Yesterday we received a phone call from Crissi Rae at Bedrock Artworks, the artist that we commissioned to paint a BC / AZ scene on our trailer spare tire cover. She was almost finished our painting and it would be ready for us to pick up if we were still going to be in Yuma for a few more days. YES ! This morning we headed to Yuma Park N Swap to see if she had our painted spare tire cover in her stall at the flea market. She did. It still needs to be clear coated on Monday and then will be available for us to pick up on Tuesday. But … the scene painting is finished.
It’s gorgeous ! But … not exactly what either Joanne or I had envisioned. Crissi Rae is a “Southern Belle”, born and raised somewhere in West Virginia and now living here in the Desert Southwest. The spare tire cover was to be painted with the top half representing British Columbia and the bottom half representing Arizona. Our northern home and our southern home. Crissi Rae’s “interpretation” of what BC looks like is a bit more “wintery” than we would have liked. On the other hand, people coming into her stall and seeing the scene, which she has had on display in her shop for a few days, immediately recognize it as a scene of “Canada” and Arizona. I guess … everyone down here thinks Canada is … “snowy”. HA HA HA ! Not when we’re there !
While at the flea market we bought a case of Awesome cleaner. From Yuma Park N Swap we headed to CVS Pharmacy for a cell phone top-up and then to Fry’s for some groceries. We had lunch at Rally’s then drove to Kofa
Ko-op for another view of lot 52. We were able to gain access to see the interior of the casita / Arizona room and the storage shed / workshop.
Kofa Ko-op has a set of waiting list “rules” for people waiting for an RV ready “bare lot” and a different set of rules for people waiting for a lot with a park model / manufactured home on it. We’re on the “bare lot” waiting list. Occasionally an anomaly like lot 52 happens. It’s neither a bare lot nor does it have a manufactured home / park model on it. What it does have is a fully enclosed casita / Arizona room with an attached roof covered front patio. The casita has solid lower walls to about knee high and then screened to the roof. The Kofa Ko-op lot transfer committee is a bit perplexed about whether to apply the “bare lot” rules or the “park model” rules in determining whom to make the lot available to. It might become a bit of a negotiated compromise. We will discuss the matter further with a member of the lot transfer committee on Tuesday afternoon. After viewing the lot and what’s on it more thoroughly today we remain very interested in it. But … while Kofa Ko-op has the price established for the “bare lot”, including RV utility hookups, concrete pad, storage shed, brick fencing, pave stone patio, etc., the price of the casita / Arizona room must be separately negotiated with the current lot owner.
After returning home I did some minor truck maintenance work. I reinstalled the “Genie Carrier” propane tank and water jug carrier in the bed of the truck. It had been a victim of Friday’s back road / off road adventure. I touched up the deep, ugly scratches Joanne made on the top of the truck door when she opened it this morning and hit it against the front awning of the park model next door. I’m not pleased ! I torqued the lug nuts and reinstalled the wheel liner and hub cap on the wheel I removed from the truck to inspect the brakes yesterday. I still think there’s a new “clunk” underneath the truck on the front driver’s side that’s got me a tad concerned, but I can’t find any loose brake or suspension components.
Tonight’s movie was Dragon Heart with Dennis Quaid and dragon voice by Sean Connery. It was okay, I guess, for an adventure flick that I think was targeted at teens.
Monday ; Today was sunny and hot, and should stay that way for our remaining four days in Yuma.
Late this morning we headed out to run a couple of errands before going to Pizza Hut in The Foothills for lunch. We refilled the small propane tank for the barbecue at Fruit Growers Supply, then went to refill our two water jugs. We went to Pizza Hut for their buffet lunch. Not surprisingly, we had a discount coupon ! Lunch was … mediocre at best. But … most importantly, we had an incident ( or two ) that will result in us never returning to a Pizza Hut, anytime, anywhere. As I finished drinking my glass of Diet Pepsi, I noticed … HUH ? … a “foreign object” embedded in a piece of melting ice in my glass. It appeared to be … a tiny piece of bacon and some tomato sauce … or … some flesh and blood from somebody’s scraped knuckle ? ! ?
But that’s not really the problem. Shit happens ! I walked up to the counter and quietly and politely brought the matter to the attention of our waitress and a young man standing nearby that I assumed was the manager on duty. He completely “flubbed” the handling of the situation. He was concerned, no doubt about that, but his response was … in the parlance of Newfoundlanders … “stunned as me arse” ! He mumbled about “employees never even put their hands inside the ice machine” and “have to get a service man to clean the ice machine” as he walked away with the ice cube on a spoon. I returned to our table expecting that an apology would be forthcoming and / or perhaps a compensatory offer of “let us treat you to lunch … no charge”, but … NOOOOO ! ! ! And … to add insult to injury, when I walked up to the counter and asked for a small glass of water, no ice, and a spoon, for my medication, the young lady gave me a small glass of water, picked up a spoon, looked at it, frowned, wiped it off with her bare thumb, then handed it to me with a smile. YOU MORONIC BIMBO ! ! !
Bonsoir la visite, Pizza Hut ! ! !
Back at home I did some work on the trailer’s spare tire cover retaining ring to reduce the likelihood of it scratching the beautifully painted spare tire cover we will be picking up tomorrow. I lubricated the weatherstripping around the trailer’s slides with silicone lubricant spray in preparation for travel. The rubber was very dry and coated with an almost invisible layer of very fine desert sand dust. Joanne went Wal-Martin’.
One of the two refilled water jugs had fallen over and was leaning against the back door of the truck. When Joanne opened the door the water jug fell out ! And exploded like a bomb on the driveway. Joanne was not pleased !
Tonight’s movie was Independence Day. Oh … < tongue in cheek & rolling eyes > … Brilliant ! The President of the United States and the drunken crop duster pilot take to the skies in fighter jets to defeat the aliens and save the world ! What can I say ? ! ?
Tuesday ; This morning we headed over to Mesa Verde RV Park to pick up our painted spare tire cover at the home of Crissi Rae, the artist. It’s really nice ! From there we headed to Sears where I needed to exchange a broken screwdriver for a new one. Sears Craftsman tools are guaranteed for life.
Around lunch time we headed for the home of our friends Lynn and Micha in The Foothills community on the east side of Yuma. They treated us to a lovely home made lunch, then we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting. We chatted a lot about Canada’s universal health care system, a topic of interest to many Americans during this time of ObamaCare health care reform. The essence of Canada’s universal health care system is not well understood by most Americans. Bo and Gypsy enjoyed visiting as well.
Late in the afternoon we left Lynn’s and Micha’s and drove over to Kofa
Ko-op for a brief meeting with a member of the lot transfer committee. The lot transfer committee had their last meeting of this winter season today. And we had asked them to clarify whether or not lot 52 would be “processed” as a “bare lot” or not, and consequently are we eligible to acquire lot 52 or not. To make a long, complicated story short, we have been given permission by the lot transfer committee to enter into negotiations with the current owner of lot 52 over his asking price for the Arizona room structure on the lot. If we can reach a deal with him on the price of the Arizona room, we can purchase lot 52 ! YIPPEE ! ! ! I am confident that we will be able to negotiate a deal ! And so … we would conclude the transaction and become the owners of lot 52 when the lot transfer committee resumes their work next November. We spent an hour or so taking measurements on lot 52.
Tonight’s movie was Thirteen Days, a dramatization of the story of the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Very interesting.
This morning we installed the newly painted tire cover on the trailer’s spare tire. It looks great ! I did the 162,000 km. inspection on Lanoire. Well done, old girl ! I went to the Rancho Bonitos office and paid our electricity bill. I cleaned the barbecue in preparation for travel. Yuck !
After an early lunch we headed to Kofa Ko-op to pick up our friend Eilene and head for the Yuma County Fair. We’ve never been to the Yuma County Fair before. And we were quite surprised at how large it was. I thought we’d arrive about 1:30 PM ( we did ) and be home by supper time ( we weren’t ). The Yuma County Fair was every bit as large … and interesting … as the Riverside County Fair / Indio Date Festival in Palm Springs a couple of months ago. Around 6 PM we had seen most of what we wanted to see and had to decide whether to leave … or stay for the 7 PM Demolition Derby. HA HA HA … the Demolition Derby won ! We had not seen a Demolition Derby since the Navan Fair when we lived near Ottawa.
The Demolition Derby was preceded by an unusual “warm up” act. A local crane company used one of their large cranes to lift an old Cadillac high up into the air … with a company executive in the driver’s seat … and then dropped it onto an old Class A motorhome. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! Joanne and Eilene didn’t “get it”. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA … of course not, it’s a guy thing ! ! ! HA HA HA HA HA !
By the time the Demolition Derby was over and we left the fair grounds it was after 8 PM. We went to KFC for a late dinner, drove Eilene home to Kofa Ko-op, then returned home around 9:30 PM to an unhappy Bo and Sully. We hadn’t expected to be gone that long … AND … we didn’t leave any lights on for them. Sorry, fellas !
Thursday ; Today’s temperature was 99 degrees ! ! ! Time to head north, n’est-ce-pas ?
This morning I discovered that the trailer’s fifth wheel hitch Teflon lube plate was missing. DARN ! When and how did that happen ? After lunch I took Bo for a drivey and headed out to RV Connection to buy a new hitch Teflon lube plate. While I was out I refilled Lanoire with diesel at Barney’s.
After I returned home Joanne took the truck and went shopping. I did some online work. When she returned home we went to the swimming pool for the rest of the hot afternoon. AHHHHH ! As the sun set we took Bo for his daily long walk.
During our three months here at Rancho Bonitos we have only been able to receive some Spanish language TV stations on the trailer’s “free over the air” antenna. So … we have watched many movies from the park’s library, probably three or four per week. The park’s rather extensive library of VCR tapes all seem to be 15 or more years old. And almost all are crappy ! Finally, on our last night here, we selected a movie that turned out to be pretty good. Three Kings. !999. George Clooney. A bittersweet comedy drama about the end of the Desert Storm Gulf War, the U.S. war with Iraq in Kuwait in 1991.
Friday ; Yuma to Eloy, Arizona
102 degrees ! ! !
We bought Kofa Ko-op lot 52 ! ! !
Whew ! Still hot at 8 PM in the Flying J parking lot at Eloy.
This morning we prepared for departure from Rancho Bonitos, and headed over to Kofa Ko-op to see how our trailer fit on lot 52. Perfect ! We phoned the current owner, who wasn’t home ( in Washington, near Seattle ), and left a message. Darn !
We left Kofa Ko-op and Yuma, heading east on Interstate 8. As we pulled out of Yuma around 11:30 AM the temperature was 95 degrees. About an hour and a half later … WOO-HOO … we arrived at Dateland, Arizona ! ! ! We ate lunch in the trailer then went into Dateland Travel Center to buy dates and date shakes. We had the date shakes for dessert as we drove.
WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO, WOO-HOO. The only thing that Bo loves more than date shakes is date shakes and drivey at the same time ! HA HA HA ! Pulling out of Dateland around 2 PM the temperature was 101 degrees and as we drove east towards Casa Grande it briefly reached 102.
We continued eastbound on I-8, being indecisive about where to stop for the night. We finally decided on the Flying J on Interstate 10 at Eloy just after Interstate 8 merged with Interstate 10. We pulled into the Flying J, filled up with diesel ( almost 4 bucks a gallon ! ! ! ), then went over and parked at the far end of the parking lot beside another RV. In the other RV was a couple from Saskatchewan and we ended up chatting with them for quite awhile before going inside our trailer to have supper. It was cool ( literally and figuratively ) visiting with them in the rear of their “toy hauler” rig with the drop down tailgate lowered.
After supper I drafted a “sale and purchase agreement” document for lot 52.
Today was sunny and hot, but much less so than in the last few days, temperature in the high 80’s.
We didn’t get much sleep last night. The Flying J in Eloy was busy and noisy, especially since we had all the windows open. All of us, animals included, were tired today. Before departing the Flying J this morning I made some phone calls regarding the purchase of lot 52. We left the Flying J and headed north on Hwy. 87 to Coolidge, then east on Hwy. 287 to Florence, north on Hwy. 79 to Florence Junction, east on Hwy. 60 to Globe, and finally east on Hwy. 70 to Apache Gold Casino & RV Resort on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. We had started so early that we arrived by noon.
After an early lunch I napped with Sully. He was very happy. He seems to be of the opinion that I have not been having afternoon naps with him frequently enough lately. Afterwards I did some minor maintenance, an almost daily
by-product of travelling. I did quite a bit of online work. I downloaded and processed the photos I took over the last couple of days. When Bo thought it was time for his daily long walk, we walked over towards the rodeo grounds on the other side of the casino. We found that there was a high school rodeo going on today and tomorrow. We took Bo back to the trailer in the RV park, then Joanne and I went back to the rodeo stadium to watch junior high and senior high school girls’ barrel racing. Best barrel racing time was 16.65 ! ! ! WOW … fast little cowgirls ! High 17’s, sometimes even low 18’s wins it at the Keremeos Rodeo. I’d like to return tomorrow morning before we go to Boyce Thompson Arboretum to see the “weave pole” competition. There’s some other rodeo name for “weave poles” which is a dog agility term, but I can’t remember the rodeo name for it.
One of the main reasons we wanted to stay here was that after we stayed here last year they sent us a voucher for two free dinners in the buffet restaurant. We wanted to celebrate our lot 52 purchase with a nice dinner tonight. They refused to honour the voucher, claiming that it was an expired promotion, despite there being no expiry date on the voucher. Refusing to honour the voucher was a really stupid and short term mentality decision for the casino to make. We ate our celebratory dinner in the Wickiup Buffet nevertheless. I hope they cherish the twenty-two bucks they got out of my wallet because it’s the last time they’ll see any of my money !
DSK
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