A Yuma Winter - Part 1

Hi there, welcome back to our story. Our last chapter concluded on Monday, February 1^st, with our arrival in Yuma, Arizona for a two month stay. We will be here at The Palms RV Resort with four of our RVing friends, the Bullock's, Babcock's, Wilson's and McKay's. We will no doubt be visited during out stay by other friends we have made on the road over the last ten plus years. We are looking forward to a great stay.

On Tuesday we stayed around the coach because we were having a wash service come out to wash and wax the coach and car. They are both very dirty and badly in need of a good cleaning. The wash people showed up about 2:00 and finished the job in a couple of hours. Once they were done I was able to start putting up the outside decorations, including the shade screens. We were not able to get all the lights put out before it was cocktail hour, so those will have to wait for another day. We had cocktails with our gang of ten on our patio, which has been designated as “party central” for this trip. After cocktails a couple of the other folks headed off for dinner at a Chinese place and we had dinner on our own. We would have had dinner with the Bullock's, but Peggy was a bit under the weather.

Wednesday, February 3^rd, we went out after lunch and did some shopping. We then returned back to the coach and finished setting up the outside decorations with lots of lights. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then everyone went back to their own coaches. Peggy and Vernon came over to our place for dinner. Jackie made some chicken enchiladas. After they left we watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, February 4^th, we left the coach about noon and drove to the Foothills area west of Yuma to have lunch at our favorite taco stand. The Wilson’s followed us in their own car. We have been coming to this taco stand for the last three years and it has great, authentic street tacos. Over this past summer they poured a concrete pad for the place. Prior to this year it was on dirt. The stand is a trailer in a dirt lot with a small dining area surrounded by chain link fence. Very rural looking. The concrete floor makes it a lot cleaner looking now. The tacos were just as good as always.

After lunch we headed out to do some geocaching in the Foothills area. We cached for a couple of hours and got ten new finds and one DNF. We then stopped at a couple of RV stores to see if they had the vent fan kit I need to fix the bathroom vent. They didn't, so I will have to order it online. We then made a stop at Fry's for a few things and then headed back to the coach. I got online and ordered the parts I needed.

We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then the Bullock's came over for dinner. We cooked some lamb chops on the BBQ for everyone but me. I had a nice steak I bought at Fry's today. We had a great dinner and talked until almost 9:00, after which we watched TV and then went to bed.

Friday, February 5^th, a big 69^th birthday for me. My last year before fading into my seventies. Yikes, who knew I would live this long and feel this young? We left the coach about 1:30 and drove into town for a late lunch at the Yuma Palace Chinese restaurant. The rest of our group joined us in a birthday celebration, so we had a table of ten. The food was pretty good, as usual, but the service this time was terrible. We got a waitress with a bad attitude who wanted to bring the food before the soup and then got snippy when we said we wanted the food sent back so it would be hot. Once we got that issue resolved the rest of the meal was good.

After lunch we went back to the RV park and I did a few chores around the house. We had happy hour with the group at 5:00 and then at 6:30 we, the Babcock's and the McKay's walked down to the clubhouse for a Motown Tribute show. This RV resort is well known among the Yuma snowbird crowd as having pretty good shows during the winter season at reasonable prices. This show was about $22 a person. They had three “stars” including Barry White, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson. They were all imitators, of course, some better than others. The Barry White guy was OK, good low voice, but not nearly as smooth as the original and he looked nothing like him. The Stevie Wonder character had the look spot on and the voice was fair on most songs and actually quite good on a couple. The Smokey Robinson guy had the look of the young, 60's Smokey, and a high squeaky voice that was close, but no cigar. He was actually the worst of the three. It was a clunky presentation and they didn't do many of the big hits, mostly “B” side stuff, but it was cheap entertainment. Next week we are going to see a Michael Jackson tribute. We'll see how that one works out. After the show we went back home and watched a little TV until bedtime.

Saturday, February 6^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and walked down to the activities area of the resort for the park's annual car show and burger bash. We stopped first for a hamburger for lunch. They gave a burger and chips, with a beer or glass of wine, for $4, pretty good deal. We sat with the rest of our gang of ten and ate before going out and looking at the classic cars and rods. This show draws a lot of cars, close to 200, and there are a lot of old cars in the Yuma area. It is primarily a hobby for the older, wealthier crowd, and that describes a lot of the snowbirds, and residents, of the Yuma area. We spent about an hour and a half looking at the cars, including a red 1965 Plymouth Barracuda, which was exactly like a car Jackie owned back then.

After looking at the cars we took a drive to run a few errands. We stopped at a couple of stores, picked up two geocaches near the downtown area, and dropped off some stuff at the Salvation Army store. We also looked around the store for a bit and I found a very nice yellow polo shirt that had “Bean Bandits” with a cute logo and had “Ray” embroidered on the front too. I knew I had to get this for Ray Babcock because he likes to fix baked beans for our potlucks. As it turns out, the Bean Bandits are a car club in San Diego, so it was appropriate for the day of the car show. We also got a phone call while we were out that Jackie had won one of the raffle drawings at the car show. We won the booze cart.

We hurried back to the park and got there as the car show was closing up. We won a new Coleman cooler with wheels and it was full of booze, including a lot of tequilas and bourbons. One of the items with it was a big, glass bottle shaped like a rifle that was filled with tequila. When we arrived to claim the prize there was a woman there who was frantic to buy the rifle bottle for her son in Canada. We really didn't need it and had no where to put it anyway, so we sold it to her for $30. We got some money and she got a bargain as they sell in the store for much more.

We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and showed off our prizes to everyone, as well as giving Ray his “new” shirt. The Bullock's grandson Troy and his wife Makayla came for a visit and sat with us during cocktails. Troy is the young Marine stationed here in Yuma. After cocktails everyone went their separate ways for the evening. We had leftovers for dinner and watched TV until time to head for bed.

Sunday, February 7^th, our 12^th Wedding Anniversary. Yea us! We left the coach about 11:00 and drove to the Arizona Marketplace, the large outdoor swap meet here in Yuma. We shopped for about an hour or so and decided to go to lunch with Peggy and Vernon, who had also driven to the Marketplace. We went to a Mexican place called Mi Rancho, which is one of our favorites. It must be because we noticed later in the day that Facebook showed we had eaten there last year on our anniversary too. We had a great meal and afterward Peggy and Vernon went off to run some errands and we went out and did a few nearby geocaches.

We were able to get five new finds, and one DNF, in about an hour. One of the caches had a lot of travel bugs in it that we were able to swap out. After caching we headed back to the coach and relaxed for a little bit. After the Super Bowl started we went over to the McKay's coach and watched the game. Ray Babcock was there for a while and Peggy and Vernon came over to watch the second half. We were all Denver fans, so things worked out well for us. We also did a little quarter a square pool for the group and Jackie and I won the square for final score, getting ten bucks. Yea! After the game we went back home and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Monday, February 8^th, another anniversary date for us. 2/8/98 was the day that I got back in touch with Jackie after having not seen her for over 22 years. We call it our “Reunion Anniversary” and celebrate it every year. Today we celebrated by going out and doing our laundry. LOL While the laundry was working Jackie went next door and got a pedicure. That was pretty much it for the day. After laundry we headed back to the park and put stuff away. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and after that everyone headed back to their own places for dinner. We had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday we left the coach about 11:00 and drove to the Yuma Palms Mall for lunch and a movie. The Bullock's and the Wilson's also followed in their own cars since we all had various errands to run after the movie. We had lunch at a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant next door to the movie theater. Most people had wings, I had a sandwich because I didn't want to fool around with messy wings. The food was pretty good and everyone seemed to enjoy their meal.

After lunch the six of us saw Dirty Grandpa, a comedy movie with Robert DeNiro as a recently widowed grandfather who is obsessed with having sex with younger women. He gets his soon to be married grandson, played by Zak Efron, to drive him from Atlanta to Florida. They stop in Daytona Beach during spring break and the fun ensues. The movie was very raunchy, both language and content, maybe even a little over the top, but it was very funny. After the movie we stopped at Sam's Club for a few things and ran a couple of other errands before returning home. We had cocktails with the group at happy hour and then dinner with the Bullock's. Peggy made a new recipe of mu shew pork. It seemed like a lot of work, but it tasted very good. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched a little TV before bed.

Wednesday, February 10^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove to a restaurant in the Foothills area called The Copper Miner. We had never eaten here, but our friend Ray Babcock, told us that the food was good. We met a couple that we were on our 49 day Alaska trip back in 2009. Linda and Ernie Ellis. We cross paths with Linda and Ernie once or twice a year, usually at FMCA rallies. They are also square dancers and come to Yuma for a regional square dancing event every February. We came and watched them dance for a while last February. We had a nice lunch and caught up with what the Ellis' have been doing since we last saw them.

After lunch we went out and ran some errands. We stopped at a couple of local swap meets and also the post office. After our errands we headed back home. I spent an hour or so working on repairing the vent fan in the bathroom. After about six or seven years it quit working, so I had to order the parts to rebuild the insides. The biggest issue was cleaning the gunk off of the blades and the rest of the fan housing. We finally got it all cleaned up and I had most of the repair work done, but happy hour called, so I quit for the day.

We had happy hour with the group and then went to the Bullock's again for dinner. Their grandson Troy and his wife were supposed to come, but he got hung up at the base and they couldn't come. That's the life of an active duty Marine, duty calls, everything else waits. We still had a nice pork dinner with the four of us and chatted until almost 9:00 before we headed back to our coach. We watched a little TV and headed off to bed.

Thursday we left the coach about 10:00 and drove to the Mexican town of Algodones. We had Peggy with us and were going down primarily to get our teeth cleaned. Regular readers will know that we go to this small border town every year for dental work and eyeglasses, as well as the occasional shopping trip. The three of us were done with our cleanings by a little after 11:00, so we shopped for a little while then stopped at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants down there, El Rancherito, for lunch. Lunch was great and the line going back into the states wasn't too bad. It was about a half hour wait, which is pretty short. It usually takes an hour or longer if you wait until late afternoon.

After we got back in the U.S. we drove back to the coach. I finished the work on the bathroom vent fan and did a few other administrative things. We had cocktails with the group, which tonight included another couple, Pat and Tammy Kight. Pat and Tammy are good friends of the Bullock's, but most of the rest of the group have met them at various RV gatherings or the parties at the Bullock's house. They are only down here for a week before moving on to their next destination. After happy hour we had dinner at the Bullock's, although Jackie cooked the main course, a Chinese casserole. Dinner was us, the Bullock's and the Kight's. We stayed and talked after dinner until about 7:30 when we went back to our coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Friday, February 12^th, we had a stay at home day. I got a few chores done around the coach, as did Jackie. We had planned a big pot luck dinner for the group tonight and everyone got together at 5:00 for cocktails. We had our original five couples, plus the Kight's and tonight we were also joined by Troy and Makayla. A little after six everyone brought out their dishes and we had a great Mexican themed pot luck. I had made some frozen margaritas, Jackie made some nice chicken enchiladas, and we had way more food than the group could eat. The weather was perfect, no wind and nice and warm until way after 8:00. Several of us stayed out talking even after most everything was cleaned up. We had a great time and everyone ate too much.

Saturday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We were able to get six new finds, along with one DNF. On the other hand, we were able to find the cache we couldn't a couple of days ago, fixing that DNF. The cache we found was rated a 5 difficulty, the highest rating. Yea! One of our other caches was a four and a half difficulty. After caching we went home and relaxed for a while. We had cocktails at 5:00 and also put out the leftovers from yesterday's pot luck. Everyone else brought their leftovers and we had an early dinner.

We were eating early because a little before seven the entire group, all six couples, walked down to the event area for a Micheal Jackson tribute concert. Since we were disappointed by the performance of the Motown group last week, we were hoping for a good show. It was better than good, it was great! The performer had a strong resemblance to MJ and was a great dancer. He also had too really good backup dancers and a fairly strong band behind him. The show was ninety minutes and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of the other couples were not big MJ fans to begin with, but no one really hated the show. After the show we went back to the coach and a few of us stayed outside for a half hour or so with a night cap. It was a beautiful evening, with temps in the 70's. We then went in, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Sunday, February 14^th, Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Birthday to my granddaughter Courtney. We left the coach about 1:00 and drove to the Arizona Market Place to finish the aisles we had not gotten to last Sunday. We bought a few little things and were done in about an hour. We did a couple of geocaches on the way back to the RV park and also stopped and checked on a new RV park with thoughts of maybe going there next year. Without the bargain certificate we got on this place this year we can't afford to stay here next year.

After we got back to the coach we relaxed for a while. The happy hour group was short the Babcock's and McKay's who went out for an early Valentine's dinner. The Wilson's went back to their coach after cocktails and we, the Bullock's and the McKays did some meat on the BBQ and had another nice outdoor dinner. We finally finished up about 8:00 and watched a movie until bedtime.

Monday, February 15^th, Happy Birthday Mr. Presidents. We had a stay at home day. I got some chores done, including doing our taxes for last year. We are getting a decent refund to help pay for our new tires for the coach. Yea! We had cocktails with the group, including Judy and Darrel Holm, a couple that are friends with Peggy and Vernon. Judy was a college classmate of Peggy's back in the 60's. They live in Wisconsin, but come down to Yuma every winter. After cocktails we did some burgers on the grill and most of the group sat outside and had dinner again. Another great winter night in Yuma. After dinner we watched TV for a while and went to bed.

Tuesday we went out to the taco stand with the Bullock's and the Holm's for lunch. After lunch we went out on our own and did some geocaching, getting ten new finds in a couple of hours. One of the finds fixed a DNF from a couple days ago. After caching we went back to the coach in time for happy hour with the group. Tammy and Pat hosted dinner for us, the Bullock's and the Holm's tonight. This is their last day here, so they wanted to do dinner for those who fed them over the last week. We had a great dinner and visited until about 9:00, after which we went back to the coach and watched a little TV before bed.

Wednesday, February 17^th, we, the Wilson's and the Bullock's all went to a place in the foothills called Chicken on the Run for lunch. Jackie likes to go there because they have chicken livers and gizzards. I had the fried chicken, which was good. Not the best I ever had, but OK. Jackie, of course, had “lizards”, which is a mix of gizzards and livers. After lunch the Wilson's went off on their own to run errands. We had the Bullock's in our car and stopped at one of the farmer's markets for a while before doing some geocaching. We got six new finds in an hour or so. We then headed back to the coach for the rest of the day. We had cocktails with the group, but Suzie was sick and didn't come out. After cocktails everyone was on their own for dinner, so we went in and watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday we had lunch in the coach and then went to the movies. Judi McKay went with us and the Wilson's followed in their own car. We went to see Hail Caeser, starring George Clooney. I am a big fan of Clooney, as well as the producers of the movie, the Coen Brothers. They are famous for making quirky films with odd plot lines and great, subtle comedy. This movie did not disappoint me. I thought it was a great film with a constant flow of homages to movies, stars and movie themes of the late 40's and early 50's, the time period the movie is set in. Everyone else thought the movie was just OK, but I would encourage anyone who likes subtle comedy and has some knowledge of the film industries history, to go see the movie. After the movie we stopped at Walmart and then headed home for the day. We had cocktails with the group, which is now down both Suzi and Clark, with some kind of flu-like sickness. Everyone was on their own for dinner again and we had a light dinner and watched TV.

Friday, February 19^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. The Wilson's were with us in their own car. We did some caching in the southern part of county, getting ten new finds with no DNFs. We actually got within a few miles of the Mexican border we were so far south. After caching we went to Fry's for fuel and some groceries before heading back to the coach.

We had cocktails with most of the group, including the Holm's who came over for happy hour. Suzie was still down, but Clark was feeling better and joined the group again. After happy hour we had the Bullock's over for dinner. Jackie made a meat loaf and we had a great dinner with the four of us. We visited until a little after eight when they went home and we finished the evening with some TV shows.

Saturday, February 20^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove into Yuma to the Civic Center to check out the Norway Fest celebration. The local chapter of the Son's of Norway put on this event. We like to attend cultural festivals, Scottish, Irish, whatever, and thought this might be fun. They had a few vendors, some art on display, and there were musicians playing Scandinavian music. It was interesting, but it didn't take long to look at everything. After an hour we were ready to leave. The Bullock's and Holm's were there, as were the Wilson's. We and the Bullock's left to go find some tacos for lunch, but to our surprise, we found that all of the taco stands we wanted to go to in the area were closed until after 5:00. I guess no one in downtown Yuma eats tacos before happy hour. Who knew? The Bullock's finally gave up and they and the Holm's went to Sam's Club for a hot dog. Jackie and I went to In and Out, had a great burger and I got the new 2016 tee shirt.

After lunch we spent an hour or so doing a few caches. We ended up with six new finds. One of them was a great four and a half out of five difficulty. A cacher had hollowed out compartment in a big palm tree in front of his house and installed a steel door. The trick was to figure out how to get the door open without prying on it. They gave some vague instructions in the description of the cache, but we figured out the trick after about ten minutes of looking. A very clever cache. After caching we ran a couple of errands, then headed back to the RV park for a while.

About 5:00 we left, with the Wilson's in our car, and drove to the Elks Lodge here in Yuma for dinner. The Bullock's picked up the Holm's and they also went. The original plan was for the whole group to go, but Suzie is still sick, as are both Clark and Judi McKay, so two couples were out. We got to the lodge and were able to get a table for eight right away. The Yuma Elks moved from their old lodge to this new building last year. The old lodge was across the street from the Yuma Medical Center and the hospital was expanding, so they bought out the Elks. The new building is very pretty inside, but is much smaller than the old one. The meal was quite good and we had a good time and a couple of drinks. The dining room was not as busy as we remembered the old lodge being, but the food was just as good. After dinner we drove home and had a nightcap outside with Peggy and Vernon. We then relaxed the rest of the evening.

Sunday was a stay at home day. I got a few chores done, but for the most part I just relaxed and watched the first NASCAR race of the season, the Daytona 500. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and everyone was back in the rotation, at least for a little while. Suzie was still not 100 percent, but she did come out for a while. After cocktails we went back in the coach and watched TV after dinner.

This marks three weeks since our arrival here in Yuma and a good spot to close this episode and get it published. We are here until the end of March, so lots yet to follow in our Yuma adventures. Until the next time, remember that friends are people who know you really well and like you anyway. See ya soon.

The Arizona Desert Adventures

Greetings readers and friends, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Saturday, January 16^th, while we were in Ehrenberg, Arizona. Sunday we left the coach after lunch, about 12:30 or so, with the Bullock's and headed towards Quartzsite to do some geocaching. We hit one trail along a gas pipeline road that was based on frontier outlaws. Each cache was named after an outlaw and the description gave a little history on the individual. It was interesting and each cache was unique in it's hiding, so there was a level of interest you don't get in a power trail of one film canister under a rock after another. We were able to

get 17 new finds with no DNFs. One of the finds was number 2,500 for the Bullock's. Yea!

After caching we stopped by to visit with our friends Clark and Judy Mckay, who are staying in the desert with some friends, not too far from where we were caching. We talked to Clark, but Judy was not feeling well and stayed in her coach. We will be with them in a few weeks when they come to Yuma to be with the group. We then headed home and relaxed for a bit. About 5:00 we went to Gary and Ramona's coach for cocktails and then a nice meatloaf dinner prepared by them. Dinner was great and we sat and talked after eating until about 7:30 when everyone headed back to their own places for the rest of the night.

Monday, January 18^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove into Blythe with the rest of the group to have lunch at one of our favorite little home town Mexican restaurants, Garcia's. We have been coming to this place for years and we try to get here at least once or twice on every trip to the Blythe-Ehrenberg area. As always, the food was great and we had a wonderful lunch, eating probably way too much. After lunch we went to Albertson's for a few things before heading back home. We stayed in the rest of the day, doing a few chores and relaxing.

About 5:00 the group came over to our coach for happy hour. After happy hour we did a BBQ with steaks that everyone brought. Jackie had a lamb chop. We also did some potatoes in the oven and a few people had a salad. The meal was great and the six of us talked until about 7:30 when everyone went back to their own coaches for the evening.

Tuesday, January 19^th, we left the coach after lunch, about 11:30, and drove to the Quartzsite area for some more geocaching. We had Gary and Ramona in our car because Gary had developed a bad driveline in his Jeep the other day and didn't want to drive it until he could get it fixed. Peggy and Vernon followed us in their Jeep. We managed to get 19 finds and one DNF in a few hours, a good afternoon of caching. After caching we took a drive to one of the BLM desert camping areas to see some friends of ours that are staying up there, the Minard brothers, Ray and his wife Del, and Curt and his wife Sharon. We found their campsite, but no one was around. We will see Curt and Sharon in a couple days as they are going to be in the same Quartzsite campground as us starting on Thursday.

We then headed back to the RV park and had cocktails at 5:00 with the group at Peggy and Vernon's place. The Wilson's went back to their coach for a dinner of leftovers, the other four of us put some pork chops on the BBQ and had dinner at the Bullock's. We had a great meal and were back in our coach by 8:00 where we watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, January 20^th, we left the coach after lunch and drove into Blythe to do some laundry and shopping. Starting tomorrow we will be in Quartzsite for eleven days before moving on to Yuma. Any laundries in Quartzsite would probably be crowded, so we did laundry today so we wouldn't have to again until we were in Yuma. After our laundry was finished we went back to the coach and I started making a big batch of chili. We had cocktails with the group in our coach and then served chili for dinner. Vernon made some corn bread and we had a great meal. We visited until everyone left around 7:30.

Thursday, January 21^st, moving day. We packed up the coach and left Ehrenberg about 10:30. I made a stop at the Flying J truck stop for propane then headed east 20 miles to Quartzsite, Arizona. Quartzsite is a small desert town with a full time population of less than 4,000, however in the Spring, mostly January and February, it is host to upwards of 300,000 recreational vehicle enthusiasts who come for the mild winter and the various RV, rock and gem shows that are held, along with acres of swap meets. Many stay in RV parks in town, but the majority dry camp on the relatively flat desert, most of which is Federal Bureau of Land Management land, surrounding the town.

We have dry camped for brief periods on the BLM land, but this year we opted for an RV park in town. We don't like to go more than a week or so, while many of the visitors here will stay a month or more in the desert. We, the Bullock's and the Wilson's moved from Ehrenberg to Crawford's RV park today. We are parked next to our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock, who came here a couple of days ago from Indio. Some other friends, Curt and Sharon Minard, also came here today from the desert north of town and are parked behind us. We should have a fun time for the eleven days we are here.

After we got set up and relaxed a bit, we did walk around one of the gem and rock swap meets that is right next door to the RV park. It was interesting for a while, but soon all the rocks looked alike. We went back to the coach and waited for cocktail hour when the whole group got together outside. The group has grown to large to have everyone inside, so it is now time to come to happy hour dressed for the cool of evening. We visited until about 7:00 when everyone went back to their own places for the rest of the night.

Friday, January 22^nd, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove over to the “Big Tent” to wander around. The Big Tent is the headquarters for the Quartzsite RV Show and is a huge, circus like tent, probably a quarter mile long and a hundred yards wide, full of vendor booths selling mostly RV related items. We walked half the tent and then stopped for a lunch at one of the carnival style food booths scattered around the outside of the tent. We ran into Peggy and Vernon there and had lunch with them. After lunch we finished the other half of the inside of the tent and then had to walk around the outside perimeter because it is all vendors also. We finally finished about 2:30 or so and made a stop on the way home to pick up some fresh veggies at the local market for dinner tomorrow.

After we got back to the coach we relaxed for a couple of hours. Clark and Judy McKay came in from the desert to visit with everyone for a hour or so. They will not be camping with us until we get to Yuma in a couple of weeks. About 5:00 we had happy hour with the group. Another couple joined us tonight, our friends Sally and Jim Calzada. They have camped with us in Yuma before and are good friends with Ray and Suzie. They were actually here for the last few days, but had to drive home yesterday to take care of some family issues, so they were not here when we got into the RV park.

After cocktails with the ever expanding group everyone went to their own coaches for dinner. Peggy and Vernon came over to our coach and we put together a quick dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, cole slaw and beans. We had a great dinner and visited until about 8:00 when they went back to their coach and we watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday we left the coach after lunch and went for an hour or so of geocaching. There are so many caches in the Quartzsite area that it is easy to get to an area with a lot of caches pretty quickly. We got eight new finds with no DNFs in less than an hour. We then went back to the coach and started getting ready for the big pot luck the group is doing tonight. We had early cocktails, about 4:00, and Mike and Darlene Neighbours stopped by to visit. They are staying in a county park near Blythe, but were in Quartzsite shopping. They stayed for an hour or so visiting. They were acquainted with most of the group. They didn't stay for the pot luck, but some friends of the Minard's and the Bullock's did come in from the desert to dine. We wanted to get everyone together tonight because Jim and Sally and Curt and Sharon are both leaving tomorrow to continue their travels and we won't see either of them for a while.

We had a great dinner. Jackie made taquito casserole and Ramona made chicken enchiladas. We also had rice and beans and a couple of other Mexican flavored dishes, along with some salads. Everyone visited and talked until it got too chilly around 7:00. We cleaned up, went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, January 24^th, we left the coach after lunch, about 12:30, and drove to the area near the Big Tent that is known as Tyson's Well. This is a huge swap meet/vendor area that is always set up in conjunction with the RV show and the gem and mineral show in January. Since today is the last day of the RV show we knew that many, if not most, of the vendors will be packing up today and tomorrow. We enjoy Tyson's Well because it has a lot of the little items that you need for the RV from time to time, stuff like bungee cords, clamps, and also some geocaching containers at pretty good prices.

We spent about three hours wandering around the swap meet, buying a few odds and ends, but not too much. After the swap meet we stopped to pick up a nearby geocache and then headed back to the coach. The four remaining couples of our group gathered at 5:00 for happy hour and then we did a hamburger BBQ. We all ate in Ray and Suzie's coach because it was a little too cold to eat outside after the sun went down. We talked and had a good time and about 8:00 everyone headed back to their own coaches for the rest of the evening.

Monday, January 25^th, we hung around the coach until after lunch when we took the Bullock's and drove to one of the other swap meets in town, one that dealt mostly with rocks and gems. The girls were looking for a specific “stone” called Fordolite to use for some earrings. Sharon Minard had showed them earlier this weekend some of the Fordolite that she bought. The story behind this material is that someone a few years back got the bright idea to go into the Ford auto plant and scrape all the years of built up paint from the walls and fixtures of the paint booths. Over the years several inches of paint layers had built up and when you cut the material you can see all the different colors in lines and swirls. It is really a quite interesting looking material. It is also very light, which makes it ideal for earrings.

We found the booth and the girls spent quite a bit of time talking to the dealer and picking out the pieces that they wanted made into earrings. Vernon and I mostly sat around and watched other people looking at rocks. They finally settled on the right piece and we have to come back tomorrow for the final product. After that adventure we headed back to the coach. We had cocktails with the group and then we, the Babcock's and Wilson's left to go have dinner at Silly Al's, the pizza parlor in town.

Silly Al's is a very popular place this time of year and we had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. We finally got a nice table where we all could sit around it and see each other and at least talk a little. We all had salads and pizza and were there for a couple of hours. They started karaoke about 7:00 and I got signed up early so I was able to do one song before the food came. The rotation

was so long my name didn't come up again before we were finished eating and leaving to go home. After pizza we went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, January 26^th, we went out after lunch with Peggy and Vernon and went to the rock show to pick up their earrings. We then went to a couple of stores for groceries and a part for our coach. The toilet is leaking and I have to install a new seal. We then went out and did a couple of hours of geocaching, getting another 14 finds to our credit.

We came back to the coach and relaxed for a while before we had cocktails with the group. After happy hour we went to the Bullock's coach for dinner. We did some steaks on the BBQ. While we were there one of the water supply pipes in the park let go and we had a huge fountain behind our coach until the park owners came over and shut off the water supply. Even though it was dark they had the pipe repaired in less than an hour and the water back on. After dinner we went back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, January 27^th, we were up and out of the coach by 10:30, yes A.M., and headed with the Bullock's and the Wilson's to breakfast, yes, Breakfast. Hard to believe, I know. We went to a place called Bad Boy's where most of the rest of our group has been at least once for what they say is an excellent breakfast. The place is true Quartzsite in nature. It is a large sheet metal and pipe garage that has been converted into a restaurant. They put it on a painted cement slab and installed walnut paneling on the side walls, then put in a bunch of tables and chairs. The kitchen is in an add-on section in the back. You order and pay at the counter then they deliver the food. I will say the food was very good. Jackie had a very nice looking and large spinach omelet and I had corn beef hash and eggs. The food came out pretty quickly, despite the fact the place was very busy. It was hot and tasty. Although we are not generally breakfast people, we might go back and try their pretty extensive lunch menu sometime before we leave.

After breakfast the six of us drove south of town to one of the BLM desert parking areas to visit with the Escapee's Geocaching BOF encampment. (BOF means Birds of a Feather, and is the Escapee's version of a Chapter in FMCA) We are members of the Geocaching BOF and know a few of the members from other caching events. They have a couple hundred RVs parked in the desert. Their encampment started on Monday and goes to Friday. We went today because today they are having an actual published event that we can attend and get credit for a geocache find. We got to the encampment just as they group was breaking for lunch. We signed the log for the event and talked for a bit to a few of the people there that we knew. We were also going to go with the group on a caravan to a historical site at 1:00, so we had an hour or so to kill. The six of us went out and did a few geocaches before returning to the encampment area and lining up with a couple dozen other vehicles.

The organizers of the Escapee's group had arranged for a docent from the Quartzsite History Museum to come out and take the group to a place called Picture Rock, an 800 year old Native American habitat site. It was only about five miles from the encampment on a series of reasonably easy desert 4X4 trails. There was a large wash with a rock cliff at the edge and you could clearly see a lot of very old petroglyphs on the rock faces. The docent spent a half hour or so talking about the Native Americans who lived in this area 800 years ago. There were also some caves on the other side of the wash where they lived. They had a little scavenger hunt, looking for some numbers that the organizers had hidden around the area. Vernon found one and got a nice painted rock as a prize. I looked, but didn't find one. We also did a couple of geocaches that were hidden in the immediate area. It really wasn't so much a search because there were 50 geocachers running around finding the caches. We mostly just got the log from whomever found it and signed in.

After spending an our or so with the group the six of us left to do some more geocaching on our own. We cached until about 3:30 and ended up with 14 finds for the afternoon, not too bad. One of the finds was the Wilson's 1,000 find. Yea, Gary and Ramona! We then headed back to the RV park. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00, but everyone went their own way for dinner. The Babcock's and Wilson's went out for dinner, we and the Bullock's had dinner in our own coaches. A very busy but fun day.

Thursday, January 28^th, we had a stay at home day. After lunch I spent about three hours rebuilding the toilet in the coach. I had to take it apart and replace the seals since it had started leaking a few days ago. It was a messy job, but I got it done. We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and later got together in Peggy and Vernon's coach for dinner. Peggy spent the day making a tortellini soup that was out of this world. We had that with a lot of garlic bread and a salad. Soup and salad dinner, yum. We later went back to our coach and watched TV until we went to bed.

Friday, January 29^th, we went out after lunch to do some shopping in parts of town we haven't yet been in. We bought a few things, but mostly just walked around and looked. At the last store we were in I bought a shirt that was on sale. We left there and went to the grocery store for a couple of things and I noticed that the cards I usually carry in my money clip were not there. It was my debit card, one credit card, and my Costco and Sam's Club membership card. I was pretty sure they fell out when I took the money clip out at the last store, so we hurried back there, but it was closed. There was no phone number or anything, so we just went home. Just to be safe I called and canceled the debit and credit cards and ordered new ones. I will go back to the store in the morning to see if the cards are there. At least if they are I won't have to get new membership cards from the big box stores.

We went back to the coach and had cocktails with the group. After that everyone was on their own for dinner. We had Peggy and Vernon over to our place for dinner. Jackie made a chili relleno casserole with rice and beans. We had a great dinner, although it ended up being a bit later than usual. After the Bullock's left we watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, January 30^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and went to Bad Boys, the same place we had breakfast a couple days ago, for lunch with the group. Lunch was as good as breakfast. After lunch the eight of us, in two cars, went out to do some geocaching. We only went out for a couple of hours as it was actually warm outside and the sun was getting to some people. Nonetheless, we were able to get 17 new caches, and no DNFs, in just a couple of hours. One of the caches was number 7,700 for us. Yea!

After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. We had cocktails with the group and then went to the Bullock's for leftover soup, which was just as good as the first time. Jackie stayed home as she was not feeling well. After dinner I went back to the coach and we watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, January 31^st, our last day here in Quartzsite. The weather folks predicted unsettled weather for the next couple of days and they were right on. The wind started blowing in the morning and we have 30 MPH sustained now with gusts even higher. I spent a little time in the morning putting away what little we had outside in preparation for leaving tomorrow. We spent the rest of the day inside listening to the wind blow. We also got a little rain, but barely enough to call rain. We didn't even get with the group for cocktails, just stayed in and had leftovers for dinner.

Monday, February 1^st, the first month of the new year gone. The wind was still blowing some, but not nearly what it was yesterday, and the skies were mostly clear. We were packed up and on the road about 10:30, headed south to Yuma, Arizona, about 80 miles or so. The wind on the road was on and off, making it a little hairy at times since it is a two lane road, but we made it safely. We stopped for fuel and then checked into The Palms Resort. This is a different place from where we have been for the last three years and this year we are staying two months instead of just one. This is a very nice resort with a mix of stick homes, park models and RV sites. Our group of five are parked close together, but we have one odd outsider between us and the Babcock's. The Bullock's are right next door and the Wilson's and McKay's are across the street. By the time we got the basics set up it was almost 2:00, so we went out and had a quick lunch and then did a badly needed Walmart run. By the time we got back and finished setting up the inside of the coach it was cocktail hour, but we were pretty beat, so we elected to just stay in for the night.

Our arrival here in Yuma for two months marks the perfect place to close this episode. Until the next time, remember the words of Oscar Wilde. "There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything and people who know absolutely nothing." See ya soon.

Back in Indio, the Old Stomping Grounds - Part 2

Hello again, welcome back to our story. Our last episode concluded on Saturday, December 26th, after having been in our old home town of Indio, California for about three weeks. Sunday was a stay at home day as it was cold and windy and we didn't feel like going out.

Monday, December 28th our good friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock arrived at the RV park. We last saw them last March before we started our trip to the Midwest. They are going to be traveling with us for the next three months and we were really happy to see them again. They got parked in a spot right next to us. After they got setup we had happy hour together and then Jackie served what has become the Bullock Welcome dinner, her chili relleno casserole. We had a great dinner and spent a couple of hours talking and catching up. After they left to go back to their coach we watched TV for a while.

Tuesday, December 29th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching with the Bullocks. We got them interested in caching several years ago and they enjoy doing it with us. We had a great afternoon, getting 17 new finds in a few hours. One of them was another milestone for us, find number 7,600. After caching we went back to the coach to relax for a while. About 5:30 the four of us left and drove to Cactus Jack's for dinner. Peggy and Vernon love CJs and wanted to go there. The food was as good as always, but the service was not up to par. The waitress was not very efficient and the busboy was useless. We still enjoyed dinner though, because we had great food and great company. After dinner we went back and had a night cap with the Bullocks before heading to our coach for the night.

Wednesday, December 30th, we left the coach about 12:30 and drove to a deli in Indio called TKB for lunch with some friends. We had lunch with Roy Skultin and Darcy Quimby, who are local geocachers that we have known for a couple of years now. We had a great lunch, talking caching and also giving them information on Alaska. They are going up to Alaska in their little A-frame travel trailer and spending three months touring Canada and Alaska. It will be a lot different than our trip in a 40 foot motor coach, but they will have a great time. After lunch we went to Kohl's for some after Christmas sales. Bought a couple of things at huge discounts and then went back to the coach.

We had cocktails with the Bullocks in their coach. We didn't want a big dinner, so after we got back to our place we fixed the leftovers from yesterday at Cactus Jack's and that was our dinner. We watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, December 31st, we had lunch and then left the coach to take in a movie. Peggy and Vernon were waiting for their grandson Troy and his wife Makayla to come up for a visit. Troy is the Marine stationed in Yuma and he got a couple days off and decided to come up and spend New Years with Peggy and Vernon.

This was the first year in about four years that I wasn't committed to working the New Year's Eve party at the RV park. We switched parks this year, so I don't have to spend the afternoon getting set up. We went to see the movie Joy, which is a true story about Joy Mangano, the housewife who invented the Miracle Mop and presented it herself on the then-new shopping network QVC. She went on to become an inventor and very successful entrepreneur, as well as a well known spokesperson on the other shopping network, HSN. Jennifer Lawrence played Joy and the supporting cast was great also. It was a well acted movie, although there were parts where I got a little lost when they moved back and forth in time without a lot of hints as to what time period they were portraying. After the movie we stopped and picked up a couple of geocaches because we wanted to get the souvenir Groundspeak was giving out for the last day of the year, “Goodbye 2015. They also have one for tomorrow called “Hello 2016,” and we will get that one because we are attending a small caching event tomorrow.

We had cocktails at 5:00 with the the four Bullocks, catching up on what has been going on with Troy and Makayla the last year. We haven't seen them since last March when we left Yuma. We then left so they could have a family dinner and we went back to our coach and celebrated the New Year on New York time, in bed and asleep by 11:00.

Friday, January 1, 2016, Happy New Year! The beginning of another great year. We left the coach about 1:30 and drove to La Quinta for a geocaching event. This was mostly the local caching group and we knew the majority of people who were there. The theme of the event was a travel bug race and we were entering a TB in the race ourselves. We had a great time visiting with friends and other cachers. We left there about 3:30 and after a stop at Walmart we headed back to the coach.

We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon about 5:00. Troy and Makayla had left this morning to head back to Yuma. After cocktails we had rice and black eyed pea soup with ham. Peggy had read somewhere that it was good luck to have black eyed peas on New Years day, so she made up a big batch. Vernon made some of his corn bread too, and together we had a great first meal of 2016. We stayed and talked until about 8:00 when we went back to our place for the rest of the night.

Saturday, January 2nd, we left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching. We were originally going to go earlier and take Peggy and Vernon with us, but their little dog Belle was not feeling well this morning and they didn't want to leave her. We drove to Desert Hot Springs to cache, mostly because we wanted to get some caches by WheelerDealers, some caching acquaintances of ours. When we first started caching in 2008 there were a lot of caches by these owners in the Coachella valley and they were some of the most innovative and fun caches to find. They are “Junk” builders, using all kinds of old, rusty junk to make very interesting cache containers. A few years ago they kind of lost interest in caching and no longer put out new caches. This past year they became acquainted with the local group, Coachella Valley Geocachers, and it perked their interest back up and they have started putting out new hides again. Yea!

We ended up getting 13 new finds in a couple of hours of caching and nine of them were WheelerDealer caches. One of them was right up to their old standards. The cache was a paint can which was five feet down inside an old rusty pipe sticking up out of the ground in the middle of the desert. I think it was an old well pipe. You have to assemble a line and hook out of some shower curtain hooks and old wire (all lying in and around the cache) and pull the can out of the pipe. We had a great time, retrieved the cache and got some trackables from it.

After caching we headed back towards Indio, stopping for fuel and then at the Palm Desert Cactus Jack's to see Kevin, the evening bartender who Jackie has known since the early 90's. He was the night bartender at the original, and only at the time, location in Indio up until they opened the new place in Palm Desert. He moved over there because it was quite a bit closer to his home. We try to drop in and say hi at least once during any visit to the Coachella Valley. We had one drink, talked to Kevin a little, and then went back to the RV park. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon at happy hour and then the four of us did a steak BBQ. We had a great meal and talked for a couple of hours. Belle was over her sickies and seemed to be her old self again. After dinner we went back to our place for the rest of the night.

Sunday, January 3rd, we had a stay at home day for the most part. I spent some time putting stuff away in preparation for our leaving tomorrow to go to the fairgrounds in Indio for the FMCA Western Area Rally. Jackie and Peggy went out and did a Walmart run while I stayed home and took care of a few things. In the afternoon we had three more of our friends come into the RV park, Ray and Suzie Babcock, Gary and Ramona Wilson, and Larry and Renate Mitchell. They are all coming into the park for one night and then in the morning we will all go to the rally together. That way we end up parked near each other at the rally. At 5:00 we had happy hour with all five couples in the Bullock's coach and then the ten of us managed to all eat together in the coach as well. It was a little tight, but we made it work. Peggy made a big ham and everyone else brought something, so we had potatoes, veggies, bread and salad, along with the ham and desert too. Everyone had a good time talking and we all went back to our own places about 7:30 or so.

Monday, January 4th, we were packed up and ready to leave the RV park by 10:00. We only had about four miles to drive this morning, over to the Indio Fairgrounds for the FMCA Western Area Rally. Since we are always in the area we have been to every Western Area rally since 2007. The other four couples also left the RV park as we did and we all arrived at the rally by 10:30 and were parked and set up by 11:30. We are all close together on the fairgrounds so we will have a great time. The rally doesn't start until Wednesday, so we have a couple of days of relaxation first.

About 2:00 we went to Costco and the Bullocks went with us. After Costco we were back at the coach for the afternoon. We had happy hour at the Bullock's coach at 5:00. The Mitchell's didn't come because they were tired, but the rest of us had a good time. About 6:00 the Wilson's and Babcock's left to go have Italian food. We had leftover black eyed pea soup, salad and bread with Peggy and Vernon. By 8:00 we headed back to our coach and relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Tuesday, January 5th, while we are parked at the fair- grounds, the rally hasn't officially started yet. Jackie and Peggy went out shopping about noon and I stayed to wait for the oil change mechanic. He arrived a little before 1:00 and did the annual oil change, filters and lube on the motor home. As he was doing the work it started sprinkling and by the time he was finished an hour later is was raining pretty hard. It rained pretty good until about 5:30 or so and big areas of the grass field we are parked in were under an inch of water. We had cocktails at our place at 5:00. Everyone was there except for the Mitchell's. A little after six the eight of us went into downtown Indio to one of our favorite Chinese places, China Bistro. This is menu Chinese, not a buffet, and it is very good. We all ordered one of the family style dinners, so we got lots of food, soup, appetizers, the works. We had a great time with the eight of us around a big round table with a big turntable in the center to move the food around the table. Just like I remember Chinese restaurants when I was a kid. We finally finished about 8:00 and everyone went home to their coaches for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, January 6th, the first actual day of activity at the rally. We left the coach about 11:30 and met Peggy and Vernon at the TKB Deli for lunch. We have been to this sandwich shop several times and it is great. After lunch we went over to Rancho Mirage for Jackie's annual mammogram. After that we drove around and stopped at a couple of thrift stores to kill time before our appointments with our regular doctor. January is when we do our annual physicals and get our prescriptions renewed. Both of us visited with the doctor and reviewed our labs. There were no big red flags for either of us, other than my triglycerides were elevated. The other cholesterol numbers were OK, just the one. The doctor gave us new prescriptions and we were done for another year. We headed back to the fairgrounds and had cocktails with the group, this time in Ray and Suzie's place. No one felt like going out for dinner, so we went back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, January 7th, we went over to the events area of the fairgrounds about 10:30 so we could help with the Full Timing Seminar. A couple of years ago we were able to get the seminar put on the regular agenda for the Western Area rally. Normally this seminar is only done at the big FMCA rallies. Jackie and I did it the last couple of years, but since Mike Neighbours is the new President of the Chapter, it fell to him to do the seminar. Jackie and I helped by talking about a couple of the topics. We also had a bunch of handouts leftover from the FMCA rally in Pomona last year, so we brought those. After the seminar we went back to the coach for a quick lunch and then back to the events area to do some shopping in the vendor area.

We didn't buy too much. I got a couple of shirts and some filters for the coach. I did explore the cost of a pair of tires for the front of the coach. Our tires are aged out at seven years and getting pretty cracked on the outside. We can wait until Yuma to get the rears, but I will feel better with good steer tires before we go any more miles. About 4:00 we set up our chairs for the parade. This rally has a parade every year set around the theme for the year. This year is “Call of the Wild.” Everyone was in animal costumes and jungle was the theme for most floats. The parade was a lot smaller this year because the rain kept a lot of people from making floats.

After the parade we went back to the coach and had cocktails with the group, this time in Gary and Ramona's coach. About 6:30 we went back to the entertainment area for the evening show. The group tonight was an acapella group called the Alley Cats that we have seen before. They put on a wonderful show, singing a lot of old 50's songs with no instrumental backing. The place was packed and everyone seemed to really enjoy the show. After that we went back to the coach until bedtime.

Friday, January 8th, I went down to the vendor tent in the morning and setup the replacement of our front tires on Saturday morning. $1,300 and change for two tires. Yikes. About 11:30 the group split up and I took the other other four guys and we all drove to Cathedral City to a restaurant called Boys that I used to frequent when I worked out that way. They have a killer pastrami sandwich that I have raved about with Ray and Vernon, and everyone wanted to try it. We had a great lunch with just the guys and everyone liked the pastrami. The girls went out to lunch together and then several of them went to the ladies tea at the fairgrounds.

About 4:00 Jackie and I walked over to an area where another RV Club, the Overland Trailblazers, was having a happy hour. They have about 80 members, so it was a large group. We know a number of their members from our travels and we are considering joining the group. After visiting with them for a half hour or so we went back to our coach. About 6:00 we left with Peggy and Vernon for a dinner with the four of us at Cactus Jack's. Dinner and drinks there were, as always, very nice, although it was a busy Friday night and a little noisy. After dinner we dropped Peggy and Vernon off and went back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, January 9th, the tire people came about 9:30 and replaced the two front tires on the coach. It only took the guy about an hour to do both tires. Now I feel more comfortable traveling to Yuma, where we will replace the other four tires. After lunch we went down to the vendor area to meet our friend Barry Cohen and his lady friend Cathy. We also ran into several other friends including George Bishop, the owner of Cactus Jack's, and some RV couples that we know that we somehow have missed seeing over the last week. About 3:00 we left the fairgrounds and Jackie got a haircut. We then went to Winco to stock up on some things for our time in Ehrenberg and Quartzsite, Arizona. There are not a lot of big grocery stores around the area, especially Quartzsite.

We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon about 5:00. The other three couples went to the casino for the seafood buffet. Peggy had some chili colorado she had made up and we had that along with some refried beans for a very nice dinner. We talked until about 8:00 when the powerball lottery drawing came on TV. The five couples in our group had all pooled money and bought 50 tickets. Nobody won, including us. Well, we did win $4.00, which was an 80 cent return on everyone's twenty dollar buy in. After the drawing we went back to our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, January 10th, another travel day. We packed up the coach and by 10:30 we were hooked up and on the road, heading east 100 miles to Ehrenberg, Arizona, just across the river from Blythe, California. The Bullock's and Wilson's trailed us down Interstate 10 as they are also going to Ehrenberg, and continuing to travel with us through the end of March. The Babcock's and Mitchell's left the fairgrounds and went back to the Indian Wells RV park in Indio for one night. After that the Mitchell's are heading home and the Babcocks are heading to Indian Waters in Indio for a week. We will meet up with Ray and Suzie in Quartzsite and they will then be with the group through March.

We arrived in Ehrenberg at the Arizona Oasis RV park about 1:30 or so local time. We lost an hour crossing into Arizona. We got set up at the RV park, which had been one of our Western Horizons resorts until it was sold a couple years ago. We had cocktails with the Bullocks and then Peggy made her wonderful penne pasta dinner for the six of us. We also had salad and bread, so it was a complete meal. After dinner we talked a bit and then everyone went back to their coaches for the rest of the night. We have eleven days here in Ehrenberg before we move on to Quartzsite.

Monday, January 11th, we left the coach after lunch and drove into Blythe to do our laundry. That took a big part of the afternoon, after which we went back to the coach. Before we left Jackie got a call from the breast center in Rancho Mirage that they had found a spot on the mammogram from last week and that she needed to come in for a follow-up ultrasound exam. We agreed that we shouldn't put that off until we got to Yuma, we decided to drive back into the Coachella Valley tomorrow for the test.

We had cocktails with the group at 5:00 and then we did a BBQ at our house, some burgers on the grill and a bunch of side dishes. We had a great time talking and about 8:00 everyone headed back to their own coaches and we relaxed the rest of the night.

Tuesday, January 12th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove the 115 miles back to Rancho Mirage and Eisenhower Hospital. It only took about 90 minutes to get back to the valley, so we stopped at the mall and had lunch. We also did a little shopping before heading over for the test. The ultrasound took about a half hour, after which it was determined that there was some sort of small mass in the left breast and that she needed to have a needle biopsy done. We went ahead and scheduled that for tomorrow. I figured the quicker we got this stuff out of the way the quicker we could get on with life without having to worry. We then drove back to Ehrenberg, arriving about 5:30 local time, another ninety minute drive. We had cocktails with the group and Peggy served a dinner of beans and ham soup with salad and corn bread. Another great meal with friends. We stayed until about 7:30 before heading back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, January 13th we were on the road again about 10:30. It was again about an hour and a half to the valley where we had a quick lunch before going to Jackie's 1:00 appointment. The procedure took about an hour and we were on the road heading back to Ehrenberg. The results from the biopsy should come on Friday or Monday at the latest. We got back to the coach about 5:00, but decided that we were pretty tired from all the activity and that we were just going to stay in for the night. We had a light dinner and relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Thursday, January 14th we decided we needed a stay at home day after two days of non-stop travel. I got a few chores done, as did Jackie, but mostly we just stayed in the coach and rested. We had cocktails at our place with the group and then Jackie served chili relleno for dinner, along with some rice and beans. Jackie was only a little uncomfortable because of the incision from yesterday, but overall said she felt good. After dinner we talked and watched the Republican Debate until about 8:30 when everyone left to go back to their own places.

Friday, January 15th, Jackie got a call from the breast center that the biopsy indicated that the lump was benign, no cancer! YEA! The still want her to have the cyst or whatever it is removed, but it can wait until we get to Yuma in a few weeks. We hung around the coach until about 3:00 when the six of us drove into Quartzsite to do some exploring and attend a vendor party. We first stopped at an RV supply place called “The Gambler” in Quartzsite. They didn't have the parts I was looking for, I need a new kit for our bathroom exhaust fan. After that we drove out into the desert a few miles to the encampment for the Escapees Boomers RV Club. The Boomers come out here every year during the Quartzsite RV show. We are not members of the Boomers, but we know several people that are. One of them happened to be in the encampment and we chatted briefly before leaving and heading back into town. We are not too big on boondocking in the desert, but the fact that the Boomers go five miles out on desert gravel roads adds even more to the idea that we probably won't ever be with them.

After visiting the Escapees en- campment we drove through the RV park in Quartzsite where we will be going to stay on Thursday. We have never been to the place, we learned about it through our friends the Minard's, and we wanted to see what we are getting into. It really wasn't too bad a place, full hookups and way better than out in the desert. We then drove to the area where the big tent for the RV show is set up to attend a vendor party put on by Redlands Truck and RV. This is a repair facility in Redlands, California, near San Bernardino, that is a big sponsor at the Indio FMCA rally and also sets up a presence in Quartzsite in the winter to cater to the RVs out there.

We learned while we in Indio at the rally that Redlands was putting on a big customer party and they were giving away wrist bands at the rally for the party. All of us picked up some and decided that we would come and see how the party was. There were probably three or four hundred people there. They had a full bar with pretty good booze, and a BBQ catering company out of Hesperia, California. The whole event was free, the only thing we spent was five bucks for fifty-fifty tickets. The booze was great and the food was outstanding. We saw a couple of people we knew, but mostly it was just the six of us sitting together and having a good time.

We finally left the party about 7:30 and drove back to the RV park. Jackie and I went down to the clubhouse to catch the end of the karaoke show. I got to sing a couple of songs before we headed back to the coach for the rest of the night. Peggy and Vernon came down and listened for a while too.

Saturday, January 16th, we left the coach around noon and drove into Blythe to have lunch at Popeye's Chicken. We have been wanting to try Popeye's fried chicken for a while now, after hearing their ads on TV for “Louisiana Good” chicken. After trying their food, both spicy and regular, our opinion is, it's OK. I don't think it is as good as the Colonel and won't change my loyalties. It is no where near as good as the real southern fried chicken we had in Memphis last summer. After lunch we went to Kmart for a couple of things and then met up with the Bullock's to do a few caches.

We went with them to a cache along the banks of the Colorado on the California side. They had tried to find it a couple of days ago with the Wilson's, but struck out. We had found this cache almost two years ago and they hoped we would remember about where it was. We went there, but the area had changed, a lot of the bushes removed and the road graded. It hasn't been found in over a year and we couldn't find it again, so I think it is gone. After that miss we drove a few miles into the desert looking for a different cache on the Arizona side of the river, but gave up on that one when we couldn't find a decent path into the cache area. Two tries, two strikes. Maybe next time.

We then went back to the RV park and relaxed for a while. About 5:00 we had cocktails with the group over at Peggy and Vernon's coach. Everyone went back to have dinner on their own about 6:30 or so and to have a quiet night.

It has now been about three weeks since we last published, so this marks a good place to close this chapter of our story. We will be here in Ehrenberg for another few days, then in Quartzsite for a couple weeks before heading to Yuma for two months. Until the next time, remember the words of Albert Einstein; “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” See ya next time.

Back in Indio, the Old Stomping Grounds - Part I

Welcome back. Our last chapter ended on Sunday, December 6th, when we arrived in Indio, California for a month long stay in our old stomping grounds. This year we are staying at a new park, at least to us. For the last six or seven years we have always stayed at Indian Waters. The last four years we have done the New Year's Eve Party entertainment and the last couple of years they gave us a really good deal. This year they were unresponsive, so we went with a coupon we got at the Madison FMCA rally that offered a month at Indian Wells for $199. This is an older park, but we got a nice site close to the front and right across the street from one of the pools.

Monday, December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day. We just had a stay at home day. I washed all the windows on the coach and put up the screens and a few outside decorations. I also got some administrative work done, including publishing the blog for the last couple weeks. Jackie did some cleaning and other chores. It was a productive, but relaxing day.

Tuesday, December 8th, we left the coach after lunch for a few hours of geocaching. There have been a lot of new caches hidden in the Coachella Valley by our caching friends over the last year, so we have a lot of caches to look for. We stuck around the Indio and La Quinta area today and were able to get nine new finds and one DNF in a few hours. We also checked on three of our own caches hidden in the area. One of them had three DNFs logged, but we found it right where it was supposed to be. It is a particularly hard cache to find. After caching Jackie got a haircut and then we did a Walmart run before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening. It was nice to have a “normal” day finally. No travel, no rental cars, just our life as we like it.

Wednesday, December 9th, we had a mostly stay at home day. After lunch I took the car for a badly needed car wash. After I got back I spent a couple of hours putting up our Christmas decorations. Not quite as elaborate as last year, but we have a smaller lot this year. About 3:00 our good friend Barry Cohen came by for a visit. Regular readers will know that Barry is my oldest and best friend from the Coachella Valley. He and his wife Colleen were very close with us. Colleen died three years ago, but Barry still lives in their motor home at the Motor Coach Country Club, which is just around the corner from where we are staying this year. We have not seen Barry since we were here in the Spring, before our trip back to the Midwest. We had some cocktails and chatted for a couple of hours, catching up. About 5:30 or so I drove him back to his place since he had walked over here and it was getting dark and cooler. We then relaxed the rest of the night with the TV.

Thursday, December 10th, we left the coach around noon and went to Cactus Jack's for lunch. Thursday has always been the day they have lamb shanks and beef ribs on special. Jackie loves the lamb, I love the ribs. We had made plans for Barry to meet us there, and he had thought his brother Norm might join us, but Norm was not feeling well. We had a great lunch and sat and talked for a couple of hours. After lunch we went out and got one geocache, a cache that we had to DNF a couple days ago. The owner, who is a friend of ours, gave us a little hint. This time we found it right away. We then went to Stater Brothers grocery to get a couple of things that Walmart didn't have yesterday. One of things is the type of coffee we drink. We have used Folger's Simply Smooth coffee for about ten years now. It has a lot of the acid removed. However, not a lot of stores carry the bigger containers. A lot carry the little ones, but it gets a little pricey. Stater Brothers had the larger containers, so we bought several to stock up. We then went back to the coach and did a few chores until evening.

Friday, December 11th, we went out after lunch for a Costco run. Have to keep the vodka cellar full you know. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the coach. Late in the afternoon there was a little haboob that came through the valley. When I was living in Phoenix 20 years ago these haboobs were called dust storms. For some reason weather forecasters started using the Arabic term about ten years ago or so. Before that they decided that the “rainy season” in Phoenix was now the monsoon. I guess they just have to keep things interesting.

About 4:00 Jackie's godson Shane and his girlfriend Sara came over for dinner. Shane just turned 21 and Jackie was at the hospital and held him when he was born. He has been dealing with Type 1 diabetes since he was 8, but seems to be doing well now. He had some rough teen years, but now he is in college studying psychology, hoping to be a therapist one day. Jackie made a chicken enchilada dish, and we had it, along with rice and beans. Everyone had a great dinner and we talked until about 7:30 when Shane and Sara decided to go. Shane was about 5 when I moved here to the Coachella Valley to be with Jackie, so I have watched him grow up. After the kids left we watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, December 12th, we left the coach about 11:00 and drove to Palm Desert to the College of the Desert Street Fair. We always try to go to this marketplace at least once or twice when we are in the valley. We bought a few little things, nothing major, but had a good time shopping and walking for a couple of hours. After the street fair we had a quick lunch at Jack in the Box and then did a little geocaching. We were able to get six new finds in a couple of hours, along with one DNF. After that we headed back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the evening. Sunday was a stay at home day. It was very cool and windy, so we just stayed in and did stuff in the coach.  We put up our Christmas decorations today.

Monday, December 14th, we left the coach after lunch and went out to do some geocaching. We first checked on three of our own caches. On one of them, one of our more difficult caches, the last four people logged DNFs, so we were worried it might be gone. However, we found it still there and still in good shape, although we did have to make one minor repair. After checking our own caches we went out and got 15 new finds. A pretty good afternoon of caching. We made a quick stop at the store and then headed back to the coach. We did some burgers on the grill and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, December 15th, we headed out after lunch to do some more geocaching. We were able to get ten new finds, and one DNF, in a few hours. After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. About 5:30 we left again and headed to the Mario's Italian restaurant a couple miles down the road to have dinner with friends. John and Suzanne Budavec are some friends that we knew casually back before we sold the house in Indio. They were members of the Palm Springs Elks RV group and we were with them on some of the weekend outings. They were also friends with Jimmy Hanson, who was a good friend and bartender at Cactus Jack's at the time. We lost track of the Budavec's until last year when we were in Yuma and visited some other motor homing friends, Bonnie and and Ken Weopke, and the Budavec's were at their house. Since that time they have been Facebook friends with Jackie, so we have stayed in contact. They are here in the Desert for a month also and had called to meet us for dinner one night. We had a great dinner and talked for a couple of hours before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, December 16th, we left the coach about noon and went to Cactus Jack's to meet some friends for lunch. Rex and his wife Vicki, and Kevin and his boyfriend Ron, are caching friends we met here in the Coachella Valley a couple of years ago. Rex and retired and he and Vicki have a house in the north part of Indio. They have a big motor home and travel most of the summer. This past summer they were on much the same route as we were, just at different times, so we never crossed paths. We did see their names on a number of geocaches back in the Midwest though. Kevin is a manager at Costco and Ron is retired. Between Rex and Kevin they have a couple hundred caches hidden around the area.

We had a great lunch and after we were done and just talking the owner of Cactus Jack's, George, came in and sat down with our group and talked for a while. George just got into four-wheeling and bought an old Jeep that he has fixed up into a real rock crawler. Rex also has a somewhat radical Jeep and they use the same shop for work on their Jeeps. George also just bought a gas motor home to use for his four wheeling trips, so we had a lot of stories to tell. We were in CJ's until after 3:00. After lunch we went out and checked on a couple of our caches, and also got a couple of new finds for our numbers. We then headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Thursday, December 17th was a stay at home day for the most part. We finally left the coach about 4:30 and drove over to the Indian Palms Country Club, about four miles east, for a Christmas Party at our friend's house, Bob and Gloria Baron. We have been friends with Bob and Gloria since our camping days with the Indio Elks camping group, the Desert Drifters, long before we sold the house and went on the road. We also used to live at Indian Palms, a mile or so from Bob and Gloria. We drove past our old house, just to check it out. Nothing much has changed. We cross paths on the road with Bob and Gloria frequently, we last saw them in Madison, Wisconsin at the FMCA rally this summer.

There were probably 30 people at the party at it's peak and we knew, at least casually, about half of them. Most were other people we knew from our days at the Indio Elks. We were very active in the lodge at the time, so we knew a lot of the members. The party was great. Gloria put out a big spread of snacks and hors d'oeuvre which was very impressive. I only had one small drink because I know how traffic enforcement gets around the holidays. Never had a DUI, never want a DUI. I put more than a few away though and I know how the process works. We left a little after 7:00, got home with no problems, and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Friday, December 18th, we left the coach after lunch and drove to Rancho Mirage for our dermatologist's appointment. Ever since I had my Melanoma issue in 2009 I have been going to a dermatologist every winter for a skin check. I have had a few minor skin cancers removed, but no more serious Melanomas. A few years ago Jackie started going every year too, and she has also had a few things burned and cut off, but no major issues. It is just good peace of mind. After the doctor's appointment, which found no major problems, just a few things froze with CO2, we stopped for fuel for the car and then a Walmart run. Along the way we got one geocache that happened to be close by.

After shopping we headed home for a few hours. About 5:30 we left again and went over to the Indio Elks Lodge for dinner. The Indio Elks was where both Jackie and I were initiated into the order. My great friend Barry Cohen was my sponsor when I joined in 1999. We were pretty active the last few years we lived in Indio, both with the RV group and in the Lodge. We cooked and served a couple nights a week and I was going through the officer positions. Once we changed our legal residence to Pahrump we transferred to that lodge so we would have everything “California” off of our records.

Friday night is a big dinner night for the Elks. They have a pretty comprehensive menu and draw a lot of people from the area, especially the Sun Cities folks. There were probably over a hundred people in the Lodge having dinner and drinks and we knew about a half dozen. Our friends from the Drifters days, Roy and Mary Tweedy were having dinner and Anita Pursell was hostessing. We had a great dinner, I had liver and onions and Jackie had the meatloaf. Among our table mates for tonight was the Mayor of Indio, Glenn Miller, and his wife. On the other side of me was a very nice couple, fairly new to the valley, and he was a former Marine. We had some nice conversation, a drink and a great meal. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night. On the way home we did stop at Neal's Lounge, another of our old hangout bars, to see if there was anyone in there we might know. The place is owned by some friends of ours, Jim and Jackie Babbington, but when we went in there was not a soul we recognized. We left without buying a drink and went home.

Saturday, December 19th, we had a stay at home day for most of the day. About 5:00 we left the park and drove to downtown La Quinta to meet some friends for dinner. We arrived at the Crab Pot, a fairly new restaurant which is in the building where a friend of Jackie's used to have a restaurant back when I first came here in 1998. We met Don and Norma Preston, some friends of ours from the Monaco International (MI) Chapter and from FMCA events. Norma is Vice President for Membership of MI and is sort of Jackie's “boss” for her position as an MI Regional Director. We have seen Norma and Don at a lot of rallies, but never really gotten to know them. They have a lot at an RV resort here in the Coachella Valley and when we realized that we were going to be here at the same time this year we decided we would make arrangements to have dinner.

The Crab Pot, as you would guess, was primarily a seafood place. There big claim to fame are their “Feasts” where they bring the food out of a steamer pot and dump it on your table on butcher paper. They give you a plate, and some tools, like a hammer and scissors, to then attack the food. It was pricey, about $40 a person, but they did bring out a lot of stuff. Three kinds of crab, King, Snow and Dungeness, mussels and clams, shrimp, corn, anduillee sausage and potatoes. It's messy, but pretty good. However, the service was a little on the iffy side, friendly but inattentive. A lot of the shellfish were just empty shells, and the shrimp was way overcooked, to the point of being mush. It was a fun place to eat, but we wouldn't go back.

Don and Norma were very fun to talk to and get to know. They are most time Rvers, but have a house in Nevada and one in California, as well as the lot here in Indio. He was an air traffic controller, a job I thought I might like back in my teenage years. The Marines had other ideas though. We had a nice dinner and talked for an hour or so afterward. We finally got back home about 8:00 and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday, December 20th, we left the coach after lunch to do some caching. In a few hours we were able to get eleven new finds and no new DNFs. We also found a cool new travel bug hotel in Indian Wells that had lots of travel bugs in it. We were able to trade out a lot of our older inventory. After caching we went back to the coach for the rest of the day. I was able to get into the hot tub for a little while this afternoon. It is finally warming back up in the upper 60's again.

Monday, December 21st, Happy Winter! We left the coach about 1:00 and headed out to see a movie at a theater for the first time in a while. We went to the new theater they just opened this summer, which is about two miles from the RV park. When we went up to buy tickets we found that the 1:40 show was almost sold out, the only remaining seats in the very front row. This is not a good place to watch a movie. We checked on the later show, same thing. This theater has reserved seating and the auditoriums are very small, only about 40 or so seats. We decided to go to the older theater in Indio that we normally go to. Same movie, there were maybe five couples in the auditorium.

We saw Sisters, a new comedy that stars Saturday Night Live alumni Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. They also managed to get four other current or former SNL comics in supporting roles. The movie is about two dysfunctional sisters who have to deal with their parents selling their childhood home. The core of the film is a gigantic “last party” they decide to throw in their nearly empty home. The party part is very reminiscent of Animal House and is very funny. This is not an award winning film by any stretch, but we like goofy comedies and this was very good. There are a few scenes that will leave you crying with laughter.

After the movie we went to Walmart for a couple things and checked on the last of our own geocaches that we have hidden here in the valley. It is in the Walmart parking area. After Walmart we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Tuesday, December 22nd, we were out of the coach by 7:30 off to get blood drawn at the lab for our annual physicals. Our exams are scheduled for after the first of the year, but we try to get the blood drawn a couple weeks earlier so the results are sure to be available. There were very few people in the lab, so we were done by 8:00 and headed back to the coach for our morning coffee. About noon our friends Jay and Donna Blumenthal came over so we could all go to lunch. Jay and Donna were movers and shakers with FMCA for many years. We became acquainted with them when Jay was President of the International Area (INTO) of FMCA and we helped with a couple of INTO rallies, one in Wisconsin and one in Arizona. We have remained friends with them, although they have pretty much retired from FMCA activity.

They are full timers too, but they now pretty much split there time between their old home of Long Island, New York and Indio. They used to go thousands of miles every year chasing FMCA events. No they come out and spend the whole winter at Indian Waters. Since we used to stay at Indian Waters every Christmas, we always got to spent time with them. This year we are not there because we got such a good deal at Indian Wells, so we made arrangements to have lunch with them. We sat and talked for a half hour or so and then drove down to La Quinta to a place we have been wanting to try, Stuft Pizza. They have a couple of stores around the valley and generally get good reviews. I had the French Dip, which also had cheese and green chilis on it, and it was wonderful. Jackie had a personal pizza that was curry and lamb with peppers. Like a little gyro on a pizza disc. She said her's was great too. We spent a couple of hours with Jay and Donna and had a great time. After lunch we went to Albertsons to get a few things that we have not been able to find at any Walmart, then we headed back to the coach for the rest of the day.

Wednesday, December 23rd, we left the coach about 11:00 and went to do laundry. While the laundry was in the washers we played some cards and when they went in the dryer we went to a tacquaria in the same shopping center for a quick, light lunch. After laundry we went back home and put everything away. On the way home we did stop at Neal's bar again because we saw our friend Jim “Cowboy” Babbington's truck parked out front. We had one quick drink and talked to Jim a little bit.

After we got home we spent the early afternoon doing some chores. Jackie baked some cookies. Now to some this might not seem like a big deal, but Jackie is not a baker. According to her the last cookies she made were forty years ago. It all started a week or so ago when her brother, Dennis, posted a picture of some cookies he had made from their mother's old recipe. I just posted a comment that said that when I was a kid my mother would make mincemeat cookies at Christmas and that I haven't had a mincemeat cookie in decades. Dennis then posted a couple recipes for mincemeat cookies, so I posted that now he had to get his sister to make them for me.

Well, Jackie took the challenge and bought all the stuff to make mincemeat cookies. Finding mincemeat was a little difficult, but we did find some at Albertson's. Jackie didn't even know what mincemeat was or what it tasted like. She started making cookies and we took some photos of the process, documenting her first cookie baking effort in many years. The funniest thing was that we have a small, rechargeable mixer that is really only good for eggs and cocktails. It didn't have the power to mix cookie dough. Jackie didn't know what she was going to do until I broke out the old Black and Decker quarter inch electric drill! It worked like a charm and we have pictures of us making cookies with an electric drill. The cookies actually came out very good and tasted just like I remember mom making.

While Jackie was making cookies I was making a corn beef and cabbage dinner. I had promised our old friend Barry corn beef and he came over about 3:30. We had a cocktail and then, while dinner was finishing up, went in the back of the coach and did karaoke like we used to do. I don't think we have done it since his wife Colleen passed away about three years ago. We used to get together often and Jackie and Colleen would play cards in the kitchen while we sang in the back for hours. It brought back a lot of memories and we had a great time. Dinner turned out wonderful and we had a great time. Barry left about 7:30 and we relaxed the rest of the night.

Thursday, December 24th, we left the coach after lunch and went out to do some geocaching. We were not going to go anywhere near a store with the Christmas Eve rush. We don't do presents, for us or for anyone else, on Christmas. We exchange cards and feel blessed that we are gifts to each other in life and that is all that matters. We made today mostly a day to fix DNFs that we have accumulated since getting here to the Coachella Valley. Some of our caching friends have been mean to us and put out very hard caches. We had four caches and were able to fix all four of them by finding them today. One of the we needed some strong hints from the owner, but we finally got it. We also got three new caches, for a total of seven finds for the afternoon. We then went home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Friday, December 25th, another Merry Christmas. As we normally do, we exchanged nice Christmas cards when we got up. We don't buy presents, for each other or for anyone else. We figure that we buy stuff we want, if we can afford it, when we want it. We don't wait for birthdays or holidays. We then had a relaxing day at home. On Saturday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We were surprised to find that a new cache, published on Christmas morning by one of our friends, had not yet been found. There are a number of cachers in the Coachella Valley who like to accumulate FTFs, or First to Find. This usually requires setting up a notification on your computer or phone that notifies you as soon as a new cache is published in your area. You then have to go out, whether at midnight or noon, and run to the cache to get the FTF. Since we are not early cachers and don't like night caching, we have never concerned ourselves with getting FTFs. We have almost 7,600 finds and only about six or eight FTFs.

Since this new one was published on a holiday we figured the usual FTF chasers were busy with family, so we decided we may as well drive out to it and see if we can capture the FTF. It was a very difficult find out in the desert north of town, and we even had to call for a bit of a hint. We finally did find it though and we were, in fact, the FTF! Yea us! We then did a few more caches in the area despite the forty mile an hour winds and ended up with seven for the day. We made a stop at the Walmart on the way home and then home for the rest of the evening.

We have now reached the three week mark on our stay here in Indio. We have a little more than a week left here at the Indian Wells RV park and then another week at the FMCA Western Area rally over on the Date Festival grounds. We will close out this chapter and get it published and be back after the rally with the next episode. Until next time remember, life is too short to be unhappy and to think about the past. Be happy with everything that you have and live like there's no tomorrow. See ya soon.