Arizona's Verde River Valley

Welcome back friends. Our last chapter concluded on Wednesday, March 12^th, when we made the 140 mile trip from Casa Grande north to Camp Verde, Arizona. Camp Verde is in the Verde Valley area of central Arizona and we are staying at one of our membership RV parks here.

Thursday, March 13^th, I left the coach about 9:00 and drove into the Jeep dealership in Cottonwood so they could confirm the issue with the A/C. Although it had been all documented by the dealer in Casa Grande, the service people in Cottonwood couldn't order the condenser until they confirmed the problem for themselves. It only took about an hour and I was on my way back home. We spent the rest of the day in the coach, taking care of small projects and relaxing. At happy hour we had cocktails with the Bullocks and then a nice dinner of lasagna that Peggy put together. We had a great dinner and went back to our coach about 8:00 for the rest of the night.

Friday, March 14^th, Happy Pie day. This is Pie (actually Pi) day because the simple value of Pi is 3.14. I only learned of this a couple years ago. Knew about the value of Pi, just didn't put it together with Pie day. Oh well.

We left the RV park around 10:30 with Peggy and Vernon and went out to do some geocaching. We ended up with nine new finds, along with a couple of DNFs, within about two and a half hours or so. After caching we drove into Cottonwood and had lunch at a place called Randall's. We have eaten here before and the food is always excellent. They are strictly a breakfast and lunch restaurant, but they have a big menu and large portions. We didn't get in until nearly 1:30, close to closing time, and the place was still packed. We had a great lunch, I had the fish and chips, Peggy had the fish tacos, Jackie had a Mexican chicken fried steak dish, and Vernon had a Navajo taco. They were all specials for the day and they were all wonderful. Peggy's fish tacos were the biggest I have ever seen served.

After lunch we stopped at Walmart for some shopping before heading back to the RV park. We left the coach about 5:30 and drove back into Cottonwood to the Jerome Elks Lodge. It gets a little confusing as the lodge is for this whole area of the Verde River valley, but Jerome is the old mining town up on the side of the mountain and is where the lodge was formed in the late 1800's. The lodge building now is actually located in Clarkdale, which is the old town where the copper smelters that processed the ore from Jerome were located. It too dates back to the turn of the century. It is still an active town, but much smaller than Cottonwood. Cottonwood is the larger, modern town and most of the members of the Jerome Lodge are from Cottonwood.

The reason we were going there is that they were holding a dinner dance, and we were going to meet my brother Dennis there. Dennis,who is my only full brother and is eight years younger than I, has lived in Cottonwood for about 35 years. He has been in banking all that time and now manages a bank in Sedona, about a 40 minute drive from his house. He has actually been involved in the Elks organization longer than I and has served a couple of terms as Exalted Ruler of the Jerome Lodge, as well as being a District Deputy for the Arizona Elks State organization.

We didn't get to the lodge in time to eat, but we didn't want to anyway because of our big, late lunch. Dennis' bank doesn't close until 6:00 on Fridays, so he wouldn't be there until around 7:00. We got to the lodge a little after 6:00 and were met at the door by a one of Dennis' friends, a woman named Nancy. Nancy was married to Dennis' best friend Gary, who was also his business partner in their karaoke and DJ business. They did music gigs all over the Verde Valley. Gary died of heart failure a couple years ago and Nancy took over as partner with Dennis in the business. Nancy introduced us to a number of the other people at the Lodge, including the current ER and some other Lodge officials. She kept us company until Dennis got there about 7:00.

We had drinks and chatted with Dennis, Nancy and some other people at the Lodge until about 8:30 when we decided we better head back to the RV park. We had about a twenty minute drive back and didn't want to be out too late. All in all it was a very pleasant and entertaining night and we enjoyed it a lot. We made it back to the coach a little after nine and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, March 15^th, we were up early, out of the RV park by 9:00. We were headed for Sedona, about 35 miles north of Cottonwood, to watch the town's Saint Patrick's Day parade, and also to do a little shopping, sight seeing and geocaching. We stopped on the way and picked up Dennis at his house, then drove on to Sedona. We were fortunate to get good parking, close to the parade route and the shopping area of Sedona. We set up our chairs and relaxed, doing some people watching while waiting for the parade to start. Peggy and Vernon were also there, although they took their own car because we were picking up my brother. The parade started right on time at 10:30 and lasted about an hour. It was a typical small town parade, lots of kids and high school bands. There were also a lot of local companies with floats and marching groups. It was very enjoyable.

After the parade Jackie and Dennis and I walked around and did a little window shopping in downtown Sedona. Peggy and Vernon we

nt off on their own as they wanted to find some breakfast. After an hour of shopping we went into West Sedona for lunch at a very nice little cafe, Cafe Jose, that Dennis suggested. It was not too far from his bank and he said he goes there frequently for lunch. Again, the local food was excellent. Jackie and I both had breakfast and Dennis had a Reuben sandwich. After lunch we did an hour of geocaching in the area, finding two and getting two DNFs. One of the caches was interesting and fun in that it was located in the lobby of the Sedona police Department. The cache was hidden there by a cacher who is also a Sedona Police officer. It was a cute cache, a big plastic tool box that was locked with one half of a set of handcuffs. The cache description said you had to solve a puzzle to get the combination to a small lockbox on the wall over the cache. I guess that inside the lockbox was a handcuff key. However, I didn't need to solve the puzzle because I still carry a handcuff key on my key ring, a leftover from my law enforcement days. Problem solved! The cache had some travel bugs in it too, so we spent some time swapping travel bugs.

After caching we drove back to Cottonwood, stopped at a Fry's grocery for some things that we needed that Walmart didn't have, then dropped Dennis off at his house. We went back to the RV park just about in time for cocktails with Peggy and Vernon. Dennis drove over about 6:00 or so and we talked for a while before BBQing some hamburgers and polish sausage for dinner. We had a great dinner and Dennis stayed until about 8:30 visiting with us. After Dennis left we watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, March 16^th, we enjoyed a quiet morning with the Sunday paper and the TV news. Around 1:30 Dennis came over to spend some time with us. We sat and talked, watched a little TV and had a couple of beers. We also did a little stuff on the computer. About 5:00 we had cocktails and Vernon started cooking the ribs. We had three racks of baby backs for the five of us. Vernon is an excellent cook when it comes to doing BBQ ribs. He said he learned the method from his son who does a lot of cooking for some of the Jeep groups he belongs to.

We ate about 6:00 and had dinner outside. It was a very nice day, in the low 70's with no wind. We had a very pleasant dinner and stayed out until the moon came up about 7:30 or so. Dennis went home and we then cleaned everything up and went into the RV for the night. A very nice, relaxing day with family and friends.

Monday, March 17^th, Happy St. Patrick's Day. This was a stay at home day for us and the Bullocks. Got a few chores done around the house, including the laundry. Washed clothes here at the park's laundry because it was close and we had all day to do it. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon at 5:00 and then dinner around 7:00. I had put a corn beef on to cook in the morning and by dinner I had a full Irish meal of corn beef, potatoes, carrots and lots of cabbage. Dennis came over around 6:00 and had dinner with us too. We had plenty of food and a great meal. About 8:00 everyone left for home and we cleaned up and then watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, I was up and on my way to the Jeep dealer in Cottonwood by 8:30. They had the part for the A/C repair and I was on my way to get it installed. By 10:30 they were finished and I was on my way back to the RV park with A/C that worked. About noon we went to lunch with Peggy and Vernon to the Mexican restaurant that is just a mile or so from the RV park. The place is called La Fonda and every time we go by the place it seems to have a lot of customers. We had eaten there before and remember the food as being pretty good. I don't know if our memory was bad or they have changed the recipes, but the food was mediocre at best today. The chili relleno looked like a fried egg and had very little cheese, and what was there was there was yellow cheese. We probably won't go back. After lunch we went back to the coach and did some chores and just relaxed the rest of the day. We had cocktails at 5:00 but no one wanted dinner because we ate a late lunch.

Wednesday, March 19^th, we were out of the coach by 10:00 with Peggy and Vernon, headed into Prescott to do some geocaching and shopping. When we got into Prescott Valley, the town just south of Prescott we started doing some caching. We were able to get six new finds, but also got three new DNFs. Some of the caches in this area are really tricky. About noon or so we stopped at a Chinese place in Prescott Valley called Canton Dragon. This was a sit down place, not a buffet, and it was very nice. It had very high ratings on Yelp when we checked it. They had a very extensive lunch menu that included soup, entree, egg roll and fried rice, all for $7 to $9. The service was great and the food was outstanding. All four of us had dishes that were marked as spicy, and they really were. Sometimes they say spicy but it comes out bland, these were excellent. I would highly recommend this place, which is right on the north side of the main highway in the middle of Prescott Valley.

After lunch we drove into Prescott and did some site-seeing before stopping at Costco for a shopping run. By 3:00 we were back on our way home. We had cocktails at 5:00 with Vernon, but Peggy had gone into cottonwood to an urgent care so she could get an allergy shot. She was sniffling and sneezing so much she was miserable. She hadn't made it back by the time we went in to watch TV. We didn't have dinner because of the big lunch again.

Thursday, March 20^th, we left the RV park about 10:30 with Peggy and Vernon and headed to the town of Jerome, perched on the side of Mingus Mountain above Clarkdale and Cottonwood. Jerome has always been an interesting place for me and I have been coming here since the early 60's when I was a teen growing up in Phoenix. The town was founded in 1876, initially as a gold and silver mining town. Within a few years copper was discovered and the town and it's copper mines flourished. This became the largest copper mine in the state, producing over three million pounds of copper per month. At the turn of the century it was the fourth largest town in the Arizona Territory.

The depression took it's toll and the town's population dropped by 75 percent as demand for copper dried up. There was some resurgence during WW-II, but by 1953 all copper mining and production ceased and Jerome became a virtual ghost town. During the 60's and 70's the town was mostly populated by hippies and bikers, however, the artistic tendencies of these counterculture groups gradually brought in more main stream artists and by the 80's the town was becoming a legitimate tourist attraction. There are now dozens of shops and restaurants in town and the streets are packed with tourists and sightseers.

We were lucky enough to find a parking place right away, something that can be a bit difficult, especially on weekends. Last year we drove up here and never did find a spot and had to go back down the hill without doing anything. We spent an hour or so going through shops and doing a little geocaching. We then decided to go to lunch. We went to a place called the Haunted Hamburger, which has really good ratings on Yelp. The restaurant is located on the upper levels of the town in an old, turn of the century, house. According to the waitress the place has been in business for about 20 years. They have both inside seating and an outside patio with killer views of the Verde Valley. The menu is mostly burgers, but they do ribs and Philly steaks too. I had the Philly steak, but was disappointed that it had no onions or peppers, only meat and cheese. Everyone else had burgers and said they were very good. The prices were reasonable, although not cheap and the service was good, despite the fact that the place was packed. Even on a weekday we waited 20 minutes and the line was twice as long when we left.

After lunch we walked around town and looked in some more shops. We found two geocaches that were in town. We finally made it back down to the car and drove back into Cottonwood. We had to stop at Walmart for some supplies before heading back into town. We had cocktails with the Bullocks, but again no dinner because of the big lunch.

Friday, March 21^st, was another stay at home day. Got a few chores done and worked on the computer for a while, as did Jackie. Cocktails at 5:00 with the Bullocks before a very nice ham dinner that Peggy put together. We had dinner and talked until about 8:00 when we back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday we went out caching with Peggy and Vernon again, leaving the RV park about 10:30. We cached around the Clarkdale area, the smaller town just north of Cottonwood. Back at the turn of the century Clarkdale was the smelter town where all of the copper ore extracted in Jerome was processed. It was also where most of the employees lived and many of the old company housing areas are still in use. My brother Dennis and his wife lived in one of the small employee houses for several years after they got married. We ended up with eight new finds before heading back to the RV park.

Dennis came over about 3:00 or so and we chatted and just relaxed. We had cocktails about 5:00 and then I made a nice dinner of chili Colorado burritos, beans and rice for everyone. We had a great dinner and talked until about 8:00 when everyone left and we were left with the TV until bedtime.

Sunday, March 23^rd, we had a great family day. My brother Ken and his wife Susan drove up from there home west of Phoenix to spend the day with us. They got here about 10:30 or so and we just talked for a couple of hours. We had last seen them a few weeks ago when they came down to Casa Grande to spend a day with us. About 12:30 my brother Dennis, who lives in Cottonwood, also came over for the day. The only one's missing from my family were my brother from Las Vegas and the one from Virginia Beach.

Shortly after Dennis got here we set out to do some geocaching. Dennis is the one that got Jackie and I started with the hobby, although he doesn't actively cache anymore. He stills enjoys going out with us and searching, despite the fact that he doesn’t log anymore. We got Ken and Susan involved a few years back, and Peggy and Vernon also. We took two cars, with Peggy, Vernon and Susan in their Jeep and Jackie, Ken and Dennis in ours. We went out on a dirt forest service road not too far from the RV park and picked up a series of four caches hidden out in the desert. All of the cache names started with “cursed skull” and the actual caches were pieces of a plastic Halloween skeleton with a small tube hidden inside. The pieces of skeleton were tied to the limb of a large tree and the tube, which contained the log, was inside the bone. There were two arms, with hands, and two legs, with feet. They were not hard to find, but it was fun looking for them and finding a small skeleton part hanging in a tree. After we got those caches we found two more in the area before heading back to the RV park with six caches under our belts.

After we got back to the park we just sat outside, enjoying the great weather, and talked. Peggy and Vernon, who have know both Ken and Dennis for several years, were also out there with us. We had cocktails starting around 4:00 because we were planning an early dinner so we could eat outside. Jackie was making a big pot of her wonderful risotto with shrimp and asparagus. Around 5:30 we had the picnic table set up and Peggy served a nice salad. By 6:00 we were eating the risotto with some garlic bread and everyone was very happy. The finale was a big cheesecake that Ken and Susan had brought up with them. By the time we were done with dinner everyone was very satisfied and very full. Peggy and Vernon went back to their coach shortly after dinner and Ken, Susan and Dennis stuck around and talked until about 8:00 when they all left for home. Jackie and I watched TV until bed after a great day with family and friends.

Monday, March 24^th was a stay at home day. Did a few chores but mostly relaxed. Had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon at 5:00 and then Peggy served dinner, Parmesan chicken, which was excellent. By 8:30 we were back in our coach in front of the TV. A nice quiet day.

Tuesday we left the park with Peggy and Vernon about 12:30 and drove into Cottonwood to have lunch at Randall's restaurant again. We had eaten there a couple days after we got here and liked it a lot, so we decided to give it another try. This lunch was also great, this is a nice place to eat here in Cottonwood. After lunch we went to Old Town Cottonwood and walked around the shops there for about an hour, then drove to Walmart for a shopping run.

After Walmart we headed back to the RV park and I spent the next hour packing up the outside stuff, getting ready to travel tomorrow. While I was packing up the outside Peggy and Jackie were in our coach making salad dressings. Peggy likes several of Jackie's recipes for dressings and they decided to make a couple up before we parted ways. Some other friends of ours, Jim and Pat Goetzinger checked into the park today and are in a site just down from us. Jim and Pat came over and sat and talked with us while we had cocktails. Because of the big lunch we didn't have any dinner. We talked with Peggy and Vernon for a while, but about 8:30 we went back to our coach for the evening.

Wednesday, March 26^th, another travel day. We were leaving Camp Verde and heading back west to Ehrenberg, Arizona on the Colorado River. We are only going to be there for two days before moving on to Indio, California, but the important thing is I need to take our Jeep back to the dealer in Blythe to finally (I hope) get the problem with the transfer case fixed. We haven't been able to tow the car since January. I am worried though, because we heard from our friend Clark McKay that his Grand Cherokee wouldn't go into neutral again yesterday, and this was after having the new part put in, the same part I am having installed. Eek.

We got out of Camp Verde a little after 9:00 and started our 230 mile trip to Ehrenberg. We took the 303 loop around the north and west edges of the Phoenix metro area, so traffic wasn't too bad, but the wind was blowing really hard. There were a few times when I had a hard time holding on to the coach. Jackie was again following behind, driving the non-towable Jeep. After a stop for lunch and another for fuel we arrived in Ehrenberg about 2:30 and quickly got set up. Since we are only here for two days we only had to arrange the inside, no decorations or anything outside. After a very stressful drive I was happy to relax for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, March 27^th, I was up early and headed to the Jeep dealer in Blythe by a little after 8:00. It took them about two hours and they delivered my car back to me, supposedly fixed. Of course, I was concerned because they told my friend Clark the same thing. I did test it in the driveway of the dealership and it went in and out of neutral OK. Fingers crossed.

After I got home, we had lunch and then went out to get a couple of geocaches. We ended up with two new finds. One was a new cache, only put out a few months ago. The other was a cache that we had looked for a couple of times in the past, the last time in February of 2011. It appears that the owner finally replaced the cache after a whole bunch of DNFs, because all of a sudden everyone was finding it. We drove out there, a place in the desert nearly across the river from our RV park, and, Yea! We finally found the cache and got the smiley. This makes us happy. After caching we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the day inside relaxing.

Friday, March 28^th, another travel day. We didn't need to get an early start because we are only going about 100 miles west to Indio, California. We left Ehrenberg about 10:30 WITH the Jeep IN TOW! It went into neutral when I hooked it up without any problems. Hooray! The trip was uneventful and we pulled into the Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio about 12:30. We got our site and got hooked up pretty quickly. Jackie went out and got some burgers from In N Out for lunch and we finished getting set up. It is nice being back in the warm weather, but it does make setting up a little more sweaty and uncomfortable. I also took the Jeep down to the car wash for a badly needed bath.

While we were registering at the office another rig pulled up behind us and it turned out to be a very good friend of Jackie's from many years ago, Eddie Buenedia and his wife Darlanne. Eddie lived in the Coachella Valley for many years and was a member of the same church group that Jackie was. He and his wife moved sometime in the 90's to a home in Point Roberts, Washington. Point Roberts is somewhat unique in that it is a part of the United States because it is a peninsula of land that extends south of the 49^th parallel, the official border between Canada and the United States. However, it's only land access is through Canada. In order to get there by car you have to leave Washington, go into British Columbia, drive west and then cross south back into a portion of land that is part of the State of Washington. Jackie and I had gone up there to visit them back in 1998 when we first got together.

Although that was the last time we saw Eddie and Darlanne, we have stayed in touch with them by email and social media. This past year they decided to become full time RVers like us. They bought a used coach, got rid of their house and most of their possessions and hit the road in January. We have been trying to help them out with answers to a lot of their questions. Jackie knew they were going to be in the area about now, but didn't realize that they had made reservations to be in the same park at the same time as us. We were very excited to get to see them again.

Our other friends, Ray and Suzie Babcock are also here at Indian Waters, having come here from Yuma, the last place we saw them, about a month ago. They are parked not too far from us and came over to say hi after we got parked. Eddie and Darlanne got the site right next to us. After they got set up they came over and we sat in the coach and talked for quite a while, catching up and listening to some of their adventures as new Rvers.

About 5:30 we left the coach and drove a couple miles to the Indian Palms Country Club to meet some old friends, Bob and Gloria Baron. This is the same country club where we had our house before we sold it in 2005 and started out in the coach. Bob and Gloria also live in Indian Palms, but we actually met them through the Indio Elks lodge when we were members there. This was way before we went full time. We had a smaller RV and were members of the Indio Elks RV club. We went on a lot of trips with the Baron's and other people in the club, as well as working around the Elks Lodge. Another of our old Elk's friends, Wayne Russell and his wife Sharon were also at the club, Wayne doing the music along with a friend of his.

We had cocktails with Bob and Gloria and Wayne invited me up to sing a couple of songs for the crowd, which I thought was nice. They really were not doing karaoke, they were entertaining, but Wayne knew that I had a karaoke outfit too and liked to sing. We also ran into some other old Indio friends at the club, Jim and Jackie Babington. Jim, known as Cowboy to his friends, was a regular at Cactus Jack's bar back in the days when we were too. He later married Jackie who had bought the other well known bar in Indio, Neil's Lounge. Jim now runs the bar and bar-tends a few nights a week. They were at the country club because they also own a house in Indian Palms.

We finally left this gathering of old friends about 8:30, after having a couple of drinks and some light dinner. We headed home and were going to relax in front of the TV until bedtime. However, about 9:10 I felt the coach, and my recliner, start to rock back and forth and shake. It turns out there was a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in La Habra, a city in Los Angeles County about a hundred miles to the west. The quake was strong enough to be felt all the way east to Indio. They also had a number of smaller after shocks, but we didn't feel any of those. We ended up watching news coverage of the quake on the local network channels until it was time for bed. The quake caused some minor damage near the epicenter, but nothing serious.

Our arrival here in Indio marks an excellent place for us to close this chapter and get it published. We will be here for ten days before moving on to Silent Valley Resort near Banning, California. Until the next time, remember that life is meant to be lived, not viewed. Have fun with what you got. See ya soon.

Another Great Spring in the Desert

Our last chapter concluded with our arrival in Casa Grande, Arizona on Wednesday, February 26^th. We are in the Casa Grande RV Resort for two weeks. Our friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock came with us from Yuma and are parked just one space down from us. The Babcocks and McKays, with whom we spent the last month in Yuma, headed to other destinations.

Thursday, February 27^th Peggy and Jackie had a “spa afternoon” getting pedicures and hair cuts. I stayed home and took care of some chores that needed to be finished. After the girls got back we had happy hour and then dinner at our coach with the four of us. Jackie made her chili relleno casserole and some beans and rice, a really tasty dinner. As you can tell by the photo, our cats have come to accept Peggy and Vernon as family.  We chatted until about 8:00 when Peggy and Vernon headed back home and we watched TV until bedtime.

Friday Vernon and I left the RV park about 10:30 and drove to the nearby Casa Grande Municipal Airport to walk around the 56^th annual Cactus Fly In, a civilian air show with lots of old warbirds and private aircraft, both antique and modern. We had been to the show a couple years ago when we were here and were happy that the timing was such we could go again. The girls were not that interested in seeing a bunch of airplanes, so they stayed home for a craft day.

We spent about three hours walking around the tarmac of the airport looking at planes. They had two big WW-II bombers, a twin engine B-25 medium bomber that was restored to pristine condition, and a PB4Y-2 Privateer, the Navy anti-sub patrol version of of the big four engine B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. This one had spent years as a water bomber, but all the red and white paint was stripped off and it was restored to it's original polished aluminum finish. There were also a dozen or so warbirds, mostly 50's model T-34 trainers and three Soviet Yak single engine fighters. Most of the rest of the planes were older private aviation single engine birds, most of them very nicely restored.

The amount of money it costs to restore and maintain one of these antique aircraft make the antique car crowd look like pikers. Most of the owners are ex military and have been flying all their lives. We were able to watch the B-25 do a fly-by with eight old warbirds as an escort, and then got to look at them on the ground and watch their take off for the next show. We had a really good time.

After we got home I had lunch and then Jackie and I went to Walmart for some shopping. We had cocktails with the Bullocks about 5:00 and then went into our coach for dinner on our own where we stayed in the rest of the night.

Saturday, March 1^st, two months of the year gone already. We woke up to the end of a night of pretty heavy rain. It started raining just before we went to bed and rained on and off all night. Although the forecast said no more rain, it still looked pretty gloomy when I got up. We had planned to go to one of the nearby parks for the annual chili cook-off, but we decided that with all the rain we had last night it would be a little too wet and muddy. We also figured it would be a little too wet for caching too, so we just decided to stay at home for a leisure day.

About 5:00 we had cocktails with the Bullocks and then a very nice dinner at their coach. Peggy made her penne pasta dish, which is one of my favorites. We had a great dinner and chatted until about 8:00 or so after which we went home and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday, March 2^nd, I woke up about 7:30 or so and went out for the Sunday papers. Jackie likes the paper on Sunday morning. After I got home I switched on the heat pump in the front of the coach because it was just a little cool. I am not sure, even now, what the happened, but the heat pump, which is part of the front air conditioning unit, started, but after just a couple of seconds shut down. I then noticed that I had all kinds of electrical bugaboos in the coach. The refrigerator was running on propane, even though we were connected to shore power, and wouldn't switch to electric. I also noticed that even though we were plugged into shore power the inverter was running, powering all the 110 volt outlets from the coach batteries. The battery charger, which normally works when we are plugged into shore power, wasn't on and wouldn't come on. Something was dreadfully wrong. As it stood, we couldn't go for more than a half day or so without draining the house batteries, which would ruin my brand new batteries.

I got out my trusty VOM meter and started doing some troubleshooting as best I could, but I was at a loss as to what it might be. After extensive testing and troubleshooting it appeared that everything seemed to be working OK except for the inverter and the refrigerator. I managed to get in touch with one of the mobile repair guys recommended by the park and he said that he could come out in the early afternoon, after he went to church, to take a look at the problems. While I was waiting I continued my troubleshooting and did some research online regarding the inverter we have.

By the time the repair guy got to the coach I had pretty much determined that, for some unknown reason, I had two unrelated problems, the fridge not working on AC power, and the inverter, which I had determined had gone bad. The service guy confirmed my diagnosis and said the fridge was probably a blown fuse on the control board. He went inside and pulled the cover, replaced the fuse and now the fridge was working right again.

The inverter was another issue. He verified my diagnosis that it was an internal problem in the inverter and he spent a half hour pulling the unit out of the coach and tying the wires together so we would have power. Fortunately for us, he told us that there was a factory authorized service center for our Magnum brand inverter in Gilbert, just thirty miles or so north of Casa Grande, and he thought they would probably be able to get it fixed in one day if I got it up there Monday morning.

Everything in the coach was now working as it should, except that the house batteries were not charging. So we took a ride down to Walmart and I got a battery charger, hooked it up to the house batteries and now we were OK for a few days. The service call was $125, which I thought was pretty good considering I had the guy out on a Sunday afternoon.

Jackie was going to cook dinner tonight, but with the electrical problems we decided we probably shouldn't run the microwave for a long period of time, so we decided to go out to eat. We went to a local Mexican place called Eva's, which we had been to before. The service was OK, but the food was mediocre at best, such that we probably won't go back again. After dinner we relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Monday, March 3^rd, I called the repair place for the inverter at 8:30 and explained the problem and my diagnostics. He told me that, based on what I described and tested, it was probably a blown AC board inside the inverter. He told me he had parts on hand and that if I got it to him before lunch he could have it done by closing time. This worked out pretty well as we had been planning to go to Costco up in the same area anyway. Actually, we had planned to go yesterday, but that didn't work out.

We left the coach about 10:00 and by 11:00 I had the inverter in the shop for repairs. We drove back to the Costco and met Peggy and Vernon, who had driven up in their own car. We had planned to ride together, but we weren't sure when the inverter would be finished and they had to be back by mid-afternoon to take their dog out. We all got in our car and went out to do some geocaching in the area. We cached for a little over an hour and got six new finds. After caching we went to a PF Chang's for a late lunch. The food was wonderful, as was the service. We have never had a bad meal at a PF Chang's.

While we had been caching the shop called and said my inverter would be fixed by 2:00 or so and that they closed at 3:00. Because it was already 2:00 when we got done with lunch, we drove back to the shop to pick up the inverter and dropped Peggy and Vernon off at Costco so they could shop and then go back in their own car. The inverter repair was just under $450, which seems high, but not when you consider that a new replacement inverter would have been about $1,300. Once we had the inverter in hand we went back to Costco and did our own shopping and then drove back to the RV park in Casa Grande.

We got back to the park right at 5:00 and I decided to wait until morning to install the inverter. Everything in the coach was working OK, so there was no need to rush to put it in. I was OK with putting it back in myself, but I wanted to take my time and didn't want to be rushed by darkness. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon, but because of the late lunch didn't do any dinner. We just relaxed after a stressful couple of days and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, March 4^th, I was out installing the repaired inverter by mid-morning and within 90 minutes it was in and everything was working as it was supposed to again. Yea! After lunch we went to the laundromat and did a couple weeks worth of dirty clothes. Once laundry was done we did a quick Walmart run so I could take the battery charger back. It worked OK, but it wasn't exactly what I needed and I didn't need to waste money on something that might not do the job in the future.

About 5:30 or so we left the RV park, with the Bullocks, and drove downtown to the monthly street fair and car show. It was a very small fair, only a couple dozen booths, but all of the little shops downtown were open as well, so there was enough to keep us busy for a couple hours. They did have a smallish car show with some pretty neat street rods and restored 60's and 70's stuff. After the car show we stopped at a Whataburger downtown for a hamburger. Whataburger has been an Arizona staple since I was in high school and it was always one of my favorite fast food burgers. I haven't had one in years and Jackie, Peggy and Vernon had never tried one. Dinner was simple but good. After dinner we went back to the park and watched TV the rest of the night.

Wednesday morning we left the park around 10:30 with the Bullocks and went to do some local geocaching. By 12:30 we had 16 new finds with no DNFs. We stopped at a little taco stand for a light lunch, then went to a couple of stores before heading home by mid-afternoon. That night we had a BBQ, with Peggy, Vernon and Jackie cooking some lamb chops and I had a nice cut of steak. I don't care for lamb, but my steak was wonderful. After Peggy and Vernon went home we relaxed until bedtime.

Thursday, March 6^th was a stay at home day. Both Jackie and I got a lot of little to-do things crossed off our lists. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon and then Peggy served a dinner of beef enchilada casserole. Dinner was very good and we chatted until about 8:00 when we went back to our coach for the night.

Friday, March 7^th, we were on the road about 11:00 headed for the Phoenix area to visit my daughter Tye and her family in Glendale. It was about a 60 mile drive, but it only took a little over an hour because it was freeway all the way. We stopped at an In and Out for a quick lunch and then a Target to pick up a little gift for my great grandson Terrel. He was the biggest reason for our trip today.

My oldest granddaughter Crystal, who is now 27, hooked up with a guy about 7 years ago that was a real jerk from a big family of jerks. The guy was black, but that's not the reason I didn't like him, he is just not a nice guy. They got married and Crystal had a baby girl, my first great grand child, named Kirsten. At that time Crystal and Tyrel were living in San Antonio, Texas, where his parents had a place. We were passing through San Antonio that summer and I called Crystal and asked if we could visit to see Kirsten. She told me that Tyrel wouldn't allow anyone to visit, not even her mom, Tye. Not too long after that Tyrel's parents took Kirsten away from Crystal and Tyrel, saying they didn't think they were good parents, and they got legal custody. I have never seen anything but pictures of Kirsten. I think Tye has seen her once or twice, but not recently.

A couple years later they had a boy, named Terrel. They were able to keep this one and they moved back to the Phoenix area, so Tye got to see him from time to time. We saw him once when he was a baby about 18 months or so. A couple weeks ago Tye let me know that Tyrel had kicked Crystal and Terrel out and that they were living with her now in Glendale. Since we were going to be fairly close in Casa Grande I told her we would make a point of coming up and visiting while we were in the area.

Terrel is now five, almost six years old and is a very cute kid with a great personality. Crystal seems to be doing OK too, although with her is is hard to tell for sure because she is very withdrawn and introverted, always has been. We spent all afternoon visiting with Tye, Crystal, Terrel, and the rest of the family. Tye's husband Frank was there, as well as his two sons from a previous marriage and Jordan, my youngest grand daughter from Frank and Tye. Quite a mixed bag of family, but that's how things are now days.

We finally left about 4:00 and were back at the RV park just before 6:00. Traffic was a lot heavier going home, so it took a while. Peggy had made dinner for us again, meatloaf this time, so we had a nice dinner and told the Bullocks about our day. It was really great getting to spend some time finally with one of my greats. A very nice day with family.

Saturday, March 8^th, we left the RV park about 10:30 or so with Peggy and Vernon to go out and do some geocaching. The first thing I noticed when we got in the car was that the A/C was not blowing cold air when I started it. This has been a continual problem with this car since we bought it in 2009. On average the A/C quits, always due to failure of the condenser coil, about every 11 months. If the problem this time is the condenser again, it will be the sixth one we have had put in. I was planning on waiting until later in the week and taking it to the dealership in Cottonwood, because we are leaving here on Wednesday morning. However, after I checked my records I noticed the the last time I had it fixed we were here in Casa Grande and the dealership here was the one that did the repairs. I also noticed that it failed just two days short of exactly a year ago. I figured that if I wanted to make a claim that it was covered as a parts warranty of one year, I needed to get it into the dealership on Monday morning to document that I brought it in PRIOR to the one year warranty, by only two days.

Since it wasn't too hot, we just continued with our caching with the windows rolled down. In a couple of hours we were able to get nine new finds, along with one DNF. After caching we drove to the mall where the girls went to a couple of stores for some things. We then stopped at a taco stand for a quick, light lunch. Jackie had put in a crock pot full of pork country ribs for dinner and we didn't want to spoil our appetite. After our quick lunch we went back home and did some chores for the rest of the afternoon.

We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon at 5:00 and then had dinner at our house. The country ribs turned out great and we had a wonderful dinner with friends again. We chatted for a little while and about 8:00 Peggy and Vernon went back to their coach and we watched TV until bed.

Sunday, March 9^th, I got Jackie's Sunday paper for her and we read the paper and waited for my brother Ken and his wife Susan to come over. They live in Goodyear, Arizona, about an hours drive northwest of Casa Grande and they had told us they would come down today for a visit. We always enjoy time with them and like to cache with them because, like Peggy and Vernon, we are the one's who got them interested in caching. Ken is my youngest brother, 20 years younger than I. In fact, he is only about five months older than my oldest daughter, Tye.

Ken and Susan got to the coach about 10:00, a little earlier than expected. However, Jackie finished her shower and got dressed and by 10:30 or so we were ready to go caching. Ken and Susan went with us in our car and Peggy and Vernon trailed along in their car. We were caching in the farm country to the east of Casa Grande, so there wasn't any traffic to deal with. We had a great time caching and by about 1:30 we had 18 new finds with no DNFs. We all decided it was time for a late lunch/early dinner, so we drove back into town to Macayo's Mexican restaurant. Macayo's is an Arizona staple, having been around since the mid-40's, and we have eaten at their places for years. The food is usually always good. This time, for whatever reason, the service was terrible. The waitress was very friendly, but everything was super slow. It wasn't because they were busy, there were only a couple other tables occupied in the place. We must have hit the period between shifts or something. It took 20 minutes to get our drinks to us and there was no one in the bar. The food was good, as usual, but I was really disappointed with the service.

After lunch we did two more caches because everyone wanted to end with an even 20 finds. After that we went back to the coach. We talked with Ken and Susan for a couple more hours, having a great visit. They finally decided they needed to head for home abut 8:00 so we bid goodbye. It is possible they may come up for another day visit when we are up in Camp Verde, north of Phoenix. After Ken and Susan left we watched TV for a while, then went to bed.

Monday, March 10^th, I got up early and took the car into the local Jeep dealer to have the A/C looked at. Since I didn't have an appointment I had to drop the car off because they couldn't get right on it. Vernon came down and picked me up and took me back to the park. Jackie was having a bout with allergies, so we decided that this would be a good day to just stay home and relax.

The dealership called me about 2:30 and said they had diagnosed the problem and it was, indeed, a leak in the condenser coil – again. The service guy told me that he couldn't get the part for three to five days, so he documented everything for me and said I should contact the dealer in Cottonwood, our next stop. Vernon drove me down and I picked up the car and took it back home. It does appear that it will be covered under warranty since it was less than a year old, but it is still a pain in the butt. We just stayed in all day nursing Jackie back to feeling good. We had dinner on our own and watched TV until bed.

Tuesday, March 11^th, we left the coach after lunch with Peggy and Vernon out for a last day of caching here in the Casa Grande area. Tomorrow we leave for Camp Verde. We headed east towards the town of Florence because Peggy wanted to see the very pretty crested saguaro cactus that we found last year when we were out here caching with Ken and Susan. Crested saguaros are very rare and very symmetrical one's, like the one we going to see, are even more rare. Peggy has always had an interest in saguaros and we wanted to let her see this one. No one is exactly sure what causes the crest to form, but they think it's just a genetic thing, like a birth defect.

We got to the cactus in about 40 minutes, took some pictures and let Peggy and Vernon find the geocache that was hidden nearby. We had already gotten it last year. After seeing the crested saguaro we did some more caching in the immediate area. We found a total of nine caches before deciding to head back home. We were back in the RV park about 3:30 and I spent the next hour putting things away and getting ready for tomorrow's travels. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon about 5:00 and by 6:30 we were in the house for the night. The Bullocks were having some of their leftovers and Jackie and I had BLTs. We watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, March 12^th, another moving day. We were packed up and ready for travel by 10:00, as were the Bullocks. They are also heading for Camp Verde today, another two weeks together. Because we are still having the problem with our Jeep's transfer case Jackie had to drive again. The trip was just under 140 miles, nearly all of it Interstate. However, it took us right through the heart of Phoenix from southeast to north. We were hoping that going through town in the middle of a weekday we wouldn't have much traffic.

As it turned out the traffic was moderate with no slowdowns or surprises. The trip was still stressful, any trip through a large city is, but we made it out of town in one piece and arrived in Camp Verde, at the Western Horizon's park, about 12:30. Peggy and Vernon pulled into the resort just a few minutes behind us. We got adjoining sites and got the rigs parked and spent some time in the afternoon getting setup. We will be here for two weeks.

About 5:00 we had cocktails outside and about 7:00 we BBQed some steaks and had dinner in our coach. We had a great dinner and talked until Peggy and Vernon went home around 8:30. Our arrival at Camp Verde marks a good place to put this chapter online. Until the next episode, remember the wise words of Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” See ya.

A Month in Yuma, Part II

We closed our last episode on February 14^th, roughly in the middle of a month long stay in Yuma, Arizona. We are staying at the Caravan Oasis RV Resort in the Foothills area of Yuma, east of the main part of the city.

Saturday, February 15^th, we went out for lunch with the Bullocks and the Babcocks to one of the little taco stands that are scattered around the Foothills area. Since this whole area is in the county jurisdiction, they only have to meet the basic health and safety regulations so there are all kinds of little businesses that spring up on vacant lots along the main streets. This particular street taco place had excellent reviews, better than most Mexican restaurants, so we decided to go there. They had carne, fish, shrimp and chicken tacos, all rolled street style, and they were relatively inexpensive. I had a couple of carne (beef) tacos that were out of this world. I had one of the fish tacos that was good, but I liked the beef better. Jackie had fish and some of the others of our group had the shrimp. Nobody had a complaint, and a couple of us even got seconds.

While we were eating a young family came into the stand and one of the kids, a boy of maybe eight or nine, had two bottles of water with lemons taped to them.  Jackie asked him what they were and he said he was starting a new business, a modern version of the lemonade stand,  He said they were do it yourself lemonade kits.  We all thought this was funny as hell and Jackie asked him how much they were.  He said they were a dollar, so Jackie bought one and Suzie bought the other.  The kid sold out his entire inventory in less than a minute.  If I live long enough I expect to see this kid on TV one day as the next big entrapaouner.  

After our lunch we went back to the coach and I started getting set up for our “jam session” music party tonight. Last week we attended an impromptu jam session by a bunch of the Canadian folks who are staying here at the resort, all guitar players and singers. I told them that I would set up my sound equipment on Saturday and they could come, sing some karaoke, play some music and just have fun. I got everything set up and we finally started the music about 4:00. It was pretty warm, high 80's, but we

still had a big group show up to play and watch. We had four musicians and a couple others who didn't play, but did sing. We played and sang until about 8:00 with a mix of karaoke, guitar playing, guitar with karaoke, and every combination in between. It was a really fun night and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Sunday, February 16^th, we were up and out of the house at 8:00 a.m, to do some geocaching. We were finally going to get out on the Barry Goldwater Military Range south of the foothills to do some desert caching. We took our Jeep with Ray and Suzie, since their car wouldn't do well in the desert, and Peggy and Vernon followed in their Jeep. We probably drove about twenty miles out into the range, stopping at caches along the way. We started to drive to the Fortuna Mine, an old abandoned turn of the century gold mine which is in the middle of the range, but about a mile or two from the mine the “road” got a little too rough for our Jeep, so we turned around. We had been there about five years ago when we had an older Jeep, but none of the rest of our group had been.

We had a great caching day, getting 23 finds before noon, even with the side trip to the mine. We finally decided that we had enough, and headed out of the range area back to civilization. On the way out we spotted a rattlesnake crossing the dirt road and stopped to take some pictures.  From the safety of the car, I might add.  He wasn't real big, maybe four foot or so, but he was plenty big enough to put the hurt on you.  Surprisingly, despite doing a lot of caching in the desert and in wooded areas, this is the first time since we started caching that we have seen a snake of any kind.  Does sort of reinforce our desire to keep in the lookout though.  

We stopped for lunch at a chicken restaurant where Jackie and Ray both had chicken livers. I am not a big fan of that, but I had a great hamburger. Susie just had chicken tenders. The food was very good and very reasonable. The place is called Chicken on the Run and is on the south frontage road of I-8, between Fortuna Road and Foothills Boulevard.

After lunch we went back to the coach and Jackie started cooking for the big group dinner we planned for tonight. She made both chicken enchiladas and her relleno casserole, and Judi made another taquito dish. We had us, the Babcocks, Bullocks and McKays, as well as Peggy's grandson Troy and his new wife Makayla. Troy is the Marine stationed at Yuma Marine Corps Air Station. We had cocktails first and then a wonderful dinner. The night stayed very comfortable until about 8:00 when we finally cleared everything out and everybody went back to their own places. A very nice day and evening with friends, but tiring.

Monday, February 17^th, President's Day, yet another February holiday. We went out after lunch to do our laundry, it had been nearly three weeks since the last time. It took the bulk of the afternoon after which we returned to the coach. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then had another nice group dinner with the eight of us, enjoying another spectacular Arizona evening. Judi and Peggy did most of the cooking tonight, with Peggy making Jackie's recipe for crunchy Chinese casserole. Peggy's version tasted just like Jackie's and was very good. Judi also had a Chinese themed dish and we had a great dinner. Again the night was so nice we stayed outside and talked until a little after 8:00 when everyone went back to their own places.

Tuesday was a stay at home day. Jackie and the other women spent a couple hours in the afternoon doing some crafts out on the patio. I did some chores around the coach, including doing our income taxes for last year. At about 5:00 our little gang of eight met for cocktai

ls and then partook of an excellent meal – again! This time we had spaghetti and meatballs. Ray cooked the sauce, we provided the meatballs, Peggy did the pasta and salad. We had an excellent time and stayed out enjoying the nice evening and the company until around 8:00 when everyone went back to their own coaches for the rest of the night.  The picture is just one of the many great Arizona sunsets we enjoyed during this stay.

Wednesday, February 19^th, we left the coach about 10:30 or so and drove back down to Algodones, Mexico. As soon as we got across the border I went to our eye doctor and got my examination and ordered new lenses for my glasses. Once we had that done we did a little shopping and then met Ray and Suzie and Judi and Clark at one of the Mexican restaurants in town. We had a great lunch and listened to a pretty decent entertainer while we ate.

After lunch Ray and Clark went back across the border to do some stuff at home. I headed out to find the one geocache in Algodones that we hadn't yet found and the girls went shopping. I picked up my glasses around 2:00 and then shopped for a little while myself. We got back into line about 3:00 and it took just over an hour to get back into the States. It was a pretty busy day in Algodones. Once we got back home we met with the group for cocktails around 5:00. We stayed out and talked until about 7:00 when everyone went back to their own coaches for the night.

Thursday, February 20^th, we left the coach around 10:00 or so with the Bullocks to do some geocaching. We stayed in the general area of the Foothills and managed to get thirteen new finds, along with one DNF, in the course of a few hours. I am sad to say that the DNF was one we had DNFed last year about this same time. This time eight eyes couldn't locate it, although someone else had found it just a few days earlier. Curses! After caching we stopped at the same little outdoor taco stand that we ate at a few days back. Again, the tacos were wonderful!

The group met for cocktails about 5:00 and again had a great evening meal outside. Tonight everyone cooked up some chicken. I did ours on the BBQ and it was great. A couple of people cooked up some of the asparagus we had bought in Mexico on Wednesday and Peggy made some great specialty rice that had cranberries and orange peel in it. Yum! I have to say this group does know how to eat well. We went in a little earlier tonight, around 7:30, because it was a little cooler tonight.

Friday, February 21^st, Jackie, Peggy and Judi left the coach about 9:30 or so for another morning of shopping in Mexico. I stayed at home and did some more chores around the coach. They returned mid afternoon and we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. About 5:00 we, the Babcocks and the McKays left the RV park and drove into town to the Yuma Elks Lodge for dinner. We have been so busy this trip that this was our first visit to the lodge and we are just about ready to leave town. Peggy and Vernon stayed home because their grandkids Troy and Makayla were coming over to visit.

We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table so we had some cocktails in the bar. This will be the last time we visit this lodge in this building. The big Yuma Regional Medical Center across the street has bought the lodge land and building and will be tearing it down soon. The lodge has bought another building a mile or so south of the current lodge and will be moving into it sometime in April.

We finally got our table and had dinner. Tonight was their all you can eat fish fry, but they also have a full menu and no one ate the buffet. I had a ground round steak, Clark had a rib eye, Suzie had chicken and the other three all had liver. I tasted the liver and it was excellent, I wish I had got it, although my steak was good too. After dinner we stopped in the cocktail lounge for a little bit because they had karaoke going. I did two songs in a fairly short rotation and then we headed back to the RV park, getting home around 9:00. We watched TV for a little while then went off to bed.

Saturday, February 22^nd, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove downtown for a street fair that was supposed to be going on this weekend. There wasn't anything going on when we got there, so we must have misread the article in the paper. We had Ray and Suzie with us and Peggy and Vernon had followed in their car. When we found there was nothing going on downtown we drove over to the Elks lodge to look at their annual parking lot sale. We spent about 20 minutes there, but found nothing but junk, so no one bought anything. We all decided to go to lunch at Chicken on the Run again, so we drove back out to the foothills for lunch. As with the last time, the food was all pretty good.

After lunch Jackie and I drove to Walmart while Ray and Suzie went back to the RV park with the Bullocks. We got back home from shopping about 3:00 and I started making up a big pot of chili for dinner. I was making enough to feed our group, plus the Bullock's grandkids, so that made ten to feed. About 5:00 we had cocktails and about 6:30 dinner was served. Vernon made some cornbread to go with the chili and we had a great meal. After dinner we had some drinks and chatted until about 8:30 when everyone headed in for the night.

Sunday we relaxed with the Sunday paper and decided this would be a stay at home day. Mostly I wanted to watch the Daytona 500, the first NASCAR race of the season. I actually ended up watching the 2013 race during the afternoon because the race in Daytona was delayed by rain after only eighty some laps. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and dinner around 6:30 or so. Judi did the cooking tonight, making a goulash that was pretty good. We also had a salad and some garlic bread. This group does pretty well at keeping everyone fed.

We stayed out and talked until about 7:30 or so before going in our coach. By the time we got inside today's race had finally restarted after a six hour delay so I got to watch most of this year's race too. The race finally ended at 9:00 and we watched a little regular TV before heading off to bed.

Monday, February 24^th, Jackie and I left the coach after lunch to go do some geocaching. We were by ourselves as everyone else had other things to do today. We stayed out about three and a half hours or so and ended up with sixteen new finds, along with one DNF and one cache we found but couldn't get the container open, so we couldn't sign the log. That one was really tricky with a big PVC container with a hole in the bottom and you had to shake it around to try and get the key for the top of the container to fall out the hole. I shook and jerked it around for 15 minutes and finally said the Hell with it.

After caching we went back to the coach and had happy hour with the group. We also had dinner outside with everyone again, this time finishing up all the leftovers from the various meals we have had the last few days. Everyone is leaving in a couple days, so we were trying to clean out the fridges. We stayed out until about 7:30, then went in and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, February 25^th, I spent several hours today putting things away and cleaning up around the outside of the coach, all in preparation for moving day tomorrow. I finally got everything put away about 3:00 and I relaxed for a while. About 5:00 we left the RV park with our entire group and headed into Yuma to the Texas Roadhouse for Ray's birthday. We were going to go back to the Outback for Ray's birthday like we did for mine a few weeks back, but yesterday the Outback suddenly closed up. No explanation and, according to the local paper, a complete surprise to even the employees.

There were ten of us for dinner, Peggy's grandkids came too, and we got seated right away. The food at Texas is OK, but not nearly as good as what the Outback used to serve. Not sure why they folded up. We had a good dinner and left the restaurant a little before seven. We went home and spent the rest of the evening relaxed with the TV.

Wednesday, February 26^th, moving day again. Today is the day our big group is breaking up after a month together here in Yuma. Clark and Judi headed out this morning for home in Ventura County. At first it looked like they might be delayed because their slide would not come in. Clark, ever the engineer, broke out the schematics and found the electrical problem and was able to get the slide to come in. We and Peggy and Vernon are heading for Casa Grande, Arizona, about 170 miles east. The Babcocks are staying at Caravan Oasis one more night, then moving west about 20 miles to the Pilot Knob RV Resort, just across the border in California. They want to stay in the area for at least two more weeks because they are doing some chelation therapy down in Mexico and they want at least two more weeks of treatment.

We got out about 9:30 and started east on Interstate 8 towards Casa Grande. Since our Jeep is still not fixed and towable, Jackie had to drive the car behind me. The trip was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Casa Grande just before 1:00 p.m., just a couple minutes behind the Bullocks. We got settled into our spot and I spent an hour or two getting set up. We are not right next door to Peggy and Vernon, but there is only one spot between us, so pretty close. We will both be here for two weeks before moving on to Camp Verde, Arizona.

We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon about 5:00 and then Peggy made dinner in their coach. It was just the four of us, so it was less hectic than when eight or ten of us are trying to put together a dinner. She made beef and potatoes, and broccoli and we had a very nice dinner. We finally went back to our place about 8:30 and watched TV until bedtime.

Although it has not been quite two weeks since our last posting, this move seems like a good point to close this chapter and get it published. We will probably publish next in two weeks when we make the next move. Until the next episode remember the words of the Greek philosopher, Epictetus. “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” See ya soon.