January 31 to February 6, 2008

January 31 to February 6, 2008

Yuma, Arizona

 

Thursday ; Today was sunny and warm. MMMMM ... those pan dulce we bought in Holtville yesterday are the biggest and best Mexican pastries we've ever had. And I've had a lot of Mexican pastries. HA HA HA !

I got a late start this morning. I was sick. While I got myself started, Joanne went shopping to the Arizona Market Place. After lunch we both went shopping. Well, actually, all three of us ... Bo came along. Bo loves shopping. We returned to Arizona Market Place for a few things I needed, then went to PetsMart. WOO-HOO ... PetsMart shopping ! And flea market shopping ! Bo loves shopping at the Arizona Market Place even more than Joanne does. HA HA HA ! Then it was over to Checker Auto Parts, Lowe's, and finally, Albertsons for groceries. Back at Kofa Ko-op we spent the rest of the afternoon in the dog park. Bo played with Emma, Gypsy, Bea the Boxer, and a couple of Boston Terriers. Bo's buddies !

For supper I barbecued some Carne Asada ( Mexican marinade ) beef. After supper we watched Celebrity Apprentice.

 

Friday ; Today was a beautiful, sunny, warm, perfect "June 18" day. A great day for a Margarita party. Last night I received an e-mail from Erbon and Lorraine, who arrived in Phoenix yesterday evening in anticipation of picking up my trailer suspension parts order for me this morning. What neither they nor we were aware of, being ignorant Canadians, is that the Super Bowl is in Phoenix this Sunday. And the RV park nightly rate for Super Bowl Weekend was $160 per night ! ! ! ! ! < CHOKE > Because they only wanted to stay one night, they managed to get a site for $42, still considerably more than average for an RV site in a place like Phoenix. This morning as they were checking out, the person who had a reservation on their site for the Super Bowl Weekend was waiting for them to vacate their site. It was Willie Nelson ! And his decrepit old diesel belching, marijuana reeking, tour bus cum motorhome. HA HA HA !

We were watching with eager anticipation this morning to see if any sites in this park became vacant. Between 8:30 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. four rigs left the park. And their vacant sites were immediately filled. One of those sites went to our friends Sandy and Peachy who moved here this morning from another park. We are very concerned about the lack of available RV sites in Yuma right now. Erbon and Lorraine are arriving here tomorrow. Joanne and I argued all day about what is the best strategy tomorrow morning to try to ensure a site for Erbon and Lorraine. I had a phone conversation with Erbon around suppertime and we came to a consensus about tomorrow's strategy.

This afternoon was the park's Margarita party out on the gazebo patio beside the clubhouse. What a great time, out in the beautiful sunshine, visiting and chatting, drinking Margaritas, and munching on "pot luck" finger foods. I taught a magic trick to Monica, and another one to Pat, as a reward for each of them for being such good sport "stooges" for me during my magic show. Pat's performance of the magic trick I taught her was ... well ... pretty pathetic. HA HA HA ! But Monica mastered her trick, and spent much of the afternoon performing her trick for small groups of her friends, with much uproarious laughter. I guess a few Margaritas didn't hurt.

We took Bo for a play session in the dog park with Gypsy. What a funny pair ! They play "tug of war" with Bo's Christmas gift, a rope with a ball on it. They each grab one end, and tug. Gypsy is bigger and stronger. But Bo is way too determined to let go. He sits down with his butt on the ground, digs his feet in, clamps his jaws down on his end of the rope, and Gypsy drags him around the desert, making deep furrows in the sand like Bo is a plow. HA HA HA HA HA !

I spent the evening reconciling January's bank statements and updating my investment files.

 

Saturday ; Another perfect "June 18" day. I was up early this morning, in anticipation of Erbon's and Lorraine's arrival. And I slept poorly, worrying about the lack of available spaces in this park, and indeed most RV parks in Yuma at this time. Fortuitously, about 5 minutes before Erbon and Lorraine arrived at 8:30 A.M. a rig pulled out of the unserviced "boondock" section of the park, creating a vacancy. WOO-HOO ... a site for Erbon and Lorraine. Upon their arrival, they attempted to purchase an Escapees membership, and therefore become eligible to stay here at Kofa Ko-op. There was an administrative problem that took awhile to resolve. I had a bit of aconfrontationwith the woman working in the registration office, trying to convince her that every problem has multiple solutions. I think it was an embarrassing introduction to the Escapees organization for Erbon and Lorraine. The problem was simply and easily resolved with the assistance of one of the park’s permanent residents who is an Escapee VCR ( Volunteer Club Representative ), and able to sell memberships on behalf of the Escapees organization.

We spent the morning and afternoon visiting with Erbon and Lorraine, as well as Sandy and Peachy, Tom and Ruth-Anne, Lynn and Mischa. I hosted an “Ontario Happy Hour” at our site.

We took Bo, Emma and Gypsy to the dog park for a play session. We decided to go out for dinner, and take Erbon and Lorraine grocery shopping. Our first restaurant choice, Texas Roadhouse, had too long a line up, so we went to Hometown Buffet. Hey ... pretty good ! Although ... I thought it was very odd that a Mexican wedding party was having dinner there. I guess I never expected to see a bride in a gown at a buffet restaurant. At Fry's ( grocery store ) we tried to buy admission tickets to this weekend's Renaissance Fair, advertised as available at Fry's. None of the store clerks, nor the store's on duty manager, knew where the tickets were located. They didn't know what the price was, even if they could find them. And they didn't know what the selling procedure was, even if they could find them and knew the price. Pretty unimpressive !

 

Sunday ; Today started out sunny and warm, but the afternoon became cloudy, cool, and windy.

This morning we wanted to go the Renaissance Fair at West Wetlands Park. We invited Tom and Ruth-Anne. They didn't want to go. We invited Sandy and Peachy. Sandy wanted to go, Peachy didn't. We invited Erbon and Lorraine. Lorraine wanted to go, Erbon didn't. So we went with Sandy and Lorraine. We had been to a Renaissance Fair a couple of years ago, in Apache Junction just east of Phoenix. We thought Yuma's Renaissance Fair would be similar. Well, I guess it was sort of similar, but a lot smaller and a lot more amateur. But we had a good time. There were many vendors, but most of them were selling medieval era costumes that would mostly be of interest only to the Renaissance Fair / medieval era re-creationists. There were a couple of free stages. We wandered around the vendor displays. We had a lunch that was an interesting marriage of cultures. I hada Cajun seasoned catfish burrito. We attended four of the free stage performances. A folk music quartet, a great juggler / horrible comic, a Celtic music duo, and another juggler / comic. The second juggler / comic wasn't quite as good a juggler as the first, but at least his "shtick" wasn't as obnoxious. As the afternoon wore on, and the sun disappeared behind clouds, the temperature dropped, and the wind picked up. By the time we returned to Kofa Ko-op, it was a "desert storm", with poor visibility because of blowing sand.

We attended the park's regular Sunday evening ice cream social. We chatted for a couple of hours with Erbon and Lorraine, and Sandy and Peachy.

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and mild. This morning I drove over to RV Connection to pick up the inner bearing and race I had ordered for the trailer. That now completes my collection of spare suspension parts for the trailer. It's quite a sizeable inventory ! When I returned to Kofa Ko-op, Joanne took the truck and went shopping with Erbon and Lorraine to Wal-Mart and Walgreen's. I took a propane tank for refilling, visited with Tom and Sandy, paid my U.S.$ MasterCard by phone, and took Bo to the dog park for a play session with Gypsy.

After lunch I visited with Erbon and Lorraine until it was time for Lynn's surprise birthday party. Today was Lynn's 59th birthday. Her husband Mischa, and Ruth-Anne conspired to have a small surprise birthday party for Lynn. We had birthday cake and ice cream in their trailer. Afterwards I did the 78,000 km. inspection on Lanoire.

Erbon and Lorraine came over for supper. They brought a garden salad and a bottle of champagne to celebrate their arrival here in Yuma, our friendship, and our upcoming trip to Baja California, Mexico. We drank champagne and munched on tortilla chips with Joanne's fresh guacamole while Joanne prepared pizza. We spent the evening chatting, and laughing. Sandy came over for awhile, having returned late from another day of dental ordeal in Los Algodones.

When I went to pay for my propane refill late this afternoon I was advised that we will have to vacate our site on Friday morning. The leaseholders ( permanent residents ) of our site are returning. And since the park is full, there isn't another site to move us to, so we'll have to leave. We're paid until Thursday morning, so we'll probably depart then.

 

Tuesday ; Mardi Gras ( Fat Tuesday )

Today wassunny and warm. This morning Erbon and Lorraine joined us and we set off for some "guy stuff" shopping before heading across the Colorado River to Bard, California for date shakes. We shopped at Yuma's Bargain Warehouse, a discount warehouse of "guy stuff". I was looking for two items, Erbon was looking for one item. They had none of what we wanted. We went to Checker Auto Parts. Erbon was looking for two items. He got one of them. We drove to "old downtown", and Tuesday's weekly Farmer's Market. We wandered around, buying a bit of produce, and browsing through all the other vendors' stalls. Erbon bought some of that superb glue that I bought a few weeks ago. A stray male pit bull ran over and got into a disagreement with Bo. And Bo’s response was “okay, pal ... let’s do it !” Stupid little Terrier ! I had to grab the pit bull by the collar and haul it away. Three times ! Twice it returned. Each time I took it further away. At the best of times, I'm reluctant to handle a pit bull. I'm particularly not eager to manhandle a stray pit bull, without using a leash, grabbing it by the collar, and hauling it in a direction that it doesn't want to go. Even though I've had a lifetime of experience with dogs, both personally and professionally, I'm not comfortable around pit bulls, and I’m not shy about expressing my opinion about pit bulls. The only good pit bull is a dead pit bull !

From "old downtown" we drove over to Sun Gardens Date Farm. We bought a variety of date products, and 4 large date shakes. MMMMM ! ! ! I bought pitted whole Medjool dates, to eat stuffed with peanut butter. MMMMM ! ! ! Joanne bought pitted, chopped dates to use in baking. Erbon and Lorraine bought dates rolled in nuts, and fresh dates, and ... well ... I'm not sure what all they bought. It was a lot ! I shared my date shake with Bo. Of course !

After we returned to Kofa Ko-op I napped for awhile, then visited with friends and neighbours before this afternoon's Mardi Gras party at the clubhouse. It was very well attended, by almost everyone in the park. There was plenty of food and drink, and camaraderie. Afterwards Erbon and Lorraine came over to our trailer to co-ordinate plans for tomorrow. Joanne and I are taking Tom and Ruth-Anne on a day trip to El Golfo de Santa Clara in Mexico. It’s about 2 hours south of here, and is the northernmost town on the Gulf Of California / Sea Of Cortez. Erbon and Lorraine’s Mexican vehicle insurance is not effectiveyet, so they can’t drive their vehicle into Mexico yet. They are going out first thing in the morning to try to find us an RV park that has 2 vacancies, that we can move to. Joanne and I are paid here until Thursday morning, and must vacate the site we’re in on Friday morning. Assuming Erbon and Lorraine find us a site tomorrow, we’ll leave here Thursday morning.

 

Wednesday ; Today was another beautiful day. This morning Erbon and Lorraine left Kofa Ko-op, heading about 10 miles east to The Foothills to try to find us 2 serviced sites in any of the 4 RV parks there. They found themselves a serviced site, starting today, and another serviced site for us in the park "next door" to theirs, starting Friday. So ... all's well that ends well !

We departed this morning, with Tom and Ruth-Anne, for a day trip to El Golfo de Santa Clara in Mexico. We drove about 25 miles south to San Luis, Arizona, and crossed the border into San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. All day long Joanne’s skills as a navigator were ... poor, to say the least. Oh, well, everybody has “off” days. For the first half an hour or so into Mexico, the area was agricultural, thanks to the irrigation of the Colorado River. But then the landscape turned into desert waste land, much like West Texas. After about an hour of scruffy desert, we reached the Gulf Of California / Sea Of Cortez, and the little fishing village of El Golfo de Santa Clara. It was not at all what we expected. We thought it would be a quaint, prosperous little fishing village, with a long wharf, with shrimping boats tied up. Not at all ! No wharf. Just a lot of really beautiful, wide, soft sand beach. No shrimping boats. Every family in town seems to own and operate a little fishing skiff called a panga. It was an economically poor town. Lots of poverty evident. But then again, what seems like poverty to affluent “norteamericanos” / gringos might just be the norm in little Mexican fishing villages. It seemed to be the fishing “off” season. The pangas were mostly up on the beach, or in the yards of the houses. People were repairing boats, and repairing fishing nets. Everybody smiled and waved. There were skinny dogs of all sizes roaming freely everywhere. All the roads in town were soft sand. They all led out onto the beach. The pangas are launched by hauling them on roller trailers onto the beach, then into the water. We drove out onto the beach. We drove along the beach. I shifted Lanoire into 4WD mode, and hadto drive quite quickly through the softest sections of sand to avoid just sinking in and bogging down in the sand. I veered off into the water for a few seconds, just to allow Lanoire to “experience” driving in the Sea Of Cortez. She has had her wheels dipped in the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Gulf Of Mexico, and now, the Sea Of Cortez. HA HA HA ! Joanne says she refuses to wash the salt water splash marks off Lanoire. HA HA HA ! We walked on the beach. We collected unusual and pretty shells. We saw a dead stingray in a tidal pool.

We drove into the only RV park in town, and asked some people there for a restaurant recommendation. They sent us to a little “hole in the wall” place as they called it, with good food. We found our way there, and had a very nice lunch. It was, indeed, a little “hole in the wall” with good food. Joanne and I each had the “comida del dia” ( lunch of the day ), a bowl of wonderful, home made soup, with 3 fish tacos made with a local fish called corvina. I don’t know if there is an English word for corvina, since the staff in the restaurant did not speak English. After lunch we drove around town, sightseeing. We stopped at a bakery, and bought some pan dulce. Betcha didn’t see that coming, eh ? HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

After a bit more driving around, we headed back north for the border. Halfway back to the U.S. we had to stop at a Mexican military checkpoint. A couple of kids in uniform, brandishing machine guns, unable to speak any English, who wanted us to get out of our truck so that they could search for ... I don’t know ... drugs, I guess. In the city of San Luis Rio Colorado, while trying to find our way back to the border crossing, Joanne navigated me onto a one way street, in the wrong direction, during rush hour traffic ! We finally got ourselves back to the border crossing, and crossed into the U.S. uneventfully.

Back at Kofa Ko-op we dropped off Tom and Ruth-Anne, and picked up Sandy and Peachy to go out for dinner. We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse, a local steak house. It was okay, nothing special. We had a pleasant time chatting with Sandy and Peachy.

 

DSK