A Chilly Month in Yuma, Arizona

Hi there, welcome back to our story. Our last episode concluded on Monday, January 21^st, Martin Luther King Day, when we arrived in Yuma, Arizona for a month long stay. Tuesday was laundry day. We had a huge stack of laundry because it had been over a month since we did all of our laundry. We had done a couple of loads in Cathedral City and then a load in Quartzsite, but that was only sheets, towels and underwear, stuff we needed to wash. We both have so many clothes that we can go for a long time with most stuff. After laundry we went back to the coach and got everything put away and relaxed for a while. We went over to the Bullock's for cocktails and then had a nice spaghetti dinner that Peggy made. We talked for a while then went back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, January 23^rd, we left the coach around 11:00 and drove to our favorite taco stand in all of the world, Tacos El Cositas. We have been coming to this family taco stand for the last five years or so and when we are in Yuma we have lunch here at least once a week. The stand moved last summer, from an empty lot on Foothills road to an empty lot on 32^nd Street, right along the freeway. It is an open air taco stand, but the food is wonderful. Peggy and Vernon met us there and we had a great lunch. After lunch we went to Fry's market for a few things we didn't find at Walmart the other day. The Fry's store in the Foothills is one of the big “Marketplace” stores and is really nice. After lunch and shopping we headed back to the coach and we stayed in the rest of the day. I spent a little time putting up some of the decorations outside, including my flagpole. We had cocktails with the Bullock's about 5:00, then did some pork ribs on the BBQ for the four of us. We also had beans and coleslaw and we had a great meal. About 7:30 we went back to our coach and watched some TV before going to bed.

Thursday, January 24^th, we left the coach after lunch and drove to the Yuma Marketplace, the outdoor shopping area about five miles from the RV park. We always make a couple trips to the Marketplace when we are in Yuma. We bought a couple of little things, some garlic that Jackie likes and a new hat for me. After walking around the Marketplace for about 90 minutes we left and drove to downtown Yuma to the Discount Liquor store to pick up some vodka. For the last three years this store has had the best price on Three Olives vodka, which is a good brand. If you buy it by the case it is less than we pay for the house brand stuff at Costco or Sams Club. We bought a case for us and a case for the Bullock's, along with a bottle of bourbon for the Bullock's. We headed back to the RV park, stopping at the Dollar Tree to pick up some Valentine's decorations, the unloaded our booty. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the coach. We had cocktails with the Bullock's at 5:00 and after they left we had dinner on our own. After dinner we watched TV and then went to bed.

Friday, January 25^th, we had pretty much a stay at home day. I started a batch of chili colorado in the crock pot in the morning. After lunch Jackie and I went and got our toenails clipped, she gets a full pedi, I just get a trim. We had cocktails with the Bullock's around 5:00 and then later a very nice Mexican dinner of chili colorado, rice and beans. I have to say that I make a pretty decent chili colorado and everyone seemed to enjoy it. After Peggy and Vernon left we watched some TV and went to bed. Saturday we left the RV park with the Bullock's and drove to downtown Yuma for the annual Date Festival street fair. Other than a half dozen booths from date farms in the Southwest it was pretty much the same as all the Yuma street fairs, about two blocks long with not a whole lot of interesting stuff. We did manage to get a geocache that was located on the next street north of the street fair. After walking the fair the four of us went into Da Boyz pizza place downtown for lunch. Jackie had a chicken parm sandwich and I had a calzone. They give you lots of food in this place and it was very good. After lunch we got back in the car and went back to the RV park. We spent the rest of the day hanging out. We had cocktails with the Bullock's, but no dinner because of the big lunch. After the Bullock's went home we relaxed with the TV until bedtime. Sunday was a stay at home day as Jackie woke up not feeling well. We stayed home all day, got a few chores done and just relaxed.

Monday, January 28^th, we left the house about 11:30 and went out to run some errands. We were going to go to our taco stand, but when we got there we realized they were closed on Sunday and Monday. We went to the nearby Denny's and had a nice lunch. After lunch we did a grocery run at Fry's, then headed back to the coach. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the coach. About 4:00 Peggy and Vernon came over and the four of us watched a movie we had on the DVR. The movie was called “A Dog's Purpose” and is a very touching movie about a dog that keeps getting reincarnated until after a 50 year period gets reunited with it's original owner. A very nice movie. After the movie the four of us had dinner, a nice shrimp and asparagus risotto that Jackie made. After dinner the Bullock's left and we watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, January 29^th, we left the coach about noon and drove to the Yuma shopping mall to go to the movies. We have not seen a movie in a theater in nearly a year. There is no movie theater (yet, hopefully) in Pahrump, which means when we spend a lot of time there we don't get to go to movies. It doesn't make sense to drive 60 miles one way to a movie in Vegas. We saw The Upside with Kevin Hart and Bryon Cranston. It was based on a true story about a multi-millionaire who becomes a paraplegic in a hang gliding accident, then loses his wife to cancer, and becomes despondent. His corporate assistant, played by Nicole Kidman, is hiring a full time, live in life assistant to take care of him. Hart's character is a ex-con on parole who has to get signatures on his job search form to show he is looking for work, or his parole officer will send hem back to prison. He shows up at the interview, thinking it is for a janitor position. Cranston hires him on the spot, not in spite of his lack of experience, but because of it. He has a “do not resuscitate” order and assumes that Hart will probably do something to cause him to go into distress and then he can die. He can't kill himself because he can only move his head and neck. As it turns out, Hart is very bright, learns the job and the two become extremely close. It is kind of a romantic comedy, very touching and quite funny. We really enjoyed the movie, although I noted that the critics didn't think much of it. Not complicated enough for them. After the movie we went back to the coach, then had cocktails with the Bullock's at happy hour. We had left over spaghetti for dinner with Peggy and Vernon, then went back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, January 30^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and met Peggy and Vernon at Daybreakers, a restaurant about a mile away that is actually a truck stop cafe. The food is very good and we like to go there from time to time. The four of us had a nice lunch, although Vernon had breakfast. After lunch the Bullock's went out to run some errands and we did a little local geocaching. We had two that we determined we couldn't get to with our new car because they were out in the desert. We found two and had two other DNF's. After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. Our friends Ray and Suzi Babcock, and Clark and Judi McKay arrived today and were parked just down the street from us. They were moved in but still getting set up. Around 5:00 we had our first Yuma 2019 Happy Hour with the Group. Our four couples have been coming to Yuma for one or two months every winter for the last five years. Occasionally another couple or two will also be with us, but the eight of us have always been here together for at least some period of time. Ray and Suzi got a new dog, a little female called Nikki. Their old dog, Casey, died last year. They had Casey for as long as we have known them. Ray is a real dog person and we knew it wouldn't be too long before they got a new one. We had a good time catching up with everyone. We have seen Ray and Suzi several times over the last few months and traveled with them last summer. We hadn't seen Clark and Judi since last February when we were here in Yuma, although we stay in touch through social media. After happy hour we went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, January 31^st, we left the coach about 11:30 again and met our friends from Pahrump, Dick and Millie Duffin, at the taco stand for lunch. They always come down to Yuma for a couple of months in January and February and have a spot in the Foothills area not too far from our park. We had a nice lunch and talked for an hour or so. After lunch we stopped at another RV park, right next door to the taco stand, and visited with Len and Debbie Forrest, also friends of ours from Pahrump. They also come down to Yuma in the Winter for a few months. After that visit we went out and got the two geocaches that we had to DNF yesterday. The cache owner sent us some hints by email and with that help we were able to quickly find the caches and fix our DNFs. Yea! We then did a Walmart run and went back to the coach. We had happy hour with the group at 5:00 and then we had a steak BBQ. We all ate in the Babcock's coach because it got windy and cold outside, but we had a great dinner. Everyone provided and cooked their own steaks and then we had sweet potatoes and salad as well as dessert. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Friday, February 1^st, already a month into the new year. We left the coach about 10:30 and drove West into California, then south for our first visit this trip to Algodones, Mexico. Every year we go to Algodones for dental work, glasses when we need them, prescriptions, and even just for lunch. Who knew Mexico had great Mexican food? This trip we only needed to get our teeth cleaned. We into Mexico about 11:00, walked around and shopped for a while, although we didn't buy anything. Over the years we have pretty much gotten all the Mexican stuff we need. We walked up the hill to our dentist and got our teeth cleaned. Jackie was all good, I need some work done, but am going to put it off until next year when we are here longer. After the dentist we went across to the street to a restaurant for lunch. It was the La Parilla and is one we had not been to before. We had a drink and ordered lunch, which was very good. This place has a good menu and we will come here again. While we were eating we saw some friends of ours, John and Rita Ham, come into the restaurant. We waived them over and they sat with us. We have known John and Rita for probably ten years, mostly from FMCA as they have a Monaco coach and belong to several of the same Chapters as us. We used to see them at a lot of rallies, but they now have a house here in Yuma and don't travel quite as much. John is also an avid geocacher, so we have that in common as well. They ordered lunch and we had a good time talking a catching up. The last time we saw them was last summer in Wyoming at the FMCA rally. John and Rita come to Mexico a lot, John even has a number of geocaches hidden in and around Algodones, and they drive their car in. They asked us if we wanted to ride with them to go back to the States, and we said sure. Sitting in an air conditioned car for an hour beats standing in a line for an hour. We had a nice ride and when we got back across the border they dropped us off, we got in our car and drove back to the RV park. We will see them quite a bit over the next couple months as they are going to some of the geocaching events we are going to, as well as a couple of motor home rallies. After we got back to the coach we relaxed until happy hour with the group at 5:00. By 6:30 we were back in our coach for the evening. We had some leftover risotto for dinner, watched some TV and went to bed.

Saturday, February 2^nd, we left the coach about noon and went to Arby's for lunch. They sent me a coupon for a free sandwich for my birthday, so we had lunch there. After lunch we went to the Yuma Marketplace, finished what we missed the first time last week, and then a few more aisles just to kill time. We bought a few little things. We stopped on the way back home to pick up one geocache near the marketplace. We had cocktails with the group, then we and the Bullock's did some hamburgers on the BBQ. After the Bullock's left we watched TV and went to bed. Sunday, Super Bowl Day! We had a stay at home day. I did some chores and mostly relaxed. The game started at 4:00 and we watched it in our coach with Peggy and Vernon. As I think most people would agree, the game was a bit boring. It was mostly a defensive game, turning out to be the lowest scoring Super Bowl ever. I was a little bummed that the Rams lost, as I was rooting for the west coast. Jackie is a Patriots fan, mostly because of her friend Helen's love for the team. We had various snacks and goodies during the game, so no formal dinner. After the game Peggy and Vernon went home and we just watched some more TV before going to bed.

Monday, February 4^th, we left the coach about 1:00 and went out to do some geocaching. In about three hours we were able to get ten new finds, along with one DNF. This is the first time we have done a real caching afternoon in a while. After caching we went back to the RV park and had happy hour with the group at 5:00. After happy hour we went over to the Bullock's and had dinner. Peggy made a pot of chili, very much like mine, along with corn bread. We had a great dinner and talked for awhile. About 8:00 we went back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, February 5^th, Happy Birthday to me! Yea, I finally reached room temperature, 72. We had a quiet day at home for the most part. Around 3:00 our group of eight gathered for an early happy hour, along with Dick and Millie Duffin, invited by Jackie, and Pat and Tammy Kight invited by Peggy. Tammy is a friend of Peggy's from the sixties, and we have met them on numerous occasions at RV parks and at the Bullock's house in California. About 4:30 dinner was served. Ray cooked a big turkey on the rotisserie, Peggy made stuffing, Judi provided the potatoes and gravy, Jackie made a green bean casserole. It was like Thanksgiving all over again. We had a great dinner and it was a good thing that we started early because around 6:00 the winds kicked up and it got really cold. By 7:00 the party was over and everyone headed back to their own RVs. A very nice day indeed.

Wednesday, February 6^th, we went out after lunch and drove into town to Sam's Club to pick up a few things. After Sam's we went back home and relaxed for a while. About 5:30 we left again, dressed up and ready for our date night. Yesterday was my birthday and tomorrow is our 15^th anniversary, so we decided to go out tonight to celebrate. We went to Julianna's Patio, a nice restaurant here in Yuma, to have a fancy dinner. We had an appetizer, and Jackie had lamb and I had Asian short rib. The meal was wonderful, the service was great and they gave us a free dessert for our celebrations. We had a really nice time with just the two of us. After dinner we went back home, relaxed for a bit and went to bed.

Thursday, February 7^th, our 15^th Wedding Anniversary. We left the coach after lunch and went to the laundromat. After we had our clothes done we did a quick Walmart run, then went back to the coach. We put away the clothes and made the bed and spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing. We had happy hour with part of the group, the Bullock's and the Kight's then went back to our coach and had dinner on our own. We spent the rest of the night watching TV.

Friday, February 8^th, was a busy day. First of all, it was another anniversary of sorts for us. On February 8^th, 1998, I reunited with Jackie after not having communicated with her for over 21 years. For me she was the long lost love that I finally got back. Today was also day for getting together with geocaching friends. For background, there is a large geocaching community in the Yuma area, probably because there is a huge number of retired people who live here, or spent the winters here. The group calls itself the Southwest Arizona Geocaching Group, or SWAG. Every February SWAG holds a geocaching event. When we first started coming here in the winter, about eight or nine years ago, the SWAG event was big, but was not considered a Mega Event, which requires over 500 caching teams to attend. At that time they provided a nice meal provide by the club. About five years ago the event got big enough for Groundspeak, the company that “controls” organized geocaching, declared it a Mega Event. They got so big they had to stop providing food, but they still have a lot of activities over the entire weekend of the event.

The actual event is Sunday, but today there was a meet and greet event at Martha's Date Garden, which is only a few miles from our RV park. The Yuma caching weekend draws close to a thousand geocachers and many of them are people we have met along the way and made friends with. One couple, Russ and Nellie, are from Grants Pass, Oregon. We met them in Quartzsite about six years ago at a geocache we were both trying to find. We have since crossed paths with them many times, and visited their home in Oregon. They are here for the event and we met them at Day Breaker's restaurant for lunch. We had a nice lunch and caught up with them. It has probably been a year or so since we last saw them, although we stay in touch. After lunch we went back to the coach and continue to visit for a bit, then we drove to the meet and greet event. There were several hundred cachers there and there were at least a couple dozen that we know well enough to consider them friends. Many of them we haven't seen in a while, others we saw as recently as this past summer. It was a great event and we made a few more friends. After the meet and greet we picked up a couple of geocaches in the area, then drove downtown to attend another event, this one a Flash Mob event in the Yuma Mall area. The Flash Mob event is another regular occurrence for the SWAG caching weekend. One year it was everyone blowing bubbles, another time everyone walked around with a banana acting like it was a phone. It is just a quick, silly get together for a bunch of senior citizen teenagers. Today everyone had a balloon and we all walked around the traffic circle in front of the movie theater complex waving the balloons in the air. After a few minutes the music stopped and everyone popped their balloon at the same time. That was it, the event was over. We drove back to the coach, had cocktails with some of the group, then went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, February 9^th, we left the coach a little after 11:00 and met Peggy and Vernon and Pat and Tammy at the taco stand for lunch. After lunch we drove to the Palms RV Resort for the annual Boomer Bash car show. They hold this event every February and we have been going for about five years. Two different years we won big raffle prizes, one year a huge booze cart with about $600 worth of liquor, and then the next year a $300 Ashley Furniture gift certificate. We entered a bunch of tickets this year, but didn't win anything. I got the requisite tee shirt and we spent a couple hours looking at the cars. They had over 150 cars this year, some really nice ones. After the car show we did a little geocaching, getting a half dozen new finds. We then went back to the RV park and relaxed for a bit. We had happy hour with some of the group and then we, the Bullock's and Kight's, did hamburgers on the BBQ along with beans and cole slaw. By 8:00 we were back in our coach watching TV and then going to bed.

Sunday, February 10^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove to the downtown area of Yuma to the West Wetlands park on the banks of the Colorado River. We were going there to attend the annual Southwest Arizona Geocachers (SWAG) Mega Event. There were somewhere between 600 and 800 people at the event and they had the usual activities. There is a poker run, where you go to five temporary, and very easy, caches inside the park to collect five playing cards sealed in envelopes. You then have to take them to the booth where they take out the cards and see what kind of hand you get. In the past we have always gotten crap, a pair at best. Same old crap today, an ace high junk hand. Not high enough to win, not low enough to get the boobie prize. We bought a few caching trinkets, some containers, a shirt, a hat, and had some pizza for lunch. This is mostly a social event and we did a lot of cachers were were friends with and even more with whom we had some acquaintance. We stayed for about three hours, then left and went back to the coach to relax. We had cocktails with the Bullock's and the Kight's, then went to our house where we all had dinner. Jackie made a chili relleno casserole and we had it with rice and beans. We had a nice dinner and everyone left about 8:00. We watched some TV and went to bed.

Monday, February 11^th, we were up and out early, a little before 10:00, heading to Algodones, Mexico for another geocaching event. This was the closing event for the geocaching weekend and was a lunch at one of the larger Mexican restaurant's in town, El Paraiso Cafe. There were several hundred geocachers there for the event and we sat with some of our friends at a table for eight. The lunch was very good, as were the beers and margaritas. After lunch we walked around town for a while, getting a couple of the new geocaches that have been hidden down there, and doing some shopping. We picked up a very pretty new name sign for the front of the coach. Our old carved one is getting old and junky, the new one is very nice and was only $20, inexpensive given the skill it took to paint it. Unfortunately, the line to get back to the States was the longest I have ever seen it in the seven years we have been going into Algodones. It was a two hour wait, but we were in line with friends, so we just talked and killed time. After we got across the border we drove back to the coach and just crashed. It has been a busy and exhausting weekend, fun but it wore us down. We didn't even get together with anyone from the group. We put on our jammies, had cocktails and a light dinner and relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening. Tuesday was a stay at home day. We got a few chores done, but mostly relaxed. We had cocktails with the whole group at 5:00 and then we and the Bullock's did some pork chops on the BBQ for dinner. They left around 7:30 and we watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, February 13^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and met the rest of the gang of eight at the Love's Truck Stop for lunch. That location was selected because the truck stop has a Chester's Chicken fast food place and Chester's, unlike KFC, Churches and the other chicken places, has chicken livers and gizzards on the menu. Most everyone got chicken livers, or fried chicken for lunch. I didn't feel like chicken so I got a Subway sandwich since Subway was also in the food court. We had a nice lunch and then everyone went their separate ways to run various errands. We drove to downtown Yuma to the liquor store that has the great price on Three Olives vodka and picked up another case. We are leaving Yuma next week and won't be able to find that price anywhere else. We then stopped at Sam's Club to put some gas in the car after almost two months. Our average for the not quite three quarters of a tank of fuel was over 90 mpg. Yea! After fueling the car we went back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the day. We had happy hour with the group and then we went back to our place and watched TV until it was time for bed.

Thursday, February 14^th, Happy Valentines day and Happy Birthday to my granddaughter Courtney, whose middle name, not surprisingly, is Valentine. We had some plans for lunch and exploring today, but we woke up to rain. It was the same storm that was soaking California, but fortunately for us it was only a light but steady rain here. Later in the afternoon the winds came up, causing a few issues with crap flying around, but at any rate it was enough for us to just stay in all day. We did a few light chores, but mostly just relaxed. Friday we left the coach about noon to go to lunch. We had to wait a bit to leave because today was propane delivery day and we were running low. We drove to near downtown to a restaurant called El Charro. According to this morning's paper it was just voted number one Mexican restaurant in Yuma. We met Peggy, along with Linda and Ernie Ellis, some other RVing friends of ours. We met Linda and Ernie in 2009 on our Alaska caravan, which was also where we met Peggy and Vernon. Linda and Ernie are square dancing fanatics and base their travels around that hobby. We run across them frequently at various FMCA rallies, including the Indio rally every January. Vernon was doing some work on the motor home and didn't come, so the five of us had a nice lunch and talked for a while. After lunch Peggy went off to run some errands and we took Linda and Ernie in car and did some nearby geocaches. Linda has always been interested in our hobby and likes to go, even if just briefly. We found three caches nearby before we dropped them off at their car and said goodbye. We then headed back to the RV park. I helped Vernon with his project, removing their old sleeper sofa from their coach to make room for a new sofa. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon at 5:00, the other two couples had other plans for tonight. After cocktails we went back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, February 16^th, we left the coach about 12:30 and drove about a mile east in the Foothills to the RV lot that Millie and Dick Duffin rent in the winter here in Yuma. She was having another of her “Dilly Muffin” parties, and it was her birthday. There were a dozen people there, half of them Canadian snowbirds. Our other friends from Pahrump, Len and Debbie Forrest were also there. We knew about half the group from previous parties of Millie's and everyone brought food and snacks to nibble on. We played a few games and talked and visited with everyone. The party went until about 5:00 when everyone started to pack up and head for home. We went back to the RV park and sat outside for an hour with the group at happy hour. We then went into our coach and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, February 17^th, Jackie woke up sick with a cold or really bad allergies. As a result we had a stay at home day, I spent a couple hours in the afternoon taking down the screens and putting away all the outside decorations. We are not leaving here until Wednesday morning but we are getting the coach washed and waxed tomorrow morning, so I had to take down everything on the coach and figured I would just get a head start and put everything away today. Monday Jackie was still sick. About 10:00 the contractors arrived to wash and wax the coach. That only took a couple of hours. After they left I went out and ran a few errands, to the bank and to Walmart for a few things. After I got back and put everything away I finished our income taxes and got them filed, then just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. At 5:00 I had cocktails with the group, but Jackie didn't feel like going. After cocktails I came home, made some dinner and we spent the rest of the night with the TV.

Tuesday, our last full day in Yuma. Jackie was still sick, so we really didn't do anything. We stayed in all day and got a few chores done, but mostly just relaxed. I had cocktails with the group and then went back to our coach and fixed dinner. After dinner we watched TV and went to bed. Our time in Yuma for this year has come to an end. It was a cold winter and it looks like it is going to continue to be colder than normal in the Southwest for the foreseeable future. However, it is still way better to be chilly than ass deep in snow. This marks a great place to close out this chapter and get it published. Until next time, be crazy, be stupid, be silly, be weird. Be whatever, because life is too short to be anything but happy. See ya soon.