A Month in Breezy, Dusty, Yuma, Arizona

Hi friends, welcome back. Our last chapter ended on Sunday, February 18^th as we ended the last day of our month long stay in Pahrump, Nevada. Monday, February 19^th, was a travel day. We got an early start, heading out about 9:30, for our 230 mile trip south from Pahrump to Parker, Arizona. Not only was it a fairly long trip, we also lost an hour when we go into Arizona. To top it off, it was a pretty windy day, which made for a long, tiring trip. We arrived at the Parker Elks Lodge about 3:30 local time and got set up for a one night stay. About 5:00 we left the coach and went to a local Mexican restaurant called El Serape. We had been here once before with Peggy and Vernon about four years ago and remembered the food being good. We weren't disappointed, the food was very good. After dinner we went back to the coach, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Tuesday, February 20^th, we packed up and left Parker about 10:30 and continued south to Yuma, Arizona, about 120 miles. We made a fuel stop at the outskirts or town, then arrived at the Carefree Village RV Resort around 1:00. We quickly got checked in and parked in our site for our month long stay. We are right next door to our friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock, and just a few sites down from Ray and Suzi Babcock and Clark and Judy McKay. We have been in Yuma for the last five or six winters with this group. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting settled in and set up. We had 5:00 happy hour with our group, which is the norm when we stay here. About 6:30 the whole group had dinner in the Babcock's coach with some ham and bean soup that Ray had made. We also had corn bread and salad. We stayed and talked until about 8:30 when we went back to our coach, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Wednesday, February 21^st, we left the coach after lunch and went to the laundry to do clothes. After we were done with laundry we did a Walmart run, then went back to the coach and put everything away. We again had cocktails with the group at 5:00, then later had dinner with the Bullock's in their coach. Peggy made her penne pasta dish, which I love. The Babcock's went out to dinner, and the McKays went to play bingo at the park. We talked with the Bullock's until about 8:30, then went back to our place, watched a little TV and went to bed. Thursday we woke up to a real wind storm. I had to take down the flags and put the awnings up. About 2:00 we drove over to a place in the foothills, a

couple miles east of where we are, for a party put on by Millie and Dick, two of our friends from Pahrump. They always come down here for about three months in the winter and rent a lot in the foothills. Most of the people at the party were friends or acquaintances from Pahrump, including Len and Debbie Forrest, who are down here for a month, and Linda who is down here for a couple weeks. We had a great time visiting and eating finger foods. We left there about 5:30 and went back to our RV park, where we finished happy hour with our group here at the park. Some other acquaintances of ours, Ernie and Andy, came in today for a three day stay. About 8:00 we were done visiting and went back to our coach. We watched some TV then went to bed.

Friday, February 23^rd, we left the coach about noon and drove to the Foothills area and our favorite little street taco stand, Las Cositas. We have been coming here for years and they make the best street tacos in Yuma. Vernon had gone to Algodones, Mexico for some dental work, so Peggy went with us for lunch. After lunch we ran a couple of errands, then went back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the day. I got some chores done around the coach and at 5:00 we had cocktails with the group, minus the McKay's who had driven home in their car for a few days to attend a funeral. After cocktails we and the Bullock's cooked some burgers on the BBQ and had a nice dinner. Peggy and Vernon left around 7:30 and we watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, February 24^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and drove to downtown Yuma for the Lettuce Days street fair. Turned out to be not such a big deal, mostly food vendors and community services booths. We walked around in about 15 minutes, then went into Da Boyz Pizza for lunch. We shared a pizza and had a great lunch. After lunch we went to the mall to do some shopping. We went to the Verizon store first and upgraded our Mifi wireless wifi device. We have had our old one about five years or so and it was not as strong as it used to be. We then went to Kohl's so Jackie could get a new purse. After our shopping we headed back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the afternoon. At 5:00 the group was together again for cocktails. By 7:00 everyone was gone and we watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, February 25^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove to the Daybreakers Cafe, one of our favorite eating spots here in Yuma. I guess it is technically a truck stop, since it is at the Flying J truck stop, but it has great food. We had lunch with Peggy and Vernon and Ernie and Andi. After lunch we went to the Arizona Market Place, which is the big outdoor sale place. It is not really a swap meet since everything there is new, but it is a whole bunch of individual booths selling just about anything you might want. We got a few things, a couple shirts and some RV supplies. After the swap meet we went back to the coach and rested for a while before leaving again around 5:00 and going to a place called the Eatery, another bar and restaurant, where we met our gang from Pahrump for karaoke and dinner. We had some drinks, a light dinner and listened to karaoke. It was a long rotation, so I only got to do two songs. Our friends Dick and Millie, Len and Debbie, and Linda and CJ were all there. It was a fun night and we got back home around 9:00. We watched a little TV and then went to bed.

Monday, February 26^th, we had a mostly stay at home day. I got some chores and repairs done, including installing a new power cord on the motor home, turning the old cord into a 50 amp extension cord, and changing the water filters. About 5:30 we left the coach with Peggy and Vernon in our car and drove to Mi Rancho Mexican restaurant and met the Babcock's and the McKays for dinner. We were all there to celebrate Ray's 70^th birthday! We had a great meal, with wonderful service and had a good celebration. After dinner we went back to the coach and then all gathered in Ray and Suzi's coach for an after dinner drink. By 9:00 we were back in our coach where we watched some TV before going to bed.

Tuesday, February 27^th, we left the coach about quarter after one to take Peggy to her radiation treatment near the hospital. Vernon was still down in Mexico getting some extensive dental work done and Peggy didn't have a car. We dropped Peggy off at the clinic and then we did a few nearby geocaches, getting two new finds and one DNF. We picked Peggy up and went back to the coach. At 5:00 we had happy hour with the group in the Babcock's coach. After happy hour we went to the Bullock's coach and we did some pork chops on the BBQ for the four of us. We had a great dinner and were back in our coach about 8:00 where we relaxed and watched TV for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, February 28^th, my brother Russ's birthday. Happy Birthday Bro! We left the coach about noon and went to the taco stand for lunch again. After lunch we did some shopping at Frys, took that stuff home and put it away, then went to Walmart for some more stuff. After shopping we hung around the coach until happy hour, then went to the Babcock's for cocktails. About 6:30 we went back to our coach, had a light dinner, then watched TV the rest of the evening. We watched a CD of the new movie, The Shape of Water, which is an Oscar contender. It was a kind of fantasy/sci-fi romance that was odd, but interesting and captivating. I think I actually liked it better than Jackie did. I think it will win a lot of awards next Sunday.

Thursday, March 1^st, was mostly a stay at home day. We got a few chores done and relaxed. About 3:30 we left the coach in the Bullock's Jeep and headed out to the desert just east of the Foothills area for another Howl at the Moon party. Regular readers will remember that we discovered this interesting Yuma tradition last year. There is a country music singer by the name of Kelly Hughes who is from Idaho and spends much of the year up there doing shows for a living. He and some of his band come south for the winter and he has been coming to Yuma for

about seven years. He does a few shows at RV resorts to pay the bills, but his big thing is a party in the desert on the evening of the full moon. It started out with just a few friends, but has now grown into a party with close to a thousand people. They have a vacant piece of BLM desert, set up a wood stage and everyone brings their lawn chairs, booze, food, whatever, and listens to music for a couple
of hours. When the full moon comes over the mountain everyone howls, then the party winds down. Last year we came alone, this year the Bullock's wanted to come. They had a great time too. By 7:30 we were back at the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Friday, March 2^nd, I left the coach about 10:00 and drove Vernon to his physical therapy session in the foothills. Peggy had their car at her radiation treatment. I went back to the coach and got cleaned up and then around 11:30 we left again and drove to Mr. Fish, a great fish and chips place in the Foothills, to meet Peggy and Vernon for lunch. After lunch we drove around a little, looking for a geocache that we couldn't get because it had been disabled in the last few days. We went back to the coach and I did some chores in the afternoon. About 3:15 we left with the Bullock's and drove over to the south side of Yuma for the annual classic car cruise that is part of the weekend long Midnight at the Oasis Car Show. We have been to this Friday night cruise now for about six straight years. There are several hundred cars that participate, the police block off part of

the street and the cars parade by on their way to the park where the car show is. The new Elks Lodge is right on the cruise route, so we park in their lot and set up chairs on the street. The Babcock's and the McKays were also out there with us. The cruise was fun, lots of fun cars to look at and listen to. The cruise was over a little after six and the eight of us went into the Elks lodge for dinner. We have done dinners here in the Elks for about three years running now and always had a great meal. Tonight it was a disaster. The waiter was very nice, but totally inept. All the orders came out wrong, a lot of the food was cooked poorly, either over or under, the drinks were watered down, the whole meal was sub par. This will be our last after cruise meal at the Elks. After dinner we drove back home and then watched some TV before heading to bed.

Saturday, March 3^rd, was another stay at home day. We got a few chores done, and Jackie spent a couple of hours working on making sushi for a get together tonight. Around 5:00 our group of four couples were joined by our friends Dick and Millie, and Peggy and Vernon's friends Barb and Don, for a heavy snacks pot luck. Jackie provided some really good sushi and we had meatballs and other great snacks from the other folks. Although the weather was great when we started the wind came up about 6:00 and cut the evening short. Some of us had cocktails in the Bullock's coach, but we were all done by 8:00. We went back to our coach and watched another Oscar contender movie, Three Billboards out of Ebbing, Missouri. I thought this was an excellent movie, although it had a very harsh portrayal of small town police. I will say it was riveting and Francis McDormand should certainly win an Oscar for her portrayal of a grieving mother.

Sunday, March 4^th, we left the coach after lunch to go out and run some errands. We drove to the west side of Yuma and stopped first at a discount liquor store near the barrio area. A few years ago we bought some Three Olives vodka here at a really good price. Three Olives is excellent vodka and they again had it on sale for $12.99 for the big bottle, a dollar less than we can get the house brand at Sam's or Costco. You had to buy a case of six, but that's how we buy the Costco, so no big deal. We then stopped at Food City for some groceries, and got some marinaded carne asada and chicken for a cookout later in the week. We then went to Sam's club and picked up a few things we needed. After our shopping we stopped at Micheal's so Jackie could look for some crafty things she needed, then we went home. About 5:00 we had cocktails with the group. Happy hour ended early, by 6:30 because all the women wanted to get home for the Oscars. Jackie watched the whole thing closely, I watched bits and pieces. At least one of the movies we have seen won Best Picture, Shape of Water, and the supporting actor and lead actress awards also went for performances we have seen. After the Oscars we watched a little Saturday Night Live, then went to bed.

Monday, March 5^th, a very sad day for us. We spent most of the day around the house, but a little after 2:00 we took our old cat Smokey to the vet to have him put to sleep. Smokey came into our lives in the spring of 2000 when we still lived in a real house in Indio, California. I was the manager of a large homeowner's association at the Desert Princess Country Club in Cathedral City. My security people came in one day with a trap that they had put out trying to catch some racoons that were causing problems. Instead, they caught four feral kittens about six or seven weeks old. They were all the usual wild and mean feral cats except for the fuzzy gray one. He would let people pick him up and hold him and he loved his forehead rubbed. I have always been a cat person, so I told the staff I was going to take him in. I surprised Jackie when I drove over at lunch and said, “meet our new cat.” Since he was all gray we named him Smokey. We took him to the vet who checked him out, said he seemed to be in good health with no bugs or issues. We took him back a few weeks later to be neutered and then again a few weeks after that to have his front claws removed. Both of our existing cats were declawed in the front. Other than going out in a carrier for the occasional vet visit Smokey was never outside.

Smokey got along OK with our two other, older cats, both female. They weren't buddies, but they tolerated each other and shared cat boxes OK. By the time we sold the house and bought our motor home in 2005 the two original cats had passed on and we had Smokey, who was five, and Fuzzy, who was about 15. We had taken him in when my dad died in 2002 and my mother had to go to a nursing home. Fuzzy died in 2006 and Smokey was the only cat until 2012 when we got Benji. Smokey loved the motor home and never showed any interest in going outside. He didn't like it when we were driving the coach, but once we parked he was right at home, up in the windows enjoying the life. About a year and a half ago we noticed that Smokey was going blind. I think he could see light and shadow, but that was about it. It didn't stop him from wandering the coach since he had lived in it for over ten years and had the layout memorized. About six months ago he started losing weight and got very skinny. In 2009 we had to take him to the vet for a health certificate because we were going to be in Canada. At that time he weighed over 17 pounds. He was a big Maine Coon mix with beautiful, soft medium length fur. About a week ago he stopped eating and became very unstable. He was still drinking a little water, but we could tell he was not doing well. We made the appointment for the vet for today back last Wednesday, and we really expected that he wouldn't live long enough to go to the vet. He surprised us. When we took him in today they weighed him and he was 4.2 pounds, all skin and bones. He was one month shy of being 18 years old, the oldest living cat I have ever owned. The vet agreed that he had reached the end of life phase. We said our goodbyes and the vet took him away. We didn't want to be with him at the end and didn't want the body or the ashes. He will be cremated and sprinkled in the desert. Goodbye Smokey, we love you and will miss you.

We drove back to the coach, had a good cry, and stayed in the rest of the afternoon. We did have cocktails with the group and they were very supportive in our unhappiness. We even got a kitty sympathy card from Clark and Judy. Peggy made meatloaf and all the fixings and the group had dinner in their coach. We went back to our coach after dinner and watched another of the Oscar movies, Get Out. I thought it was a very odd movie, although Jackie said she liked it. A lot of symbolism and obscure references to racism. I guess that's the reason it was considered by the Oscars. After the movie we went to bed.

Tuesday, March 6^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and drove to downtown Yuma for the weekly street fair. It is no where near as big as it used to be, about two blocks worth of booths, but we enjoyed it. I bought some mix to make salsa and Jackie bought a blouse. I also picked up an old copy of a book about the Texas Rangers for Vernon. He likes old west stuff and history stuff and this one was both. After we did the booths we went into Lutes Casino, an old downtown restaurant, and had lunch with Clark and Judy, who had also come down to the street fair. After lunch we walked through a few antique stores before heading back to the coach. We stopped at Walmart on the way home for some supplies. At 5:00 we had cocktails with the group and by 7:00 or so we were in the coach watching TV. Tonight we watched The Big Sick, another of the Oscar movies. This was a fairly standard romantic comedy, with a lot of comedy because many of the stars were also comics. I enjoyed the movie, although it was not Oscar material in my opinion. After the movie we watched some regular TV then went to bed.

Wednesday, March 7^th, we left the coach about 12:30 and went to do our laundry. By 3:00 we were back home and had everything put away. At 5:00 we had happy hour with the group and about 6:30 we and the Bullock's were in our coach and we had a nice dinner of chicken and beef carne on the BBQ along with all the Mexican fixings. We had a really nice dinner and by about 8:30 we were alone with the TV. We watched another of the Oscar movies, Lady Bird. It was a very nice “coming of age” story about a teenage girl growing up in Sacramento, California. Nothing spectacular, but good acting and a nice story. After the movie we watched a little regular TV then went to bed.

Thursday, March 8^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and went out with the Bullock's in their Jeep to do some geocaching. We drove east, over the mountain range, to the little town of Wellton, Arizona. There are a bunch of geocaches out that way and we hadn't gotten any of them. We spent about three hours caching and ended up with 16 new finds and no DNFs, our best caching day in many months. In between caching we stopped at a little cafe in Wellton called Chuck's Stage Stop for lunch. It was a small town cafe with very good food. We all had Ruben sandwiches and they were excellent. We were back at the coach by a little after 4:00. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then the eight of us gathered in the Babcock's coach for a dinner of shrimp curry. The food was very good and we had a great dinner. By about 8:00 we were back in our coach where we watched TV until bedtime. We watched another of the Oscar movies, this time it was I Tonya, the story of Olympic ice skater Tonya Harding. The acting was very good, although the story was a real tragedy. Tonya had a horrible mother and the whole story revolved around her relationships with her mother and boyfriend/husband.

Friday, March 9^th, the local guy that we are having re-cover our sofa came at 9:30 and picked up the couch. For the next week and half or so we will have to use a lawn chair in the living room. We left the coach after lunch and went out to run some errands. We first went to the Arizona Marketplace and walked around for a couple hours. We bought a few little things, nothing major. After the Marketplace we stopped at Sam's Club again to exchange a pair of jeans that I had bought on Monday that didn't fit like I wanted. We also bought some meat that they didn't have when we were there Monday. We then went to Kohl's and shopped for an hour or so. Jackie had a bunch of coupons and emails from Kohl's with discounts and we ended up getting two shirts for Jackie and one for me that had a total list price of over $70. With the sale prices and all the discounts factored in we paid just under $17. Yea, score! After Kohl's we went back to the coach and put everything away. At 5:00 we had cocktails with the group, then about 6:30 we went back to our coach and Jackie made chili relleno for us and the Bullock's. We had a great dinner and talked until about 8:30, after which we watched some TV then went to bed.

Saturday, March 10^th, we got up early because our plan was for us and the Bullock's to drive about 80 miles east on I-10 to El Centro, California, for the annual air show. This old Naval Air base is the winter home for the Blue Angels flight demonstration team and they always do the first show of their season there. When we still had the house in Indio we used to drive down almost every April. However, when we got up it was overcast and sprinkling and the weather for El Centro was the same. After some discussion we decided to not go since none of us wanted to be outside in the rain watching airplanes. We did drive with the Bullock's to the Day Breakers truck stop for breakfast and then went back to the coach for the day. It sprinkled on and off for much of the day, but by happy hour it had cleared up. We had cocktails with the group and then had a nice dinner at the McKay's, with Clark providing a big batch of BBQ tri tip as the main course. We had a great dinner, then went back to our coach and watched the last of the available Oscar movies, tonight being Darkest Hour, the story of Winston Churchill's ascension to Briton's Prime Minister during the early years of WW-II. This was not Jackie's kind of movie, but I enjoyed it and I could see why Gary Oldman got best actor for his portrayal of Churchill. After the movie we watched a little TV then went to bed.

Sunday, March 11^th, was a stay at home day. I got a number of small chores done around the house, as did Jackie. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then watched TV for the rest of the night. Monday was a caching day for us. We went out and did a bunch of caches in the farming area south of the Marine Corps base and were able to get 37 new finds, and no DNFs, in about three and a half hours. Our best afternoon of caching in a long time. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then everyone was on their own for dinner.

Tuesday, March 13^th, my son Roy Jr.'s birthday. We left the coach about 9:30 and drove to Algodones, Mexico, for the day. We did a little shopping and got our teeth cleaned and examined. After the dentist we went to lunch at El Alamo, one of our favorite local restaurants. We met our friends Dick and Millie there. We had a nice lunch, then shopped for another hour or so before heading back across the border. The line today was quite short, only about 15, 20 minutes at the most. At 5:00 we had happy hour and then the group had dinner, tonight's main course being Ray's taco salad. It was great, as always, and we had a good time. By 8:00 we were in our coach watching TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, March 14^th, we went out after lunch to run some errands. Our first stop was in a vacant lot across the street from the Marine Corps Base. The morning paper had posted an article that the Blue Angels demonstration team was going to do a “fly by” of the Marine base at five minutes before 2:00. We got there about ten minutes early and took up position along with several hundred other cars. Right on time we spotted the six plane diamond formation approaching from the west. They swung around the south side of the base and came right up along the runway at about a thousand feet elevation, decorative smoke on. We got some good pictures. They only made the one pass, which was, according to the paper, a “thank you” for inviting them to the MCAS Yuma Air Show this coming weekend. They couldn't make it, but on their way from El Centro to Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, the site of their next show, they did the fly by here. Yea! After the fly by we drove downtown to the NAPA auto parts store so I could buy an air cleaner for the coach. They had to order ^th. Since then we drove 1133 miles on 10.6 gallons of gas, for an average MPG of 114.7. Gotta love this car! We headed back to the Foothills and I dropped Jackie off at the nail salon for a pedi and I went to a local auto glass place to get an estimate on tinting the windows on the new car. For what ever reason it didn't have any tint on the windows, despite being a top of the line model. After talking to the auto place and making an appointment for Friday, I went to Walmart and did some shopping. After I was done there I went and picked up Jackie and we headed back to the coach. At 5:00 we had happy hour with the group and after cocktails everyone was on

their own for dinner. Peggy and Vernon went out on a date night to celebrate the fact that today was the last of her radiation treatments for her most recent breast cancer scare. We went back to our place and watched TV until bedtime.
it for pick up tomorrow. We then went by Sam's Club to put gas in the car. This is only the second
time we have put gas in the new car since we bought it in late December. The last full up was January 8

Thursday, March 15^th, we left the coach about noon and drove downtown to go to the movies. We went to see Annihilation staring Natalie Portman. It was a sci fi mystery story that was very interesting, and visually beautiful, but really kept you thinking. I thought it was a very good movie. After the film we went back to the coach and relaxed for a bit. At 5:00 we had happy hour with the group and then we all had leftover tri tip sandwiches, with cole slaw and some other goodies. I made up some au jus so we could have French dip sandwiches. We ate and talked until about 8:00, after which we went back to our coach and watched TV the rest of the night. Friday morning I was up and out by 8:30 to take the car to the auto glass place to get the windows tinted. It took until noon, but they did a good job. The tinting really makes the car look nice and it will be cooler inside too. After they were done I picked up Jackie and we went to our taco stand for some tacos. We then did a quick Walmart run and went back to the coach for the rest of the afternoon. At 5:00 we had cocktails and then around 6:30 or so we did hamburgers on the grill. We had a fire pit to take off the chill while we ate. Our whole group was there and we had burgers, beans, cole slaw and veggies. It was another great dinner and by 8:00 we were done and back in our coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, March 17^th, Happy St. Patrick's Day, the day everyone is Irish. About 8:30 Ray, Clark and I went to the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station for the annual air show. The girls had no interest and decided to stay home. It took about an hour in traffic to finally get on the base and parked. We then spent about four hours walking around, looking at military equipment and aircraft, visiting vendor booths and booths set up by the various squadrons represented in the displays. I got a couple of tee shirts, including one from VMA-214, the Black Sheep. This squadron is currently based here in Yuma and flies the AV-8 Harrier jet. Back in 1969 the squadron was based at MCAS El Toro where I was a Marine Sergeant and the supervisor in the radar shop that fixed the radars on VMA-214's planes. At that time they were flying A-4 Skyhawk jets. We also watched some really cool flying demos including the new FA-35B, the new vertical take off and landing jet for the military which will eventually replace the Harriers. They also flew the MV-22 Osprey vertical take off and landing transport plane, and one of the Harriers. We had a really good time and left the base about 1:00 or so and went back to the RV park. We didn't stay for the flight demonstration team, which was a private, civilian unit flying little jets. We would have stayed had it been the Blue Angels or the Air Force Thunderbirds.

Since it was St. Patrick's day everyone planned a big corn beef and cabbage feast for this evening. Three of us, including me, were cooking corn beef and cabbage all day in slow cookers. We all got together at 5:00 for cocktails and had a good time. Our friends Millie and Dick also came over. However, about 6:15 the winds picked up to a horrible level and we ended up canceling the group meal outside. We went in our coach with just Dick and Millie and the other six went into the Babcock's coach for dinner. We had a very nice dinner with Dick and Millie, but missed everyone else too. They left around 8:00, after which we cleaned up and then watched some TV until bedtime.

Sunday, March 18^th, the winds, which blew all night long, finally died at daybreak. We left the coach about 11:00 and went to the Arizona Market Place for one last look before we leave Yuma. Bought a couple of small things that were on sale. Other than that we had pretty much a stay at home day. Got a few chores done and did some relaxing. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then we had dinner with Peggy and Vernon. Peggy made a Mexican style casserole with a bunch of left over stuff she had. By 8:00 we were back in our place watching TV. Monday we were up early and on the road back to Algodones, Mexico by 9:00. Today we were going down to get eye exams and new glasses. We got our eye exams and ordered our glasses, then went around and did some shopping. We also got one geocache in Mexico, our first down there in a few years. About noon we met the McKay's and Babcock's at one of the Mexican restaurants and we had a very nice, long lunch with lots of beer and margaritas. After lunch we went and picked up our new glasses, did a little more shopping and then got in line to come back to the U.S. The line took about an hour, but we were back home by about 3:30. I had cocktails with the group at 5:00, Jackie was tired and stayed in. Since we had such a big lunch we didn't have dinner, just watched some TV and went to bed early.

Tuesday, March 20^th, the first day of Spring! Yea! We left the coach around 11:00 and drove downtown to the farmer's market. After the market we met the McKay's and Bullock's at Da Boyz pizza for lunch. We all had pizza and had a very nice lunch. After lunch we ran some errands, stopping at a couple of stores so Jackie could pick up a few things. We dropped some stuff off at the Salvation Army and stopped at the Humane Society to drop off a dozen cans of squishy cat food. The squishy stuff was Smokey's thing until he got so sick he stopped eating. Benji has no interest, so we thought we would donate it to the shelter. After our errands we went back to the coach and relaxed until happy hour. We had happy hour with the group, but no meal. We had some leftover pizza while we watched TV, then went to bed.

Wednesday, March 21^st, our last full day in Yuma this year. For lunch Jackie went with Peggy and the Babcock's to a sushi restaurant. I am not too big on sushi, so I went with the McKay's to Mr. Fish in the foothills. I had the shrimp and chips basket and it was very good. Just before we left for lunch the upholsterer delivered our re-covered couch. The fabric looks good, the craftsmanship of the upholstery leaves a little to be desired. Some of the folds are not real good and the fabric is a little loose in places. Since it is our last day we didn't have a whole lot of choice and it really does look a lot better than it did before. It took me an hour or more to get the couch secured to the slide because I had trouble finding the right holes for the screws. I finally got it done and then spent another couple hours cleaning up all the outside stuff and putting stuff away in preparation for our departure tomorrow.

The Bullock's are traveling with us tomorrow and when Vernon went to start his coach this afternoon the batteries were dead. His coach batteries are OK, but the engine batteries died. They are the original batteries and he has a 2006 coach, so I guess he got his monies worth out of them. He had one of the local RV service guys come out and they replaced the batteries. We had cocktails with the group, but no dinner. Peggy and Vernon came over to our coach after happy hour and we had some time with just the four of us. We will be traveling together tomorrow and for the next couple of weeks. The Babcock's and the McKay's are staying in Yuma another week and then going to their homes. After Peggy and Vernon left we watched some TV and then went to bed.

Thursday, March 22^nd, another travel day. Another problem for the Bullock's today. One of their slides wouldn't come in. It was just dead. They had the motor replaced last month by one of the local RV service guys, so they called him. He came out and found the problem was a loose connector on the motor. Oops. We got everything packed up and left around 10:30 and the Bullock's were close behind. We were going 175 miles from Yuma to Casa Grande, actually an RV park in Arizona City, which is just outside of Casa Grande. The Bullock's had to stop for fuel before leaving Yuma, but they caught up to us just before we got to our destination, the High Chaparral RV Park. We are going to be here for three nights before heading up to Prescott, Arizona. We got in about 2:30 and by 4:00 we were set up and relaxing. Peggy and Vernon are parked right next to us. We had cocktails with them and Peggy made dinner with the Mexican casserole leftovers from a few days back. After dinner we watched some TV and went to bed.

Our departure from Yuma is a good place to close out this chapter and get it online. We will be spending the next month in various places in Central Arizona, Casa Grande, Prescott, Camp Verde, Ehrenberg, and Lake Havasu City. Until next time, and as the new Spring begins, I leave you with the words of the late, great, Robin Williams. “Spring is nature’s way of saying, "Let’s party!"” Party ON! See ya soon.