To Market to Market, Slow, Perfect Day, More New Friends!

It was 4 am Saturday, Dec. 30^th when I was first woken and that was from Bill telling me that I was having a bad dream. I snapped out of it quickly and tried to grab hold of what the dream was about before losing it. Strange, not sure where it came from but at least I remember it. Weird. After mumbling a thank you, I was a long time dropping off again.

Our site from a different angle

I heard Bill get up a bit later for a nature call and then I finally stretched and crawled out at 7:30. Clemson needed out too.

The rv's off in the distance are on blm land

I offered the little bum a walk but he had fallen into a hole on the couch in his bed and wasn’t budging. Hmpf! Well, fine then, I went by myself just around the perimeter today. I’d promised Bill last night to wake Bill at 8.

The mountains to the north are pink in the sunrise

Today, we had plans to drive into the Arizona Marketplace in Yuma with George and Suzie. We love  the Arizona market. 

So, after Bill showering and me doing a wash and grabbing a bite to eat, we left the park around 9:30. It was our turn to drive so Black Beauty got a leg stretch as well today. Traffic was light this morning and we were entering the grounds by 9:55.

Need bolts or screws?

You name it, they pretty much got it

this is Wally's World, I think

Because we always have so much to see and so many different directions we like to go in, we agreed to split up and meet at the entrance at 11:30. Even Bill and I have different ideas of what we want to look at so we parted too. 

Need hoodies? tee shirts? they got it here

I found things as I perused in and out of different vendors under the tent cover. For the Suite Bill and I chose 4 step covers. Ours needed replacing badly.

Our new step covers and I've already got them dusty!

I picked up an Arizona decorated bag for holding and dispensing plastic grocery bags. I’ll secure a Command hook under the sink where it can hang.

Grocery bag dispenser with a twist

So much neater than my usual ‘cram and jam’ just to have some bags on hand. I found some bath poufs, fingerless mini gloves for my morning walks and a shoulder purse. 

An actual shoulder bag will be so much more comfortable

Oh, and then as I was about to leave I got my hands on another nice sun hat. Happy camper, this gal is!

My new sun cover

And modelled for you
Not as wide a brim as my pool hat

We were home by 12 noon with the expectation of meeting a couple of blog followers (Blurkers – and I mean that in a totally GOOD way) after lunch. Bill was feeling not too bad this morning and the outing was probably doing him good. I opened a can of mushroom soup and we shared that for lunch after which Bill and Clemson went up for a snooze.

We saw this cool little tow vehicle in the parking lot as we left
Love the writing
"I Go where I'm towed to"
just a good child, right?

At 1:30 I took Clemson for a short walk, the one he bummed out of this morning, and after returning him, I went to the puzzle room. Bill was still snoozing. It was when I was up there chatting with my sister, Donna, back home when I got an email from my other sister, Gayle. Gayle and John left Chatsworth, Ontario yesterday early afternoon to head south. This was their year to host Christmas so they remained home until after the big meal with their family.

I hadn’t heard from them and was a bit concerned. The email informed us that they have been dealing with some snow and had to stop at Lansing, Mi for the night in a motel. Please keep them in your prayers as they too make the late trek to a warmer winter destination. Thank you! I think tonight will be a St. Louis motel and then hopefully an open window for them to make a move.

Frank and Peggy

I returned at 3 when Suzie said our company had arrived at their site. Bill and I grabbed our drinks and chairs and joined them. Peggy and Frank Edgar have been following all of our blogs for quite a while. She feels she knows us quite well and guess what? She does! It is such a perk for us to hear from people who read our posts and even more thrilled if they make contact and wish to meet. What a treat!

As seems to happen often, conversation just flowed amongst the 6 of us and then Clemson joined us for a bit and grabbed some of the attention. They certainly didn’t have to, but Peggy and Frank brought us ball caps and some goodies from the Dateland Date Farm. You two are spoiling us! Thank you so much! 

Shortly after 4, Bill, who had grown quiet, needed to go back to the Suite to lay down and Clemson went with him.

Yum - we got spoiled today!

My poor sweetie, from the sound of his voice, I could tell his head must have felt like it was about to burst. I said my goodbyes around 4:30 as did our company. Bill was still sound asleep so I’m hoping when he wakes up that he will feel better again. We were planning on fish and chips for supper but nothing is written in stone.

Turns out this was my supper
Doesn't look like fish and chips

The sun is dropping in the west sky and there is no wind to rustle the leaves on the ficus. My hummers have indicated that I need to fill their feeder so must do that before they desert me forever. Tomorrow.

You know why I had to cover my wine glass

I heard Bill moving upstairs so went up to check on him at 5:30. He was thirsty and almost drank a full bottle of water and indicated that he wasn’t hungry for anything substantial. Unfortunately, he finished the buns off last night so I can’t even make him toast.

to the west

I, on the other hand, was hungry so made up a bowl of chicken salad with lettuce, onions, broccoli, tomatoes and olives. It was very good and it was something I knew Bill wouldn’t like anyway. I sat with a glass of White Zinfandel and added to my blog post for the day. Bill came down at 6:30 looking and still feeling pretty rough. 

As I cleaned up the dishes, I noticed that I was feeling a tickle in my throat and was occasionally coughing. Oh no!

to the west

I finished my post and made myself a mullien tea. My sister swears by this so I’m going to give it a shot. I've never had much success making it strong enough but I’m going to try and head this cold off at the pass. Stay tuned and I’ll let you know if it worked! Bill made himself comfy in his chair in front of the tv and I’ve noticed that his coughing has subsided.

This has been another good day in the park. With some shopping at the market, new step covers and a few other things, we are very glad we went. I’m sure we’ll go back another time this year and spend more ‘poking’ around time. It makes for a fun outing. I hope you enjoyed your day as well.

Wow! Good night 

Thank you for reading and Peggy, thank you for reaching out to meet us! Feel free to comment, I enjoy reading what you have to say.

Discovering Who Our Close Neighbours Are, Christmas Circle Friday Market, Preparing for Some Rain and Wind.

Friday, Feb. 17^th and I’m eating crow. It doesn’t taste too bad since the new arrivals are friends of ours. We were up by 7 and upon reading comments to my post last night we discover it is Lorne and Sue from A Place Called “Away”. Too funny! We feel better knowing who they are and why they parked where they did. We will do our best not to upset them.

There wasn’t much of a sunrise this morning, the clouds were too anxious to gobble up the glory. Knowing what we did from the weather guessers, we knew the sun would not last long with rain and winds on the forecast for today. This was our encouragement to get into town for the market as early as possible.

After we’d had our first coffee, Lorne wandered over to make peace, in jest of course, and we had a good chit chat catching up. The chit chat carried on longer than I thought it would so I left the men talking and came in and made my second coffee. I got ready for the drive into Borrego Springs.

The darker clouds have the sharper edges
meaning strong winds

Clemson was going to look after the house today, so we can enjoy the time more around the market. I don’t know what we need but I’ll know if and when I see it. First, we drove to the Chamber of Commerce and picked up some info of the area and a map showing us where to find the remaining metal sculptures.

From there we drove to Christmas Circle to see what the market was all about. There were about 8 tents set up with vendors selling a lot of the same fruits, vegetables and cacti that we could see. It was getting busy when we arrived around 9:15 but we found a place to park easily.

We didn’t really need anything but picked up a red onion, which is something Bill mentioned the other night for his burgers. Other than that, not much caught our eye. We met up with Tom and Deb as they started walking around to see what was offered.

From there we travelled out through town towards the Visitor Centre, stopping at the only gas station we could see to fill up our gas can for the generator. When you don’t have a choice, you pay the price they are asking even though it is ridiculous. The Visitor Centre is at the very end of Palm Canyon Road and it is a nice little set up. 

We walked around outside and took pictures of the vegetation, in an effort to learn the names of plants, trees and cacti from this area. There are trails all over this area with some leading to the campground to the north of us.

Inside we met with a couple from B.C. so we gabbed a bit there before picking up a couple of pcs. of info and an atlas of California. Up on the outside terrace you get quite a beautiful view of the mountains and over to where we are camped. All interesting stuff but we decided to forgo the videos and talks that went on inside.

When we arrived back, Bill had a sandwich and I made up a quick salad for lunch. By then, the wind had picked up to some crazy velocity so I wouldn’t be sitting out with my book. When I saw the sand blowing around across the desert I quickly put our chairs away again and closed all of our windows. Even shutting the door was a feat, I felt totally controlled by the gusts.

Found this interesting

The dead tree mentioned above

 Shortly after settling inside, we noticed our neighbours, Tom and Deb, and Lorne and Sue, arriving back in their respective tow vehicles. They are back safe and sound and we can all relax. BilI and l were keeping a bit of an eye out to see if any of their stuff was blowing away but I'm sure they secured what they could before leaving.

 

 The winds got wild and the sky looked even wilder. Before we left this morning, Lorne pointed out some clouds with sharp edges. He said he’d heard that they reflected strong winds and I guess he was right!

Just a shot of some of my 'learning' today

We read our books inside for a while and Bill managed a snooze with Clemson. Every once in a while, the wind would seem calmer and then pick up again. 

Could be a wild night. Our plan for bbq’d chicken went awash and I’m going to fry our Tilapia loins inside and serve them with a salad.

It will be a generator evening again, for a couple of hours while we top up our batteries and maybe watch a bit of tv. We have a couple of recorded programs to watch and it seems like a good night to do it. 

No rain yet, so that is good, we can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings!

the last burst of sun we'll see today

I hope you have had a great day in your environment and no storms found you. Thank you for reading, I love reading your comments.