Heading Further South, Goodbye to Friends, New Park

I woke up on Friday, Feb. 1^st around 5:20 and once more, Bill was up. Clemson jumped off the bed to have his morning piddle before coming back to sleep some more with Mom. I dozed but not deeply and got up around 6:30. I made my tea and joined Bill at our laptops. Shortly after 7 I headed out for my last walk around the area and got a couple of miles in. What a beautiful morning! The sky is clear and it was registering 50F already.

I chatted with a lady walking her 2 large dogs and she wanted to warn me, because she sees me alone each morning, of the ‘men’ on the grounds. I’ve never felt fear even in the early morning light but she pointed out a ‘pervert’s’ trailer in particular. I have walked past it many times and never seen anyone but heeding her advice (since I didn’t have a Glock like she does) I walked back the main road until I cleared his rv. I thanked her for the advice and left it at that.

A pretty sunrise this morning

Me and My Shadow

Hands up!!

Oh never mind, you look harmless

Back home, Bill had showered and I began making bacon and eggs before getting cleaned up myself. As usual, we were all packed up early and Bill was hooking up around 9:30. Once everything was ready, I walked over to say goodbye to Tom and Deb when Suzie walked over. Woops! I forgot to help Bill with the rear lights so had to attend to that duty first. Sometimes it is a distraction when others are around but this was on me. I walked away too soon. 😊

And Deb was out snapping photos when I returned from my walk

A normal brekky, the bacon was delicious today for some reason

We said goodbye to everyone individually, hugs all around, and made sure we had contact information for our new friends, Ken and Kim. You never know who we’ll run into and where but at least for these two, we’ve made tentative plans to meet up with them while in the Yuma area. Bittersweet for sure, but it is time and the four of us are ready to get into a full-service park for a while.

Just people with blue boys in the dump line ahead of us

A little white water tower

Some of our plans didn’t work out this year, at least not the way we’d first planned, but we’re sticking close to plan and making the best of it. We left our site before 10 and stopped to dump our tanks. That didn’t take long as there were only 3 in line ahead of us and they had blue boys only. Soon enough we were on I-95S and arrived without incident just a few minutes before noon at Sundance RV Park. It was a bit of a rigmarole upon checking in, they kept adding extra charges for this that and the other.

You gotta take a picture of the tanks at Yuma Proving Grounds
when you pass through

It is just an unwritten rule of the southwest

We know we're in Yuma when we see fresh veggies in the field and workers picking

The sites are close together and it took some jig jagging but eventually we both got in, and we got set up. It took no time to find the satellite for this are and it just felt good knowing we didn’t care how much tv we watched. I had made lime Jell-O yesterday and blended the cream cheese and heavy cream but didn’t get them mixed together before leaving this morning. That was one of the first things I did when we were set up. Now there are more 'good for us' dessert treats in the fridge for evening enjoyment. I took 2 over for Rob and Pat to try, since I know they like this creamed Jell-O too.

It is a nice park

I sat out with Clemson for a while and then at his supper time, came inside so he could eat. True to form, for me, I took my camera after cleaning the lenses and went for a walk around the park. I just wanted to poke into buildings before the office closed and see what I could find about the goings on. There is a 50’s/60’s dance tonight and it is $5 each. I’m not sure if we’ll feel up to it anyway, not likely tonight. We’ll probably be able to hear the music from our site.

Here is the park tour that I took
24 hour pool and hot tub
exercise room
large laundry room
sewing room

bocce ball lanes 5 or 6
woops, I got the pool twice
office and ballroom area
Card room

I walked to the Bocce Ball court and back to the outdoor heated pool (yes!), the pool and table shuffleboard room, the exercise room, the quilt and craft room before returning to the Suite. Some clouds have moved in but the winds are still registering 0 mph and the temperature is 72F. Now that is really nice, let me tell you. I took my book outside and read in the shade for a while. Pat is suffering from a nasty earache today so we didn’t worry about Happy Hour today. I hope she feels better tomorrow.

There are 3 or 4 bookshelves spread around this room

I loved this corner
It reminded me of someone
Quilt Diva, if you read the same blogs I do
You should have no problem thinking of the same person

For me, I just had a headache after we arrived. We had eaten a good breakfast but it was around 8:00 so I was probably just feeling hungry. Bill and I had a snack of cheddar cheese which is a good fat filler and I had cut a couple of pieces of my Christmas cake. That didn’t help with the headache but I put off taking an Advil thinking it would go away on its own. I went out with my book and sat in the sun at the back of the Suite beside Black Beauty. It was nice until about 5 when the cooler air moved in.

Prickly pear cactus just before or after blooming

this might be the park supervisor, making sure we're parked correctly

Bill came out and put his wind vane up on the roof and then his flag pole up. Tomorrow he’ll get our solar lights out. He picked up a cold somewhere and is sniffling and talking in a lower sexier voice than normal. Luckily, we have some DayQuil in the cupboard so that gives him some relief for a few hours at a time. I hope no one else got it from him and he’ll try to keep from passing it along to Rob and Pat. How the devil do you pick up a cold in the desert?

Bill placing his wind vane on the roof

At 5, I made myself a cup of tea and updated our grocery list. It is getting longer and longer. Tomorrow morning, we need to get to Fry’s. As Rob says, “Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboards are pretty bare”. That is in both of our units. I started some battered fish in the convection oven and some shoestring fries in the air fryer. They should have both taken about the same amount of time, 20 minutes. When the fries were done, the fish appeared to be ready. It could have used another few minutes but it wasn’t too bad and we ate it anyway.

Fish should have been cooked a bit more but the fries were great!

Dishes were done by 6:45 and we sat in front of the tv. Well, first I worked on my post for today. This was a typical moving day. It went well and we managed to get things set up easily enough. For dessert, we had some lime Jell-o and a cup of strawberry/raspberry tea from Old Albuquerque.

Strawberry/Blueberry tea

Could see more of these at this park

That's okay, I like watching an air show anytime

We had a good day and found a warmer location than it was in Quartzsite. It is at least 5 perhaps 7 degrees warmer here in Yuma, Az. I hope your day was a good one too.

Our sites are a nice size

Thank you for stopping by!

Last Day in the Real Desert, Last Day of the Month, Night Flying

It was 6:45 when I woke up on Thursday, Jan. 31^st.  I had been dreaming for a long time and was happy to wake from those. Not bad dreams, just unpleasant ones. I was surprised to see that Bill was already up and I hadn’t heard a peep. When I went downstairs with him, he had been up since before 5. Oh my! Someone will be having a snooze today for sure!

Good morning!
Obviously, our little 15 year old camera needs cleaning

 Sitting there with Bill and seeing the sky light up for this last day, I felt a bit lazy. I didn’t get out for my walk, instead I sat trying to use up our data. This month we were sitting pretty with 10 gb remaining on the last day of the month. Unheard of. We’ve done so well but now I want to use it since with our plan, it doesn’t roll over. Since today was our last day, Bill, Rob, Pat and I drove into Quartzsite for one last kick at the cat.

Speaking of pretty, the sky was beautiful this morning
The moon disappeared in the pink

Yahooie Louie! I was thrilled when Bill said ‘your tent is open, dear’. Rada Cutlery is certainly entitled to a day off after the rush over the last few days and that is exactly what the owner indicated as he uncovered tables. His kids work for him and they all needed a break. I found the plastic handled 2 cup measuring cup and the 3 little serving dishes I wanted. Then I found another 4 pack of scrubbies that we use for dishes as well as some bag clips to subsidize the few we already have.

The clouds were pretty moving across the sky as we drove into Quartzsite

I only bought one other thing and that was a homemade hand towel to hang on our freezer door handle. I was very happy about the $2, I couldn’t make them for that considering my time and frustration. I was happy that someone else did it for me. Now I have 3 nice ones in dark colours so I don’t have to worry about stains either. We went to Discount Solar and Satellite Advantage, not in this order.

These hand towels are really nice for $2

After Bill and Rob had found what they wanted in town, Pat and I walked to Quiet Times where I picked up some post cards and she found an ornament that she liked. We all spent a little bit and came home……….happy campers. LOL It was 11 and time for a coffee and for us, brunch. I made us my favourite omelette on toasted rye bread. Yum. Bill vacuumed out our sliding drawer in the garage while it was cooking inside.

Ken was playing on the roof next door
Debating the installation of his tilt kit for the panels

After dishes, he set about packing things away outside and I began the ritual inside. As I put things away, I dusted away some of the desert dust. I boiled water for another dish of Creamy Jell-o, this time Lime, and set it in the fridge to set. Kim and Ken came over for a tour of the Suite, which everyone is happy to do. Show off their home. Kim has offered up a few handy ideas that she is learned in their rv’ing travels and I’m always open to different ways to do things. The big thing was to find a place for the ‘down the road, possible, maybe, a good chance Insta Pot’. 😊

It was a peaceful walk with no traffic at this time of day
one truck met me and a 4 x 4 passed me
It was a hot afternoon at 75F

This is more what you think of in the desert
The washes get so dry, they flake

I could actually pick the dusty pieces up in my hand

I finished what I was doing and Bill had the most things put away too. Lowering the solar panels, Weber put to bed, portable panel tucked away and the weather/wind vane down off the roof. Since I missed my morning walk, at 2:30 I slipped out for one leaving Bill in his chair having a snooze with Clemson.  When I returned the back way, Suzie was sitting outside at their coach so I asked if Happy Hour was at their place.

It was a windy day - gusts to 20 mph at times
Last picture of these mountains this year 

It was their turn, in a way, since we’d not been there yet. I poured myself a drink and Bill got up to do the same before taking our chairs over. The sun was beautiful and even with the wind, my shorts and t-shirt was all I needed. By 4, the sun would disappear behind a cloud and I’d notice a change in temperature but it wasn’t until 5 that I walked back and changed into long pants and grabbed my hoody. I made a toast for the ‘last happy hour here together for this season’.

Last Happy Hour of the season at La Posa South
We've had fun with these guys

Bill and I had planned to go to the Thursday night light flyers at the Quartzsite RC Flying club. We discussed supper and the time to leave as well as the wind speed. Pat and Rob expressed an interest in going as well so we decided on Carl’s Jr. for supper. That’s easy! We were in the truck around 6 and Bill drove to the field on the north end of town.

Pretty wispy skies during happy hour

It was a slow start but eventually more flyers showed up. The only picture I successfully got was one of a Nightvision that came from the factory with internal lights built in. It was neat! 

And on the way out of La Posa South, the sky was putting on a show

This is a great venue for the flyers
Sponsored by the town with paved runways and their
$10 membership fee gives them enough to place fencing, tables
and a shelter for events

This little plane was lit up from the inside

The pictures didn't work out when the planes
were any distance away
The led strip lights were so bright, they just blurred

There was one plane that went up and immediately after it got high in the air, the lights went out. Needless to say, the pilot lost sight of it (as did us spectators) and it went down in the brushes. A ‘posse’ of 6 or 7 people went out with flashlights to search for it. It was found it but it was damaged beyond repair.

Perfect night - the wind died right off

Cute! Have plane will travel

There were a couple of other mishaps in the calm night air, the wind had died right down by this time, so it just wasn’t the night to be flying for some. There were a few that got up and had really nice lights. We enjoyed watching them until about 7:15 and we loaded up to head to Carl’s Jr. 

Single Western Cheeseburger combo

I hadn’t eaten there yet this winter and I don’t think Pat ever had. We ordered Western Burgers, singles and doubles, with fries and I enjoyed every bite. With full tummies, we drove home. Bill started the genny to give our batteries a boost before bedtime. We are always concerned about our residential fridge on a cloudy day.

A nice shot from the flying field

This was a fun day and another bittersweet one. We are looking forward to our park stay starting tomorrow but as always, sad to leave the desert and our friends. We’ll see most of them again before we head for home (yikes! I can’t believe that is on the tips of our tongues!) so that makes the goodbye easier to say. I hope you have had a good day as well.

Thank you for your visit to my blog today. I love hearing from you!