Moving on Out, More Familiar Territory, Meeting up with Friends

Up before the sun at 7:30 on Wednesday, Dec. 20^th. Both of us. Bill made his coffee and I hit the pavement. Just a short walk this morning as we wanted to get on the road ‘again’. We didn’t dawdle although we caught up with most of our blogger friends on our laptops.

Walking the streets for the last time this year

Bill got cleaned up and took the 2 bins of recycling out to the road. Pick up day will be Friday so we’ve asked the neighbor, Patrick’s wife we think, if they would be so kind to bring the empty bins in for us. Otherwise, we would feel bad leaving 2 full bins for Rose and George to deal with in the new year when they returned.

this is the fellow on the corner who is installing the pool
on December 20th!

I did the quick wash too while he had cereal and we went through the well-known motions of last minute pack ups and check lists. It was 9:30 when we were pulling out and 51F in the warmth of a totally blue sunny sky. Some days I can’t help but wonder how we got so lucky and then I remember and say a silent “thank you” to the powers that be.

Bill was optimistic this morning and put on his shorts and I know once we’re set up at our destination, I will be doing the same thing. We are travelling approximately 3 hours today, 165 miles to Winterhaven, Ca, one of our AOR membership parks. We love this park and visited it twice last winter with our Ontario friends.

Our drive through Parker Dam

Today, we are meeting up with George and Suzie, from Our Awesome Travels  for the first time this trip at Pilot Knob RV Resort. We are pleased to be able to spend Christmas with these guys again this year. They have assisted us a lot in this fulltime lifestyle. Already, 20 minutes into our drive, I am removing my hoody and the temperature has risen 8 degrees. Perfect!

this view is breathtaking

We drove I-95S from Lake Havasu City, through Parker Dam and Parker past all that gorgeous scenery again. I refrained from going crazy with my camera this morning. Been there, done that but I had to take a few. When both GPS’ told us to turn right onto I-95, Bill was temporarily confused thinking it was taking us through California but soon remembered a turn he’d forgotten.

You will have to check out his next post where he continues to rate the roads we travel on. Just before 11 am and it is warming up quickly. I know there could be a cool down even at Winterhaven for a few days but there is nothing wrong with 65F for a daytime temp and 45F for overnight. This is why we come here, to the southwest. It doesn’t have to be 75 – 85F all the time.

This same girl was working this corner in Quartzsite last winter
Oh yah, she's not real

Driving along we are listening to the 70’s on 7 on our Sirius radio. Right now Bob Segar sings Mainstreet, a nice easy going travelling song. I’ve always loved music and enjoy the 60’s a lot too. However, loving music when you are 10 and 12 (when my friends and I made guitars out of shingles and mimed the Beatles – I was Paul) is different than when you are 15 – 20.

Yah I’m talking about listening to the sweet 70’s music while dancing your brains out at a small-town arena played by a popular local band. Wow! That was indeed a flashback. Once the late 70’s opened the door to disco, I refused to budge and continued playing the Beatles, Hollies, the Who, Bob Segar, Bob Dillon, Sonny and Cher. Yah. Good times, good tunes.

driving past the LTVA area we parked at last winter

At 11 we were sliding through Quartzsite and noticed that the BLM spot at Plomosa Road still has only a couple or three rv’s on site. The spot next to it had quite a few more, can’t recall the name of that boondocking spot. 

Quite a few boondockers in here

We drove for another 40 minutes and Bill pulled into a spot where a dilapidated old building was. We believe this to be the place where you used to be able to get great burgers. According to Gayle and John but it has been closed since before last winter. 

Pit stop and leg stretch

All we needed was a pit stop and to stretch all 8 legs. When Bill went into the Suite he noticed the inverter wasn’t on so thought I’d forgot to push the button. I know I did so now we realize there is a problem. What next? Hopefully it is just a fuse.

This is the turn towards Imperial Dam

Back on the road it wasn’t long that we entered the Yuma Proving Grounds and Bill spotted the Radar Blimp used to detect low-flying aircraft from Mexico. It looked to Bill that they were in the process of lowering it. I couldn’t get my cameras to focus on it with the spattered windshield and bright sun in the background.

We’ve had confirmation from Suzie as to where they’ve situated themselves in the park so we’ll try to get in the same general area so Happy Hours are close. 😊 We need to see if there are trees and which way we need to park to get the morning and/or afternoon sun. 

Colourful fields of red and green cabbage

As we got close to Yuma we started seeing the familiar fields of cauliflower and cabbage and what is that? A field of chives or green onions? We love the way they ‘do’ irrigation here and their perfect hills of dirt with rows of growth in various stages is ingenious. It was too hard to get pictures while we were motoring along.

Seeing the workers along this field with nothing growing yet
makes me wonder what they are all doing?
I like how 'outhouses' are provided

We arrived at Pilot Knob around 12:30 and got a spot at the end of a row facing the west. We are 2 sites from George and Suzie, which is perfect! Because we were parked between two small but bushy trees, I walked up to the office and asked for them to send the maintenance crew down to trim them for us. Our slides went out but in the wind could end up scratched. It wasn’t too long before Mary and Loyal came and took care of the branches for us.

With that done and once we were both set up and satellites working George and Suzie joined us for our first Happy Hour together since August. We missed them and fell into our regular chit chat as if there had never been a lapse. Clemson wasted no time settling on Suzie’s lap either.

The sun began to drop after we’d been sitting for a while and we said our goodbyes before 5. Tonight, we had Ballpark hot dogs for supper and they hit the spot. We still have leftover strawberry cheesecake for dessert and Suzie and George gave us a small date nut loaf from the Arizona Market to try. We are anxious to try it and see if it compares to the loaf from the China Date Ranch.

Site 79

From this angle you can see George and Suzie parked behind us
two rows over

Happy Hour!

We cleaned up dishes and I zipped out a couple of times to snap pictures of the sunset and pretty sky. I sat and finished my post for the day and downloaded pictures. Bill was surprised when he went online and saw that our CPP’s and his OAS had been deposited early. Woohoo! Merry Christmas!

At 4:00 the sun starts it's descent

Bill watching me watch him while he is watching supper

Reflecting back on this day, it feels good to leave one special place for another. The bonus here being we have friends close by for two weeks for the first time since we left home. Plus, we will have someone we know to spend Christmas with. Tomorrow, we will be up and on our way to Los Algodones in the morning to see our dentist.

And even here, the sunsets are stunning

and Good night from Pilot Knob RV Resort

I hope you’ve enjoyed your day as well. Thank you for stopping in to see where we ended up today. All comments are appreciated.