April 2 to 8, 2009

April 2 to 8, 2009 ; Yuma, Arizona to Winnemucca, Nevada

Thursday ; Today was sunny and hot. I had a bit of a backache yesterday, and overnight it became severe. I guess I pulled a back muscle while working on the trailer wheel well rebuilding project a couple of days ago.

Hopefully, and thankfully, this was our last day of shopping errands in Yuma before we leave. This morning we headed to Arizona Market Place. I stocked up on some hardware items while Joanne shopped for produce. From there we drove all the way out to The Foothills to buy some Damp Rid hangers on sale at Foothills Hardware. We've had difficulty finding Damp Rid products here in the desert. Guess there's not much demand for them here. We drove back from The Foothills to the Wal-Mart mall on Pacific Avenue where we had lunch at Wienerschnitzel. Joanne bought some hair care products at Sally Beauty Supply, then we picked up a few items at Wal-Mart. I neither understand nor appreciate why we have to go to Wal-Mart about three times a week !

Back home at Kofa Ko-op I installed the last few pieces of hardware to completely finish up the wheel well rebuilding job on the trailer. We took Bo for an obedience session, then to the dog park. Well done, Bo. Joanne did laundry. I downloaded and processed some photos. I posted a weekly update to my blog. We went to the pool and hot tub for awhile just as the sun was setting. I was hoping that the pool and / or hot tub would help my sore back. I'm not sure that it did.

In the evening we watched the one hour retrospective and two hour finale of ER. I reconciled four months' worth of investment account statements that arrived in the batch of forwarded mail. I sorted, reconciled, and filed all the income tax information slips that arrived in the batch of forwarded mail. Whew ... and that completes dealing with four months of mail. I'm ready to start working on the preparation of our income tax returns when we get home. And I'm pretty much ready to start heading home ... with one day to spare ! Well done, Daniel !

Friday ; Today was sunny and hot. This morning while we were cleaning and medicating Teddy's ears, a weekly task, I noticed ... oh, for ********** ! ! ! There was a bot fly larva breathing tube protruding out of Teddy's anal tissue. ****, ****, **** ! ! ! That's the third bot fly larva we've found in Teddy. Two in Texas in November that we pulled out of his abdomen, and now again ! Joanne got tweezers ... and I pulled it out ! OUCH ! ! ! Sorry, Teddy ! Poor baby Teddy. He's too old to be suffering these indignities. I guess this bot fly egg hatched just as it was about to finish passing through his digestive tract, and the larva burrowed through the wall of the colon and stuck its breathing probiscus out through the tissue on the edge of his anus.

I paid the Canadian dollar MasterCard bill online. I paid the U.S. dollar MasterCard bill by phone. It’s a quirk of the Bank of Montreal’s online function that Canadian issued U.S. dollar MasterCards can’t be paid online, only by phone. I disassembled the kitchen Fantastic Fan, Joanne cleaned it, and I reinstalled it. I removed and reinstalled a mounted art piece in the trailer that had rattled loose. I took one of the trailer's propane tanks to be refilled. Kofa Ko-op has a propane refill station on site, beside the dog park, selling propane at cost to leaseholders / residents and renters / visitors. Joanne baked muffins.

Today was our last day here in Yuma at Kofa Ko-op this winter season. We like Kofa Ko-op, and we like the Yuma area. It feels like "home". We're looking forward to when it actually will be our winter home, probably in a few years. We're now no. 44 on the waiting list. I spent much of the afternoon lying on a heating pad on the bed because of my sore back. The relief lasted only as long as I was on the heating pad. I read and napped. Joanne found a couple of ticks on Bo which I plucked off with tweezers. Larger than chiggers, smaller than wood ticks. Must be some kind of a tick found in the desert in the spring. This has certainly been a tough winter for Teddy and Bo. Dehydration, constipation, illness, and bot fly larvae for Teddy, fleas, chiggers, ticks, illness, and jungle biting insects for Bo.

We took Bo for his last long walk around the perimeter of the dog park. There was a huge swarm of bees on the brick wall of the dog park. Thousands and thousands and thousands of bees looking for a new home. Very interesting ! This was the second time we've seen a swarm of bees in the three weeks we've been here in Yuma. I would have liked to get a bit closer to take a look at the swarm on the brick wall, but the air within about ten to twenty feet of the swarm stuck on the wall was filled with scout bees.

We went out for supper to Home Town Buffet. As I finished my dessert, Joanne left the table to get her dessert. She returned with a glass of chocolate milk, a piece of chocolate torte, a chocolate brownie, and a chocolate cookie. She said there was one more chocolate dessert, but her plate was too small to fit it in. HA HA HA ! On the way home we refilled with diesel at Circle K.

Saturday ; Yuma, Arizona through California to Las Vegas, Nevada

Today was sunny and warm when we were leaving Yuma, but it was pretty cool by the time we arrived in Las Vegas. Usually, a day of driving north or south results in a ten degree change in temperature, but today we drove further than usual, and the elevation rose. The temperature in Yuma was in the mid-70's. The temperature in Las Vegas was in the mid-40's.

We left Kofa Ko-op this morning, stopping to adjust the air pressure in the two new trailer tires before leaving Yuma. We headed north on Arizona Hwy. 95, across the Sonoran Desert, through Quartzsite, to Parker. We had lunch in a municipal park in Parker. We turned west on Hwy. 62, crossed the Colorado River into California, then turned north again on California Hwy. 95. Joanne drove for awhile, her first time driving the rig in five months. At Needles we turned west on Interstate 40 briefly, then north on California Hwy. 95 again. We crossed into Nevada, and the Mojave Desert. We stopped to refill with diesel at Searchlight.

Our objective for today was to make it to Camping World in Las Vegas, boondock in their parking lot overnight, then shop at their parts department or service department or body shop tomorrow morning for a “J” panel to rebuild the trailer’s lower side skirt. At Boulder City we got onto Interstate 515, then Interstate 215 to get to and through Las Vegas. We arrived at Camping World at 6:10 P.M., ten minutes after they closed. Which would have been alright, until I found out that the parts department, service department, and body shop are all closed tomorrow ( sigh ). We got directions to a Wal-Mart / Sam’s Club location. The Wal-Mart parking lot had "no overnight parking" signage, but the Sam's Club parking lot did not, and there were already a few RV's there, so that's where we spent the night. After supper while I read Joanne went shopping at Wal-Mart ( rolling eyes ).

Sunday ; Las Vegas to Tonopah, Nevada

Because Kofa Ko-op had reverse osmosis water available we had a full water jug sitting in the corner of the trailer that had been refilled in Mexico over three weeks ago. Last night Joanne began using that jug. This morning she noticed ... YUCK ... there was algae at the bottom of the jug. Later in the day we drained the jug and sanitized it with a very strong bleach solution. And we sanitized the hand pump. And we discarded the one gallon jug of water in the fridge that Joanne had filled from the larger jug last night. And we discarded the half gallon jug of iced tea that Joanne made with the water from the jug with algae in it. And we sanitized the drinking bottle that I fill each evening and freeze overnight so that I can have cold water while I'm driving. ( sigh ) So much for Mexican "agua purificado" !

Today was sunny and mild in Las Vegas, sunny and cool in Tonopah, where we are at an elevation over 6000 feet in the "high desert". We left Las Vegas this morning travelling through and around the city on Interstate 215. We got a little twisted around on the freeway ramps getting off I-215 and onto Hwy. 95 heading northwest. We briefly ended up in Las Vegas suburbia. Many of the homes had artificial turf lawns. HA HA HA ... welcome to Las Vegas ! We drove through the Amargosa Desert following the Funeral Mountains along the west side of Death Valley. We stopped in the town of Beatty to have lunch. We continued north on Hwy. 95 following the Grapevine Mountains.

We stopped for the night at Joy-Land RV Park ( owned by a woman named Joy ) in the little mining town of Tonopah. We came here because it is a Passport America park with a very low rate, and cable TV. We wanted to watch Amazing Race tonight. But the RV park's cable TV feed does not broadcast CBS ( sigh ). We spent the evening watching TV and reading the Las Vegas Sunday newspaper which I bought from a boy selling them on a street corner when we were lost in Las Vegas suburbia.

Monday ; Tonopah to Fallon, Nevada

Today was sunny and cool in Tonopah at an elevation over 6000 feet, sunny and very warm in Fallon at an elevation around 4000 feet.

Yesterday as we turned off the highway into the RV park around 4:00 P.M. there was a weird looking hitchhiker on the side of the road. Dressed very strangely, couldn't tell if it was a man or woman. Probably mentally ill / psych. disabled and homeless. Around 7:00 P.M. just as it got dark, he/she sneaked into the RV park for the night. He/she built a very small campfire that didn't last long, then went to sleep on the ground beside a picnic table, inside a sleeping bag, wrapped in a tarp and clothing. He/she seemed to have all his/her worldly possessions in a large backpack. And it was cold night last night, temperature near freezing overnight. I felt ... troubled by it. This morning I asked Joanne to prepare a hearty, healthy lunch for him/her and pack it in a sack. Obviously he/she had difficulty getting a ride yesterday, and I thought it likely that when we pulled out of the RV park this morning he/she would still be on the side of the road hitchhiking, and we could give him/her the sack of food. When we pulled out of the RV park, he/she was gone. I hope he/she got a ride to somewhere warmer.

We refilled with diesel in Tonopah then continued heading north on Hwy. 95, billed as "the loneliest road in America". Miles and miles of high desert mountainous scrublands. Very little traffic. Occasionally a huge military establishment. The military uses the Nevada desert for blowing things up ... yesterday we passed the Nevada Test Site where they did atomic bomb testing in the 40's ... and building missile silos. A lot of missile silos at Hawthorne. Kind of spooky !

At Fallon we stopped for the night at Sage Valley RV Park. After three days of driving I'm getting tired. Maybe one more day of driving, then we'll take a "day off". Shortly after we arrived I found another blood filled tick embedded in Bo. After supper we watched TV. This park has cable TV with some networks that we enjoy but haven't seen in a long time like Animal Planet and The Learning Channel. The park's Wi-Fi signal wouldn't reach our site so I went over with my laptop to sit at the picnic table by the office to get online.

Tuesday ; Fallon to Winnemucca, Nevada

Today was sunny and warm, becoming a bit cloudy and windy late in the afternoon. The clouds appear as if they may be snowing on the tops of the mountains around us. This morning before leaving the small city of Fallon we refilled with diesel, refilled a five gallon water jug, and replenished groceries at Safeway. We continued northbound on Hwy. 95. More scruffy high desert. When Hwy. 95 reached Interstate 80 we turned northeast on I-80. We had lunch at a very nice Nevada road side rest area shortly before arriving in Winnemucca early in the afternoon. We have been on the road for four days now, but we drive less each day. I estimate that we're now about halfway home from Yuma to Keremeos. We need to slow down our rate of travel, so we're going to stay here and rest tomorrow.

We arrived and checked into Hi-Desert RV Park, a very nice, well serviced, inexpensive RV park surrounded by mountains on the outskirts of Winnemucca in northern Nevada. After getting set up in our site I napped for awhile. We took Bo for a walk over to the RV park's small, fenced dog run area, then over to the playground for a "Bo-gility" session. HA HA HA ... Bo certainly loves playground slides. What a funny perrito ! I did some online work. This park's Wi-Fi signal reaches our site. We watched TV. Once again we are in a park with cable TV with lots of channels, including the ones we really like ; Animal Planet, National Geographic, The Learning Channel.

Wednesday ; BRRRRR ... today was cold and raining. We stayed indoors, going outside as little as possible. Too bad Bo can't use a litter box ! We read. We napped. We watched TV. We did some trip planning, figuring out the rest of our journey home. ( sigh ) Found and pulled another couple of blood engorged ticks off Bo. When the clouds lifted late in the day we could see that there was now snow about ¾ of the way down the mountain sides. BRRRRR !

DSK