad, lots of wind and rain so we said our “see you laters” and went back to our rig a bit after dark.  We really enjoyed our time visiting with these two fine folks, they are the salt of the earth. 

As I said, it was raining hard when we left and once we got close to where we were parked in the desert, we had to cross a couple of what had been dry washes.  The water was running down the roads, the washes had lots of running water, some over a foot deep.  Everyone else appeared to be hunkering down in their rigs and that’s what we did too. 

The weather forecast was for one day’s break between storms on Wednesday.  We had planned to leave Q on Thursday but after the storm on Tuesday night, we make the decision to leave on Wednesday.  It seemed quite  a few others made the same decision as the area quickly started to clear out.  Virgil/Sharon and Sue were going to leave the same time as us and were also headed to Yuma so we decided to have a mini caravan.  We followed them out and down the road until they turned off to head towards their final stop. 

On the way down we could see where the water had been pretty deep in lots of the washes alongside and over the road.  We had good weather all the way down with no rain and little wind.  We checked a couple of campgrounds before we settled in here at Fortuna De Oro on the East side of Yuma.  The other parks were full with all the folks that had left Q due to the weather, great minds think alike.

We got set up and noticed some friends of ours were parked in the next row over.  We drove over to say hi to Jag/Bev, ended up staying over an hour visiting with them, a long “HI” I guess.  They are from Canada, we met them our first year in Q and spent some time with them in Red Bay during our first visit there.  They toured Alaska this summer also but we were never able get together with them.  (As Maxwell Smart says, missed them by that much.)  It was good to get caught up on their travels and visit with them.  Jag came over to our rig the next evening to work on my computer and we will get together with them this week for more visiting, I hope. 

Thursday proved the weather forecasters can be right some of the time.  They said the upcoming storm would be the biggest of the week.  Boy were they right!  We got over 2 1/2” of rain and the wind was a steady 45 MPH with gusts over 60, or so I heard.  Yuma’s normal rainfall total for the year is under 4”, they’ve had more than that this week alone.  I noticed lots of rigs pulled in their slideouts due to the wind blowing so hard, we were close to making that same decision before the winds died down a little bit about 4:30 or so. 

But like all good things, the good weather has returned.  Friday we had very scattered rain, mostly sunny with temperatures on the 60s.  Saturday was very nice with sunny skies all day, temperatures got up to almost 70, very nice.  Today the sun is shining, in fact, the sunshine may start drifting and I’ll have to shovel it later.

One of the main reasons we wanted to stay in Yuma is because its close to the dentists in Algodones, Mexico.  We have gone to them for two years now and Lorraine wanted to get some serious dental work done this year.  She had an appointment on Friday and they also worked on her on Saturday.  She has two more appointments next week.  We also stocked up on some medication while there, same stuff we can get here but about 1/4 of the price.  And of course, they have some cheap alcohol in the liquor store if anyone is of the mind to get some.   And lastly, I got a $3 haircut and just for information, if you are getting a haircut in Mexico and the barber asks you a question you don’t understand, it may not be a good idea to just say yes - -  No pictures though. 

Saturday evening we went over to our friend’s, TJ/Sharon, house then went to dinner with them.  We stayed on their lot with them for a month last year and saw them for one afternoon at their house in Ferndale, Washington one afternoon before we left for Alaska this spring.  Once again, it was good to catch up with their activities since we last visited with them.  We had a very good time visiting and will plan to see these fine folks before we leave.  We also were able to say a quick hi to Larry/Kathy who live next door and hope to have a longer visit with them too. 

We finally have the official word on our travels for the spring.  I was asked if I might be interested in returning to Washington to work for awhile this spring.  I agreed to that and they proceeded to get permission for me (and other retirees) to return to work temporarily.   Well it turns out, they can’t get permission to re-hire us old farts.  So that means we will just continue on with our previous plans.  No big problem, in fact, we are really glad to have this settled so we can firm up our plans and go on with gettin’ on. 

We had made appointments for some needed repairs to our coach back in Red Bay, Alabama where the factory is located.  They have a large repair facility but only make 3 appointments per day, the rest of the bays are used for walk-ins or very short time repairs.  They start making appointments for the year starting June 1st of the previous year and the appointments fill up fast.  I was able to get an appointment for June 4th but we decided to go there earlier in the year without an appointment and wait for a walk-in opening.  It can take a couple of weeks sometimes for an opening and we were prepared to wait plus we were going to deal with some of the smaller local shops for some non-warranty work while waiting.  I was able, however, to exchange our appointment with someone who had made one in early March that fits our schedule very nicely. 

So with those dates set and appointments made we will now start our slow trip back to Alabama next week.  My brother Brad called a couple of weeks ago and said he would like to get out of the winter weather in Missouri and meet up with us somewhere along our travels this winter.  I sent him our proposed schedule and he suggested we meet up in New Orleans.  So with that as our next destination, I can now figure out the rest of our itinerary for that portion of our trip. 

We have a number of friends we want to visit while going through Texas so I will need to contact them too.  Boy have we made a lot of friends since we’ve been on the road for just a bit over three years!   What a life.  Lorraine and I were talking the other day about this very fact.  When we retired we agreed to try this lifestyle for 3 – 5 years to see if we liked it.  She said we need about another 15 years to see all the rest of the country so I guess we won’t be settling down in a sticks and brick house anytime soon, God willing.  We’re still having fun, have met and are meeting some very nice folks and seeing this great country we live in. 

So our plans are to stick around the Yuma area for this week and then head East.  We don’t like to travel more than two days in a row and have a couple of longer stops we want to make.  I have the calendar, maps and campground books and will now put the rest of it together. 

And now for some pictures of the previous week. 

This sign was at a food stand in Quartzsite, had to take a picture for our buddy Mark. 

Our fearless leader Mike making the Quartzsite newbies go through the annual newbie initiation. 

 

The four newbie guys in our group and all the guys after the initiation. 

 

Our little circle of friends in Quartzsite. 

This is the only picture we took of the crowd in the big tent. 

Jim, Annie and their bird, Umbe, at their rig.   

Some of the trip from Q to Yuma. 

They grow lots of crops around here.  If you’ve eaten lettuce lately, chances are it was grown around here.

 

The painted tanks in Yuma and some of the streets are still flooded.

 

One of the parks that was too full to allow us in. 

Lorraine at the dentist’s office. 

And that’s a good way to end this.  Bye for now.  

Thanks   Chuck