A Yuma Winter - Part 1

Hi there, welcome back to our story. Our last chapter concluded on Monday, February 1^st, with our arrival in Yuma, Arizona for a two month stay. We will be here at The Palms RV Resort with four of our RVing friends, the Bullock's, Babcock's, Wilson's and McKay's. We will no doubt be visited during out stay by other friends we have made on the road over the last ten plus years. We are looking forward to a great stay.

On Tuesday we stayed around the coach because we were having a wash service come out to wash and wax the coach and car. They are both very dirty and badly in need of a good cleaning. The wash people showed up about 2:00 and finished the job in a couple of hours. Once they were done I was able to start putting up the outside decorations, including the shade screens. We were not able to get all the lights put out before it was cocktail hour, so those will have to wait for another day. We had cocktails with our gang of ten on our patio, which has been designated as “party central” for this trip. After cocktails a couple of the other folks headed off for dinner at a Chinese place and we had dinner on our own. We would have had dinner with the Bullock's, but Peggy was a bit under the weather.

Wednesday, February 3^rd, we went out after lunch and did some shopping. We then returned back to the coach and finished setting up the outside decorations with lots of lights. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then everyone went back to their own coaches. Peggy and Vernon came over to our place for dinner. Jackie made some chicken enchiladas. After they left we watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, February 4^th, we left the coach about noon and drove to the Foothills area west of Yuma to have lunch at our favorite taco stand. The Wilson’s followed us in their own car. We have been coming to this taco stand for the last three years and it has great, authentic street tacos. Over this past summer they poured a concrete pad for the place. Prior to this year it was on dirt. The stand is a trailer in a dirt lot with a small dining area surrounded by chain link fence. Very rural looking. The concrete floor makes it a lot cleaner looking now. The tacos were just as good as always.

After lunch we headed out to do some geocaching in the Foothills area. We cached for a couple of hours and got ten new finds and one DNF. We then stopped at a couple of RV stores to see if they had the vent fan kit I need to fix the bathroom vent. They didn't, so I will have to order it online. We then made a stop at Fry's for a few things and then headed back to the coach. I got online and ordered the parts I needed.

We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then the Bullock's came over for dinner. We cooked some lamb chops on the BBQ for everyone but me. I had a nice steak I bought at Fry's today. We had a great dinner and talked until almost 9:00, after which we watched TV and then went to bed.

Friday, February 5^th, a big 69^th birthday for me. My last year before fading into my seventies. Yikes, who knew I would live this long and feel this young? We left the coach about 1:30 and drove into town for a late lunch at the Yuma Palace Chinese restaurant. The rest of our group joined us in a birthday celebration, so we had a table of ten. The food was pretty good, as usual, but the service this time was terrible. We got a waitress with a bad attitude who wanted to bring the food before the soup and then got snippy when we said we wanted the food sent back so it would be hot. Once we got that issue resolved the rest of the meal was good.

After lunch we went back to the RV park and I did a few chores around the house. We had happy hour with the group at 5:00 and then at 6:30 we, the Babcock's and the McKay's walked down to the clubhouse for a Motown Tribute show. This RV resort is well known among the Yuma snowbird crowd as having pretty good shows during the winter season at reasonable prices. This show was about $22 a person. They had three “stars” including Barry White, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson. They were all imitators, of course, some better than others. The Barry White guy was OK, good low voice, but not nearly as smooth as the original and he looked nothing like him. The Stevie Wonder character had the look spot on and the voice was fair on most songs and actually quite good on a couple. The Smokey Robinson guy had the look of the young, 60's Smokey, and a high squeaky voice that was close, but no cigar. He was actually the worst of the three. It was a clunky presentation and they didn't do many of the big hits, mostly “B” side stuff, but it was cheap entertainment. Next week we are going to see a Michael Jackson tribute. We'll see how that one works out. After the show we went back home and watched a little TV until bedtime.

Saturday, February 6^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and walked down to the activities area of the resort for the park's annual car show and burger bash. We stopped first for a hamburger for lunch. They gave a burger and chips, with a beer or glass of wine, for $4, pretty good deal. We sat with the rest of our gang of ten and ate before going out and looking at the classic cars and rods. This show draws a lot of cars, close to 200, and there are a lot of old cars in the Yuma area. It is primarily a hobby for the older, wealthier crowd, and that describes a lot of the snowbirds, and residents, of the Yuma area. We spent about an hour and a half looking at the cars, including a red 1965 Plymouth Barracuda, which was exactly like a car Jackie owned back then.

After looking at the cars we took a drive to run a few errands. We stopped at a couple of stores, picked up two geocaches near the downtown area, and dropped off some stuff at the Salvation Army store. We also looked around the store for a bit and I found a very nice yellow polo shirt that had “Bean Bandits” with a cute logo and had “Ray” embroidered on the front too. I knew I had to get this for Ray Babcock because he likes to fix baked beans for our potlucks. As it turns out, the Bean Bandits are a car club in San Diego, so it was appropriate for the day of the car show. We also got a phone call while we were out that Jackie had won one of the raffle drawings at the car show. We won the booze cart.

We hurried back to the park and got there as the car show was closing up. We won a new Coleman cooler with wheels and it was full of booze, including a lot of tequilas and bourbons. One of the items with it was a big, glass bottle shaped like a rifle that was filled with tequila. When we arrived to claim the prize there was a woman there who was frantic to buy the rifle bottle for her son in Canada. We really didn't need it and had no where to put it anyway, so we sold it to her for $30. We got some money and she got a bargain as they sell in the store for much more.

We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and showed off our prizes to everyone, as well as giving Ray his “new” shirt. The Bullock's grandson Troy and his wife Makayla came for a visit and sat with us during cocktails. Troy is the young Marine stationed here in Yuma. After cocktails everyone went their separate ways for the evening. We had leftovers for dinner and watched TV until time to head for bed.

Sunday, February 7^th, our 12^th Wedding Anniversary. Yea us! We left the coach about 11:00 and drove to the Arizona Marketplace, the large outdoor swap meet here in Yuma. We shopped for about an hour or so and decided to go to lunch with Peggy and Vernon, who had also driven to the Marketplace. We went to a Mexican place called Mi Rancho, which is one of our favorites. It must be because we noticed later in the day that Facebook showed we had eaten there last year on our anniversary too. We had a great meal and afterward Peggy and Vernon went off to run some errands and we went out and did a few nearby geocaches.

We were able to get five new finds, and one DNF, in about an hour. One of the caches had a lot of travel bugs in it that we were able to swap out. After caching we headed back to the coach and relaxed for a little bit. After the Super Bowl started we went over to the McKay's coach and watched the game. Ray Babcock was there for a while and Peggy and Vernon came over to watch the second half. We were all Denver fans, so things worked out well for us. We also did a little quarter a square pool for the group and Jackie and I won the square for final score, getting ten bucks. Yea! After the game we went back home and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Monday, February 8^th, another anniversary date for us. 2/8/98 was the day that I got back in touch with Jackie after having not seen her for over 22 years. We call it our “Reunion Anniversary” and celebrate it every year. Today we celebrated by going out and doing our laundry. LOL While the laundry was working Jackie went next door and got a pedicure. That was pretty much it for the day. After laundry we headed back to the park and put stuff away. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and after that everyone headed back to their own places for dinner. We had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday we left the coach about 11:00 and drove to the Yuma Palms Mall for lunch and a movie. The Bullock's and the Wilson's also followed in their own cars since we all had various errands to run after the movie. We had lunch at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant next door to the movie theater. Most people had wings, I had a sandwich because I didn't want to fool around with messy wings. The food was pretty good and everyone seemed to enjoy their meal.

After lunch the six of us saw Dirty Grandpa, a comedy movie with Robert DeNiro as a recently widowed grandfather who is obsessed with having sex with younger women. He gets his soon to be married grandson, played by Zak Efron, to drive him from Atlanta to Florida. They stop in Daytona Beach during spring break and the fun ensues. The movie was very raunchy, both language and content, maybe even a little over the top, but it was very funny. After the movie we stopped at Sam's Club for a few things and ran a couple of other errands before returning home. We had cocktails with the group at happy hour and then dinner with the Bullock's. Peggy made a new recipe of mu shew pork. It seemed like a lot of work, but it tasted very good. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched a little TV before bed.

Wednesday, February 10^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove to a restaurant in the Foothills area called The Copper Miner. We had never eaten here, but our friend Ray Babcock, told us that the food was good. We met a couple that we were on our 49 day Alaska trip back in 2009. Linda and Ernie Ellis. We cross paths with Linda and Ernie once or twice a year, usually at FMCA rallies. They are also square dancers and come to Yuma for a regional square dancing event every February. We came and watched them dance for a while last February. We had a nice lunch and caught up with what the Ellis' have been doing since we last saw them.

After lunch we went out and ran some errands. We stopped at a couple of local swap meets and also the post office. After our errands we headed back home. I spent an hour or so working on repairing the vent fan in the bathroom. After about six or seven years it quit working, so I had to order the parts to rebuild the insides. The biggest issue was cleaning the gunk off of the blades and the rest of the fan housing. We finally got it all cleaned up and I had most of the repair work done, but happy hour called, so I quit for the day.

We had happy hour with the group and then went to the Bullock's again for dinner. Their grandson Troy and his wife were supposed to come, but he got hung up at the base and they couldn't come. That's the life of an active duty Marine, duty calls, everything else waits. We still had a nice pork dinner with the four of us and chatted until almost 9:00 before we headed back to our coach. We watched a little TV and headed off to bed.

Thursday we left the coach about 10:00 and drove to the Mexican town of Algodones. We had Peggy with us and were going down primarily to get our teeth cleaned. Regular readers will know that we go to this small border town every year for dental work and eyeglasses, as well as the occasional shopping trip. The three of us were done with our cleanings by a little after 11:00, so we shopped for a little while then stopped at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants down there, El Rancherito, for lunch. Lunch was great and the line going back into the states wasn't too bad. It was about a half hour wait, which is pretty short. It usually takes an hour or longer if you wait until late afternoon.

After we got back in the U.S. we drove back to the coach. I finished the work on the bathroom vent fan and did a few other administrative things. We had cocktails with the group, which tonight included another couple, Pat and Tammy Kight. Pat and Tammy are good friends of the Bullock's, but most of the rest of the group have met them at various RV gatherings or the parties at the Bullock's house. They are only down here for a week before moving on to their next destination. After happy hour we had dinner at the Bullock's, although Jackie cooked the main course, a Chinese casserole. Dinner was us, the Bullock's and the Kight's. We stayed and talked after dinner until about 7:30 when we went back to our coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Friday, February 12^th, we had a stay at home day. I got a few chores done around the coach, as did Jackie. We had planned a big pot luck dinner for the group tonight and everyone got together at 5:00 for cocktails. We had our original five couples, plus the Kight's and tonight we were also joined by Troy and Makayla. A little after six everyone brought out their dishes and we had a great Mexican themed pot luck. I had made some frozen margaritas, Jackie made some nice chicken enchiladas, and we had way more food than the group could eat. The weather was perfect, no wind and nice and warm until way after 8:00. Several of us stayed out talking even after most everything was cleaned up. We had a great time and everyone ate too much.

Saturday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We were able to get six new finds, along with one DNF. On the other hand, we were able to find the cache we couldn't a couple of days ago, fixing that DNF. The cache we found was rated a 5 difficulty, the highest rating. Yea! One of our other caches was a four and a half difficulty. After caching we went home and relaxed for a while. We had cocktails at 5:00 and also put out the leftovers from yesterday's pot luck. Everyone else brought their leftovers and we had an early dinner.

We were eating early because a little before seven the entire group, all six couples, walked down to the event area for a Micheal Jackson tribute concert. Since we were disappointed by the performance of the Motown group last week, we were hoping for a good show. It was better than good, it was great! The performer had a strong resemblance to MJ and was a great dancer. He also had too really good backup dancers and a fairly strong band behind him. The show was ninety minutes and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of the other couples were not big MJ fans to begin with, but no one really hated the show. After the show we went back to the coach and a few of us stayed outside for a half hour or so with a night cap. It was a beautiful evening, with temps in the 70's. We then went in, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Sunday, February 14^th, Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Birthday to my granddaughter Courtney. We left the coach about 1:00 and drove to the Arizona Market Place to finish the aisles we had not gotten to last Sunday. We bought a few little things and were done in about an hour. We did a couple of geocaches on the way back to the RV park and also stopped and checked on a new RV park with thoughts of maybe going there next year. Without the bargain certificate we got on this place this year we can't afford to stay here next year.

After we got back to the coach we relaxed for a while. The happy hour group was short the Babcock's and McKay's who went out for an early Valentine's dinner. The Wilson's went back to their coach after cocktails and we, the Bullock's and the McKays did some meat on the BBQ and had another nice outdoor dinner. We finally finished up about 8:00 and watched a movie until bedtime.

Monday, February 15^th, Happy Birthday Mr. Presidents. We had a stay at home day. I got some chores done, including doing our taxes for last year. We are getting a decent refund to help pay for our new tires for the coach. Yea! We had cocktails with the group, including Judy and Darrel Holm, a couple that are friends with Peggy and Vernon. Judy was a college classmate of Peggy's back in the 60's. They live in Wisconsin, but come down to Yuma every winter. After cocktails we did some burgers on the grill and most of the group sat outside and had dinner again. Another great winter night in Yuma. After dinner we watched TV for a while and went to bed.

Tuesday we went out to the taco stand with the Bullock's and the Holm's for lunch. After lunch we went out on our own and did some geocaching, getting ten new finds in a couple of hours. One of the finds fixed a DNF from a couple days ago. After caching we went back to the coach in time for happy hour with the group. Tammy and Pat hosted dinner for us, the Bullock's and the Holm's tonight. This is their last day here, so they wanted to do dinner for those who fed them over the last week. We had a great dinner and visited until about 9:00, after which we went back to the coach and watched a little TV before bed.

Wednesday, February 17^th, we, the Wilson's and the Bullock's all went to a place in the foothills called Chicken on the Run for lunch. Jackie likes to go there because they have chicken livers and gizzards. I had the fried chicken, which was good. Not the best I ever had, but OK. Jackie, of course, had “lizards”, which is a mix of gizzards and livers. After lunch the Wilson's went off on their own to run errands. We had the Bullock's in our car and stopped at one of the farmer's markets for a while before doing some geocaching. We got six new finds in an hour or so. We then headed back to the coach for the rest of the day. We had cocktails with the group, but Suzie was sick and didn't come out. After cocktails everyone was on their own for dinner, so we went in and watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday we had lunch in the coach and then went to the movies. Judi McKay went with us and the Wilson's followed in their own car. We went to see Hail Caeser, starring George Clooney. I am a big fan of Clooney, as well as the producers of the movie, the Coen Brothers. They are famous for making quirky films with odd plot lines and great, subtle comedy. This movie did not disappoint me. I thought it was a great film with a constant flow of homages to movies, stars and movie themes of the late 40's and early 50's, the time period the movie is set in. Everyone else thought the movie was just OK, but I would encourage anyone who likes subtle comedy and has some knowledge of the film industries history, to go see the movie. After the movie we stopped at Walmart and then headed home for the day. We had cocktails with the group, which is now down both Suzi and Clark, with some kind of flu-like sickness. Everyone was on their own for dinner again and we had a light dinner and watched TV.

Friday, February 19^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. The Wilson's were with us in their own car. We did some caching in the southern part of county, getting ten new finds with no DNFs. We actually got within a few miles of the Mexican border we were so far south. After caching we went to Fry's for fuel and some groceries before heading back to the coach.

We had cocktails with most of the group, including the Holm's who came over for happy hour. Suzie was still down, but Clark was feeling better and joined the group again. After happy hour we had the Bullock's over for dinner. Jackie made a meat loaf and we had a great dinner with the four of us. We visited until a little after eight when they went home and we finished the evening with some TV shows.

Saturday, February 20^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove into Yuma to the Civic Center to check out the Norway Fest celebration. The local chapter of the Son's of Norway put on this event. We like to attend cultural festivals, Scottish, Irish, whatever, and thought this might be fun. They had a few vendors, some art on display, and there were musicians playing Scandinavian music. It was interesting, but it didn't take long to look at everything. After an hour we were ready to leave. The Bullock's and Holm's were there, as were the Wilson's. We and the Bullock's left to go find some tacos for lunch, but to our surprise, we found that all of the taco stands we wanted to go to in the area were closed until after 5:00. I guess no one in downtown Yuma eats tacos before happy hour. Who knew? The Bullock's finally gave up and they and the Holm's went to Sam's Club for a hot dog. Jackie and I went to In and Out, had a great burger and I got the new 2016 tee shirt.

After lunch we spent an hour or so doing a few caches. We ended up with six new finds. One of them was a great four and a half out of five difficulty. A cacher had hollowed out compartment in a big palm tree in front of his house and installed a steel door. The trick was to figure out how to get the door open without prying on it. They gave some vague instructions in the description of the cache, but we figured out the trick after about ten minutes of looking. A very clever cache. After caching we ran a couple of errands, then headed back to the RV park for a while.

About 5:00 we left, with the Wilson's in our car, and drove to the Elks Lodge here in Yuma for dinner. The Bullock's picked up the Holm's and they also went. The original plan was for the whole group to go, but Suzie is still sick, as are both Clark and Judi McKay, so two couples were out. We got to the lodge and were able to get a table for eight right away. The Yuma Elks moved from their old lodge to this new building last year. The old lodge was across the street from the Yuma Medical Center and the hospital was expanding, so they bought out the Elks. The new building is very pretty inside, but is much smaller than the old one. The meal was quite good and we had a good time and a couple of drinks. The dining room was not as busy as we remembered the old lodge being, but the food was just as good. After dinner we drove home and had a nightcap outside with Peggy and Vernon. We then relaxed the rest of the evening.

Sunday was a stay at home day. I got a few chores done, but for the most part I just relaxed and watched the first NASCAR race of the season, the Daytona 500. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and everyone was back in the rotation, at least for a little while. Suzie was still not 100 percent, but she did come out for a while. After cocktails we went back in the coach and watched TV after dinner.

This marks three weeks since our arrival here in Yuma and a good spot to close this episode and get it published. We are here until the end of March, so lots yet to follow in our Yuma adventures. Until the next time, remember that friends are people who know you really well and like you anyway. See ya soon.