Photos to be posted in a few days upon our return to Yuma
Sunday ; Sunny and hot.
This morning we went to Yuma Park N Swap a.k.a. Dog Track Flea Market a.k.a. Yuma Swap Meet a.k.a. Flea Market Los Perros. Joanne bought some cosmetics, we bought some Awesome cleaner to take home to Keremeos, and we bought some produce, including a half dozen of those little tiny Mexican miniature bananas we call Bo-nanas because Bo loves them so much. We had lunch at Carl's Jr., filled up with diesel at Fry's Fuel Bar, then Joanne went into Fry's for a few grocery items while I went to O'Reilly Auto Parts to buy another windshield chip repair kit to keep in the truck ... for the next time we get a rock chip in the windshield. On the way home we stopped at Lowe's. They didn't have what I wanted.
This afternoon I removed the sacrificial anode drain plug from the trailer's water heater and flushed all the scale out of the water heater. I cleaned the anode, inspected it, and decided it would be good for another year. After reinstalling the sacrificial anode drain plug in the water heater I caulked around the new bezel I installed on our old Sun Oven, sealing the new bezel to the oven body. I should have explained to Joanne that she should not pick up the Sun Oven before the caulking dries ... before she picked it up and got her fingers in the wet caulking.
< sigh >
We took Bo for a late afternoon walk around the dog park then went to the regular Sunday evening ice cream social where we chatted with a neighbour's visiting young grandson. He's in ... online school. I didn't know there was such a concept at the grade eight level ! We're such dinosaurs ! Back at home we watched Amazing Race.
Monday ; Sunny and very hot ! It was our intention to go to Los Algodones today to get haircuts and buy medications, but ... Joanne was ill, so we didn't go. She was disabled for the day by some manner of upset stomach ailment.
I watered all my cactus gardens, then did some "year end" pruning. I washed the truck. I did some online work. I did some computer file backup work. I read a book. I napped in the Arizona room. HEY ... it's a tough job, but somebody has to do it !
Tuesday ; Sunny and very hot ... again. For the second day in a row Joanne was disabled by some manner of stomach ailment, a flu virus perhaps.
We have a ( recently widowed ) neighbour / friend who recently purchased a used truck camper. She asked for my help in learning how to install and remove a camper from a truck. So ... given Joanne's inability today ... I recruited Mary Lou to be my assistant to put Elsie onto Lanoire.
Mary Lou and I got the camper put onto the truck, then I left to run a couple of errands before heading to the Humane Society for my regular Tuesday afternoon shift of dog walking. Joanne didn't go because ... she's sick AND ... the Humane Society of Yuma's cat wing is closed and quarantined due to an outbreak of ringworm !
On the way to the Humane Society I stopped at RV Connection and bought a set of bathroom faucet handles. Then I went to SewMasters of Yuma to buy a vinyl cover bag for our Sun Oven. When I came out of SewMasters I looked up and ... OMG ! ! ! The old truck storage chest which
I had mounted on top of the truck camper was hanging over the back of the camper, just about ready to fall off ! My tie down method had obviously failed ! I climbed the ladder up onto the roof of the camper and discovered ... DAMN ! ... the rubber mat underneath the storage chest had blown off the roof ! DAMN DAMN DAMN ! ! ! I tied the storage chest back into place, hoping that it would hold long enough for me to make it home.
I drove from SewMasters all the way back to Kofa Ko-op looking for the expensive rubber mat that was lost. Didn't find it ! DAMN DAMN DAMN ! ! ! Drove from Kofa Ko-op all the way back to RV Connection. There was the mat, on the side of the road just before RV Connection. Damn lucky that heavy rubber mat didn't fly off the roof of the camper and land on the windshield of a car behind me ! I threw the mat into the truck and headed for the Humane Society, arriving a half hour late.
It was hot, and I was upset, so I only walked dogs for an hour and a half, instead of my usual two and a half hours. I was eager to resolve the storage chest tie down problem. Before I left the Humane Society I climbed up on the roof of the camper and tied the storage chest down again. When I arrived home I climbed up on the camper AGAIN and changed the storage chest's location on the camper roof, and modified my tie down method. Wish me luck !
Wednesday ; We were saddened to learn this morning by e-mail that one of our very first, and dearest, Escapee friends died yesterday in Edmonton, Alberta. Tom was a dear man, and we will miss him. Our sympathies go to Ruth-Anne. Tom and Ruth-Anne were one of two couples who were our original "mentors" in the world of full time RV'ing ten years ago. And Tom and Ruth-Anne were the first visitors we had to our new "home" when we purchased our lot in Riverside RV Park in Keremeos seven years ago.
On a more positive note, our congratulations go to Joanne's sister and two nieces who have decided to adopt a ten year old Poodle mix named Sophie. Lorraine said that she found inspiration in our adoption of Sully at age thirteen, and we are proud that our actions set a good example. Hopefully Sophie will be a good "pack member" with their current dog, Macie the Bichon Frisé
.
Today was sunny, but with a very strong wind and blowing sand that obliterated the sky. A desert storm ! Joanne was feeling a bit less ill today than the previous couple of days.
This afternoon I did some spring cleaning in the trailer. Since we did not get to Los Algodones this week for haircuts, I trimmed my beard. It was unruly and uncomfortable. The camper was not sitting correctly on the truck so we removed the turnbuckles, raised the camper up on its jacks, and carefully repositioned the truck underneath, then remounted the camper onto the truck. Lots of work for such a tiny adjustment, but ... the camper will remain on the truck now for over a month, and all the way back home to B.C., so I was being fussy about the accuracy / alignment.
I paid some bills, both here at Kofa Ko-op and online. In the evening, after having supper and watching Survivor, we went Wal-Martin'. I hate Wal-Martin' but if I have to do it, late on a Wednesday evening is as good a time as any. We used the trip to Wal-Mart as a "test drive" for the new location and new tie down method of the truck storage chest on the roof of the camper. Everything seemed secure !
Thursday ; Yuma to Quartzsite, Arizona
Sunny and warm, after a very chilly night.
By the time we were finished morning chores and were ready to depart it was about noon. We left Yuma headed south on Hwy. 95 towards Quartzsite. We stopped at "FROM THE FARM", a local produce farm and market to see if they have any artichokes yet. YES ! HUGE ONES ! A buck apiece ! WOO-HOO ! We'll get some on the way back to Yuma on Tuesday. And we'll get more when we depart Yuma again in two weeks. MMMMM ... fresh, LARGE artichokes for a dollar !
Halfway to Quartzsite we turned off Hwy. 95 at Mile Marker 55 heading northeast into the Kofa Wildlife Refuge, the Castle Dome Mountains, and lovely Castle Dome Peak. After three paved miles and seven miles of rough gravel road we reached Castle Dome Mines / Castle Dome City, a 150 year old silver and lead mining ghost town, now a museum / tourist attraction. We spent about 2½
hours wandering around the town site, viewing the three dozen or so restored buildings filled with artifacts. By then ( 5 PM ) my feet were getting sore ... shouldn’t have worn my new Birkenstock sandals to walk that much over such rough desert terrain ... so it was time to move on, even though we had not yet seen it all. Maybe we'll return for another visit next year ?
We drove back to Hyw. 95 then continued north to Quartzsite. It looks like most of the thousands of flea market vendors in Quartzsite have left for the season, but tomorrow morning we’ll browse a bit before moving on. We continued north through town to the Hi Jolly boondock area at Mile Marker 112 a few miles north of Quartzsite, arriving moments before dusk ( about 7 PM ). Bo and Sully both enjoyed wandering around the desert for awhile before it got dark outside and we went inside the camper to have supper.
Friday ; Quartzsite, Arizona to Laughlin, Nevada
Sunny and hot. We got a late start to the day. Before leaving our boondock campsite out in the desert I dumped our grey waste tank in the arroyo behind our campsite. We headed into Quartzsite for a bit of flea market browsing. Neither of us was too enthusiastic about that today, so we only spent an hour at it, buying just a few small items.
We continued northbound on Hwy. 95. Arizona Hwy. 95, not California Hwy. 95 which is just on the other side of the Colorado River which both states' Highway 95 follows. We stopped in a Safeway parking lot in Parker to have lunch and buy a few grocery items. I also refilled our freshwater tank using a landscaping water spigot I noticed on the landscaped area between the Safeway parking lot and the highway.
In Lake Havasu City we stopped at Home Depot. They did not have the item I was looking for.
I stopped there only because it was right on the highway, making it more convenient to stop there at Home Depot in Lake Havasu City than to go to Home Depot in Yuma.
Hwy. 95 is "interrupted" at Interstate 40. We travelled west on I-40 for ten miles or so, then northwest on Historic Route 66 for another ten miles or so until it reached the continuation of Hwy. 95. Somewhat odd road engineering < rolling eyes >. Kind of like travelling in Mexico. HA HA HA !
In Bullhead City we refilled with diesel at Maverik Fuels, then crossed the Colorado River to the Avi Casino on the Nevada side of the river, a bit south of the city of Laughlin. Bo became very happily excited when we pulled into the Avi Casino's RV boondock parking lot. "HEY ... I've lived here before !" Geeeez, Bo, it's just a casino parking lot ! There was just enough time before it got dark to take Bo for a long walk, and then we went inside the casino to pick up local entertainment magazines.
Joanne is still felling ill.
Saturday ; Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead City, Arizona
Sunny and hot, temperature in the high 80's, low 90's, depending on whose thermometer you believe.
This morning we left the Avi Casino and drove north on Needles Highway from the Avi which is south of Laughlin, through Laughlin to the north side of town, and onto Casino Drive ... "The Strip". We checked in at The Tropicana. We had a coupon for "buy one night, get one night free" in their unserviced / "boondock" RV park.
We checked in, selected a site, then went shopping across the Colorado River in Bullhead City, Arizona. We drove from one end of Bullhead City to the other, stopping at each one of five optical shops looking for replacement nosepieces for my eyeglasses. I don't like the silicone nosepieces on my eyeglasses and I want to change them to hard plastic nosepieces ... which apparently nobody has !
When we reached the south end of Bullhead City ... and the bridge across the Colorado River back into Nevada ... we stopped at a large grocery store to buy a jug of milk, then crossed the Colorado River again, and drove north back to the Laughlin, Nevada "Strip" again.
The Tropicana had an Outdoor Food Fest event on each Saturday in March. Today's featured item was barbecued beef brisket on a bun, with potato salad, corn fritters ( very nice ! ) and apple pie. We had that for supper in their outdoor dining and entertainment venue, Victory Plaza. While having supper we enjoyed listening to the live music of Krisy Thompson.
After supper it was time to head to the Riverside Casino for ... WOO-HOO ... ZZ TOP ! The weather was so lovely we decided to walk the mile or so to the Riverside where the outdoor concert was staged on the roof top of the parkade. "GIMME ALL YOUR LOVIN" ... "LEGS" ... "SHARP DRESSED MAN " ... ! ! ! The classic MTV videos for all their hits playing on big screen TV's in the background ! Even fuzzy white guitars while playing LEGS. I sure was hoping they were going to spin them. HA HA HA ! But I guess that's just an MTV video special effect.
We walked back to The Tropicana and ... there was another live band playing outside in Victory Plaza. We sat down and enjoyed The Kid & Nic Show for about an hour. Wandering through the casino to get back to the RV park we stopped for a few minutes at one of the casino bars to watch another live band called Block Party. Certainly enjoyed a lot of live music today !
In the early 1980's ... yes, yes, more than 30 years ago ... I was in a "car rally" with two friends from work. We wore tuxedo t-shirts and dark, cheap sunglasses, and entered our team as "The Sharp Dressed Men". As we approached each rally checkpoint, we blasted ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man" at very loud volume on the car stereo. HA HA HA ! Not too long after that one of those friends died ... in his early 20's ... of a ruptured brain aneurysm. First time I had a friend younger than me die ! Tonight ... I remember him !
DSK
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