Here we are, on the road: We’re in Yuma, Arizona

March 2, 2014 Lorraine’s report

Howdy folks. It’s raining here! They say it has been since December 20th, last year, that they have had the last rain fall in this area. And I think for Chuck & Me at least that long, too. Chuck just said we had rain in the San Francisco Bay area and we had rain in Bakersfield, on the way south.

I have to say, I don’t miss the wet stuff, and I certainly do not miss all the snow they have been having back up north. I was reading a scandal sheet on Yuma, AZ, and they said Yuma is probably one of the driest places in the whole US. I used to live in Ketchikan, Alaska, and it was the rain capital, so from one extreme to another. But we love the sunny mornings, and just taking it easy.

So this week, I think picking up my new glasses was really good. My eyes no longer hurt when I read or watch TV. Sears had a two for one deal, and I got them there. Both pair fit and I’m happy to have them.

Oh, and I’ve read another book; the second in a series and I’ve started another one after that. That makes three, wow, am I on a roll. Just in case you didn’t know, when I had that mini stroke last November, reading was very hard for me. It took me a long time to get back to reading again, so I’m happy to be reading once again! Yea for me…

Chuck’s covered the rest of the week, so I’ll let it go and wish Johnny a very “Happy Birthday”. Wow, is it really 45?
Hope it’s a good one….Hugs to all,

Lorraine

3/2/14 Chuck’s report

Another nice week here in Yuma, we’re really liking this laid back lifestyle we’ve had the past three weeks. We are still trying to sit outside and enjoy the weather everyday even though we do have both air conditioners working and available to use again, it’s just too nice to sit inside. We did a bit more this week than last but still can’t say we were overly busy.

Last Sunday we went to the Diner for breakfast, the one we’ve mentioned going to before. Lorraine ordered their breakfast special and we were surprised to see it had one egg, one piece of bacon and one piece of toast, pretty small portions. I ordered from the menu and once again had a good meal, yes, I did share some with Lorraine.

Monday we hung around the rig most of the day while Lorraine did laundry. TJ and Sharon have a clothes line set up here so we hung up most of the stuff rather than run the drier and get the rig hotter inside, works just fine. Later we drove over to the Q for their prime rib special for dinner and played a bit on the slots, I think we both won a bit for a change.

Tuesday we headed to Sears to pick up the glasses Lorraine had ordered the week before. She hot them fitted and adjusted and says she can read better with this prescription than the one she had, it was three years old so no surprise there.

While we were in the area, we stopped by the Jeep and Honda dealer to look at some vehicles, we’re looking to get something different for our tow car. We liked the Grand Cherokee but not the price and the CR-V was pretty nice for much less money. Because we are just looking to see what’s available and what we might want, the salesmen were a bit pushy so we left with their information and business cards only.

Wednesday morning we got started a bit earlier than normal, we wanted to make a run into Mexico and try to get out before the crowds started building at the border. We were in Mexico long enough for me to get a haircut (good one too) and pick up some medicines, some of them are much cheaper there than in the US. We were in Mexico for about 90 minutes, 40 of which were waiting in line at the border to get out, not too bad. We could see the line building to probably over an hour by the time we made it to the agent area. On the way home we stopped by Wal-Mart then called it a day.

Thursday we headed out to pick up our folding patio chairs we dropped off last week to have recovered. The place we bought them a few years ago was able to get them recovered with new canvas material, did a great job too. They also replaced most of the rivets in the joints so it’s like having two new chairs once again. In fact, we dropped off our other two chairs on Saturday and they will recover them also.

Once again, because we were in the area, we stopped by the Jeep dealer to tell them thanks but no thanks on the Grand Cherokee. We then stopped off at the Chevy dealer to check out a couple of models they sell. We checked out the Traverse with a 4 cylinder, not enough power but did like the 6 cylinder however. They also had a very nice Equinox, just about what we have now with our Saturn Outlook and it was even cheaper than the smaller Traverse because most of the options we wanted on the Traverse were standard on the Equinox. But I am really wanting something smaller with better gas mileage so wasn’t too interested in the larger Equinox.

So Friday we set out to test drive some cars back-to-back and see how they preformed compared to each other on the same roads on the same day. First up was the Honda CR-V, again, no complaints there. Next up was the Traverse but we really wanted to compare apples to apples as much as possible so we first tried the 4 cylinder again. I guess I didn’t give it a good enough try the day before, we both thought it was strong enough with this engine. These two cars are really pretty similar and we though maybe the Chevy was a bit quieter and drove a bit better, not much but noticeable for both of us.

We had asked both dealers to give us a bottom line price, the new car with any rebates minus what they would give us for our trade in. Both dealers, of course, wanted to talk monthly payments instead of bottom line but we stuck to our guns and got their prices down on paper. After getting the apple-to-apple price on the Traverse to match the Honda, we decided to go to the next step and have them try to find a car in the color and with the options we wanted. We knew this would increase the price but wanted to see just how much.

While we were at the Chevy dealer, I was walking the their lot and found the Traverse model in the GMC line, the Terrain. The Terrain has some of the options we were looking at for the Equinox as standard equipment. So we had the salesman give us a price for both. Surprise, surprise, the GMC ended up being way cheaper than the Honda and even less than the Equinox. We told them to see if they could find one at a different dealer and found out what it would take to make it towable behind our coach.

Well, they couldn’t find one we wanted in the color and with the options we picked out. They, of course, tried to talk us into something “close” but I told them we wanted what we wanted and wouldn’t “settle” for something different. I guess I don’t feel anyone of these dealers were what I would call hard sell but both really tried to get us to “settle” and we aren’t willing to do that.

Our friends, Brian and Sue who allowed us to stay at their farm in Massachusetts this summer have a Cadillac SRX, basically the same as the Chevy Traverse and GMC Terrain/ They said we should look into that as once again the basic Cadillac model has more as standard equipment that would be extra price options on the Chevy or GMC. But there is not a Cadillac dealer in the Yuma area so I called the dealer back home and haven’t gotten a call back from them yet.

Long story here but we walked away and will keep our car at least until we get back to Bellingham and see what kind of deal we can work out there. If they can’t find one we want already built, I don’t have a problem ordering a new one and waiting for it, depending on prices of course. There isn’t much wrong with our current car other than it’s getting a bit long in the tooth, it will be turning 100,000 miles real soon, and we want to get something a bit newer with less mileage. And yes, we have been looking a used too, just haven’t found anything around here to fit our needs.

Saturday we dropped off our two other folding chairs to have them recovered then headed out to a Pow-Wow a few miles North of Yuma. We got there and got seated about 20 minutes before Grand Opening, where they present colors and all the dancers come onto the field at once, quite a sight even though we’ve been to many Pow-Wow in the last 7 years. This one didn’t have that many dancers, maybe 100 in total but the dancing and singing was just as good as the bigger ones we’ve been to.

We watched a couple of the different groups dance then decided to walk the vendor row and see what was available from them. After checking them out, and not buying anything, we walked over to the food vendors and bought lunch. It’s been while since we’ve had Indian fry bread or Indian Tacos so that’s what we had, yum good.

We then went back to watch the dancers and drummers again but would you believe it, it started to rain. They had predicted rain for Friday and Saturday but so far all we had seen was a few drops. But this time it rained hard enough to get the ground wet. Boy did the spectators get out of there quick, they sure aren’t used to doing anything in the rain around here like back home in Washington. The Pow-Wow even took a break until the rains stopped, however long that might be. We decided to join the crowd and leave too, it was time to get back and let Misty out for a walk.

The weather has been nice this week, about 5 – 10F cooler than last week but still nice, getting to the low 80s most days after cool mornings, it drops to the 50s at night. We haven’t had to turn on either the air conditioners or heaters this week, that means it’s pretty nice! Yesterday the high was only into the mid 70s, we saw some folks wearing heavy coats even though there are still lots of us snowbirds in shorts and tee shirts.

As far as our travel plans, we are pretty sure we will leave here in a couple of weeks, head to San Diego for two weeks then Santa Barbara for a week. They are getting some heavy rains in those areas now after going through a severe drought the past two years or so. Even though there are some mud slides, I imagine most folks welcome this storm in their area and probably hope for more. Sure hope it gets it out of the way before we get there though, ha.

Lorraine did take some pictures at the Pow-Wow so I’ll go through them and see which ones to add here. This shouldn’t be a lot of pictures here though.

Some of the dancers and their regalia.