Happy Hallowe'en!

Quartzsite, Az

On Saturday, Oct. 31st what was that we heard when we woke up at 6:10? Huh, nothing!! It is so quiet here. It was pretty quiet in Yuma Lakes RV Resort but there were chickens on a farm just over the fence and you know what that means. A crowing rooster, just like home.  🤭🐓

Good morning!

Bill and Gibbs went out for their morning walk and I just wasn't tired enough to go back to sleep. I did see out my window that the sky was brewing up for a nice looking sunrise. I asked Bill to take a picture but he didn't think it was photo-worthy. 🤷‍♀️ When I got up at 6:30, it had improved so I got my shots.

On the favourite list.

I slipped on my earth shoes and off I went for a walk. I need to get my bearings in here, so I know where I can walk to get my steps in and to be sure I find my way back. 🤣 I know that may sound funny to those of you who have never been out in the desert BUT.......it's very real when everything looks the same. I was lost once at La Posa South years ago and won't soon forget my heart rate!

Listening to my Bluetooth speaker
from Youtube on my phone with my coffee.
First time and I like the sound.

I played it safe and walked straight out the main path (they aren't exactly roads) until I got to about 1/2 a mile and turned around. Bill was getting ready to go to the flying field, a little further this year --------well about 11 miles. He wanted to see who was there and re-unite with his friends.

After lunch, we drove into town.
I've always liked this sign.
There will be a 'last' picture with it
in March.

You know, doing the Presidential duties, meeting and greeting.  I know he's been looking forward to that. Gibbs and I stayed home and enjoyed our new 'home'. I straightened the cupboards over the desk, brought my homemade books out and then brought my quilling supplies out from under the bed. 😍

Tyson Wells hasn't blossomed yet.
On the right, in about a month,
that will be tent city with vendors.

I have a new request from Robin, since she and Andrew have bought their house back in Saskatchewan. This time it will not be a rental but a new bnb, there is need out there. She needs a picture of a train but I'll wait for her picture of some in the area before I start. That'll be fun!

Two hours after I put my feeders out,
this guy showed up......at each one.

I tuned my radio to YouTube and turned on my bluetooth speaker, sitting here. Except for the ads, it was great but I'm too cheap to pay for an upgrade that avoids them. Bill returned by 10:30, filled me in on who was there and sat with his book until noon. I believe there was a short snooze in there too.

Gibbs and I cut through the
fairly deep wash to the west.

We had egg salad sandwiches for lunch and just before 1 pm, drove into town. I had a pack of frozen rhubarb for Sue at Park Place RV Park, a book to drop in their library plus, we wanted to see them again! It was a wonderful warm welcome, making us sad to not be staying......kind of. The quiet out here is tough to beat.

A special labyrinth left from
past rv'ers.

Susan and John also shared hugs, we chatted for a while, I put 2 pieces in Susan's Hallowe'en puzzle and we said 'see ya soon' to their invites to stop by any time. 💕 That's so nice, they are special people. I will be going to Pokeno and Poker Pool very soon! 

A view across the desert.
The clouds are heavy in spots
and that is Palm Canyon off in the distance.

We drove around the park on our way out and saw Bill's pilot friend, Joe. We caught up there before heading home to Gibbs. There is rain in those clouds, somewhere, and although it is 80F/26.6C, the breeze is welcome. We don't mind rain, we love the smell, as long as it doesn't persist and get heavy.

I started working on some Christmas cards and I must tell you. It is really nice sitting here with my 'stuff' at a place where I don't have to move everything to eat. There is room on this large desk, even on my half, to have what I need laid out and still be able to make room for my laptop. 

Some action up there

For supper, we had baked chicken thighs and kale salad and it was all very good. While it was baking, Gibbs and I went out for a brief 'nature' walk for him. We were done eating and clean up by 6. Because the sky was clouded over early, no sunset was to be had. 

The decision.
I wonder if he could smell the rain
before it arrives?

Funny thing is, the rain was supposed to arrive first at 3.....then 4:45......then 5.......but still nothing. 🤷‍♀️ Oh well, we have moved chairs and his bed under shelter for when it happens. We had no trick or treaters tonight, which is a good thing since we didn't buy any goodies. We knew we'd end up eating them ourselves!

No costume for me but
I did colour this cardboard mask
to wear for Sue and Susan.
Best I could do!

We had another warm day and the evening will be mid 60's/18.3C so it could be a sticky sleep. I hope you had a good day, like we did! It was great to see our Park Place friends again. 

Supper was good!
Gibbs even got some of my chicken.

We'll be watching some tv tonight but may need to run the genny tomorrow if it is a rainy day.

Good night!

Thank you for your visit. (Update: the rain started at 6:30 and oh! I love the wet desert smell.)

Wheels On the Move

 Quartzsite, Arizona (sorry, lots of pictures)

On Friday, Oct. 30th I was up and out the door at 6:50. It was a humid, cloudy, 72F/23C. I don't walk fast and today would not have been a good morning to push it. I went across the back side of the park again to the road along the field, I met a couple of other morning walkers along the way.

Good morning!
My walk was uneventful so
I took some selfies.

I told myself to be serious this time.
It's hard, I'm usually the jokester.

Back at the Suite we switched into full packup.mode and by 8:15, we were pulling out. Familiar road, US95, north and south, we've traveled it often, both ways. Along the route, we had some construction at the 'big guns' near the Yuma Proving Grounds. We knew, last spring, that this was going to happen.

A nice day to move.
Bill is hooking up.

Today, there is evidence of a roundabout going in there and one along further at another cross road. No guns today but we did see the Aerostat Radar blimp sitting on the ground. It would have been fun to stand next to it, it's huge! 

Lots of sights on our drive today.
About 20 workers in the field.
A field full of cotton bales.
Irrigation in full force.

And across the desert terrain,
in front of Castle Dome Rock,
this cool radar blimp.
Grounded.

We arrived in the Quartzsite area around 9:45 and pulled into La Posa South LTVA.(long term visitor area)

Lots of teddy bear Chollas and
Saguaros in the landscape.

There is one inspection station on
US95 before we get to Quartzsite.
No big deal, always nice guards.

Here, we purchased a pass for $180 allowing us to park in any LTVA for up to 6 months. We've never done this before, always just purchasing 2 week passes for $40. 

One goes on the truck
and one goes on the rv.
It gains us entry to a lot of LTVA's
and services.
What's that? $1 per day? 😀

We don't plan on parking in the area but with a sticker we can come from anywhere else and get free water, tank dump and access to trash dumpsters.

No judgement - some may be
homeless, others just looking for cheap living.
You see all kinds of setups, most
with some kind of solar panels.

One can assume the 3 in the top photo
are camping together. Maybe short term?
Maybe not.
The bottom one is interesting. A place to park
the vehicle, sheltered from the heat and
maybe a tent on the other side.
Notice the solar panel?
It's impressive how they make do.

We drove back south to La Paz Rd to the Roadrunner BLM (bureau of land management) area. This area has NO water, dump or garbage access but it gets less congested, is further from town and you are only 'really' allowed to park here free for 14 days and then you have to leave for another area. 🤷‍♀️

Gibbs had to bark at this creature,
to protect Daddy and I.

When we checked with the host, Bruce, he assured us that with the LTVA pass we just purchased, we did not have to move at all, which was great news. We didn't want to have to pull up stakes mid December! We were relieved and drove back to find the spot Ken and Kim usually park in.

Woops! Looks like someone beat us to it.
🤔

That was a bit of a crap shoot as it looks like their fav spot was taken. We did our best to find a good spot for 2, 3, 4 rv's and we think they'll be fine with where we've chosen. 🫣🤷‍♀️ Turns out, this is where they parked last year, Kim and Ken were going back and forth with us, comparing pictures.

No worries.
We moved across the wash and found
a nice big area.
Bill got the panels tilted and we were settled.

It didn't take us long to start getting things in place. It felt heavenly, knowing we didn't have to move again until the end of March. It was lunch time, so I made us each a coffee and we stopped to eat. 

Gibbs is off leash, for now, and only during the daytime when we are out with him. If neighbours move in close with another dog or cat, we'll probably have to reign him in and put him on his rope. He doesn't mind. He's a good little camper, just sometimes a noisy one!🐶🤣

Inside the Suite, I removed the 
goodies we purchased from the wintery.

Bill went up on the roof and tilted panels, we are on a west/east angle, to try and get the benefit of late morning and afternoon sun. I like the position, we have a lovely Saguaro sporting a peace sign right on our east side. Friendly kind of fellow. 💕 And my favourite cactus of all.

What? Water?
with all that wine?
🤷‍♀️I don't like to drink alone.

Our closest neighbours are about 100' away from our back right corner and they are the only ones visible. Bill took his plane, the one resting on our new 'desk', outside to Black Beauty and we moved everything else that was stored under it for the trip down. Now we can see and use it properly!

It's wonderful!

I went outside when Bill stopped around 2:30. He needed a snooze and Gibbs agreed. I took my book out to the patio and finished it. The sun was breaking through the clouds by then and the winds, which were a bit gusty earlier (announcing rain around the corner), have calmed down.

Gibbs sleeps on our 'new to us' mat.

I made a tea, put the awnings out and sat at the 'desk' with my laptop. *sigh* we are so happy with this arrangement. It has been a great day, not as hot here as in Yuma. Usually it is about 5° cooler. With this slight drop in temperature plus the actual forecast slipping, it should be perfect weather ahead!

I like our spot.
The friendly Saguaro and
the Indian ......still sleeping!!??

For supper, we've agreed on simple tonight. Grilled cheese sandwiches and see if we can catch Sheriff Country at a decent time. We sat together at our laptops with the sun beaming in from the west. I'm excited to get a nice sunset (🫰) over the Dome Rock mountains tonight. 

I had some leftover rice and spaghetti in the fridge so decided to have them along with our sandwich. The rice was okay for Bill but the spaghetti sauce was not good. I never noticed so much the other night, thinking it was the meatballs (which went in the garbage). Enough with the crap food!

My grilled cheese on Sola
0% carb bread was delicious!

We washed dishes by hand and sat and finished blogs. You can check Bill's out here, he's always faster than I am! 

This was a great day and we look forward to what is ahead. We'll be alone here for a while until our friends join us. The above video gives you a sneak peek of our area. Peaceful, private, all good things.

I knew it would be good!
Good night!

Thank you for coming by!

Almost Made a Move

Yuma, Arizona

It was 5:30 on Thursday, Oct, 29th when I first looked at the 'ceiling' clock. Gibbs was in a dream, down at our feet his little legs were twitching. No one moved until 6:05 and then Bill got his morning kisses and hugs from the little guy. I rolled over until 6:30.

Good morning!

Together, we sorted our full 11-day-old bag of dirty clothes. Yup, 3 loads this time. We drove up to load the machines (it's a card system) and he returned to the Suite while I carried on for my walk. I had to keep an eye on the timer so cut a few corners on the way back to the laundry.

Coming back into the park,
I turned around for a selfie.

Since we arrived, we were convinced that this site got missed when they put in the dump stations. They all seem to have a cement pad around the tube in the ground, at least the ones on this end of the park. So, our black and gray tanks were getting full, we haven't dumped for 11 days.

The discussion came up about having to hook up and pull into another site just to dump. 🤷‍♀️ We agreed that if we did that, we may as well just pull out a day early. No argument there. However, we did want to go into Yuma again today, briefly. 

The reflections of the clouds on
the pond were stunning this morning,

When I returned from my walk, Bill was dumping our tanks. 🤔 On the east side of the Suite, almost completely buried in the sand and gravel was our dump station! Not all of them have the cement bases and when I pointed that out to him, he went looking. Yay! One more day.

One of my favourite pictures

I found a yogourt at Walmart yesterday with 9 gr of fat and bought one to taste. When it tasted pretty good, the best yet down here, we decided to go get a couple more and to pay our Sam's Club membership for one more year. It took going to a second Walmart in order to find the yogourt in stock but I'm a happy camper and I hope Gibbs likes it. 

Good luck!

We popped back into Harbor Freight as well to check out a work table to see if it would work for me in the 'house'. The construction of the table was solid and the price excellent. I loved it. However, with the drawers under the bench, I wouldn't be able to sit with a chair so I passed on it.

More horsies.....and a Carriage that I
tried to sell Robin on. 🤭🤣

Back home, it was almost lunch time so we took care of that and then watched the Survivor episode from last night. For some unknown reason, the Starlink was not connecting again to the tv, my laptop or my phone. Bill, in typical 'Bill style' figured it out and all is well again.🥰

Gibbs and I had an afternoon walk
bringing me over my steps goal of 6,000.
This White Oleander bush is in bloom.
Lots of p-mail, Mom.

It was only 1:30 so I sat and read for a while trying to decide about the pool. There we both go again! Dropping off to sleep. The books are doing it to us, the sitting around. There was a fair bit of cloud cover today and although it was hot at 86F/30C, I didn't feel the urge to go swimming today.

If there was a pretty 'after sunset' tonight,
I missed it while we were eating.

We sat together and just quietly enjoyed our last day. Around 5, we turned the a/c off and opened windows. Gibbs and I went for a walk and the breeze was lovely, feeling like a weather change is coming in. We're not expecting rain until Sunday, here and a slight chance in the Q area.

Another sweet photo.
The Gila Mountains lit up in
their pink dressing.

Bill packed up the Weber Q and went up to fill our 2 water bottles. $1 for 5 gallons is a sweet deal here, we go through a lot, Gibbs and I and our Keurig. 🤭 We both had showers this afternoon and I vacuumed the Suite. 

The windows inside didn't get done but I'll have time to take care of that after we settle.

For supper, we had fish, fries and onion rings. Oh my, they were all good. Even Gibbs enjoyed his white fish with his kibble.

I captured part of the sunset.
🤷‍♀️

After getting the pots washed, we were back at the books and my blog. I'm going to watch the episodes of CIA that I missed tonight and search for Ponies and there was another series I started last spring. 🤔 This was another great day, we've enjoyed the time here at Yuma Lakes.

Best onion rings yet!
Good night!

Thank you for joining us!

Filling the Larder, which Seemed Sparse

Yuma, Arizona

On Wednesday, Oct. 28th we are tiptoeing to the end of another month. The ghosts and goblins are just around the corner. I do miss the children on Hallowe'en but ever since we started this journey, we don't get the 'trick or treating' at our door. Next year will be different, maybe!

Good morning!
(across a dusty field or a dirty lens)

I wanted to thank my commenters who responded yesterday to my post. I wasn't sure how it would be received by readers but on an otherwise boring day, I didn't want to pul y'all to sleep! Interesting, how many others are in the same boat.....well, pool or ocean. 🤭 So, thank YOU!

Lots of action in the sky overhead.
We are in a flightpath from the Yuma airport
and have seen ospreys, passenger jets and a variety
of Marine Corps aircraft.
Yuma MCAS handles roughly 80%
of the US MC air to ground aviation training due
to its favorable weather and 2.8 million acres
of nearby restricted airspace and ranges.

I was up just before 7 and slipped out the door a few minutes later. Now that I've started walking, I didn't want to skip a day and lost track - again. Hopefully at the blm in Quartzsite, I can continue. I think I can, I think I can. Remember that little steam engine?

The field west of the park has been plowed
and planted. This type of irrigation system is seen
in many farmer locals around the city.

It was a nice walk to the opposite (west) end of the park, so I cut through the fence to the road along the field and came up into the entrance the way we arrived on Saturday. I've walked it before, years ago when we first began coming to this park. Then, I was curious, now, I just wanted to go further.

Walking from the west, back into the park
entrance, I went up onto an area for this view.
That is an unnamed privately stocked pond
and I've often seen fisherman casting lines here
on my walks.,

I can't say enough about the agriculture farms here, you're probably tired of hearing it. They are neat, organized, very attentive and seem to have it all worked out. There is always something growing in various stages. Plow, harrow, seed, water, harvest, over and over. It's wonderful to see the healthy vegetables along the roadsides.

This just might be my favourite
picture of the day.

Things to remember about the park.
The decor is very well thought out.

Bill and I had decided to go into town today and do some shopping. First, I messaged Lion Brian back home asking him to get our C the A tickets for Friday. He will be taking care of that for us all winter..........'until we win' he says. 😂 Then we got ready to head out.

Right down to the naturally
formed horses that linger around the
fence lines.
Donna, this one reminds me of Tonka,
even though your stick horse had a paper
bag head and human legs! 💕

It is 'government pension payday' and we were getting low on a number of things. Meat, being one thing, since we pushed hard before we left to eat up a lot of it. We left Gibbs in charge in a nice cool Suite and started by fueling up.

Our Mudflap app worked ✅, and we filled up for $6.09/gallon. As our friends from B.C. say, it's pretty sad that we think that is a good deal! Oh well, we need it and take any discounts we can find. With prices so high this year in particular, every penny saved, helps. (what is a penny anyway?) Oh! Something to play Pokeno with, right.

Of course, Harbor Freight.
We both enjoyed the walk through
and the purchases!

From there we went to Harbor Freight, Bill was looking for a couple of things and they will actually serve as his Christmas gift this year. I also found a few things for my stocking. That's just how we do things in our family. 🤣

Target to the Allpoints ATM machine. We can withdraw from our US account without paying a fee. We each w/d some funds and in case you're interested, Bill paid $1.43.68 for every dollar he transferred across border at 7 am and I paid $1.43.48 for what I transferred at 8 am. It dropped that quickly. 🥴🤔

We discussed our options. Did I need to go Marshall's? Hmm, it has taken preference over Ross's over the last couple of winters. It is neater and I seem to find nicer items there. I don't need to spend anything so we went to Michael's instead. 

Even driving in and out of the city,
businesses on one side here and fields
of agriculture on the other.

Bill didn't find anything but I found a couple of wooden 'project-to-be' items. Again, maybe Christmas gifts. Lastly, we drove to Walmart and spent a good bit of money. When we got home, around 1, we had lunch and proceeded to relax (and doze off) in our chairs.

Bill is starting a J.A. Jance book and I will read the 3rd Degree by James Patterson that he just finished. Around 2:45, I walked up to the pool and met the same lady who was there yesterday. She lives here full time and goes everyday so I just missed her the first day I went.

The pool felt a bit cooler today but
refreshing for a couple of dips after the
heat of sun.

More swimming back and forth, more floating and just enjoying it all while we're here. I read a few chapters before saying goodbye to her and walked back home. Bill was deep into his book and Gibbs had been sleeping beside him in my chair. 

After my pool time, I separated the meat
and found room in the freezer.
That's about 20 meals for $40 US.
We can't grumble about that.
I've never seen 'Extra Meaty' ribs back home!
and for only $13.42......3 meals.

I played my afternoon games and separated the ribs, sausages and chicken thighs into meal size freezer packs. At 5:30, Bill grilled supper. Bacon cheeseburgers on the menu tonight. They were very good, cooked perfectly. I never have that success so many times in a row! 

It was another hot day in the neighbourhood, 88F/31.1C and heading for a drop to mid 70's/20's for next week. That will be quite nice in the desert with no a/c. 🥰 Our overnights have been in the 60's/high teens so great for sleeping too.

Bill's burger is still gre--ea---t!

Because of the time change, Survivor starts at 5 pm rather than 8 pm and we are never ready to watch it that early. So, we'll catch up with our books and watch tv tomorrow night. This was a great day.

Good night!

Thank you for your visit!