1/14/2015

December 30, 2014 to January 13, 2015 Benson, Casa Grande, Yuma

Our travels over the past two weeks have taken us to Benson, Casa Grande, Yuma, and tomorrow we will be in Quartzsite – WOW!

Here are some of our highlights of the past few weeks.

Benson:

On December 30, 2014, we traveled to the Benson Escape Co-op Park to spend a week with our friends Bruce and Sue, who just recently got a lot in the park.  We also planned to spend New Year’s Eve with them since that park has a nice dinner and celebration and then just hang out for the rest of that week.

It was great to see them and many of the other folks that we have met along the way.  What a great week.

Here we are New Years Eve after a dinner of steak and lobster - YUM:

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Bruce and Sue:

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Bruce and Bunny:

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Bruce and Bunny adopted us when we first came to the southwest and we learned so much from them.  It was great to see them again and we hope to spend time with them in Quartzsite.

After dinner, we had lots of music and dancing (I am there in the middle doing the Macarena – LOL)

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Even Andy and Bruce got up and danced – What a great time!

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And we all stayed up past midnight – haven’t done that in a long time – Smile.

On Saturday, January 3rd, Susan and I from Benson and Katy and Paula from Casa Grande met in Tucson with Cathy who was teaching a class on Kumihimo.  After class we all went to lunch at Olive Garden. 

L-R: Diane, Paula, Susan, Cathy, Katy:

01-03-15 Tucson (2)

Our last stop before heading our separate ways was at the Design and Adorn Bead Shop where we met Rebecca Combs who wrote a great book on Kumihimo Basics.  And, of course, we enjoyed shopping at the store.

On Monday, we attended a Chapter 21 Polar Bear party – YUM!  We hope to attend another when we are in Quartzsite.

The weather in Benson this past week was cold – Brrrr.  We even had snow one of the days.  But then most of the southwest area had a cold spell.  Thank goodness it doesn’t last long.

We left Benson on January 6th, stopped at the VA in Tucson for Andy’s appointment, then headed back to Casa Grande.

Casa Grande

We arrived early afternoon on the 6th and got a call from the Yuma Escape Park – we were offered a lot and said “YES”.  So the rest of that day was spent at the bank and post office – getting all the finances done and sent.  That evening we met Jan and Ken for burritos at the Moose Lodge – Yum.

On the 7th, we headed to Bill’s Automotive to get our serpentine belt changed on the motorhome.  It was actually a preventive measure for us and after seeing the old belt, we are glad we got it changed.

We also found out that we could do the final papers on the lot on Tuesday,13th, so we made the decision to go to Yuma on Saturday and stay at Yuma Lakes for a few days.

Yuma

We left early Saturday and headed west to Yuma.  There were some really interesting cloud formations:

01-10-15 A Travel CG to Yuma I-8 (5)

We arrived at Yuma Lakes and over the next few days took care of some items that needed to be done.

As of today 13th, we are now lot owners in Yuma – Smile and hoping to spend a good part of next season here.  This evening we celebrated with Katy and Gary at the Moose Lodge (which is Katy’s and my home lodge) then I stopped by to see some of my beading buddies here in Yuma.  What a great group of ladies and I will miss them this year since we are heading east instead of going to Bead Week.

Tomorrow we are heading to Quartzsite.  My apologies to all our friends in Yuma.  We sort of came in here incognito and then left again without telling many folks because we had to take care of a couple of things.  Hopefully we will be spending a few months here next winter season.

Enjoy today!

Our driving stats for the three trips:

December 30, 2014  Casa Grande to Benson

Miles Traveled: 120 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Arizona: Montgomery Road; I-8; I-10; SR-80

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January 6th, 2015 Benson to Casa Grande

Miles Traveled: 121 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Arizona: SR-80; I-10; I-8; Ajo Way; 6th Avenue; I-8; Montgomery Road

January 10, 2015  Casa Grande to Yuma

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Miles Traveled: 167 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Arizona: Montgomery Road; I-8; Araby Road; US-95; Laguna Dam Road; E. County 6th Street; Avenue 8 1/2 E

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