Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Finally, the Last Two Weeks in Yuma Arizona - Time to Move On

Hello again. Our last chapter ended on Sunday, April 26th while we were still hunkered down in Yuma, Arizona, dodging the COVID pandemic. So far, so good. Monday was another stay at home day. I spent a little bit of time helping Peggy get her coach ready to travel. She has decided that she is going to head home to Northern California rather than stay another couple of weeks with us. She has some friends who live in Washington state and have a winter home here in Yuma, Don and Barbara. They have decided that with the early heat they are going to leave tomorrow and head back to the Northwest. Since Peggy's destination is along the same route, she asked if she could tag along and they said sure. She met them some years ago on an RV caravan along the East coast, so she is used to traveling with them.

We had cocktails at 5:00 with Peggy and Belle, our last for a couple months, and then dinner. Our original plan was to order some chicken livers from the local Chester's Chicken place, but it turns out they are closed due to the virus. So, we ordered pizza and salad from Da Boyz, a local Italian place right around the corner from us. I went and picked it up and we had a nice dinner of pizza, calzone and salad. The girls played some cards and then Peggy went home. We watched some TV and went to bed. Tuesday morning Peggy was packed up and on the road by 8:00. I got up early to help her with some of the hookup issues and sent her on her way. After Peggy was gone we did our laundry at the park and by early afternoon we were all done. We spent the rest of the day inside, staying cool in the 100 plus temps and relaxing. We had our first cocktail hour with just the two of us. Unfortunately, we did hear from Peggy in the late afternoon and it turned out she had some coach issues near Hesperia, in the high desert north of San Bernardino. It seems that something came off the road and knocked a hole in the plastic radiator overflow tank. This set off alarms and she was able to stop the coach before it overheated or damaged anything. However, it also meant she was stranded. The last we heard the coach had been towed to a shop and she was at a motel in Hesperia. We feel really bad for her and Belle. We watched TV for the rest of the evening and then went to bed.

Tuesday, April 29th, we needed to get out for a while, so after lunch we got in the car and took a drive. We basically drove north of Yuma to the Martinez Lake/Laguna Dam area just to do some sightseeing. It was still very hot, just over 100 degrees, but we did do a few geocaches. For the whole trip we managed five new finds and one DNF with no heat stroke. We drove past Laguna dam into California and just continued down the rural roads until we found our way back to Interstate 8, just on the California side of the river. We continued on the freeway until we got back home. Our entire trip was a about three hours and we went 55 miles. It was nice to get out of the house. We did hear from Peggy who told us that the shop had found the part and she hoped to be back on the road by Friday. On the negative side, when the tow truck lifted her coach to take it to the shop they tweaked the body and broke a large crack in the fiberglass sidewall near the rear. Of course, the driver claimed they weren't responsible for any damages, which is bullshit, but no point in arguing with the driver, he is expected to say that. We had cocktails at 5:00 and then did some ahi tuna on the grill for dinner. We watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, April 30th, we had mostly a stay at home day. I did go out at lunch to get some money at the ATM and then picked up lunch for Jackie and I at the Del Taco just down the street. Went through the drive through, picked up the food and went home where we had lunch. It was really good. It has probably been more than a year since I had Del Taco, my favorite fast food Mexican. We spent the rest of the day inside doing some chores and relaxing. We had cocktails at 5:00, but no dinner as we had eaten too much at lunch. We watched TV until bedtime. Nothing new from Peggy. She is still hoping that she will be fixed by Friday and can start for home. She talked to her insurance agent and he said that the damages might be covered by insurance since the initial damage was caused by a road hazard. Fingers crossed because it's going to be pricey.

Friday, May 1st, MAY DAY, MAY DAY! Did you know that the use of may day as a distress call came about in England in 1921 when a senior official at a London airport asked his staff about coming up with something to call for help that pilots and ground controllers could easily remember and understand. Since much of that airport's traffic at that time was between Paris and London many of the pilots were French. One of the staff suggested the French word m'aider, which means “help me” and when pronounced sounds much like “may day.” By 1927 it had officially replaced “SOS” as the universally accepted distress call. Now you know the rest of the story.

We had another quiet day. I spent an hour or so starting to take down some of our decorations and lights. We are leaving on the 12th, a little less than two weeks from now, and we have a lot of stuff out. No need for lights and decorations as we are some of the last people in the park and have no one around us to look at our lights anyway. We had cocktails at 5:00 and then did take out from our favorite fish and chips place in the Foothills, Mr. Fish. The dinner was great and boy were there a lot of people wanting fish today. There were 20 people waiting when I arrived. Everyone was outside as the dining room was closed, but everyone was respectfully distanced and friendly. The food was great and after dinner we watched some TV and went to bed. We did hear from Peggy and learned she got her coach back and was starting out on the road in a couple days when the winds in the high desert settle down a little.

Saturday, May 2nd, we left the coach about 1:00 or so and drove to the mall area near downtown to go to the Dollar Store. We had a few things we had to return. Back three months ago, when we still thought we were going to rallies in March, Jackie and Peggy had been assigned to do the table decorations for the Monaco Rally. They bought $100 worth of stuff from the dollar store. When the rally was canceled Jackie was fortunate enough to be able to sell the bulk of the stuff, mostly plastic table cloths, to the Escapee's park in Pahrump and recoup most of the money. A couple things Jackie kept and we were only left with 16 glass bowls that they were going to use as the base for the decorations. The Dollar Store does not do refunds, but they will do an exchange, so today we put on our masks and went to the store and exchanged the 16 bowls for a bunch of little stuff that we do use, like shower caps (to cover bowls, not heads) and some decorations for the coach. Even though it had been over three months the store had no issue doing the exchange. After shopping we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day. I finally went down to the pool at the park for the first time and splashed around a bit to cool off, and I did a little more cleanup of our outside decorations. We had cocktails at 5:00 and then did some pork chops on the BBQ for dinner. We watched TV and went to bed.

Sunday, May 3rd was a stay at home day. I spent a couple of hours finishing cleaning the majority of the decorations and getting everything stowed away. About the only thing left to put away when we leave in a week or so is the BBQ. We had cocktails 5:00, then dinner and TV for the rest of the night. Monday, Star Wars Day! (May the fourth be with you) We were up early and headed for Walmart by a quarter to eight. There are a lot less people there in the morning hours than afternoon. We were able to finally score some hand sanitizer as well as toilet paper and paper towels. Still no Clorox wipes, but we will get along. After shopping we went back to the coach, put everything away and relaxed the rest of the day and evening.

Tuesday, May 5th, Cinco De Mayo. The day when everyone is Mexican for a while. Cultural appropriation at it's best, and I don't say that in a bad way. I don't think there is any problem with enjoying and celebrating traditions from other cultures. We had a stay at home day, played some cards, watched a dumb horror movie, and just relaxed. For dinner we did some carne asada on the BBQ, along with rice and beans and instead of our usual vodka we had margaritas! After dinner we watched some TV and went to bed. Un día muy agradable y relajante. Buenas noches. Wednesday we left the coach early, about 9:00 and went to the nearby Frys grocery. We got most everything we needed yesterday at Walmart, but we didn't have any steaks in the freezer and Fry's has good meat, and today was senior day, 10 percent off for seniors. Yea! We got a couple packs of the top sirloin steaks that were on sale, and also scored a pack of disinfecting wipes, the first we have seen since the hoarding started a couple months ago. They were store brand, not Clorox, but just as good. After we got back we put everything away and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

Thursday, May 7th, was another stay at home day. Relaxed around the house for the entire day, trying to stay cool in the 104 degree heat. Made a meat loaf for dinner. Friday we took another driving tour just to get out of the house. Our first stop was our favorite street taco place. Although they are not allowing people to sit, in conformance with the executive orders in place, they are taking phone orders to go. We ordered our food, then sat in the car in the parking lot and had a nice lunch. This was our last chance to eat tacos here until we return in December. After lunch we drove north on Highway 95 out of the Yuma area, then turned west and drove across the Army'sYuma Proving Ground to the community of Martinez Lake. This lake is one of several along the Colorado River created by the Laguna Irrigation dam downstream. The community was formed in 1958 as a fishing village and is still primarily a vacation place. It has a wide variety of housing, from really old trailer parks and RV parks to huge new homes on the bluffs overlooking the water. We drove around
for a half hour or so, looking at the area, then headed back. Although California is right across the river, there is no road access here and all of the surrounding area on the Arizona side is part of the Army base. After our tour we headed back to the coach and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We did get one geocache on the way back home. We had leftovers for dinner and then watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, May 9th, we had another stay at home day. Did some chores and just stayed cool as we could. Did some burgers on the BBQ for dinner. Sunday, Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Another stay at home day. Did some steaks on the BBQ for dinner, then watched TV and went to bed. One more full day here, then we finally ride. Monday was our last stay at home day, at least in Yuma. We did our laundry in the morning and I spent some time in the afternoon putting the last of the outside stuff away and doing some checks on the coach in preparation for our travel day tomorrow. The coach has been sitting for four months, so I needed to check the oil and coolant, the tire condition and pressures, and the batteries, to be sure everything was OK and there would be no surprises when I started the coach tomorrow. Everything was OK – yea! We had cocktails and dinner, watched some TV and went to bed.

Tuesday, May 12th, I can finally say we had a travel day! We had the coach packed up, closed up and car attached and were on the road by 9:30. We wanted to get an early start because even though the forecast temps were back in the high 90's, it was still hot and we wanted to beat the worst heat. We are headed northeast to Goodyear, Arizona, a western suburb of Phoenix. Still the desert, so still hot, probably close to what Yuma is, but at least it's a change of scenery. Plus, the Arizona Governor partially reopened the State yesterday, allowing restaurants to do inside service again, with some restrictions. They also opened hair and nail salons. Yea! We had an uneventful trip of 153 miles and arrived at the Cotton Lane RV Resort about 12:30. We have been to this park a number of times and knew just where to go for our spot. They have “no contact” check in where they tell you what spot you are in and you call them with your credit card when you get parked. None of the facilities are open, but except for maybe the pool, we don't usually use them anyway. We like to stay here because my brother Ken and his wife Susan live in Goodyear, just a couple miles from the park. After we got parked and set up we just relaxed for the rest of the day.

We have reached a great spot to close out this chapter and get it published. We are finally moving again after a long, four month stay in Yuma. Until next time, wash your hands, cover your face and stay away from me! Bye for now.