A Yuma Winter - Part 2

Hello again. Our last chapter concluded on Sunday, February 21st at the end of the first three weeks of our two-month stay in Yuma with friends. Monday was a chores day. We went out for lunch with Peggy and Vernon at Day Breakers, one of several really good restaurants in the Foothills area, and then went to the laundromat for laundry duty. After the clothes were washed we stopped at Walmart and then headed home. We had cocktails with the group, all present tonight for the first time in a while. After cocktails we had dinner outside with the Bullock's and their friends Judy and Darrel Holm.  After dinner we went in and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, February 23rd, we went out after lunch and did a Sam's Club run. After Sam's we did a few other errands. We dropped off the drapes from the front of the coach at the dry cleaners. We have an extra set of front drapes, so every now and then we swap them, get the old one's cleaned and then store them below deck until the next time we swap. We stopped at a couple of other stores and then finally hit SuperCuts to get us both haircuts. After that we headed home. No one came out for happy hour tonight. The McKays were gone, having driven back to their home in Camarrillo to check on things. The Babcocks and now Peggy Bullock were all down sick. We had our cocktail inside and had dinner on our own.

Wednesday we left the coach about 10:00 and headed to Algodones, Mexico for the day. We got our eye exams and ordered our glasses first. Then we did some shopping before stopping for lunch. We still had a couple hours to kill before the glasses were ready, so we wandered around, shopped and just enjoyed the day. We got our glasses about 3:30 and after an hour in line we were back across the border and headed home.

When we got home the only one outside was Vernon. Peggy was still sick, Ray and Suzie still down, the McKay's still gone, and the Wilson's were not out. We sat and talked to Vernon until it got too cool after sunset and we went inside for dinner. We then watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, February 25th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching with the Wilson's. They followed in their own car, but we did the same caches. We were able to get a dozen new finds, and no DNFs, in less than two hours. After caching we stopped at Walmart for some things and then headed home. Happy hour was us, the Wilson's and Vernon. Everyone else is sick or gone away for a while. After happy hour we had dinner on our own and watched TV.

Friday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We had gotten three new find when the warning light came on in on the Jeep, warning that we had a tire going down. Fortunately, we were only a block from a Circle K, so I went there and filled the offending left rear tire. I saw that there was still a leak, and finally I found a small hole right between the side of the tread and the sidewall of the tire. I could feel the air leaking out. Since we were only a mile from the RV park I elected to head for home. We made it before the tire became dangerously low and parked out in front in the street. I called Triple A and a tow truck appeared in less than twenty-five minutes.

After the service guy got the tire changed we headed for Sam's Club, where we bought the tires two years ago. I was pretty certain that the tire couldn't be fixed because of the location of the leak. When I called they told me they didn't have an identical tire in stock and would probably have to special order. We have fairly odd, 18” wheels on the Jeep. We got to Sam's and they took the tire in for evaluation. They confirmed it couldn't be fixed, but then told me that, although their system did not show a Goodrich Tire in our size in stock, there was one on the shelf. They took that one, mounted it up and put it on the car. They gave us a fifty percent pro rate on the new tire, so it was just over a hundred dollars to get a new tire, out the door.

We went back to the coach and I remounted the spare in it's hole under the back of the Jeep. We then relaxed until happy hour. Happy hour was just us and the Wilson's, but after a little while Ray came out and joined us. Everyone else was still under the weather. Judi and Clark made it back from their trip home, but they only came out for a few minutes as they were tired. After happy hour we went in the coach and enjoyed a nice dinner of pork ribs that had been cooking in the crock pot all day. We watched TV until bed.

Saturday, February 27th, we left the RV park about 11:00 and drove to the Marine Corps Air Station for their Patriot Day Festival. Usually the air station has an air show in February, but with the military budgets under pressure funds are harder to get. They have decided to alternate years, with an air show one year, then a Patriot Day the next. This was the first year for the Patriot Day. This was a one day affair with static ground displays, but no flying aircraft or air shows. Ramona went with us, because Gary was busy doing some work on the coach and didn't want to walk around for too long in the sun.

We arrived at the base and walked into the exhibit area to check out the equipment. The Marines had both the Harrier AV-8 and one of the FA-35B Lightning jump jets on display. The FA-35 will eventually replace all the aging Harriers. VMFA-121 here in Yuma is the first operational Lightning unit in the Marine Corps. They also had one of the Osprey vertical lift cargo aircraft, a Huey transport helicopter and it's fraternal twin, the Cobra Gunship helicopter. They also had a military version of the Beech King Air, used for executive transport, and one of their old Huey air rescue birds. The Marines had some ground vehicles on display and the Army sent some guys and vehicles from the Yuma Proving Grounds up for display also. There were also a lot of commercial booths, some booths sponsored by units on the base, some food, and a kids area. We

spent about two hours looking around, bought a couple of tee shirts and had a good time. It was not as good as an air show, but it was better then nothing at all. This was the first time I have seen an Osprey and a Lightning up close, and they were both pretty impressive.

After the visit to the base we drove to the foothills and met Gary for lunch at the Copper Miner restaurant. After a nice lunch the Wilson's went off to do their own thing and we stopped at Fry's for some supplies before heading back to the coach. Happy hour was a little better, with both Babcock's coming out for the first time in almost two weeks. It was us and the Wilson's, along with Clark, rounding out the group. Both Bullock's are still down for the count and Peggy had gone to the Urgent Care today to get some meds. Hopefully the group will all get better soon and start partying again. We went in the coach and relaxed for the rest of the night after happy hour.

Sunday, February 28th, Happy Birthday to my brother Russ, who lives up in Vegas. Today was a stay at home day. After lunch I went over to Gary and Ramona's coach to help him with his front TV. His is also a 2005 coach with the old, heavy tube type TV in the front cabinet. We changed ours out to a light weight LED TV several years ago. Gary is wanting to do that now. That TV probably weighs close to 150 pounds, so it takes two to get it out of the cabinet. Gary had it all loose and we were working it out of the cabinet. Once it was loose and all the weight was on our hands it started getting away from us. We were trying to pivot to set it down, but for some reason Ramona chose that moment to bend over the chair and we conked her in the head with the TV as it was going down. Fortunately, it was the plastic back of the cabinet, which had a lot of give, that hit her. It still put a gash in the scalp, but was not strong enough for a concussion or other more serious problems. It was still a scary moment for a while.

Later I helped Gary get the old TV in the back of his car for disposal and also helped him with some woodwork, since I had a power saw. We spent the rest of the time in the coach. I was doing some work and play in the back, Jackie was watching the Oscars. The Bullock's were still missing from Cocktail hour, as was Judi and Jackie. Judi because she is still sick, Jackie because she was not dressed and was watching the Oscars. After cocktails we had leftovers for dinner and watched the Oscars until it was time to go to bed. Unlike most years, we had actually seen about half of the nominated movies, including Spotlight, which won for best picture of the year, and best actor. We also saw Room, which won for best actress.

Monday, February 29th, a once every four years event, leap day. We hung around the coach until about 2:00 or so when we left to go do some geocaching stuff. Because it was leap day the geocaching community was holding events and Groundspeak, the owners of geocaching.com, were giving two souvenirs for the day, one for getting a geocache find today and one for attending an event. We were going to an event in downtown Yuma, and doing some caching on the way, so as to get both souvenirs. We did get four new finds, and one DNF, before arriving at a pizza place downtown called Da Boyz, to attend a Leap Day event. The event was put on by SWAG, Southwest Arizona Geocachers, the same group that puts on the big mega event in February. We missed this year because of timing of our travels, but have been to the last three prior. They ended up with about 80 people at the event today, including the Wilson's, who came in after we arrived. The place was packed, but we knew several of the local cachers and had a great time. We left about 5:30, taking a pizza to go for dinner later, and headed back to the coach. We caught the tail end of happy hour and talked to folks about the event. After happy hour we went inside, ate our pizza and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, March 1st, left the coach about 11:30 and drove to El Cositas, our favorite Foothills taco truck, for lunch. Today was the day that our entire group of five couples was going to go over to one of the newest RV resorts in Yuma to make reservations for next year. We all agreed to meet for tacos before heading over. Lunch was great and then we invaded the new Carefree Village RV Resort. It is only a couple miles from the resort we are in this year, but is brand new this season. They are offering sites for $550 a month in high season next year, which is what we paid for the much older Caravan Oasis Resort the last three years. The staff was very nice and within an hour all five of us had reservations for February and March, 2017. Yea!

After we were done at the resort everyone went their separate ways. For the couples that have been sick, today is the first day out for them, so they had some errands to run. We stopped and got a few caches, three total, including one that we had to DNF a couple days ago. We picked up or drapes from the cleaners, and stopped at the dollar store for some stuff, then headed back to the coach for the rest of the day. Happy hour came at 5:00 and for the first time in almost two weeks all ten people were present. Good thing too, because Judi and Clark are leaving tomorrow to continue their summer travels. They decided to only stay one month this year. After cocktails we went in the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Wednesday morning saw Clark and Judi pack up and leave the park about 10:00. They are headed to the Lake Havasu area and we will probably not see them again until next year in Yuma. We left about 11:00 to take Jackie to her doctor's appointment. Regular readers will remember that in January the hospital in Rancho Mirage found a suspicious mass in Jackie's left breast during a routine mammogram. Subsequent exams and a biopsy showed that it was a benign mass, but it still needed to come out. As a result, she made an appointment with a surgeon here in Yuma to do the removal. Today was the consultation visit.

Jackie had a nice talk with the surgeon and he indicated that it was an unusual mass, he had never seen one like it, but that it was still a fairly routine out patient procedure to remove it. It will be scheduled sometime in the next week or so. After the doctor's visit we met Peggy at El Rancho, one of our favorite Mexican places here in Yuma, for lunch. Vernon is still not feeling a hundred percent, so he didn't come. We had a great lunch and then ran a couple of errands before heading back to the RV park. We relaxed until cocktail hour, which is now down to ten of us with Clark and Judi gone. After cocktails we went in the coach and relaxed until bedtime.

Thursday, March 3rd, we left the coach about 11:00 and drove to a new place to eat called Brown Bag Burgers. It is in a strip mall right across the street from the main gate to the Marine Corps Air Station. We were going there to meet Billy and Patty Cantarini, some friends of ours from several RV groups we are members of. They had suggested the Brown Bag as a good place to meet. Unfortunately, they didn't show up. Jackie called and left a message for them, but we went ahead and ate anyway when the place started getting really busy. The food was excellent. It is a limited menu, mostly burgers and sandwiches and we both had burgers. The burgers are big, fresh, grilled on an open flame, and delicious. One of the best burgers I have had.

After lunch we went to the Arizona Marketplace and walked around. We bought a few things and had a good time shopping for a couple hours. I bought a new LED rope light cactus for our outdoor display.  Jackie got a phone call in the afternoon from Patty who said that they had some things come up they had to take care of and that's why they didn't make lunch. Hopefully we can reschedule before they leave in a week or so. After the marketplace we went back to the coach and relaxed and did chores until happy hour. Happy hour tonight was just us, the Bullock's and Ray. Suzie was still sick and Gary and Ramona had to drive to the Coachella Valley for some medical tests today, and they had not yet come back. After cocktails we went in and watched TV until bedtime.

Friday we stayed around the coach until about 3:00 when we left to go to the Yuma Elks lodge, first to watch the parade of classic cars and hot rods out for Midnight at the Oasis, and then dinner. Midnight at the Oasis is an annual car show event, one of the larger ones in the mountain states, and comes around every February here in Yuma. Although the event goes on all weekend, we like to go to the opening event on Friday night, which is a cruise as the cars move into the Civic Center for the show. The city has a route of about eight miles of city streets for the cars to cruise along. The new Elks lodge here in Yuma is right on that route, so we thought we could go there and park, set up our chairs to watch the cruise, and then go into the lodge for dinner.

Ray came with us because Suzie was still not feeling well and didn't want to come. We drove to the Elks Lodge and set up our chairs along side the road in a nice shady spot. Peggy and Vernon also came and set up beside us. Gary and Ramona had been out running errands and were at the lodge having a drink, but decided not to stay for the parade. We sat and talked for an hour or so before the start of the parade got to us, then spent another hour looking at all the fine, cool cars and trucks that came by. After the parade was over we all went into the Elks lodge and had a nice steak dinner. We finally got back home about 8:30 or so. We watched some TV and then went to bed.

Saturday, March 5th, we left the RV park about 1:30 and drove to the American Legion post in Yuma for the afternoon. Last weekend at the MCAS open house the Legion had a booth set up and we learned about their Saturday meat draws and karaoke. We first ran into the concept of the meat draw in 2009 when we were going through Canada on our way to Alaska. The Royal Canadian Legion posts all had bars and they welcomed members of the American Legion into their posts. They also almost all had meat draws on various days of the week. You buy tickets and they draw for meat they have bought at the local grocery store. It's a great fundraiser and a lot of fun. We won quite a bit over the six weeks we were in Canada.

We got to the Legion, got some drinks and settled in for the meat draw. They had a total of nine draws. You would buy tickets and then they would draw six tickets, five for a package of meat, one for a bottle of wine. The tickets were cheap, three for a dollar, 18 for five dollars. The very last draw is kind of a jackpot in that the first ticket drawn gets two cases (a milk crate) of meat, probably over a hundred dollars in meat. The second gets one case. We won with one ticket in one draw and got some chicken breasts. It was a lot like a casino. A few people won big and multiple times, most people won a little but lost overall. It was fun and we would probably do it again. After the meat draws they started karaoke. It was a long rotation and I got to do two songs in a little over an hour before we decided to leave. The singers were not great, with only a few that could even hope to carry a tune, but they all seemed to be having fun. After we got home we had cocktails with some of the group that was still outside, then went in and had KFC that we had picked up on the way home for dinner.

Sunday, March 6th, we enjoyed the morning with the paper and coffee. We left the coach about noon to do some geocaching with the group, the whole group. This is the first time in several weeks that the whole group was together doing something. The Bullocks road with us and the Babcock's and the Wilson's followed in their own cars. We went and did a few interesting caches that we had already found, but wanted the rest of the group to experience. Then we went out into the wetlands area east of downtown and did some desert caching. Ray wanted to get into some sand to see how his new four wheel drive SUV would work.

We had a great time, road some sand trails without any of us getting stuck, and ended up with nine new finds and one DNF for the afternoon. We quit caching about 3:30 when the wind started picking up and we saw a dust storm moving into the area from the West. We all headed home and stayed in for the rest of the night.

Monday was a stay at home day. There was a storm front moving through the area, so it was cold and cloudy, and windy. We did a few chores around the house but didn't go anywhere outside the park. At 5:00 we had everyone over to our coach for cocktails and then dinner. It was too cold and windy to sit outside, so we were all in the coach. After cocktails Jackie served chicken picata for dinner and everyone was very happy. We had salad, pasta and the chicken, along with some garlic bread. About 7:30 everyone headed back to their own coaches for the night and we watched some TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, March 8th was laundry day. We went after lunch and got all our clothes washed. After we got back to the coach and put everything away we left again to go visit some friends of ours, Ken and Bonnie Woepke, who own a site at the Escapee's park here in Yuma. Ken and Bonnie used to be full timers and we met them not too long after we started. At that time they were members of several chapters of FMCA that we were joining. They still travel occasionally, but for the most part now live here in Yuma.

Also joining us were some other friends from even further back, back in our Elks RV Club days when we lived in Indio. John and Suzanne Budovec were members of the Palm Springs Elks travel club at the time we were going on RV outings with them. We only stayed and visited for about 90 minutes, but we had a good time catching up with them since we last saw them here last year. After our visit we went back to the coach and caught the last few minutes of happy hour with the group. Peggy then invited us to dinner where she served a nice meatloaf. We had a great dinner and were back in our coach about 8:00 for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, we left the coach a little after 11:00 and drove into town to Mi Rancho, our favorite Mexican place, for lunch with Peggy and Vernon. They have great food here and it is the Bullock's favorite place too. After lunch we did some shopping at Sam's Club and Penny's before going into the movie theater to see Dead Pool. Normally we are not into the comic book, superhero movies like X-men or Transformers. However, Jackie's brother Dennis, who is a movie aficionado, said he went to see it on a recommendation from a friend of his and found it to be very entertaining and funny. I was skeptical, but he was right. It was a very tongue in cheek anti-superhero movie with some really funny stuff. I am glad we went. It won't win any awards, but it was a good movie. After the movie we headed home and had cocktails with the group. After that we went into the coach and relaxed until bedtime.

Thursday, March 10th, before lunch I drove over to the truck tire store to make arrangements to get the other four new tires for the coach, the one's for the back. We will have them done early on the day we leave Yuma and head over to Casa Grande. I wanted to make sure everything was setup properly so we wouldn't have to wait. We went out after lunch to Walmart for some supplies, then spent the rest of the afternoon around the coach.

At 5:00 the group gathered for happy hour and a dinner we were calling “lamb fest” for everyone. It was supposed to have been for Ray's birthday a couple weeks ago, but so many people were sick that we had to postpone it for a while. Jackie made escargot for an appetizer. She has been promising the snail lovers this for quite a while. I don't like the snails, but I do like to dip bread in the butter and garlic sauce. Later we had a big BBQ with rack of lamb, lamb chops, and a steak for me, because I don't like lamb either. The Wilson's brought a big bowl of mashed potatoes and Peggy made some lamb sauce and cauliflower. We had a great dinner and sat outside and talked until almost 8:30. A great dinner with good friends.

Friday, March 11th, we went for a late lunch with the Bullock's to the Copper Miner restaurant in the Foothills. We all had the fish and chips, which was only so-so. The fish was overcooked and we suspected that it was leftovers since we were there after the big lunch rush. After lunch we stopped at a geocache that was a travel bug hotel so we could swap out some of the travel bugs we have had in our possession for a while. After another quick stop at Fry's we went back to the coach. We had happy hour with the group and about 6:30 Jackie and I walked up to the activity center to see another show. Tonight's was billed as “O' Canada” and had four performers doing tributes to four Canadian born entertainers, Paul Anka, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, and Michael Buble. That was the order they came out and sang, and also was in increasing order of how much they sounded like the star they were imitating. They were all very good singers and put on a great show, but only the Shania and Michael imitators really sounded like the originals. It was still a great two hour show and we really enjoyed it. After the show we walked home, watched TV for a bit and went to bed.

Saturday, March 12th, we had lunch at the coach and then went out and did some geocaching. We were by ourselves today as everyone else in the group had other stuff to do. We were able to get 14 new finds in a couple of hours, a good afternoon of caching. After caching we went back to the RV park and relaxed for a while. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then a little after six Jackie and I, along with Ray and Gary, left the park and drove to Somerton, a town south of Yuma, for the stock car races. The Cocopah Indian tribe has a casino down there and next to it is the Cocopah Raceway.

We arrived about a half hour before the races started, so we had time to grab a burger and a beer before things got started. It was fairly typical small dirt track racing, modifieds of various classes and some stockers. This was a 3/8 mile dirt track, so lots of sliding around in the corners. Other than the fact that it seemed like everyone else attending was smoking cigarettes, we had a great time. The racing went on for about two hours and then we were on the way home. We got back about 10:00 or so, watched a little TV and went to bed.

This marks a good time to get this edition of the blog published. We still have a little over two weeks here in Yuma before we move on to other parts of Arizona. Until next time, remember the words of Mark Twain. “Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” See ya soon.