A Couple Weeks in the Valley of the Sun

Hello again, welcome back to our story. Our last chapter ended on Friday, April 15th, when we left Casa Grande, Arizona, after a two week stay and headed a little bit north to Apache Junction, Arizona. We will be in Apache Junction for a week and then move to the other side of the Phoenix metro area to Goodyear, Arizona, for another week. After we arrived in Apache Junction, at the Sunrise RV Resort, we got settled in and relaxed for the rest of the day. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon, who are parked right behind us, at 5:00, and then Peggy served a great dinner of penne pasta. This is one of my favorite Peggy Bullock dishes. We talked until about 8:00 and then went to our coach for the rest of the evening.

Saturday, April 16th, we left the park about 10:00 with the Bullock's and did some geocaching. We were able to get ten new finds, along with four DNFs, in a few hours. That is the most DNFs we have had in one session in quite a while. We stopped for lunch at a little Greek cafe, just a block from the RV park, for lunch. It was called Chicago's #1 Gyro. The food was quite good, but the place had one cook, the owner, who was a grumpy old fart who was rude to both his employees and his customers. If I lived in the area I would not go back just for that reason.

After lunch we got two more geocaches, for a total of 12 new finds for the day. We did a little bit of exploring Apache Junction before heading back to the RV park. We relaxed the rest of the afternoon, then had cocktails with the Bullock's at happy hour. Dinner was the leftovers from last night, and they were just as good now as they were then. By 8:00 we were back at our place and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday we had a nice relaxing morning with the newspaper and Sunday TV shows. We left the RV park about 1:00 with Peggy and Vernon and went to lunch in Mesa at one of my favorite, old Phoenix based Mexican chain restaurants, Garcia's. Garcia's got it's start in Phoenix back in the 50's, just like Macayo's did. Macayo's chose to go with more modern, updated and fancy selections, while Garcia's has stuck to the old, traditional Sonoran cooking style. We had a great lunch with great food. The service was a little slow, but the place was packed on an early Sunday afternoon.

After lunch we went out and did some exploring around the west Mesa and Tempe areas, looking at places from my earliest days in the Phoenix area. When my folks moved the family from Wisconsin to Arizona in 1960 our first stop was Tucson, but after a couple of months my dad couldn't find work, so we moved up to Tempe, Arizona. We rented a house there, actually moving once but on the same property, just to a different house. I did my freshman and sophomore years of high school at Tempe High. We found the vacant lot where the old houses we had lived in used to be. It appears to have been recently cleared, but no trace of the houses remained. We drove by the high school and also through the Arizona State University campus, another of my Alma Mater's. Along the way we picked up two new geocaches, and then headed back to the RV park. We had happy hour at 6:00, but no dinner together as we were all still full from the late lunch. By 7:30 we were in our coach watching TV for the rest of the evening.

Monday, April 18th, official tax day for 2016! We had our taxes in early and already spent our refund on tires. We went out after lunch to do some shopping. We hit the mall a few miles away in Mesa so Jackie could find some stuff she needed. We then did a Walmart run before heading back to the RV park. We did happy hour with the Bullock's and then had some baby back ribs for dinner that Vernon did on their BBQ. Jackie made some beans and Peggy some Macaroni salad, and we had a great dinner. By 7:30 or so we were back in our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday we went out after lunch with Peggy and Vernon to do some exploring. We visited the Superstition Mountain Museum here in Apache Junction. They had a lot of nice exhibits, a lot of which dealt with the legend of the Lost Dutchman's Gold. The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine is, according to legend, a rich gold mine generally believed to be hidden in the Superstition Mountains. There have been many stories about how to find the mine, and each year people search for the mine. Some have died on the search. The mine is named after German immigrant Jacob Waltz, who purportedly discovered it in the 19th century and kept its location a secret. The Lost Dutchman's is perhaps the most famous lost mine in American history. Arizona place-name expert Byrd Granger wrote that the Lost Dutchman's story had been printed or cited at least six times more often than two other fairly well-known tales, the story of Captain Kidd's lost treasure, and the story of the Lost Pegleg mine in California. People have been seeking the Lost Dutchman's mine since at least 1892, while according to one estimate, 8,000 people annually made some effort to locate the Lost Dutchman's mine. Former Arizona Attorney General Bob Corbin is among those who have looked for the mine. Some argue that there is little or no evidence for the mine's existence, but others say that the main components of the story have at least some basis in fact.

I grew up hearing about the Lost Dutchman's Mine. My mom and stepfather moved the family out to Arizona from Wisconsin in 1960, but we were preceded by my stepfather's dad, Elmer Disch, and his wife. They moved out here from Wisconsin a year earlier and bought a piece of land at the foot of the Superstition Mountains. They built one of the first houses in the area, which is now covered with scores of very nice custom homes. My grandad raised horses and I spent many hours riding around in the foothills of the Superstitions. After the museum visit we rode around the area and I showed everyone the lot on which my grandparent's place once stood. The “old” house has been torn down and there is a new, big two story place there now. After driving around the foothills for a bit, and getting three geocaches in the process, we ran a couple quick errands and then went back to the coach.

We relaxed for a while and then I spent some time cooking dinner for the four of us. I made stuffed green peppers, which is one of my specialties, and Jackie made a salad. We had a great dinner, eating outside in the very nice weather. After dinner we went back into our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, April 20^th, we went out about 11:00 with Peggy and Vernon in tow and headed for lunch at a Thai restaurant, Thai House, near the Superstition Springs Mall in Gilbert. The food was OK, with some of it really good, some not so much. I had the orange chicken and it was very tasty, but the egg drop soup had zero flavor. The egg rolls were just OK, a little on the small side. Jackie had pad Thai and said it was pretty good too. If we lived in the area I might go back, but then again there are so many choices in this huge metropolitan area I might not waste another trip on a place that was just so-so.

After lunch we went to the mall where Peggy went into Macy's for something she needed, and Jackie went to Bath and Body Works for some things. We were in the mall for a half hour or so before leaving and heading over to the Winco for some groceries. After that we headed back to the RV park for the rest of the afternoon. We had cocktails at Peggy and Vernon's and then Peggy served a great jambalaya for dinner. We ate and talked until almost 8:30 when we went back to our place for the rest of the evening.

Thursday was forecast to be a very hot day, upper 90's, so we decided to take in a movie. We left the coach about 1:00 with Peggy and Vernon, and headed back to the mall to see the movie, The Boss. This film stars Melissa McCarthy, one of our favorite comedy actresses, and is about an orphan girl with an attitude that grows up to be a huge business success. She is a total jerk to everyone around her, so no surprise when she goes to prison for five months for insider trading and everyone ignores her when she gets out. All her assets have been seized and she ends up teaming up with her former assistant and forms a new company selling brownies in competition with a group similar to the Girl Scouts. It was not the best McCarthy movie by a long shot, but we still enjoyed it and laughed a lot.

After the movie we went back to the RV park and relaxed until happy hour. We had cocktails with the Bullock's at our place and then Jackie served some chili relleno casserole for dinner. This is our last day with the Bullock's after nearly four months of traveling together. We miss being with them, but will see them again in July. After Peggy and Vernon left we watched some TV and went to bed.

Friday, April 22^nd, another moving day. We were up and out of the RV park about 10:30, heading to Goodyear, Arizona. The trip was about 58 miles, but it was freeway all the way, right through the middle of Phoenix. We are basically going from the far east side of the Phoenix metro area to the far west side. Traffic wasn't too bad and I only had one dicey experience with a car that decided to cut across in front of me to catch an exit. We arrived at the Cotton Lane RV park a little after noon and quickly got checked into the mostly empty park. It was really hot today, a hundred degrees at one point on our thermometer, so we did the minimal setup for our one week stay. We spent the rest of the day in the coach. Our first time in four months that we weren't parked with friends, so it was kind of quiet.

Saturday, we went out about 11:00 or so to get lunch and do some geocaching. We first stopped at my brother Ken's new house here in Goodyear because they had told us they were doing a garage sale. Ken was working but Susan and her mother Helena, who now lives with them, were working the garage sale. We chatted for a few minutes but didn't stay long because we were coming back for dinner later in the day. We stopped at one restaurant in Goodyear, but there was a long wait, so we went down into Avondale to a place we have been before, Raul and Teresa’s Mexican. This is an old place, nearly 50 years in Avondale, and we have always been happy with the food. We both had machaca and eggs, the breakfast plate, and enjoyed it a lot. After a nice lunch we did some geocaching and were able to get ten new finds, with no DNFs, in a couple of hours. About 3:00 we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while.

About 5:00 we left again and went back over to Ken and Susan's for dinner. This was the first time we have been in their new house. When we were here last April we went through the model of the home they are in, and watched as they poured the slab for their place. They moved into the house in late summer. Susan's mom sold her house and Ken and Susan sold their place and they moved into this very nice multi-generational house together. Helena has a suite downstairs, with her own entrance, garage access, bathroom, and mini-kitchen. The rest of the downstairs is a kitchen-family room open area that is their common area. Ken and Susan have a three bedroom suite upstairs with their own living room and full bath, as well as laundry facilities. The only thing they don't have upstairs is a kitchen. It seems to be working out very well for all parties. Susan made pork chops and mashed potatoes for dinner and Helena joined the four of us. We had a great meal, a tour of the house, and a very pleasant couple of hours visiting with family. We also picked up one more geocache, one that Ken and Susan had hidden in their front yard. About 7:30 we left and headed back to the RV park where we enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Sunday, April 24^th, was a relaxing day. We had our morning paper and coffee and stayed in for the whole day. Monday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching and got five new finds in a fairly short period of time. One of the caches was just outside the fence of the Phoenix-Goodyear Airport, which used to be the Goodyear Naval Air Station when I was a kid.  There are dozens of commercial aircraft stored out there now, awaiting renovation or scrapping.  We then went to Walmart for some supplies and Jackie got a pedi. After that we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day.

Tuesday, April 26^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove north to Prescott Valley, Arizona to meet the Bullock's for lunch. When we left Casa Grande last Friday the Bullock's went to Cottonwood for a week. We decided to meet for lunch somewhere in the middle, and Prescott Valley was about the closest we could get. It was about a hundred miles for us and fifty for them. However, it was a nice day and a nice, pretty drive up, so we enjoyed it. We met them at the Canton Dragon, a Chinese place we have eaten at before. We had a great lunch and then after lunch did four geocaches in the area. We then said goodbye again and we drove back down to Goodyear, arriving just in time for happy hour.

About 6:30 I left the coach and drove into Goodyear to attend a meeting of the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge, Lodge 5, which was the lodge I belonged to when I was with the Sheriff's Office here in Phoenix. I have not been to a lodge meeting in over 25 years, but I am a life time member by virtue of my retirement from the Sheriff's Office. I hoped to see a few people I knew and wasn't disappointed. There were about a half dozen people there with whom I had worked with, or around, during my tenure as a deputy. There were none that I was really close friends with, but all were acquaintances at one level or another. I had a good time catching up, as best you can cover 25 years in ten minutes, with some of these old acquaintances and I was glad I went. After the meeting I went back to the coach and we watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, April 27^th, I went out about 9:30 and took the Jeep to the local dealer for a routine service. I was finally done around noon and I went back to the coach, picked up Jackie, and we went out and did our laundry in Avondale. Once the laundry was done we did a few caches, getting five new finds, before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening. Thursday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We were able to get eleven new finds, along with three DNFs, in a few hours. After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Friday, April 29^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and went out for some more geocaching. In a few hours we had racked up fifteen new finds, and two DNFs. The last find of the day was number 8,000 for us, another major milestone. Yea us! It is fairly normal in the course of caching to sustain what we call “caching wounds,” minor scrapes and scratches from bushes, trees and the occasional sharp edge. However today I got some really big wounds on my leg. One of the caches was at a location that had been a Prisoner of War camp back in WW-II. It

held German and Italian POWs who were then put to work in the fields around the western part of the county. At that time this location was twenty miles outside of Phoenix. The only thing left on the site is a crumbling block building that used to be a bath house for the camp. I was checking around on the rubble and a piece of concrete I was holding on to for balance broke and I stumbled a bit, dragging my lower legs across some blocks and concrete. The worst was my right lower leg which go some ugly looking road rash on the front. I did find the cache though. Yea! I cleaned it up as best I could with some water and a towel and while it bled for a few minutes it pretty quickly scabbed over and quit bleeding. We continued caching and when we hit our milestone we quit and headed into Goodyear for a late lunch.

We went to a new seafood place called the Angry Crab Shack in Goodyear. This is a fairly new Arizona chain of Cajun seafood shops and the store in Goodyear has only been open a couple months. It is reminiscent of a Joe's Crab Shack in appearance and menu. Very informal setting, in fact the walls are covered with customer graffiti. The menu is primarily southern style bag-boiled seafood or fried seafood baskets. I splurged and had the king crab boil, a pound of crab boiled in a big plastic bag with spices. Jackie had grilled salmon, one of the two grilled items on the menu. We also had some calamari and onion rings. Everything was very good and tasty, but, as you might expect, very messy too. I felt like I needed a shower after I was done eating. I enjoyed the food and the ambiance and the service was excellent too. Of course, I also had to buy the tee shirt.

After lunch we went to Walmart for some supplies and then headed back to the coach. I took a quick shower so I could wash my caching wounds with soap and water and then put some antibiotic cream on them. They look nasty, but don't hurt too much, just sort of a burn. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing around the coach.

Saturday, April 30^th, we had a stay at home day. We hung around the coach, did some cleaning and got a few things done. About 5:00 my brother Ken and his wife Susan, along with Susan's mom Helena, came over for dinner. We sat and talked for a while and then Jackie served a nice dinner of pork country ribs that had been cooking in the crock pot all day. We had a great time and after dinner sat around and talked some more. They left about 9:00 and we watched a little TV before bedtime.

Sunday, May 1^st, Mayday! Today was another travel day. We were packed up and ready to go about 11:00. Just before we left Ken and Susan came by to say goodbye, as we are leaving the area and will probably not see them again this year. We got on the I-10 and headed west to Ehrenberg and the Arizona Oasis RV Resort. This is a place that used to be one of our Western Horizon's resorts, but has now been sold to a private party. We still get good discount rates though. We are only going to be here for two days before moving on to Indio for a while.

After we got parked and the utilities hooked up we drove across the river to Blythe and one of our favorite Mexican restaurant's, Garcia's, for lunch. We had a great lunch, ate way too much but it was good. After lunch we went back to the coach and finished getting set up. We then just relaxed in the coach the rest of the day and evening.

Monday was a stay at home and relax day. It was pretty hot outside and there were no caches in the area that we have not already found. We are only staying here today because we wanted to give the RV park in Indio some time to recover from three weeks of chaos. Over the last three weekends there have been massive music festivals in Indio, the first two being Coachella, a Rock and Alternative festival that has become “the” place for the rich and famous to go, and this last weekend being Stagecoach, a Country music festival. During these festival weeks all of the hotels, motels and RV parks in the Coachella Valley swell to overflowing. The last festival day was Sunday, so figured by the end of Monday they should be cleared out.

Tuesday, May 3^rd, we packed up and left Ehrenberg about 11:00 and continued west on I-10 towards Indio, California. We arrived at the Indian Waters RV resort about 12:45 and quickly got settled into our site. As we hoped, the park was nearly empty. There were still a number of rental RVs parked on sites around the park, but very few people and occupied rigs. Since it was really hot, in the high 90's, we got set up and then just stayed in and stayed cool for the rest of the day.

It has now been a bit over two weeks since we last published, and we have now concluded our nearly four month tour of Arizona, it is a good time to close this chapter and get it published. We will be about two weeks here in Indio and then on to Silent Valley, our resort in the mountains south of Banning, California. Until the next time, remember that no matter how smart you are, you can never convince someone stupid that they are stupid. Have fun, see ya soon.

Two Great Weeks in Casa Grande

Hi, glad to see you back. Our last chapter concluded on Friday, April 1^st, as we arrived in Casa Grande, Arizona after finishing our two month stay in Yuma, Arizona with friends. Two of the couples we were with headed off in their own directions. The Babcock's heading for home in Murrieta, California after a few days stopover in Indio, and the Wilson's heading for Cottonwood, Arizona and then points east and south. The Bullock's are sticking with us for another three weeks and came up here to Casa Grande with us.

Saturday, April 2^nd, we left the RV park with Peggy and Vernon in our car and went to do some geocaching. We had a good few hours, getting eleven new finds, and one DNF, in the course of a couple hours. We then stopped at a small Chinese restaurant called Big Wa, which is a favorite of ours when here in Casa Grande. We had a great lunch and then went out and ran a few errands before heading back to the RV park. We hung around the coach for the remainder of the afternoon and had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon at 5:00. Tonight we did some hamburgers on the grill and had some of Peggy's macaroni salad to go with them. We ate and talked until about 8:00, when the Bullock's went home and we watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday we stayed at home for most of the day. We did the Sunday papers, both the Phoenix paper and the Casa Grande paper. I did a few chores around the house and then we just relaxed for a while. About 5:30 we drove over to the old Western Horizon's park, where we used to stay when we came to Casa Grande, to see my brother Ken and his wife Susan. They came down today with their camp trailer for a week's vacation. We sat and had our cocktails with them and talked until about 7:30 when we left and went back to our place. We watched TV until bedtime.

Monday, April 4^th, we left the coach about 10:00 and drove over to the RV park where my brother and his wife are staying. We then loaded up in our car and went out to do some geocaching. We got them involved in geocaching not too long after we started in 2008 and they have become big fans. We were able to get 14 new finds, at least for us, and two DNFs in a few hours. Some of the caches we found they had already gotten on previous trips, but they were new to us. After caching we went back to the Big Wa restaurant for lunch. Ken and Susan had seen the post of us eating there on Saturday and thought they would like to try the place too. We had another great lunch. We did another hour or so of caching and then dropped Ken and Susan off at their RV and we went home and relaxed for a while. About 5:00 they came over to our place and we sat outside and talked until about 7:30 when they headed back to their place. We went inside and relaxed the rest of the night.

Tuesday we left the coach after lunch and went over to the mall on the other side of town to go to a movie. We saw “Hello, My Name is Doris,” staring Sally Fields. It was a sort of romantic comedy, but with a little bit of a twist. Fields played an older lady named Doris who had lived with her mother her entire life. Her mother, who was a hoarder, died and left Doris a bit unhinged. She fantasized herself into a “relationship” with a much younger co-worker, and, as they say, hilarity ensued. I thought it was a funny, touching movie and I enjoyed it very much. After the movie we did a couple of caches and stopped at a couple of stores to do some shopping. We then headed back to the coach and spent the rest of the evening in. A nice, pleasant day with just to two of us.

Wednesday, April 6^th, we went out after lunch and did some shopping. We stopped at Kohl's to take a couple of shirts Jackie didn't like after she got them home. We then went to Sam's Club for a few supplies. We then headed home, put away our stuff and relaxed for a while. We left the coach about 5:00 and drove into town to meet Ken and Susan for dinner at the Macayo's Mexican place. Macayo's is an old name in Arizona. The original restaurant was in west Phoenix, only a few blocks from where I went to high school in the early 60's. I have eaten at their restaurants many, many times over the years. However, they have gotten too fancy with their cooking lately and I was not very satisfied with the food. It was OK, but not the old style Mexican cooking I remember. I probably won't go back to Macayo's anytime soon. After dinner we went home and watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, April 7^th, we left the coach about 10:00 and drove over to pick up Ken and Susan for another day of geocaching. Today we went to the town of Maricopa, about 20 miles northwest of Casa Grande. Maricopa used to be just a small farming community on the edge of the Ak Chin Indian Reservation. Maricopa was just a small farming community and former railroad stop on the line between Phoenix and Tucson, until the Harrah's gaming corporation partnered with the Ak Chin tribe in 1994 to open a casino. This was the first and only Indian casino in Arizona with an outside, corporate sponsor. The relationship has worked out as the casino remains a very successful hotel and casino operation and still is operated by Harrah's. In 2000 Maricopa had just over a thousand residents. The city incorporated in 2003 and has bloomed to a population of nearly 50,000 as it has become a bedroom community for the Phoenix metro area.

We decided to go caching in Maricopa because both we and Ken and Susan have cached a lot in Casa Grande and between us have exhausted most of the caches in and around the city. It was becoming very difficult for us to come up with caches to look for that one or both of our teams had not already gotten. We cached once in Maricopa about four years ago and Ken and Susan have never cached there. Since there are close to 500 caches in a ten mile radius of town it was an ideal “virgin” territory in which to cache. We geocached for about three hours, then stopped for a quick lunch, then cached for another hour or so. By the time we were done we had 30 new finds, with one DNF, a pretty good day of caching.

After caching we drove back down to Casa Grande and dropped Ken and Susan off at their RV park. We then went back to our park and relaxed for a bit. When we arrived we saw that Peggy and Vernon Bullock had returned from their trip to Tucson and were now parked in the spot right next door. I spent some time in the hot tub and did some office work before we met with Peggy and Vernon for happy hour. We weren't outside very long before a dust storm loomed up and we headed inside. Peggy made dinner, a sort of tamale pie casserole, that was very tasty. By 8:30 we were back in our coach watching TV.

Friday, April 8^th, we had a stay at home day for the most part. We had some rain come through last night and everything got pretty wet. The weather for the next few days is supposed to be some what unsettled. About 5:00 Ken and Susan came over and we sat for happy hour with Peggy and Vernon, inside of our coach because it was quite cool and windy outside. Later we had a nice BBQ, steaks and pork chops, and ate a nice dinner with the six of us. Ken and Susan know Peggy and Vernon from a number of other visits with us. Everyone left and headed home about 7:30 and we watched TV until bedtime. Ken and Susan are heading back home tomorrow, but we will be in their town, Goodyear, in a couple of weeks, so we will see them again soon.

Saturday we left about 10:30 and started towards Tucson, about 60 miles southeast of Casa Grande. We are headed down there to visit with my oldest granddaughter Crystal and her baby, Zoey. They are li

ving in Tucson with Crystal's dad and her boyfriend. We saw Zoey last year about this time when she was six months old. Now she is 18 months, walking and being very animated. She was a little shy at first, but she warmed up after a little while. She was still more comfortable with Jackie than me, but I am the big scary man and Jackie looks like a mommy. We visited with Crystal and Zoey, as well as James, Crystal's dad.

After our visit we headed back home, getting in just after 5:00. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon and then a nice spaghetti dinner that Peggy made for us. We had a great visit in Tucson and really enjoyed our day. After dinner we went home and relaxed with the TV before heading off to bed.

Sunday, April 10th, we relaxed in the morning with the Sunday papers. It was another unsettled day with a lot of wind and on and off rain. We ran a couple of errands in the afternoon, but mostly just stayed at home and did a few small chores and relaxed. We had cocktails and dinner with the Bullock's again. Tonight Jackie did some simple taco salads for everyone and we had a great dinner. Afterward we watched TV and then went to bed. Monday we left the coach after lunch and went out to do our laundry. It has been almost three weeks, so it was time. After that we stopped at Walmart and then headed home. We had cocktails with the Bullocks and then dinner in the coach on our own. We watched a little TV and then went to bed.

Tuesday, April 12th, we left the coach about 10:00 with Peggy and Vernon and drove back up to Maricopa to do some geocaching with them. When we got into Maricopa we stopped at a little place called Sunrise Cafe and had breakfast. After that we cached and were able to get a dozen new finds, along with a DNF, in a few hours. We then headed back to the coach and relaxed for a while. Peggy and Vernon came over for cocktails and then we had dinner at our place. Jackie fixed a big pot of her risotto, with shrimp, mushrooms and asparagus. It was wonderful and we had a great meal. We talked for a while and the Bullock's went home around 7:30. We watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, we again left the coach about 10:00 to do some local geocaching with Peggy and Vernon. We were able to get five new finds in a couple of hours, one of which was a cache we had DNFed last week when we

were caching with Ken and Susan. We then took a lunch break and returned to the Big Wa Chinese place. We had another great, inexpensive lunch. We then went to the mall where Peggy and Jackie got haircuts while Vernon and I waited in the shade. We stopped on the way back home to get some groceries, and also got two more geocaches, bringing our total for the day to seven. We had cocktails with the Bullock's and then the four of us did some hamburgers on the BBQ for dinner. They stayed until about 8:00, after which we relaxed for the rest of the night.

Thursday, April 14th, our last full day in Casa Grande. It was very hot and humid today, so we had a lazy, stay at home day. Didn't go anywhere, and didn't do much around the coach. We had cocktails with the Bullock's at 5:00 and then did some pork chops on the BBQ. Peggy and Vernon had a steak and we had dinner in their coach. About 8:00 we were home and watched TV until bedtime.

Friday, April 15th, Happy Birthday to our old cat Smokey, 16 years old today. He is hanging in there despite being mostly blind and deaf. Today was a travel day. We were packed up and out of the Casa Grande park about 10:00, headed north towards Apache Junction, Arizona. The trip was only a little over 50 miles, but a good part of it was through the metro area east of Phoenix, consisting of Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert. We arrived at the Sunrise RV Resort about 11:30 and by 12:30 we were parked and mostly set up for our one week stay. We are staying here for seven days at no cost thanks to a coupon we picked up at the rally in Indio in January. The Bullock's are parked right behind us and will be here with us for the week. After that we go our separate ways until July when we show up at their home in northern California.

It has been two weeks now since our last posting, so a good time to put this episode to bed. Until next time, remember that life may not be the we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance. Have fun and see ya soon.

A Yuma Winter - Part 3

Hello, welcome back to our story. Our last episode concluded on Saturday, March 12^th with us having been in Yuma, Arizona for about six weeks, with a little under three weeks to go. 

Sunday, March 13^th, is my son Roy Jr's birthday. Happy Birthday son. Sunday was pretty much a stay at home day. We read the paper in the morning and did few chores in the after-

noon. We had an early cocktail hour today, starting at 4:00, because we were having a group dinner. Half of our group are early eaters, the other half late eaters. We accommodated the early eaters tonight. Around 5:00 Ray brought over all the fixings for his “famous” taco salad, a meal that all of us have had on numerous other occasions when we are traveling together. The meal was great and accompanied by bottomless margaritas. We had all kinds of tequila in the coach and needed to get rid of some, so we provided the drink for tonight. Around 7:30 everyone went back to their own places for the rest of the evening.

Monday, March 14^th, official “Pi” day. We were up, showered and out of the house by 6:15, yes a.m., and headed to the Yuma Regional Medical Center for Jackie's outpatient surgery to remove the benign lump that was found in her left breast back in January. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 and by 9:30 we were in the car and headed back home. They overdid Jackie's anesthesia, despite the fact that she tells them to be careful because she is very sensitive to it. As a result, she was on the couch in and out of sleep all day. She napped and recovered and I did a few chores and played on the computer all day.

At 5:00 we had happy hour, although Jackie didn't join the group. Everyone then brought out the leftovers from Thursday's lamb feast and yesterday's taco salad feast and we all had leftovers for dinner. Everything was just as good as the original and everyone was happy. I did take Jackie a meal of lamb and salad and she ate that before going back to napping. We watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, March 15^th, we had a stay at home day so Jackie could continue to recover from her surgery. She was still quite groggy in the morning, but as the day went on she gained some strength. She said her incision is sore and sensitive, but does not hurt in a constant, throbbing sort of way. She got to take a shower this morning and take off the big dressing. All she has now is a few steristrips on the incision.

We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon at 5:00. The Wilson's and Babcock's went to an early dinner at Olive Garden. They joined us for a short while just before 6:00. After cocktails we went to the Bullock's for dinner. Peggy made some chicken Parmesan that was very good. We talked and visited until about 8:30 when we went back to our place, watched some TV and went to bed.

Wednesday Jackie was feeling better, a little sore but not hurting too badly. We went out after lunch to a couple of stores. It was too hot for caching in the afternoon, so we just went shopping. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then afterward the Bullock's came over to our place for dinner. Jackie made a new dish she got out of a food magazine, rigatoni with chicken and peppers. It was OK, but if she makes it again it needs some spices or other ingredients to kick it up a bit, it was a little bland. After dinner Peggy and Vernon went home and we watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, March 17^th, Happy St. Patrick's Day! We had a stay at home day. Got a few things done, but mostly just relaxed and took it easy. I had a big corn beef cooking in the crock pot all day and later in the afternoon I did up the p

otatoes, carrots and cabbage. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and about 6:00 we brought out the corn beef and cabbage for a great St. Patty's day celebration. Ray cooked pretty much the same thing I did, so we had plenty of food for the group. We had a great time and by 7:30 we had cleaned up and were in the house watching TV.

Friday, we were up early, showered, coffee drank, paper read, and out the door by about 8:45. We decided that the only way we were going to get any caching done was to start early. The high's for the area are now in the high 80's and low 90's, so it is just too hot for our normal afternoon routine. We went out caching with the Bullock's in our car and the Wilson's following along behind us. Ray went to Mexico for some treatments, so the Babcock's were not able to go caching. We had a good morning, getting a dozen new finds, and no DNFs, by about 11:30. The six of us then went to a place in the Foothills area called Mr. Fish. They have great fish and chips, so we all had a big lunch. Fish, chips, cole slaw and a bowl of clam chowder. We were very satisfied. After lunch we all headed back home and stayed in the rest of the afternoon. We had cocktails at 5:00 and were supposed to have cabbage soup and corn beef rubens for dinner, but no one was hungry after the big lunch. We all took our share of the leftovers for our own refrigerators for use as lunch one day. After cocktails we went in the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday we repeated the pattern from yesterday, getting ready and out of the coach by about 9:00. Ray and Gary had gone to an early breakfast and Peggy and Vernon were not ready to go out, so we were on our own for the day. We went out and did some more caching in the Foothills, getting another ten new finds, before we decided to stop for lunch. We went to our favorite street taco stand in the Foothills and had a fun lunch. After lunch we went over to the Arizona Marketplace for one last stroll through the shops. The Marketplace is only open on the weekends and next weekend, our last here in Yuma this Spring, is Easter weekend. We bought a few things, a hat and a couple shirts, that were on sale. A lot of the vendors had tables of clearance merchandise set up trying to get rid of stuff before the end of season.

After shopping we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the hot afternoon in the coach relaxing. We had cocktails with the group, including Peggy's grandson Troy and his wife Makayla, who joined us for happy hour and dinner. About 6:30 or so we BBQed some hamburgers along with some beans Ray made, some cole slaw from Peggy and a macaroni salad from Jackie. We had a great meal and stayed out until almost 9:00, enjoying the great weather and good friends. We then spent some time with the TV before heading off to bed.

Sunday, March 20^th, Welcome Spring 2016! We had a stay at home day, coffee, the morning paper and Sunday shows and the NASCAR race for me in the afternoon. It was just us and the Bullock's for cocktails as the Wilson's and Babcock's went out for an early dinner. After cocktails Peggy made Reuben sandwiches with the leftover corn beef from St. Patrick's Day and we had the rest of the leftovers from last nights BBQ. After a great meal we headed back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Monday, March 21^st, we left the coach a little before noon and went to our favorite Mexican place, Mi Rancho, for lunch. Ray and Suzie met us there and we had a great lunch. After lunch we went to the surgeon's office for a follow up on Jackie's surgery. The doctor checked the incision and found that there was quite a bit of pus in the pocket left by taking out the lump. He cleaned that out and said other than that the incision looked to be healing nicely. He said to use some antibiotic cream and some gauze bandages for a while until it fully closed. After the doctor's appointment we headed back to the coach. We had cocktails with the group, but no shared dinner tonight. After cocktails we went in the coach and watched some TV until bedtime.

Tuesday morning we were up early and went out to do some geocaching with Ray and Suzie. Ray drove and we were able to get fifteen new finds, and one DNF, in a couple of hours. After caching we stopped for lunch at the Day Breakers cafe, near the RV park we had stayed in the last couple of years. We then went to Walmart for a few things and headed back to the coach. We spent the afternoon getting a few chores done around the house.

We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and about 6:30 we had dinner. We had bought a bunch of beef and chicken carne when we were in Indio over the holidays, with the intention of doing a carne night with the group in Yuma. Tonight was the night. Carne is Spanish for meat, but it is also used as a term for BBQ and that's how we meant it tonight. I cooked the chicken and beef on the BBQ and we had rice from Peggy, Beans from Ray, and tortillas from Gary. It was cool and pretty windy tonight, so we ate inside our coach. I cooked everything on the BBQ outside, but then brought it inside. We had a great group dinner as we can get eight in our coach without too much problem. You don't move around a lot, but we get it done. By 8:00 or so everyone left to go home and we watched TV after cleaning up. Another great day with friends.

Wednesday, March 23^rd, we were up and out early again, about 9:00, had headed down to Mexico with the group. We decided to all go down one last time before our time here is over. We walked around and shopped for a while and then all met up about 11:30 or so at one of the restaurant's down there for lunch. We had a great lunch and then got into a very short line to go back to the U.S. We were back home by 1:00 and relaxed at home the rest of the afternoon. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and talked until about 6:30. No one was hungry for a full dinner, so everyone went back to their own coaches for the rest of the night.

Thursday we left the coach after lunch and went out to do our laundry. After the laundry was done we made a quick stop at Walmart and then headed home. We did some chores around the coach in the afternoon and at 5:00 it was happy hour with the group. The Wilson’s and Babcock's left right after happy hour to go out and have dinner. We went into our coach with the Bullock's and had leftovers from the carne BBQ the other night. We had a nice dinner and Peggy and Vernon went back to their place about 7:30 or so and we watched TV the rest of the night.

Friday, March 25^th, Good Friday for Christians. We went out to lunch with the group. We were going to go to the taco truck, but it was closed. I would guess that the Mexican family that runs it probably took Easter weekend off. We ended up at the Copper Miner, another cafe we have been to several times during our stay this year. We all had a great meal and a good time. After lunch went back to the coach and did some spring cleaning. We cleaned up some of our storage areas in the bedroom.

About 5:00 we had cocktails with the group and about 6:30 we had a dinner with the group of shrimp and grits, Southern style. The Wilson's and the Bullock's were on an RV caravan a couple years ago that started in Maine and ended in Florida. At one point as they were passing through the Carolina's or Georgia, they ate this dish at a restaurant. They got the recipe and were recreating it tonight. Gary cooked up the vegies and shrimp with sauce, while Peggy made the buttery, cheesy grits. The meal turned out great. Jackie made some bread and Suzie brought a salad, for an entire meal. The weather was perfect again for eating outside. Another great meal with our friends. After dinner we went to our own coaches for the rest of the night.

Saturday, March 26^th, we left the coach about 10:00 and drove downtown for the Third Annual Music on Main festival. Main street in old town Yuma was closed off for a street fair and several stages were set up for musical acts. We got there fairly early and there were not a lot of people in attendance. They did have a couple of jazz bands performing, but we walked the vendor booths as we listened. There were not very many booths set up, I think it is a little late in the season and too hot for a lot of people. After going through the booths we visited a number of the stores on main street. A little before noon we stopped for lunch at Da Boyz pizza place on main. I had a sub sandwich that was outstanding, Jackie had a calzone, which she said was good as well.

After lunch we headed back to the RV park for the rest of the afternoon. Jackie made another big batch of mincemeat cookies for the Easter dinner tomorrow.  We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and talked until about 6:30. After that everyone headed back to their own coaches for the rest of the evening. We watched TV until it started acting up again. A couple days ago we noticed that the TV would start to randomly turn off, then turn on for a second or two, then turn off again. This cycle seemed to go on forever. I disconnected everything from the TV and then we went out, leaving the TV unplugged for a few hours. When I reconnected the power and the Satellite box it seemed to be working fine, until tonight. Before we went to bed I unplugged everything again. We'll see in the morning. We did buy the extended warranty when we bought the TV at Costco about two and a half years ago. On Monday, if it is still not working right, we will see how good it is.

Sunday, March 27^th, Happy Easter. We had a stay at home day. The paper was pretty small today as there were no ads because most people don't shop on Easter. Jackie made another batch of mincemeat cookies in the afternoon. We had cocktails at 5:00 and then a little after six we had a nice Easter dinner for the entire group, including Troy and Makayla, who came over for dinner. Peggy made a big ham, Ray did scalloped potatoes, Gary did candied yams, Suzie did a salad and Jackie did a green bean casserole. We also opened the bottle of champagne that we got when we won the booze cart at the car show a couple weeks back. We had a nice toast to friends and our good times in Yuma. After dinner we chatted until almost 8:00 and then went in the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Monday, we went out around noon and had lunch at Famous Dave's BBQ at the mall. We then shopped for a new TV for the front of the coach. The old one was still acting up last night and the warranty company had some hoops we had to jump through before they would do anything, so we decided to just go ahead and get a new TV since they were not that expensive. We shopped both Best Buy and Sam's Club and settled on a new 32 inch Vizio form Best Buy. It is almost exactly the same size as the one we are replacing, so it shouldn't be a big problem. After we got home I spent a couple of hours getting the new TV installed. Putting it in and getting it hooked up wasn't too big a challenge, but getting it to work properly with the surround sound system took a while. I finally got it done by happy hour. We had happy hour with the group and then went into Peggy and Vernon's coach for a dinner of leftovers from Sunday. We were back in our place by 8:00 and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, March 29^th, Jackie went with Peggy to get pedicures in the morning and I spent the time getting all of the lights and decorations taken down and put away. When the girl's were done with pedi's they called and Vernon and I drove over to meet them at the taco truck for lunch. We had a good lunch and then went home so I could finish up my cleaning up project, as well as do the finishing touches on the TV install. I was done by late afternoon and we relaxed the rest of the day. We had happy hour with the group, but didn't stay outside too long as it had turned cool and breezy today and when the sun went down it got too chilly. We went in and spent the night watching TV.

Wednesday morning we were up early and out of the house before 9:00 to meet some friends of ours who happened to be in town. Yesterday Jackie heard from Bob and Diana Beatty and learned that they had arrived in Yuma for a Fleetwood Coach rally at Fortuna Del Sol, one of the RV resorts in the Foothills area. Bob and Diana are full timers and members of the Full Timers Chapter. It has been over a year since we saw them. We had breakfast at the Copper Miner and had a great time talking and catching up on their travels. They are going to Alaska this year, so we spent quite a bit of time talking about RVing up there. They had to leave a little after 10:00 to go back to their rally activities, but we had a great breakfast with them. 

After breakfast we drove over to the Yuma County Fair, which just started yesterday.  We enjoy going to fairs, mostly just to get to see all the animals.  We spent a couple of hours walking around the fair, looking at the exhibits, the vendors, and the animals.  We like the rabbits and guinea pigs, and also the lambs and goats.  It was not a really big fair, but it was fun for a few hours.  We had happy hour with Peggy and Vernon because the Wilson's and Babcock's had gone out for an early dinner. After cocktails we went in and watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, March 31^st, our last full day in Yuma. We hung around the coach all day, doing a few odds and ends getting ready to travel tomorrow. We have to be up and out really early tomorrow because we are having new tires put on the coach around 7:00 before we start towards our next destination, Casa Grande, Arizona. Early in the afternoon we were visited by Bob and Gloria Baron, some friends of ours from our pre-full timing days in Indio. It turns out they are also at Fortuna Del Oro with the Fleetwood Coach rally. The sat and talked with us for an hour or so before returning to their rally. We had last saw them in December when we went to a Christmas party at their house in Indio.

We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and about 6:30 we had a last supper of sorts with the whole group. Peggy made a pot of ham and bean soup with the bone and leftovers from Easter. Gary made some cornbread to go with it and we had a great meal. Everyone leaves Yuma tomorrow. Peggy and Vernon are going to Casa Grande with us tomorrow, but the Babcock's are going to Indio and then on to home, and the Wilson's are heading to Cottonwood, Arizona. After dinner we went into the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Friday, April 1^st, we were up at 5:00 a.m. and had the coach packed up and headed out of the RV park just after 7:00. We drove a few miles down the road to Redburn Tire company where they mounted up four new Michelin tires on the back of the coach. We had put on two new steer tires in January at the rally in Indio, so we now have all six tires new and good for another six or seven years. The problem with RV tires is that they age out at seven years max, but still have a lot of tread. However, you don't want a blowout on an RV so, you buck up and get rid of tires that look perfectly good. Boo!

It took the guys about 90 minutes to do the tires and we were on the road about 9:30 or so, headed east from Yuma towards Casa Grande, Arizona, about 170 miles. We stopped for lunch in Gila Bend and arrived at the Sundance RV Resort in Casa Grande about 1:30. This is our first time staying at this resort. We normally stay at the old Western Horizon's resort, but we picked up an offer of two weeks for the price of one at the rally in Indio, so we thought we would try it out. It seems to be a very nice park. We got parked and setup in a couple of hours.

The Bullock's are a few sites down from us and are also here for the two weeks, although they are going out for a few days to Tucson to visit friends. They came down for cocktails at 5:00 and then we had dinner in our coach. Jackie made a chili relleno casserole and we had a great meal. They went back to their place about 8:00 and we watched a little TV until bedtime.

This marks the end of our two month Yuma stay and also a good place to close out this chapter of the blog. We will post again when we leave Casa Grande in a couple weeks. Until next time, remember that an intelligent person learns from his mistakes, a wise one learns from the mistakes of others. Have fun and stay safe. Bye for now.

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.