Winter 2015 in Yuma - Part 2

Hi there, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Sunday, February 8^th, about halfway through our month long stay in Yuma, Arizona.

Monday, February 9^th, we had a fairly relaxing day, going out after lunch to do some shopping. About 5:00 two couples from the Full Timers Chapter of FMCA that are in Yuma for a few days, Mike and Darlene Neighbours and Patty and Billy Cantarini, came over for a pot luck dinner. Almost all of our group here knew Patty and Billy because we were all at the Full Timer's Chapter rally in Oregon last summer. Most of the group also knew Mike and Darlene. We had cocktails and talked for a while and then everyone brought out the food. Jackie made taquito casserole and Peggy made lasagna. The rest of the group had other dishes and we had a great dinner. The night was very pleasant and we ended up sitting outside and chatting until after 9:00 when the two visiting couples left to go back to their own RV parks.

Tuesday, February 10^th, we were up and out of the coach about 10:00, with Peggy in the car too, and headed for Algodones, Mexico for a day of shopping and teeth cleanings. Algodones was very crowded today since the weather was great, with lots of old folks down there. I think on many winter days the retired people outnumber the Mexicans in town by two to one. After all three of us got our teeth cleaned we went to one of the restaurants for lunch. We were supposed to meet the rest of our group at the restaurant at 1:00, but we never found them. You can't use U.S. phones down there because of the cost, so we just had lunch with the three of us.

After lunch we spent some time shopping and finally got in line to come back across the border around 3:30 or so. While the girls waited in line I went out and got two geocaches which had recently been placed in Algodones. It took a little over an hour to get across, which is about normal, and we were back home by a little after 5:00. We had cocktails with the group and by 6:30 we were relaxing in our coach watching TV.

Wednesday, February 11^th, we spent most of the day around the coach. We left about 2:30 and drove to the Escapee's RV park on the south side of Yuma to visit with some friends. We first met Bonnie and and Ken Weopke a couple years after we started full timing and for a lot of years would cross paths with them at rallies and RV parks. A few years back they got a lot at the Escapee's park in Casa Grande and, although they still lived full time in their RV, they didn't travel as much. Last year they moved to the Escapee's park in Yuma and got a park model, so they no longer live in their RV, although they do plan to travel some. They also had some friends there, John and Suzanne Budovec. Although they are members of the Full Timer's Chapter, we don't know them from there. We remember them from our travels with the Palm Springs RV club way back before we sold our house. We had a lot of mutual friends and spent several hours catching up and chatting. About 5:00 we left and headed back to the RV park for cocktails and dinner with our group.

Thursday, February 12th, we left the coach after lunch and made another visit to the Arizona Marketplace to walk around and do some shopping. We bought a couple little things, but mostly just enjoyed the nice weather and checked out the merchandise. After the Marketplace we stopped at a new farm and ranch store, Cal Ranch, that just opened in Yuma. They have a little bit of everything from guns to chickens to clothes. We then stopped so Jackie could get her hair cut before heading back to the coach. We had cocktails with the group and then did a little Mexican fiesta with the whole gang. Jackie made chili relleno and Peggy made enchiladas. After dinner we watched TV.

Friday, February 13^th, we left the coach about 10:00 and drove down to Algodones again, mostly just to have lunch with some of the group. The Babcocks were already down there getting some medical treatment and Peggy and Vernon took their granddaughter in law Makayla for her first trip to Mexico. We shopped for a little while and then all met for lunch at one of the nicer restaurants down there. After lunch we shopped a little more but were back in line to go home by 1:15 or so. Because we left early the line out was very short, it only took us a few minutes to get out and back to our car.

We stopped at Sam's Club on the way home for some supplies and then joined the group for cocktails at 5:00. A little later we had a BBQ with all of the group except Clark and Judi who went out to the movies and dinner. Most of the group had lamb but I had a steak. Jackie made some asparagus that we had bought in Mexico and Ray made a pot of mashed potatoes. We had a great meal and stayed out until about 8:00 when everyone wandered back to their own coaches.

Saturday, February 14^th, Happy Valentine's Day! Happy birthday to my granddaughter Courtney who is 26 today. She is living in Arkansas and expecting a baby in a few months. Our current plans will have us visiting in Arkansas towards the end of summer so we will get to see my newest great grand baby.

We left the coach after lunch and drove into Yuma to the civic center where the annual Yuma Square and Round Dance Festival is going on. We have some friends, Linda and Ernie Ellis who are BIG square dance aficionados and are in town for the festival. We met Linda and Ernie on our Alaska trip back in 2009 and cross paths with them a couple times a year at rallies and in RV parks. We spent about 90 minutes watching the dancing and visiting with Linda and Ernie during the breaks in the action.

After the square dancing we drove to the nearby Yuma Elks Lodge to see their new place. The old lodge, which we have visited on many occasions, was located on 24^th Street across the street from the big medical center and hospital. A couple years ago the hospital announced plans for a major expansion and bought the land the Elks lodge was on. Over the last summer the lodge moved into it's new building on 32^nd Street and this was our first visit to the new place. They did a great job with the renovation and it appears they have as much room as they did in their old building. They have a great bar with an outdoor wing, a big dining room and a dedicated lodge room that is very pretty. Everything in the place is new, furniture, fixtures, the works, so I would guess they got a pretty penny for their old property. They do share the building with the YMCA, but there is still plenty of parking for the Elks.

We had one cocktail and then headed back to the RV park. We had cocktails with most of the group at 5:00 and then did another group dinner with most of us doing chicken on the BBQ. The meal and conversation was great and about 7:30 we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Sunday, February 15^th, we had an easy day at home. I did our income taxes for last year, did some filing and shredding of last year's stuff, and got a few other chores done. We had cocktails at 5:00 with the group. The Babcock's, McKay's and Calzada's all went out to eat while the rest of us had a hamburger BBQ. We had a great meal and conversation but were back in our coach by 7:30.

Monday, February 16^th, Happy Presidents Day. We went to our favorite taco stand for lunch with the Bullock's, Peggy, Vernon, Troy and Makayla. Troy had the day off from the base because of the holiday. After lunch they went out to do some sightseeing and we went across the street to do our laundry. We later had cocktails with the group and then went back to our coach for a quiet evening.

Tuesday we woke up about 5:00 and noticed that the shore power to the coach was off. We had lost power last week and the park thought they had it fixed, but now it was off again. We ran the generator for a while to heat the water and make coffee and charge the batteries. After everything was charged up we left the coach about 10:30 or so and headed out for some shopping and lunch.

We stopped at a shoe store in the Foothills area that was having a big sale. Jackie got a couple pairs of shoes she liked and I got myself a new tee shirt. We then headed to downtown Yuma for the Tuesday farmer's market on Main Street. When we got there we met up with Peggy and Vernon and Pat and Tammy, as well as Makayla, who all gone down for the market too. We first went into Lute's Casino, a restaurant on Main Street, for lunch. The food was only fair at best, but the atmosphere is kind of fun and unique. After lunch we walked around the fair for a bit and then headed home to check on the power situation. The power was back on, so we left again to do some geocaching in the Foothills area. We were able to get eight new finds and one new DNF. After caching we headed back to the RV park and had cocktails with most of the group at 5:00. After happy hour we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, February 18^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove to a couple of the big churches here in the Foothills area that have Wednesday morning farmer's markets. Between the two places we spent about an hour and a half looking around and buying a couple of little things. We then met Peggy and Vernon for lunch at a place near the RV park called Da Boyz Pizza. It is mostly pizza and sandwiches, but is pretty highly rated. I had an Italian sub that was very good. Jackie had a chicken parm sandwich which she said was a little bland, but OK. The Bullock's had pizza and the first one they brought was not cut very well and it fell off the elevated stand and got a bit mangled when Peggy tried to get a piece loose. Although the pizza was fine to eat the waitress put in an order for another and they got a new whole pizza to take home.

After lunch Jackie and I went out to do some more geocaching and we were able to get 14 new finds and one DNF in a few hours. We went back to the coach and then had cocktails with the gang, a little smaller gang since Pat and Tammy and Jim and Sally had all left to go home. Since we had such a big lunch we didn't have any dinner and just watched TV until bed.

Thursday, February 19^th, we left the coach after lunch and drove to the mall to see the movie American Sniper. Vernon went with us because he wanted to see the movie but Peggy wasn't interested. We met Ray at the theater where he went after he got back from his medical work in Mexico. The four of us got our popcorn and went in to see the movie. This movie has gotten a lot of buzz and I can see why. It is based on a true story and is able to be both a good action war movie that portrays what our troops are running up against in the Middle East, but also an outstanding portrayal of the toll war and killing takes on those who have to do it. I am eternally grateful that I was able to serve my country and my community as a “hired gun” for seven years as a Marine and 28 years as a Sheriff's Deputy and never had to be in a position to have to take a life. If this movie and it's star, Bradly Cooper, are shunned by the Oscars this weekend I will be very disappointed.

After the movie we went back to the RV park and chilled for a while before having cocktails with the three other couples that our left of our group. We again skipped dinner and just had some snacks while watching TV. This time it was mostly the giant box of popcorn we ate at the movies.

Friday, February 20^th, we had a stay at home and do chores day. I got a pretty big job finished today, finally. Two years ago we had our coach remodeled inside, which included new carpeting in part of the front area and on either side of the stairwell. Later that year we got our new cat, Benji, who was six months old. He decided that the sides of the stairwell made a great scratching post and he pretty much shredded the carpet on the sides of the stairs. Late last year we got our hands on some of the extra carpeting from our remodel. Peggy and Vernon went up to Oregon for some work on their coach and stopped at the shop where we got the work done and picked it up for us. I finally got around to replacing the bad carpet. Jackie did some cleaning and we made a quick run to Walmart for supplies.

At 5:00 we had cocktails with the group. The happy hour included a "Changing of the Flower" ceremony.  The "flower" is this odd looking bead flower that was given to Jackie by a friend in the Coachella Valley just about the ti

me we went full time.  We carried it around for a while and then Jackie got the idea that it should pass from woman to woman in our extended group.  Peggy has had it, Suzie has had it, Ramona has had it and most recently Judi had it.  It has been about a year so it was time to pass it back and Jackie was the proud recipient this time.  You can see her excitement.   The McKays and Babcocks went out to eat and we had dinner at the park with the Bullock's, including Makayla and Troy. I made some chili colorado and Peggy made rice and beans. Jackie did some guacamole and we had a great Mexican dinner. After dinner, when the McKays and Babcock's got back to the park, we all had some key lime pie that Jackie made. After that we talked for a while and then went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Saturday, February 21^st, we left the coach after lunch and picked up the Bullock's to go down to the Hank Days celebration. The Foothills area always celebrates Hank Days in February in honor of the man who originally owned most of the land which is now the Foothills residential area. They advertised a parade, car show and farmers market area. When we got to the venue we saw that the car show never came off, there were no cars to see. Since we were in the area we spent about an hour and a half driving around the Foothills area looking for signs regarding RV lots for rent. We are looking to try and get one of the RV lots, which have two full hookups, for next year when we come down here. We are getting tired of Caravan Oasis, the park in which we have stayed the last three years. We wrote down a lot of numbers on a lot of possibilities. We then headed back to the coach and relaxed until cocktail time.

We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon at 5:00 and then we had a rib BBQ. We had bought some ribs at Frys a couple weeks ago and we cooked up a couple racks tonight. Vernon is an excellent pork rib BBQ guy, so he got to cook the slabs. We had ribs with cole slaw and beans and had a wonderful meal. We sat and talked until about 8:30 when we headed back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, February 22^nd, we were up and out of the coach about 9:15 and headed out for a day of desert geocaching with Peggy and Vernon. We went out in their new Jeep Wrangler, a “real” Jeep, and headed for the desert northeast of the Yuma valley. There is an area of old mines and abandoned towns called Castle Dome and there are a lot of geocaches. We packed a lunch and took the dog so we wouldn't have to worry about hurrying back to the RV park.

We geocached our way into the area on a gravel road and stopped for lunch at a “ghost” town called Castle Dome City. It is a private area that the guy runs as a museum. He wanted ten dollars a person to tour, so we skipped that. We had our lunch at a little picnic area and then headed back out of the area, picking up a few more geocaches along the way. We ended up with 29 new finds for the day, a very good day of caching. One of them was another milestone, 6,800 finds. Yea! We were back home about 3:00. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon, but went back to our coach around six because everyone was beat from the day's activities. We watched the Oscars and then went to bed.

Monday, February 23^rd, we left the coach around noon with a couple who were parked across the street from us. Dan and Roxie are vendors with a booth out at the Arizona Marketplace. They stay at Caravan Oasis for the season and sell on the weekends. They are a very friendly couple and have joined our group several times for cocktails. They had expressed an interest in geocaching, so we told them we would take them out, introduce them to the sport, give a few hints, and see how they liked it. Our first stop was lunch at the taco stand. Unfortunately, our regular stand was closed for an emergency of some kind, according to the sign. We went to one of the other stands in the same parking lot and got tacos. They were OK, but not nearly as good as the one's at our regular place.

After lunch we set out to do some geocaching in the Foothills area. We got Dan signed up on Geocaching.com and got a geocaching app downloaded on his phone. We spent a couple hours out caching and we were able to get ten finds and Dan and Roxie got their first finds. I must say they seemed to really enjoy the hobby and were very enthusiastic. We will monitor their progress and see if we have new converts. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon and Troy and Makayla, and Dan and Roxie came over for a little while too. We then had dinner with the Bullocks. Peggy made her penne pasta recipe, which is one of my favorites. We stayed and talked until about 8:00 when we left and went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, February 24^th, our last day in Yuma. I spent some time in the morning taking down outside decorations and getting ready for our departure tomorrow. About noon we drove to the Asian Star restaurant, near the Marine Corps Base, for lunch with the Bullocks. This was our first time at this restaurant and the food was good. The soup was bland, but the orange chicken was very spicy. It is not a buffet, but the lunch portions are very big and we left quite full. After lunch Peggy and Vernon went off to run some errands and so did we. We stopped at a couple of stores and then fueled the car before heading for the RV park. Fuel is quite a bit cheaper in Arizona than it is in California, so we wanted to make sure the car was full before we left Yuma in the morning. After we got back to the coach we relaxed for the rest of the night. Peggy and Vernon went to spent the last night with the grandkids at the base, so we were all by ourselves.

Wednesday, February 25^th, time to move on. We were packed up and ready to travel by 10:00. After a quick stop for fuel we were on the I-8, headed west to El Cajon, California, a suburb of San Diego. The trip was about 165 miles and went pretty smoothly. We arrived in El Cajon at the Vacationer RV Park about 1:30 our time, but now 12:30 local because of the change in time zone. Of course, this will only last until Sunday when daylight savings kicks in again and California goes ahead an hour, even with Arizona again.

We are only here for three days, so we didn't set anything up outside except for the sun shades. The park is nothing to rave about, lots of permanent residents who have some unkempt spaces, but it is close to town and only for three days. We relaxed for the afternoon and at 6:00 we took Peggy and Vernon and went out for some dinner. We went to an Italian place called Verona Italian Bistro just a mile or so from the RV park. The place had great reviews, but when we got there only one other table had people. However, one of the guys at the table told us not to worry, the place had the best food in town. The food was very good. Vernon and I both had beef stroganof and both the girls had a lemon chicken special. We also had some calamari and some bread sticks. I also had a bowl of Italian onion soup that was nothing like French onion, but very good nonetheless. We left full, happy and with some leftovers.

After dinner we drove about six miles to the next town over, La Mesa, to visit Jackie's brother Dennis at his apartment. He lives in a very large high rise apartment complex, and complex is the word of the day. After we got parked in the underground garage Dennis had to come down and guide us up to his apartment. We probably could have found it, but it was a very circuitous route from the parking area. His apartment is a one bedroom and is small, but not tiny, certainly big enough for a single guy. Nicely equipped kitchen and washer and dryer in the apartment. He has it decorated nicely and it looked very comfortable. The four of us sat and chatted with Dennis for about 45 minutes before leaving and driving back to the RV park.

Our departure from Arizona marks a good point to close this chapter and get it published. We will be in El Cajon for three days and then about 50 miles north in Menifee for another 11 days. Then the rallies start. Until the next time, remember the words of Will Rogers. “Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.” See ya soon.

Winter 2015 in Yuma - Part 1

Hello again, welcome back to our story. Our last chapter ended on Sunday, January 25^th, with our departure from the Quartzsite area and our arrival in Yuma, Arizona at the Caravan Oasis RV Resort. This will make the third year in a row we have spent a month here in Yuma in the late winter.

Monday, January 26^th, the predicted rain started around 5:00 a.m. and continued on and off for most of the day. It was also quite cool, in the low 50's, so most everyone, including us, stayed inside for the day. Jackie is still down pretty much, but I went and had cocktails with the group in the Babcock's coach about 5:00. Peggy and Vernon's grandson Troy and his wife Makayla were also visiting. Troy is a Marine stationed at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station. Ray had made bean soup for everyone, but he delivered ours to our coach knowing the Jackie was probably not going to come out in public yet. After cocktails I went home and we had dinner and watched TV the rest of the evening. Tuesday Jackie was still sick. We stayed home for the day.

Wednesday, January 28^th, Jackie was feeling a little better. We went out after lunch to do some grocery shopping and went to Walmart and Fry's to pick up supplies. Jackie joined the rest of the group for cocktails at the Babcock's coach. We went back to our place for dinner while much of the rest of the group went out for Chinese. We had a nice dinner and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Thursday, January 29^th, Jackie had a bit of a relapse and stayed in for most of the day. I did some work outside, setting out a few decorations and such. I went to the hardware store and got some supplies for a couple of small chores around the house and accomplished several of them. The big thing was that I think, the operative word being “think,” that I finally found the elusive leak in the kitchen slide. We have had a persistent leak there for a couple of years. It does not leak when the slide is retracted, which tells me that the problem was in the top of the slide, not the outside wall.

Ray came over and we spent some time talking about various plans to narrow down the leak. I was up on a step stool looking at the inside edge of the top of the slide after we pulled it in a little ways, and FINALLY! I spotted a small area on the inside edge where the caulking was pulled up from the bottom of a piece of angle. Any water flowing into this open area would be channeled right into the inside of the slide. Ray looked at it and agreed we may have found the culprit. I cleaned the area up and put a good dose of silicon sealant on the area and hope that it will take care of the problem. We will find out soon because they are predicting on and off rain for the next two days. Fingers crossed. I had cocktails with the group because Jackie was still down, but we had dinner at our place and watched TV.

Friday, January 30^th, Jackie finally had a good night. She slept the entire night, in the bed, without coughing. She felt good enough that we were able to get out of the coach about 11:00 and go to the Arizona Marketplace, the big outdoor “swap meet” in Yuma. The rest of the gang went as well. We bought a couple of new outside chairs to replace the one's we have now which are about four years old and falling apart. We also bought a few other little things. After the Marketplace we went to Applebee's for lunch and then stopped at Michael's before heading back to the coach.

We were able to go out for cocktails with the group and stayed out until about 6:30. We then went back to our place for the rest of the night. We didn't have dinner because we had such a late lunch. By the way, the leak in the slide still hasn't reappeared, so I am feeling like I may have finally fixed it.

Saturday, January 31^st, we decided to stay at home today to help Jackie's recovery. I did some chores around the house, and took a quick trip to Walmart to buy a new DVD player. Several years ago the RCA DVD player that came with the coach quit. Since it was also the surround sound provider for the coach we had to replace it with another surround sound DVD system. We put in a Sony DVD home theater system that worked fine until recently. The last couple of times we have tried to play a DVD the player has acted up and won't work. The surround sound works fine, so I didn't want to spend a couple hundred bucks for a new system. I bought a Samsung DVD player for $60 and plugged the sound into the existing Sony and now we have a complete system again.

We spent most of the afternoon watching the movie Boyhood. This is the film that was made over a 12 year period with the same cast so that as time went by the main character grew from an six year old boy into an 18 year old. It was a good movie, a good character study, and the unique way is was made gave it a special twist. However, in my opinion, there was no outstanding acting or strong story lines that would rise to the level of award winning. If you didn't know the back story of the film it would just be a nice, enjoyable movie. Jackie disagrees with me and thought the movie was excellent and very worthy of the hype it has received. I guess there is a movie for everyone.

I had cocktails with the Babcocks and the McKays before dinner. Peggy and Vernon were over at their grandson's house on base for dinner and Jim and Sally were out taking care of some details of their new motor home purchase. They are here in a 26 foot class C, but while here they went shopping and are buying a used 38 foot diesel pusher. They won't get it for a couple weeks because it needs some repairs done, but we are anxious to see it. After cocktails I BBQed some pork chops and we had dinner on our own.

Sunday, February 1^st, the first month of the new year now officially gone. We went for lunch with Peggy and Vernon to a place we like here in Yuma called Chicken on the Run. Jackie likes it because they have fried chicken livers and gizzards. That's what Peggy and Jackie had. Vernon had fried chicken and I had corn beef hash and eggs for breakfast. We really enjoyed the meal and after a few quick errands we headed back to the coach to get ready for Super Bowl. We also got one geocache that happened to be right next door to the restaurant.

Mid-afternoon I cooked a big, double batch of chili for halftime dinner. We set up all the chairs for our group outside Ray and Suzie's coach and Ray setup his outside television for the big game. By kickoff time the ten of us staying here at the park were ready for the big game, as well as the Bullock grandkids, Troy and Makayla. I did a pool and had everyone buy in so we would have some gambling going on. Most of the rest of group brought nibbles and we settled in for the first half.

At halftime we served up the chili and fixings and Vernon brought some homemade corn bread. Everyone ate and enjoyed the meal and then we settled in for the second half of the big game. Everyone was astounded at how the game ended. Seattle basically gave away a sure win in the last 30 seconds. Too bad. Troy won the first quarter of the pool, but Ray and Suzie won the rest of the money between them. Lucky, lucky. After the game was over we cleaned up the area and settled in for the rest of the night in our coach.

Monday, February 2^nd, we had the coach washed and waxed, as well as the car. The crew showed up about 10:00 or so and by early afternoon we had nice shiny vehicles. We had lunch and then went out to do our laundry. We were finished with laundry about 4:00 and headed back to the coach. We had cocktails with the group around 5:00 and then everyone had pulled pork sandwiches prepared by Judi. Dinner was great and we all stayed out until about 7:30 when it started getting chilly. We went back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday we went out for lunch to the local taco stand, only a half mile or so from the RV park. We discovered this place the first time we were here two years ago and we go back often. It is a real “street taco” place with beef, fish, shrimp tacos and a few other things. Everything tastes very authentic Mexican. We had a great lunch and then did some geocaching around the area, finding nine caches in a couple of hours. We went back to the coach and rested for a bit before going out for cocktails with the group. After cocktails we went out with Ray and Suzie to the nearby truck stop restaurant, which is excellent, for dinner. Three of us had the special, which was beef tips and noodles, and Jackie had a steak. Everyone was very pleased with the food and we enjoyed the company. After dinner we headed back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, February 4^th, we left the coach a little before noon and headed down to a local restaurant called Parrish's for lunch. Peggy and Vernon came with us and we were meeting another couple from our Full Timers Chapter of FMCA, Mike and Darlene Neighbours. Mike is currently the Vice President of the Chapter and will take over as President later this year. In addition, the two of them are the newsletter editors. We haven't seen them for about a year, but stay in contact with them through email and social media. They are here in Yuma for a week or so and wanted to get together for lunch. We had a great lunch and spent an hour an a half talking and catching up. We will getting together with them and some other friends on Monday as well.

After lunch we dropped Peggy and Vernon off at the RV park and we went to Walmart for some shopping. We later had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then everyone grilled burgers for dinner. Jackie made some wasabi coleslaw, Peggy made some pasta salad and Vernon made a veggie frittata.
We had a great meal and stayed outside until about 7:30 when it started to cool off.

Thursday, February 5^th, Happy 68^th to me! Jackie and I went out after lunch to pick up some special geocaches that were put out as part of this coming weekend's big caching event here in Yuma. They are called Lab Caches and are temporary caches put out solely as part of an event. There were six of them that were located from the far east part of the metro area to the park near downtown where the big event is being held on Sunday. Several of the caches were out in the desert and took a while to get to, and all of them were very clever and innovative. We had a great time and it took over three hours to get all six caches.

After caching we headed home for cocktails with the group. I had originally planned to go to a restaurant for dinner tonight for my birthday, but I decided that having ten or twelve people trying to eat in a restaurant was too much of a pain. So, I decided we were just going to have a pizza party at the RV park. Our group ordered a bunch of pizzas from the nearby Pizza Hut, had them delivered, and then we just had a great time visiting and eating pizzas. It was a much more enjoyable way to celebrate. About 7:30 everyone drifted off to their own coaches and we watched TV until bedtime.

Friday, February 6^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and met Peggy and Vernon, and their granddaughter in law Makayla, at the taco stand for lunch. Although Makayla and Troy live here, they live on the base over in town and don't get out this way. Peggy wanted her to try these tacos to compare with the one's she gets over in central Yuma. After lunch Peggy and Makayla went to get pedicures, Vernon went back to the coach and we made a quick stop at the coach for a bathroom break and then went out to do some geocaching.

We ended up getting eleven new finds, and one DNF, in a few hours of caching. About 4:30 or so we drove to the Yuma mall for a caching event. We were early for the 5:30 event so we walked around Penny's for a while. After that we walked over to the part of the mall near the movie theaters and waited as several hundred other geocachers gathered on the sidewalks. At 5:30 everyone's phone alarm sounded and the geocaching flash mob event for this year began. For this flash mob everyone was supposed to bring a banana and set a phone alarm for 5:30. When the alarms sounded everyone took out their banana and held it up like a phone and started shouting “can you hear me now?” at the top of their lungs. Someone then fired up a boom box with the song Shout going and we all walked out into the traffic circle and danced and sang. There were a couple of hundred participants and it was great fun. After a couple minutes the music shut off and everyone walked away from the area.

After the flash mob we went to another event, a meet and greet, at a bar and grill nearby called the Landing Zone. They have a bunch of old military helicopter parts scattered around the property and a bunch of military memorabilia inside. It was very crowded and very loud, so we only stayed for one drink, but we did sit with five people that we know from the Coachella Valley caching group that came to Yuma for the weekend's events. About 6:30 we left and headed back to the coach for dinner and an evening in front of the TV.

Saturday, February 7^th, Happy wedding Anniversary to us, eleven wonderful years. We stayed around the coach for most of the day, but left about 4:30 to drive to yet another caching event. This one was in old town Yuma at a restaurant called Lute's Casino. It's not really a casino, but was during the frontier days of Yuma. Today's event was another meet and greet. We got there early enough to get a seat at a table with some friends of ours from the Coachella Valley, Roy and Darcy, and a couple other Coachella cachers. There were a couple hundred people in the restaurant and we talked to a number of other cachers that we have met along the caching trail.

We had a couple of drinks, but it was way too crowded to try and get food, and I'm not that crazy about their menu anyway. We left about 6:30 and drove to another place in Yuma called El Rancho for some great Mexican food. We have eaten here before and never been disappointed. We had a great anniversary dinner and then drove back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, February 8^th, another of our many anniversary dates. Today marks the 17^th anniversary of Jackie and I getting together. We were up and out of the coach by 8:30, headed to a park along the Colorado River just west of downtown Yuma. This is the location for the 12^th annual Southwest Arizona Geocachers (SWAG) geocaching event. This is also the third year that the event has grown large enough for Groundspeak, the company that supervises the geocaching hobby, to consider it to be a “mega event.” The requirement if for over 500 attendees. We have been to all three mega events and were at a couple of the SWAG events prior to them being classified as megas.

We arrived at the park a little after 9:00 and hooked up with our friends from the Coachella Valley in a shady area of the park. We had brought chairs and coolers with food and drink and we were ready for the day. We participated in a couple of contests early in the event, an X marks the spot contest and a poker run. In X marks the spot they give the team a small flag, like the one's landscapers use to mark sprinklers, and a set of coordinates. You then have to plant your flag as close to the coordinates as your GPS device will let you. It is a contest because every GPS device reads and interprets the signal a little differently. Even a it's best a GPS is only good for about a ten or fifteen foot radius. In the end, I was about ten or twelve feet off the mark.

The poker run has each team find five caches hidden in the park. Each cache has a bunch of small envelopes with a playing card in it. You gather one envelope from each of the five caches and then go back and they open the envelopes to see what kind of five card poker hand you get. We had an ace high hand, no where near enough to win anything. After the contests we walked around and checked out different booths, exchanged travel bugs, and visited with people that we know from caching. There were a couple dozen people at the event that we have met somewhere along the line since 2008.

We had some lunch and enjoyed the event until everything shut down at 2:00.

We headed back to the coach and relaxed for a little while. About 4:30 some of our Coachella Valley caching friends came over for a BBQ. Roy and Darcy, Kevin, and Rex and Vicki all came over for the party. We all partied with our regular group here at the park, and a couple of other people came over from other sites as well. We ended up with about 20 people sitting around talking and drinking. We BBQed some hamburgers and had some side dishes and everyone had a great time. The Coachella group left about 7:30 and headed back to where they were staying in Yuma. They are headed back to the Coachella Valley tomorrow. We relaxed with the TV for the remainder of the evening.

Today marks two weeks since we arrived here in Yuma, so it is a good place to close out this chapter and get it published. We are here in Yuma for another two weeks yet, so expect another episode of Yuma adventures in a couple weeks. Until the next time, remember that laughter is like a windshield wiper, it doesn't stop the rain but allows us to keep going. See ya next time.