March 25th - April 3rd, 2024 - Our time in Yuma

WOW!  Time really goes fast when you are having fun - LOL!

So what have we been up to for the last 10 days?

We did organize the shed - at least in part.  We will do more when we our here next season.  We also got an estimate for some improvements we want to make on the lot.  Hopefully we can get that done in November or December.

We had our cat, Gray, to the vets for bloodwork and a check-up.  He is gaining weight but eating less food so I was concerned.  The good news is that all his tests are wonderful and he is a healthy cat.  The bad news for me is that I now have to really monitor his food by counting his calories.  Next, I will be doing that for me. LOL!

Isn't he the cutest!

In February at our park's annual membership meeting, there was an issue that concerned me so I volunteered to be on the Ad-Hoc Committee to address the issue.  The first meeting I attended by phone, the next meeting was my birthday and the last one I attended was this past week.  There is a great group of people on the committee and I am learning a lot about how parks work and some of the "legalities" of park operations.  I will miss the last meeting but will be there in the fall.

After the meeting on my birthday (3/26), members of the park went to EATS (Chinese Restaurant) to celebrate all the other March Birthdays and Anniversaries.  It was fun.

The next day (3/27), we went back to Los Algodones to my favorite restaurant to eat.

Happy Birthday to me 😁:

Yes, the Margaritas and Garlic Shrimp were still wonderful!

Our favorite bartender was there, Leo, (on the right) and gave me a big hug for my birthday and a big hug when we left.  He introduced us to his little brother (on the left).  At first I didn't believe it was his brother and he convinced me it was.  I could not pronounce his name so hopefully next year I will.

As many of you know I just LOVE yard art and this little guy came back over the border with us.  Can't wait to put him in my yard in PA!

They had an awesome camel and an awesome giraffe but getting that home would be a problem..

Our friend, Judy, came into the park that day and we spent some time getting caught up and then out to dinner.  Sadly, I did not take a picture.

The weather has been crazy here!  Cold some days; warm to hot other days; and we had lots of wind and rain.  

Pictures of one of the dust storms coming thru - Looking west:

Looking south:

Looking east:

And that dust just covers everything!!  We usually close up everything and put the air conditioning on cause it is that fine, I can taste it.  

Besides the normal shopping, laundry, etc., I spent a considerable amount of time planning the next few months of our journey.  I only do reservations about 2 weeks in advance and also have backups if it doesn't work out.  Depending on the weather, we hope to spend a little time in Nevada before heading north.

I also spent time on the phone preparing for our trip thru Canada:  What credit cards can we use and not incur any charges? How about cell phone and internet coverage?  Insurance? Medical?  Do we have enough of our medications? What can I bring into Canada - food, alcohol, etc.?  What paperwork do my cats need?  ETC...  I also found out that I could get Canadian money from Wells Fargo with no fee so we made that happen here since there is no Wells Fargo in Canada.   Finally, since my cats eat special food, I ordered enough for the next few months until we get to Anchorage.  I think we are covered!!

One interesting thing I did over the past week was take part in an Alzheimer Study.  As many of you know, my mom had Alzheimer's and a few years ago I inquired about participating in those studies.  I have been in one study now for almost 5 years.  I do it online every three months.  They contacted me to see if I was interested in doing a short term one - every day for 5 days and then repeating in 6 months.  Since I knew we were going to be stationary and the internet was good, I went for it.  I will tell you that this one was hard.  Plus at the end, they asked for an evaluation of the test.  Yes, I will do it again.  I have also participated in other short term ones but most of them I did not qualify.     If anyone is interested in participating in studies like this, you just need to Google the specific disease and make sure the study is done by a university or hospital.  Once you are in one of them, others will contact you.  Also, if you need testing, many doctor and hospital groups participate.  One of the studies I was in two years ago, the pretest was bloodwork and they referred me to a doctor in Pottsville. (I had to give 11 vials of blood and they actually paid me. That was a nice surprise.  But, I did not have the specific proteins that they needed so I could not participate.)  If I were home more, I would look into some of the cancer studies because of the prevalence of cancer in my family.  

Tomorrow we start our trek north so stay tuned and enjoy today.

January 30th, 2024 thru February 14, 2024 Our time in Yuma

(I am behind again on the blog - Sorry!)

For the first week here, I did not feel well so I did not do much except rest and putter around the motorhome.  By the second week of February, I felt so so much better.  One of the ladies here in the park was also ill with the same and her doctor told here it was a new illness.  HA!  At least I have antibodies now..

My buddy during resting times:

Anyway, it is great to feel good again.  We were able to go to lunch with Barb and Larry at the Elks Lodge and get caught up.  We met them many years ago in the Casa Grande park it was nice to be able to sit and chat.  (Forgot to take a picture.)

Another day, I met two of my beading buddies for lunch at Da Boyz in downtown Yuma  It was so good to see them again and get caught up.

Phyllis, me, and Sandy:

One day, Andy and I took a trip to Los Algodones for more medicines and, of course, Margarita's and Garlic Shrimp at La Paraiso.  YUM!!

This is Leo who has been our bartender all the times we were here this year - What a great guy!:

This is Peta who has also been here with Leo.  She is very quiet but smiles a lot:

One of the many stores selling alcohol and medicine:

One of the many dentists here:

The border - notice the wall:

There is a lot of construction here along the wall and a number of new buildings on the Mexican side.  We did talk to someone who told us that the new buildings are for Mexican processing.  Right now, there is no truck crossing at this border.  It looks like they are getting ready to allow truck crossings but who knows.  At least it is still safe here.

Double wall on the American side:

As I have already posted, we transferred from Lot 77 to Lot 30 at the SKP Park - KOFA KO-OP.

This is the front of the lot.  There is a fence across the front although we did remove part of it.  We are along the back wall of the park.  On the other side of the wall is the storage area.

Andy in his favorite spot with our shed behind him:

Looking out the front of the lot - we face the boondocking area:

Our shed from the side:

Behind the shed - it does not look very big but there is a lot of room back there.  We hope to put some pavers down and make a little patio area.

The area behind the motorhome - we also hope to put pavers here too and maybe put up one of those pop-ups.  Behind the wall is empty and Andy would like to get a box trailer and make a workshop.

Looking inside the shed:

The shed is high and we have a lot of storage above:

This will be my craft area - YEA!:

There is a really nice workbench across from the door:

So for this season we are not doing much with it.  Next season we hope to have the inside painted and then set up our areas.  So stay tuned on that project!

Besides doing the normal cleaning, shopping, and laundry, I was able to get my hair cut.  We also visited the local Elks, Moose, and American Vets.  We did some meat draws and I went to a few thrift stores.  It has been fun.

There is cable in the park and we could not get it with the new TV.  Doing research I found out that they are making TVs without tuners - can you believe it??  So we bought a cable box (just like the old ones from years ago) and now have cable.  I am still blown away by this new piece of news.  So if you have old time cable fed directly to your TV and you cannot get it, try a cable box.

Sadly, a number of RV manufacturers are putting these TVs in RVs.  Many RV parks have cable for free or a small fee.   I communicated with one gentleman who has a large RV that came with 5 TVs (WOW!).  Anyway, three of the TVs work with cable and the other 2 do not.  (I should have kept my old cable box!)

I have talked about our internet reception (or lack thereof) in the past few months.  Last year in Yuma, we had good service and this year - almost nothing.  So I called FMCA and got a nice young man, Brad, to talk to about this.  (My previous calls, let's say were less than stellar for customer service.)  Well, turns out my router went bad..  He sent us a replacement router and we are back in business.   What is so sad to me is that this could have been replaced back in October when I made my first call (or November, the 2nd call or even December, the 3rd call.)   So if you have internet thru FMCA and it is not working well, make sure that you talk to Brad.

The next blog will be our time in Prison...  Stay tuned and enjoy today!.

January 2 – 18, 2024 Our Time in Yuma, AZ

(First, my apologies.  I am updating on 01/29/24.   Second, since this blog is for you and me, it may sound a little like a diary on what we have been doing.  Sometimes I do this so I don’t forget – and these days it is easier to forget.  LOL!)

And for the next sad news....   I have lost all of my blog pictures from 2021 to 01/01/24.  Not really lost, however,  but the links are broke, sort of.  I used Live Writer which saved the pictures to Google Drive (since 2020).  Those links were severed without a notice to me.  From doing my research, the only way to have them all appear on the blog is to republish all of them.  GRRR!  The ones previous to 2020 are all good.   (Hopefully someone will come up with a better way to link them but until then.. GRRRR!)

Thank God, I downloaded a PDF every time I published so I still have those photos..

There is a small box next to the picture title.  That should take you to the picture.  Apparently that link is not broken.  Crazy..  If anyone knows how I can fix without republishing, please let me know.

---------------------------------------------------

On January 2nd, our friend Sue arrived to spend the next few weeks with us.  It was so great to see her and her dog Annie and get caught up with each other.

On January 3rd, the three of us headed to Los Algodones, Mexico to have lunch with Peg, Larry, and Bob at the El Paraiso.  Love that restaurant – food, music, and colorful surroundings.

Me, Bob, Larry, Sue,  Andy:

Larry, Sue, Andy, Me, Peg:

The border wall and line – it was not too bad that day:

More border wall – we noticed a lot of construction and a double wall this year.  Not sure why?:

On Thursday, January 4th, I went to see Karl at A-Z Window Fashions in the Foothills.  Last year he repaired one of our MCD shades and this year he repaired another.  Great guy, great service at a great price.   After a stop at Fry’s, we finished the day with a nice Happy Hour.  Sue and our neighbors, Chuck and Linda, joined us.

On Friday, January 5th, I stopped over to see the KoFa ladies at coffee:

Then headed to the Yuma Marketplace with Andy and Sue.  There were many more vendors this year – I am so glad.  One of the old Swap Meets on the other side of town has shut down and a number of the vendors moved here. 

From there we went to the American Veterans for lunch:

Followed by a visit to the Moose Lodge – what a great day!

On Saturday, 6th, our friends, Larry and Cheryl, were passing thru on their way to have dental work done in Los Algodones.  We were able to meet them for lunch and get caught up but I forgot to get a picture.  We will see them again in Casa Grande later this year.

Sunday, 7th, was a hang out day so we just hung out!  😁😁😁

Monday, 8th, found us in Los Algodones for my dental appointment with Dr. Roberto Acre at the Smille Shop.   A filling fell out about 2 months ago so I needed it fixed.  Once he showed me the x-ray, I knew I needed more than that.  So I had a root canal and a temporary cap put on until Wednesday.

It was great to see Dr. Roberto again.  We have been with him since 2009 and it was great to get caught up.  Turns out when he looked at my records, he did those fillings in 2014 – 10 years ago!

So, of course, we had to stop for lunch – Garlic Shrimp and Margaritas – Life doesn’t get any better!

It took about 1.5 hours to get back across.  Always fun chatting with the folks along the way!

On Tuesday, 9th, I dropped off my little Bella at the Yuma Veterinary Clinic to have her dental.  Glad to report that she did good and no teeth were removed.  Yea!  (If you have been following my blog, we found Bella alongside the road in 2011.  She had been abused and had to have some of her jaw reconstructed.  And I was told then, she may lose many of her teeth.  Sadly, she only has a few left now so I was glad she could keep them!).

Wednesday, 10th, it was back to Dr. Roberto to finish up my dental work and to have Andy’s teeth cleaned.

Of course, a visit to El Paraiso:

Yummy!

This day it took 2.5 hours to get across!  Still fun talking with the folks along the way.

Thursday, 11th,  was a hang out day - sort of.  Our lot in the Yuma Co-op has beautiful landscaping but a small and "crappy" shed.  We have talked about updating the lot and that is all we did.  But in the last week, there are a number of lots that were relinquished and were up on the bulletin board to check out.  So we spent today checking on those lots.  There is one that we really like so we told the lot transfer committee.  Now all we do is wait.  If no one higher in seniority is interested, we will get the one we want.  Fingers crossed.

Friday, 12th, Sue and I met Peg for Art in the Park in Yuma.  Folks are so creative!  There is a place that teaches silversmithing so that is on our list for next season!  After walking around, we made our way to Lutes Casino for lunch.

Aren't we just the cutest!

After Peg left, Sue and I walked around downtown and then met Andy at the American Vets.

What a great day!

Saturday, 13th, Sue was not feeling well so I went to the Yuma Quilt Show - WOW!  The talent again.  I was able to pick up a few items for my sewing.  Saw a number of kits that I may just have to try.  Next year 😀.

Sunday, 14th, was another hang out day ending with a Happy Hour with Sue, Stan and Beth.

Monday, 15th,  Sue and I were off to a craft fair at Coyote Ranch and a nice lunch at Chretin's Mexican Restaurant.  Great food and Happy Hour Margarita prices all day!   

Andy was not feeling well on Monday and I came down with the bad cold on Tuesday.. Wednesday was the same and Thursday, I finally did get out for some groceries.  Sheesh, I hate being sick.

But the great news is that we got Lot 30, so we will be transferring next week.  Pictures to follow.

Tomorrow, Friday, 19th, we are heading up to Quartzsite for lots of bargain hunting - maybe..  LOL!

Until then, enjoy today.