Our Winter Travels Begin

Hello again. Our last chapter concluded on Thursday, December 3^rd, when we arrived at the Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio, California. We had just finished a three month stay at hour new “home” at the Escapees RV Park in Pahrump, Nevada and then an overnight stay in the high desert of California on our way to Indio. Our one week stay here in Indio starts our winter travels, after which we are scheduled in Yuma, Arizona for three months.

Friday, December 4^th, I had a 10:00 appointment at Palm Springs Ford to get the car serviced. After I dropped the car off I went into the dealership to talk to the finance manager about buying our car. We had leased our great little Ford C-Max from Palm Springs Ford back in December of 2017 and we have now completed our lease. We have until the end of December to either give the car up or buy it out. Since we love the car and it has been great, we plan on buying it out. Initially the dealership representative gave me the impression he wasn't interested in helping us out. Because the car is registered in Montana to our LLC, he said we had to deal with someone in Montana. The other alternative was to buy it here but pay California taxes because they wouldn't do another out of state delivery like they did when we leased the car. The reason did make some sense, the car actually belongs to the Ford Motor Company and the dealer would make no money off the deal, so he had no incentive to provide out of state delivery. After a while, and a few phone calls, he finally said that if I came back on Monday morning they would help facilitate getting a Montana dealer to do the paperwork for us. We shall see on Monday.

After the car was finished I went back to the RV park, picked up Jackie and we went to our old favorite restaurant, Cactus Jacks, for lunch. We had to go today because California is shutting down all on site dining again on Sunday. We got to see George Bishop, the owner of Jacks, as well as our friend Kevin, who is the bartender. We had a nice lunch and then drove to Costco to do some shopping. We wanted to get some things before going to Yuma because there is no Costco there. They do have a Sam's Club, which is OK, but some things we like at Costco. After shopping we went back to the coach, put everything away and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Saturday, December 5^th, we went out after lunch to do some shopping at Home Depot and then Walmart. After our shopping we went back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the day and evening. Sunday our old friend Barry Cohen came over about 1:00 for a visit. Barry became my best friend when I moved here in 1998. Jackie had known he and his wife Colleen for many years and Barry and Jackie both went to Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. Although they knew a lot of the same people, they didn't know each other back in the 50's. Barry and Colleen became our best friends and even beat us to being full time rvers when they sold their condo in the early 2000's and bought a lot at what was then the brand new Outdoor Resorts RV Resort in Indio. We traveled with them a lot, first with the Palm Springs and Indio Elks lodge RV travel clubs, and later after we bought our coach and went full time. Colleen passed away of cancer back in 2013, but Barry continues to live in his motor home at the same resort, which is now called the Motorcoach Country Club. Barry used to own and operate a transmission shop in Cathedral City, but he retired and sold the place in 2012. He and Colleen had planned to travel more at the time, but Colleen got sick. Barry has not traveled much since then. It was really nice to be able to spend some quality time with him, as the past few years he has been busy working at a part time job when we visited the Coachella Valley. We had a nice dinner of burgers on the BBQ and visited until Barry left about 7:00. After Barry left we watched some TV and went to bed.

Monday, December 7^th, Pearl Harbor Day. I left the coach about 8:30 and drove back to Palm Springs Ford in Cathedral City to work with the people there to buy out our completed lease on our car. I talked to a different finance guy today and he was very helpful. By the end of the day I had finished all the paperwork, gone to the bank and got the money, and our little Ford C-Max was now actually ours and fully paid off. Yea!!! The process took all day. After we got back home we had dinner, watched TV and went to bed. Tuesday was a stay at home day. I did go out and pick up lunch from one of our favorite Indio restaurants, TKB Deli. Like all restaurants in California, they have been shut down for all but take out and delivery, but they have an online ordering system that makes it very easy to order. This is only a sandwich place, but it has been voted Number One in the country by Yelp several times over the last five years. Other than that, we stayed home and did chores.

Wednesday, December 9^th, we went out after lunch and spent a couple of hours driving around the Coachella Valley, just to see what was new and/or different from last year. We didn't find too much, but had a nice drive on a very nice desert day. We went back to the coach, I spent a little time cleaning up so we can leave tomorrow, and we relaxed for the rest of the day. We did some fish on the BBQ for dinner, watched some TV and went to bed. Thursday was another travel day. We left about 10:00, heading southeast to Yuma, Arizona. The trip was about 156 miles and was, for the most part, pretty easy. Some of the California roads are crap, but there wasn't much traffic after we got out of the Coachella Valley. We arrived in Yuma at the Sunset Palm RV park about 2:30 because we had a time change when we came into Arizona. We got settled into our spot, where we will be probably until the first week in March. We got set up and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Friday, December 11^th, was mostly a stay at home day. We did go out around noon for lunch at our favorite taco stand, Las Cositas. Unlike California, Arizona still allows limited restaurant dining. The tacos were great. After lunch we went back home and I spent a couple of hours setting up our RV site with lights and decorations. I did the Christmas decorations first since this is the first time we have done Christmas in Yuma. Normally we are in Indio because the FMCA Western Area rally was always the first full week in January. This coming year the rally has been canceled, so we came to Yuma early. We spent the rest of the evening in the coach with the TV.

Saturday was a stay at home day. We awoke to a relatively rare sight for Yuma, thick fog.  Could hardly see down the street at 8:00, although it burned off by 10:00.  After lunch I spent some time getting out all the karaoke stuff and taking it across the street to the clubhouse. Our spot this year is directly across from the clubhouse at the park. Although at the beginning of this year we were staying in the park next door, I was doing karaoke every other weekend at this park. Both parks are owned by the same company. The recreation director was happy we were coming back and made sure that we got a spot in this park. Today was supposed to be the first day of karaoke, but Dottie, the rec director, told me not to be too surprised if no one came. She said the park is at least 25 percent off from last year in terms of the number of seasonal residents and the vast majority of the Canadians, who tend to be more active, are not able to come due to Covid restrictions in Canada. I went over at 3:00 to start karaoke, but the only ones who showed up were Dottie and her husband. We spent the two hours just talking and had a very nice visit. Dottie's husband Lavern is a woodworker and has made a number of guitars and other stringed instruments. He brought a couple of his lap slide guitars over and they were gorgeous. About 5:00 I packed everything up and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach.

Sunday, December 13^th, we enjoyed the Sunday paper, which is now delivered to our doorstep. When we come to Yuma we subscribe to the Yuma Sun newspaper. For a small paper it is pretty interesting. After lunch we went out to the Yuma Marketplace, the big, outdoor shopping area on the east side of town. It was not nearly as busy as it has been in previous times, and there were only about a third of the usual vendors there. The empty stalls far outnumbered those still in business. Our friends Dan and Roxy were still there selling, but they actually live in Yuma pretty much year round. We spent a couple of hours walking around, bought a few things, then headed back to the RV park. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach with the TV.

Monday, December 14^th, we went out after lunch so Jackie could get a pedi. After her pedi we did a Walmart run. Once our shopping was done we went back to the coach and put everything away. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach, doing some chores and relaxing. Tuesday was a stay at home day. In the morning we did our laundry. It was very convenient to be parked right across the street from the laundry at the park. We were able to go back and forth without having to use the car. After the laundry was finished we spent the rest of the day relaxing. Wednesday I went to the jam session in the clubhouse about 1:00. There were about eight musicians there, most with guitars, but one with a violin and one with a mandolin. We had a great time, with each person doing a song, then moving to the next. Over the two hours each person got to do about four songs. I need to update my music lists to keep up next time. After the jam session we did a Fry's run to pick up some things we couldn't get at Walmart the other day. After Fry's we relaxed in the house for the rest of the day and evening.

Thursday, I spent some time in the morning working on setting up Jackie's new computer. To replace her old laptop she used to use on the kitchen table we got an “all in one” computer with a 24 inch screen, quite a bit bigger than her old 17 inch laptop. It was pretty easy to set up, especially since she doesn't have a lot of programs on her computer. She mostly does email, Facebook and games. I also worked some on a new tablet that I bought. Faster and with more memory than my old one, which will now become my music book. We stayed home all day, just working on stuff and relaxing. Friday was also a stay at home day. I spent a couple of hours working on the newsletter for the Full Timers Chapter of FMCA. I am the editor of the quarterly newsletter for the chapter. Jackie spent some time painting rocks. We spent the evening with the TV and went to bed.

Saturday, December 19^th, we went out after lunch and did some shopping. We went to the Dollar Store and then to Walmart for some supplies. After shopping we went home and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. About 7:00 we went over to the clubhouse for a Christmas gift exchange party. There were probably 30 people there, all of whom brought a gift to share. It was the usual process, pick a wrapped gift from the table or steal one from someone else. It was a lot of fun, and in the process the host also gave away a bunch of dollar store door prizes. Near the beginning of the party a parade of decorated vehicles came through the park and we all went outside to watch. It was expected as it was the annual “Foothills Parade of Lights” which has been going on, and growing in size, for several years.

First of all one has to know that the Foothills is an unincorporated area of Yuma County that stretches east roughly from the Yuma city limits at the airport/Marine Corps base on both sides of Interstate 8 all the way to the mountains at the East end of the valley. This area is pretty much a retirement and snowbird community with dozens of RV parks and hundreds of individual lots set up initially for RVs or park models. The Parade of Lights has turned into a three night event where a bunch, over a hundred this year, of people decorate their ATVs and other vehicles with Christmas lights and caravan around on a designated route all through the Foothills area. We had seen in the paper several days ago that our RV park was one of the ones on the route. After they came in the park it was a line of vehicles that took almost 10 minutes to pass through our park. It was very entertaining and fun to watch. After the parade the party resumed and went until about 9:00. Jackie ended up taking home a nice coffee mug and some home made candies. I finished with a box of microwave popcorn, which is great because we like popcorn, and some chocolate candies. After the party we watched a little TV and went to bed.

Sunday, December 20^th, was a stay at home day. We did some cleaning and other chores and just relaxed. I had a corn beef brisket in the crock pot for dinner and we had a nice meal. After dinner we watched TV and went to bed. We have been getting daily reports from our friend Peggy Bullock, who left Redding, California a couple days ago and started her five day journey to Yuma. She will be parked right next to us here at the park for at least a month or two and is supposed to be here Tuesday afternoon. Monday was a shopping day. We left after lunch and drove to the mall on the west side of town. We stopped at Bed, Bath and Beyond and then at Target, getting some new bed sheets and a new trash can for the kitchen. After our shopping we headed back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the day and evening.

Tuesday, December 22^nd, we had another stay at home day. Peggy came into the park about 2:00 and got parked. This was the first time we have seen her since we were in Redding in August. She got parked and I helped her with the utilities hook up. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing while Peggy got organized for her two month stay. For the first time in a while we had cocktails on the patio, then Jackie did the traditional chili relleno “welcome Peggy” dinner. After dinner Peggy went home and we spent the rest of the evening with the TV. Wednesday we went out about 11:30 with Peggy to the taco stand for lunch. We usually end up here once every week or two. After lunch we went back to the park and I went to the clubhouse for the weekly jam session. After the jam session Jackie and I went to Walmart for a couple of things, then went back to the coach. Peggy and Jackie played some cards and I was in the den. We had leftovers for dinner and after Peggy left we watched TV until bedtime.

It has now been about three weeks since we published, so I will close out this chapter. Until next time, consider that when I publish this the new year, 2021, is only a week away and we can then look back on 2020. It was an interesting year. It was a unique Leap Year. It had 29 days in February, 300 days in March, and five years in April. See ya soon so we can all hope 2021 brings improvements.