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

March 16, 2014 Lorraine’s report

Hello folks, thanks for stopping by. Yes, this is our last week in Yuma, AZ. What a nice stay we have had. The weather has been really good, mid 80’s down to the low 60’s in the evenings. Every day is sunny, bright with blue skies. Absolutely beautiful!!!

So what stood out for me this week is hooking up the new car to be towed. We took in into the shop on Thursday afternoon, after 3;30. They were suppose to start working on it on Friday, which they did. We had to get a rental car which they (Fisher Chevrolet) paid for. Well, the car was due back on Friday at 3:30, so the car rental place took us back to the repair shop to wait. We were there from 3:15 until 7:15 pm when they finally finished it up. Chuck worked on the car yesterday, loading it up, and discovered that something is not right. So tomorrow, he has to take it back to the shop for more work. Hopefully, they will figure it all out and we will not have any problems with the new car as we tow it.

Saturday Chuck called Sharon & TJ and we planned to meet for dinner. They wanted to go to the Quechan for the prime rib dinner. Is it ever a nice dinner for us and all for $9.95 each. You get prime rib, potatoes or fries, broccoli and a fresh roll. Once more I would like to thank you two for letting us stay on your lot this winter, we had a very nice time.

I have to say that we have enjoyed our time here, just reading and taking life easy. Especially after the last big trip we made in 2013. We needed down time!

Sure hope Rick is okay, prayers for him. That’s it for me.

Hugs,

Lorraine

3/16/14 Chuck’s report

Yep, still here in Yuma on TJ/Sharon’s lot in the foothills. We have really enjoyed this “down” time for the past few weeks. But as all good things, it will be coming to an end soon.

Ok, this week was more of the same, lots of just sitting outside and enjoying this fabulous weather. We have had a few more days with winds this week but not too bad, we’ve certainly experienced much worse. But the slow paced lifestyle is what we are really liking.

Last Monday we went to the casino once more for their senior day had their prime rib special dinner once more. I think we left with some of their money this time too, that’s always a good deal when that happens.

Tuesday we were out running errands and stopped by Del Taco for dinner, Tuesday Tacos, remember that Joe and Alice? Same deal here and we were thinking about you two, were your ears ringing?

Wednesday I had to make a run to the Verizon store, our notebook has been having a problem connecting to the internet and we use it as our hotspot for computer access. Lorraine wanted to stop by Dillard’s so I dropped her off and drove on over to Verizon. Of course they were busy, said the wait would be about 25 – 30 minutes. It was over an hour later when I finally got someone to talk to me and then they said it would be about another 10 – 15 minutes. When the gal looked things over she suggested doing a hard reset, setting everything back to original and starting over. They’ve already tried lots of other things, changed the Sims card, taught me how to reset it when it gets an update (once a week or so) and ran other diagnosis on it. They said if this doesn’t “fix” it, they will replace it with a new one. But it has been working fine since, here’s hoping it continues but if not, a new one might be better, we’ll see.

Lorraine was finished at Dillard’s before they were done with us so I told her I would be there as soon as they were done. I picked her up, drove over to another store and after that, we returned back to our rig.

Thursday afternoon we stopped by the Chevy dealer to get our second key. When we picked up the car, they only had one key to give us, said the other was at the dealer in Phoenix and they would send it to them. We were getting the new car set up for towing on Friday, starting at 8 and they said it would take most of the day so we had a rental approved from the Chevy dealer at the local Hertz rental place. I wanted to pick it up on Thursday afternoon and drop off the car so it would be ready first thing on Friday so that’s what we did. Because we were in the area, we stopped by Penny’s diner for dinner once again then returned back to our place.

Friday Lorraine did some laundry, boy that clothesline was in use all day. I called the place that was installing our tow brackets and such and of course they were having an issue but said it should be done soon. So we returned the rental car and they dropped us off at the tow car place about 4:00. We were told they should be done around 2:00 so we were hoping to be finished very soon BUT NO, it was after 7 when we finally got out of there. Seems they had an issue with the breakaway brakes not working, finally found a bad connection that was only working intermittingly, one of those hard to find things. But otherwise it was good, can hardly see the tow brackets when the tow bar isn’t installed. They started working on the car at 8 and 11 hours we left, sure glad we had made a deal where the Chevy dealer paid for this.

Saturday morning I hooked it up to the motorhome to check out all the connects and make sure everything works. I found the brakes were not coming on even though the brake lights did. So back to the shop first thing tomorrow, darn. Sure hope this is an easy fix this time and it won’t be an all day wait as I don’t have a rental car available this time.

Later we called TJ and Sharon to see if they wanted to go to dinner with us. TJ said that would be fine and we agreed to meet at their house and head out from there. I then took all the stuff we normally carry in our car and had in the shed here on TJ’s lot and tried putting it all into our smaller car. The storage area with the back seat down is both shorter and narrower and it took a few tries but I eventually got everything in. I also got most everything stored in the basement of the rig too, boy it’s tough to get back on the road after nesting in one spot this long.

Finally it was time to head over to TJ’s for our dinner engagement. TJ agreed to drive as we can’t get four people in our car when it’s loaded for towing. We headed to the casino for their prime rib dinner special again, second time this week for us but it was good and we enjoyed our visit too. We then played slots for awhile, I think TJ was the big winner (he didn’t play, ha). We continued our visit with them at their house before we decided to call it a day. We thanked them for letting us stay at their lot while we were in Yuma. They are trying to sell this lot, it had the studio house here as, of course, has an area for RV hook up with 50 amp, water and sewer. If you know of anyone interested, let me know and I’ll give you their contact info.

I’ve been working on our income taxes this week, haven’t filed yet as I want get one more mailing to make sure I have everything before I finish. I’ve also been studying up on Medicare once again. I turn 65 in April and will be eligible for Medicare. I did some reading, checked online and made a couple of calls and think I know what plan and who we will get that plan from but because of our internet issues (or lack thereof for two days), I haven’t actually signed up yet. I may do that tomorrow, depending on how long the car and I are in the shop.

Once again, I can’t say enough about the great weather we’ve been having. It is starting to warm up a bit more, highs are in the high 80s and the lows are in the 50s with plenty of sunshine. When there is a nice breeze, it’s nice to sit in the sun, when it’s calm, we sit in the shade, tough life. We have had a very good winter here in Yuma this year.

We plan on leaving here on Tuesday, heading for the Elks Lodge in Chula Vista, outside San Diego. We’ve been there once before but didn’t do much exploring of the area and there is sure lots to do there. We will also get together one time with Joe and Alice before they leave to head back to Washington. They are in Hemet so we will meet at Pala casino, about halfway. This is the place that has one of the best, if not the best, Indian casino buffets we’ve been to. Looking forward to seeing Joe and Alice (and the buffet) soon.

I will add a couple pictures here and get this posted and get outside to enjoy this weather!

Some of the flowers on TJ/Sharon’s lot.