March 19 to 25, 2009

March 19 to 25, 2009 ; Yuma, Arizona

Thursday ; Today was a sunny, hot day of running errands and shopping. Our first stop was Fisher Dodge. I had lost a couple of plastic retainer clips from the under hood sound and heat insulation liner on the truck. I thought it prudent to buy four, to have a couple of spares. These plastic retainer clips look like they're worth about 25 cents, but of course I expected them to be a lot more than that at the Dodge dealer. They were $2.56 each at Fisher Dodge ! Later in the afternoon I found essentially the same clips in the Arizona Market Place flea market ... for 25 cents each ! ! ! I will be returning the $2.56 versions to the Dodge dealer. And the 10% restocking charge Fisher Dodge will charge me will cost more than I paid to buy four at Arizona Market Place !

Next stop was Walgreen's, then over to the Post Office to pick up a couple of pieces of mail at General Delivery. Both pieces of mail which should have been here by now were not there ( fume ) ! I've had problems previously with receiving mail at General Delivery in Yuma. Must be some kind of a bottleneck on the way here, perhaps in Phoenix. There's a similar problem receiving mail in Livingston, Texas, where Houston is the bottleneck. After the Post Office we went to Burger King for a quick lunch.

Next stop was Purcell Tire to have the trailer tire inspected for warranty adjustment approval. The manager inspected the trailer tire, phoned Goodyear, and a warranty adjustment allowance was made. The trailer tire was 37% worn, so I had to pay 37% of the cost of a new tire. Seemed fair ! Except that now I have a brand new trailer tire that I don't really need, having bought two new tires in Mexico. I guess it will be a spare spare !

We drove over to RV Connection, one of the two RV parts and supplies dealers that I use here., and bought some, but not all, of the RV parts and supplies we needed. Finally we went to Arizona Market Place, the local, large flea market, and spent the rest of the long, hot afternoon shopping for RV parts and supplies, hardware items, household items, makeup, and fresh produce. By the time the Arizona Market Place closed at 4:00 P.M. we had only wandered around about a third of the flea market. We'll return tomorrow morning.

When we got back to Kofa Ko-op we headed for the swimming pool. The pool was a bit cooler today than yesterday, and a bit more refreshing. After barbecuing supper I spent the evening sitting outside chatting with a neighbour while Joanne watched TV.

Friday ; Today was another long, hot day of shopping errands, temperature in the 90's again. This morning we returned to the Arizona Market Place and resumed shopping from where we left off yesterday. We bought a lot at the flea market today. This is the second last week of the season for the Arizona Market Place, so the vendors are beginning to mark down their prices. We bought a very nice outdoor RV mat / carpet for half price. From there we headed to Arizona RV, another RV parts and supplies dealer. I stopped at the Post Office to check on our forwarded mail again, but the line up was too long. Good thing I didn't wait in line again . I found out by e-mail tonight that ... due to some misunderstanding, or confusion, or something ... our batch of mail has not yet been forwarded from back home !

We stopped for lunch at Rally's, a fast food burger place. I shopped for some auto parts I need at Checker Auto Parts and at Auto Zone. Neither had what I needed. I saw Sam's Music Shop as we drove by, I stopped, and bought a variety of guitar picks for my Chiapas Indian laptop harp, which, by the way, is horribly out of tune from bouncing around over Mexico's roads. I will tune it while we're here, using the clubhouse's piano. Finally, another stop at Wal-Mart, partially because we needed cash, and at Wal-Mart we can pay by Interac, and use their "cash back" function without incurring ATM fees.

Once back at Kofa Ko-op I replaced the missing valve extender on the truck. I picked up a pair of new valve extenders from the park's bargain table. They are motorhome valve extenders, but hopefully they will work on our truck. They are a different design than the motorhome valve extenders I bought in the Rio Grande Valley that didn't work on our truck. I put the remaining three of those on the bargain table. We went to the swimming pool and floated away the rest of the afternoon, until sunset.

Saturday ; Today was sunny and hot, a long, hard day of work ! WHEW ! I spent the entire day fixing things inside and outside the trailer. Joanne spent the entire day cleaning things inside and outside the trailer. We are making progress getting the truck and trailer cleaned and restored back to some semblance of normal. Late in the afternoon we went to the swimming pool to float around, cool down, and relax a bit. Afterwards we took Bo for a walk around the dog park. Well ... Joanne walked with Bo around the dog park. I sat on a park bench and waited for them.

Sunday ; Today was sunny, mild, and very windy. We didn't get as much work accomplished today as we had hoped to. Just as we were getting a late start to our day our neighbours Dave and Joy from back home at Riverside RV Park Resort arrived for a visit. We chatted with them from mid-morning until mid-afternoon. After they left we resumed our work on cleaning and repairing. I removed the hub caps, wheel liners, and valve extenders from the truck in preparation for getting new tires tomorrow. And then ... ( sigh ) ... I reinstalled the mud flap that tore off in Mexico. That required the removal and reinstallation of the rear dually tires on one side of the truck. I finished that job just in time for us to go to the regular Sunday ice cream social. Afterwards we watched Amazing Race.

Monday ; Today was sunny and cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon. It was another long, tiring day of running shopping errands.

Our first stop this morning was the Post Office. Once again, the letter I was expecting that had been mailed from Texas about 3 weeks ago was still not here yet. Which means that it probably never will be ! We headed to Sears for new tires for the truck. I'm very pleased with the performance of the original tires on the truck. My goal was to make them last 100,000 kilometres. Today I replaced them, at 116,000 kilometres. We dropped the truck off at Sears, then walked to a variety of stores within a mile in each direction from Sears. Goodwill, Salvation Army, Dollar Tree, Truck Mates, Lowe's, Pep Boys, Fisher Dodge, and Truck Mates a second time before having a terrible lunch at a fast food chain restaurant called Carl's Jr.. We picked up the truck and continued shopping and running errands. Midas, Watch Hospital, 99¢ Store, and finally, Diesel Performance Center. The new Michelin tires are much quieter, and give a much smoother and softer ride than the old Goodyear tires. I thought the bone jarring ride was just because Lanoire is such a big, heavy truck. It was late afternoon by the time we got back home to Kofa Ko-op.

I returned a phone call from my investment broker, and we discussed and decided what investments to sell this month to pay bills. I was working on mounting a new interior thermometer in the trailer when I stupidly broke the little liquid filled glass bulb of the thermometer, spraying red liquid all over my shirt. Joanne did laundry. The red stains did not come out of the shirt. Oh well, another ruined shirt ! I reconciled this month's Canadian dollar MasterCard and U.S. dollar MasterCard statements. It was somewhat difficult, because most of the transactions were made in Mexican pesos, then converted to U.S. dollars, or Canadian dollars. I went through a similar reconciliation process with some Interac withdrawals that were made in Mexican pesos or U.S. dollars from our Canadian dollar bank account.

Tuesday ; Los Algodones, Mexico

Today was sunny and warm, a bit windy in the morning. We spent the day in Los Algodones, Mexico. A few miles west across the Colorado River into California, then a few miles south to Los Algodones. First we went to some pharmacies for price comparisons, then I bought some medications. We walked across town, to the edge of town, and bought some medication for Teddy at the veterinary pharmacy. We did some comparison shopping, then bought cigarettes, Nugs, Coconugs, Creminos, some Cocada de Leche coconut confections, and a couple of bottles of vanilla, a specialty product of Los Algodones. Very high quality, very cheap vanilla. We had a great lunch at a taco restaurant. We had fish tacos and shrimp tacos, which were very uncommon on our trip through mainland Mexico this year but very common on our trip through the Baja peninsula last year. Los Algodones is actually the northeast corner of the state of Baja California.

After lunch we headed to the dentist's office, for Joanne's 2:00 P.M. appointment for a cleaning and examination. When she was finished at the dentist's about an hour later we headed for the line up to cross the border back into the United States. Gee whiz ... the line up to cross the border was an hour and a quarter, and it's late March. I wonder how bad it was in January and February ? ! ? The normal currency used in Los Algodones is U.S. dollars, but I paid for most of today's purchases with our remaining pesos, using up ¾ of what we had left. Back home at Kofa Ko-op Joanne took a long nap while I worked on records keeping and finances. After supper I went to the clubhouse with my Chiapas Indian laptop harp and tuned it using the piano in the clubhouse. It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. I guess there's a learning curve involved.

Wednesday ; ( moaning and whining ) I have a cold. And an earache. I feel miserable ! I don't think we're going to be ready to leave here Saturday as initially planned. I still have too much work to do before we hit the road again.

This morning I did my regular monthly computer maintenance chores, defragmenting the disk, backing up all my files, etc.. I adjusted the tightness of all the lug nuts on the truck using my new torque wrench, then reinstalled the valve extenders, wheel liners, and hub caps. I installed a new kitchen cupboard latch ... finally. We've had one kitchen cupboard door with a broken latch for the last month or more. We've been keeping the door closed with a bungee cord. Joanne baked cookies for this afternoon's social hour.

I decided that I deserved a nap after lunch. I've been working too hard the last week and a half. After I napped we gave Bo a bath. He certainly was a lot less clean than when he played in the surf on a daily basis. I cleaned and polished my shoes and sandals. We went to the regular Wednesday afternoon "heavy appetizer" social hour. We took Bo for a play session and long walk around the dog park. We watched Survivor, then I made a light supper of Huevos Rancheros. We started watching a televised performance of Shakespeare's King Lear on PBS, but ... ! We both enjoy live theatre, and have always enjoyed live performances of Shakespeare's works, but ... on TV ... we gave up on it after about half an hour.

DSK