Since I have been needing a hair cut for quite some time, I decided to go into Yuma and get one. Last year when Jim and I were here, we found a barber shop next to our favorite restaurant, Bubbas. The haircut was only $10.00, which I think is cheap, but cheap is what most snow birds expect.
After the haircut I went to Fry's Grocery to get some pedialyte for Brian, and then it was over to the Giant gas station to check on the dump and fill station there. We had used it before when we were in the Yuma area, but the station had changed hands since we had been there last, and I wanted to check if it was still available to the public. To my surprise, not only was it still available to the public, but instead of charging $10.00 for dumping and filling, now there is no charge! Great deal for cheap snowbirds! My last stop before heading back to Stoughtown III was at Lowe's to buy an adapter for our kitchen sink so I could hook a garden hose to it as I wanted to add some bleach to our fresh water tank. With the weather being warmer, I was concerned about maintaining the safety of our fresh water. Since I wasnt sure which adapter our sink required, I bought two different kinds of adapters, hoping one would fit.
Once back at Stoughtown III I tried the adapters that I bought and one of them worked, but I decided my plan of adding a little bleach to the hose, and then hook the hose to our fresh waster intake, and turning on the pump to pump the bleach into the tank would not work because in order to fill the fresh water tank you have to move a lever to the "water tank fill" position which then shuts off the water from the tank going to the pump. MMMMMM sounds like I need to come up with a plan B.
I will worry about that tomorrow, so I went out side and took some pics of yet another spectacular Arizona sunset. Here is one looking to the east with the nearly full moon, and the sun reflecting off the clouds.
This one is looking almost north, again with the setting sun reflecting off the clouds.
And then to the west.
And finally the last rays of sunlight for the day.
Wednesday February 12 The first order of business for the day was to get some bleach in the fresh water tank. My plan B was to use one of the adapters I had on Brian's kitchen faucet, but his kitchen faucet is an aftermarket faucet, and neither of the adapters would work. So then it was to plan C which was to use one of my adapters on Jim's kitchen faucet. Finally, success! Because his coach was farther away than Brian's, I had to use and extra length of hose, but that was not a problem.
Her is the bleach and funnel. I only used about 1/4 cup in about 80 gallons of water. Even though we dont drink water from our fresh tank, it is still nice to know it doesnt have any bacteria or other bad stuff in it.
And here is Jim and the successful operation.
The reason we needed to go to so much trouble to add bleach is that our motorhome is that, unlike Jim's and Brian's, does not have what is called a "gravity fill" option, which is where you just put a hose into a receptacle that fills the fresh water tank. If you look to the left under the window on Jim's right, you will see the little door where Jim's gravity fill opening is located.
Out next project of the day was to go Cocopah RV and Golf Resort which is located in the far northwest corner of Yuma, bordering on California, and Mexico to visit our friends Ray and Liza and for Ann to buy a cover for her bikes from them.
https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=32+43.97+-+114+41.5&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.04407,75.498047&ie=UTF8&ll=32.733335,-114.691188&spn=0.013357,0.018432&z=16
Since there is no direct route it was fun navigating our way there.
It is really a beautiful place! The weather was warm, but a little windy, and we had a good visit, and the cover for the bikes will be nice.
We only got a couple of pics of the resort, but if you look at the website, you will get a better feel of what it is like.
When we left we took a few pics. The first pics what I think is a desalinization plant at the Water Quality Improvement Center.
One of the crops that is part of the rotation is hay. You see a lot of it down here, and with the drought there is the west, I would guess it brings a pretty good price, but like the other crops here, it is irrigated as well.
Then it was off to Welton, a small town about 30 miles west of Yuma, where Ann had found an RV place that sold the kind of "glide tape" that she wanted in order to repair one of our front curtains. Here is a link to our blog post from January 2010 where she had replaced the glide tape on the other front curtain. Ann replacing glide tape of other curtain.
When we exited the interstate we went the wrong way, but it was nice to drive through the town. Like many small towns you see today, no matter what state you are in, there are lots of empty buildings.
Then it was back across the interstate to Arizona RV Parts to get the glide tape, and see what else they have that we may need. I was surprised at their inventory. We could have spent a few hundred dollars there quite easily, but we refrained, and only bought the glide tape.
Then it was back to the RV for some much needed rest. :) Later in the afternoon Ann and I decided to take a walk over to the parking lot of the casino, where a huge tent had been erected, and we wanted to see what it was for. On the way, we saw flowering plants. I guess spring is coming to Yuma. Our friend Ray had told us that because of the above normal rainfall last fall, this should be a very colorful spring.
When we got to the tent we were on the back side, and had to walk around to the front to see that it is for a "Circus of Clowns".
We decided it wasnt something we wanted to attend, but we did notice this Sports Coach Cross Country in the parking lot. It is similar to our first RV, except our RV only had the single axle.
In the evening, Ann and Jim went to get lottery tickets, as the jackpot was up around $400 million, a tidy sum, I must say. Before going inside for the evening and watch the local news on KCCI.com, a TV station in Des Moines, I got some pics of the nearly full moon, and the obligatory sunset.
Thursday February 13th was a particularly slow day, and a quiet day at least in the morning when there were no jets flying over head all the time, but in the afternoon the jets were back with vengeance. The only thing I could do is take pics of them.
Some of the pics are not that good, because the jets are so low, and going too fast to get good pics of them.
We did get a treat as we hadnt seen these jets fly in formation before. Perhaps they were practicing for the up coming Yuma Air Show.
For dinner we went to Lin's China Buffet as everyone was feeling pretty good again, and of course we all over ate again. :)
On the way home we stopped at the Giant gas station at 2900 South 4th Ave., so Brian and Jim could get the lay of the land, if they decided to dump and fill there before heading to Phoenix on Saturday.
Friday February 14th Happy Valentine's Day! We started the day by having Jim and Brian over for a potluck breakfast. During our discussions they stated that they are having trouble finding a place in the Phoenix are that meets their requirements; a place that has a pool, and a place where they let people under 55 in. The under 55 requirement can be difficult as most parks here cater to the retired snowbirds.
In the afternoon Brian and Jim went over to Algodonnes to get some prescription medication that is much cheaper there than in the USA. While they were gone, I watched practice for the NASCAR Sprint Unlimited witch will be run Saturday evening, which is a big conflict, as I am planning going to the second week of the IMCA Winternationals here at the Cocopah Speedway, but thanks to our Directv dvr, I can record the Sprint Unlimited while watching the IMCA Modifieds...sweet...
Brian and Jim got back in plenty of time for us to be in the grand stand by 6:00PM, even thought the races dont start till 7:00PM. While us guys went to the races went to see the movie Philomena, a movie she had been wanting to see for some time.
The only pic I got today was one of the full moon.
Saturday February 16th Today is supposed to be the warmest day so far this winter with the high today in the low 90s. I think we can live with it, compared to the weather back in Iowa.
Brian and Jim got going before noon headed to Mesa. Even though they had trouble finding a park that accepted Rvers under 55, and had a pool, Jim found Mesa Spirit RV Resort, and it fit the bill, and looks like a really nice place!
The weather forecast was right on as here is a pic of the thermometer on our thermostat in the motorhome early in the afternoon.
Ann and I didnt do much in the afternoon, until about 5:30 when Ann decided to go do some shopping, and then go to Quechen Casino that is just west of Yuma in California on the road to Algodonnes, MX. Jim and Brian stopped there the other day on their way back from Algodonnes, and said it was much nicer than the Cocopah Casino which is right across the road from us, and since none of us has had any luck at the Cocopah Casino, perhaps a different casino would change things.
A little after 6:00PM I went over to the race track for the final of four nights of racing I will see here, but before I left, I remembered to set the dvr to record the NASCAR Sprint Unlimited. So far the same driver, Dylan Smith of Osceola, NE., has won the feature race on the first three nights, and although, the racing was excellent again tonight, the result was the same as Dylan Smith won again.
Ann and I both got back to the RV about 10:30PM. I stayed up till about 12:30AM watching the Sprint Unlimited, even though they announced the winner while I was at the racetrack watching the IMCA Modifieds. It was still interesting to watch, as it seems the cars handle differently than they have in the past few years, where "bump drafting" has been the norm, but it still didnt prevent the "big one", where several top drivers were taken out in a wreck.
We plan on leaving tomorrow, and had planned on going up to the Lake Havasu area, but it seems things are really busy up there this time of year, and the RV parks are booked up, but we will worry about where to go tomorrow.
Sunday February 16th Ann decided that since we couldnt find a place near Lake Havasu, we would just go back up to Quartzsite and spend a week there, before going to Phoenix the next week for the NASCAR race at Phoenix International Raceway.
We got packed up and on the road by about 10:30AM and I got these pics on the way out of the Speedway camping area.
Our first stop was at the Giant gas station I had mentioned before to dump and fill. While filling with water, I checked the oil in the engine, and it was a quart low. Ann went inside and bought a quart of oil which I then put in, and we were back on the road headed toward the fruit and vegetable stand on Hiway 95 that we had stopped at on the way into Yuma a few days ago.
Sometimes it is hard to tell what kind of crops are growing in the fields as we pass by them, but this one was to see that it was cabbage growing here.
But then it was right back to guessing and we couldnt figure out what this crop was in the field along side the road where we stopped at the fruit and vegetable stand.
After completing our purchases it was back on the road; first a little farther east on 95, then south to the intersection with Interstate 8, where we ate breakfast at lunch time. We have eaten at Day Breakers a few other times in our travels between Yuma and Quartzsite.
In the parking lot at Day Breakers, which also has a truck stop, we noticed these trucks. We should have asked them what kind of work they did with this doppler equipment.
Then it was on north to Q. On the way there is a border patrol station that we have gone through several times. The first few years when we went through, they would always ask us if we are American citizens, but the last few times we have been through these border patrol stations, they have either not asked us anything, or ask if it is just the two of us in the motorhome. I have seen videos on youtube of people challenging the right of the border patrol agents to require people to answer that question. Perhaps, they nolonger are allowed to even ask the question. If you want to know more about this, just search for "border patrol" on you tube.
Once we got to Quartzsite we stopped at the RV Pit Stop to refill with propane. Without thinking I was going to pull in with the fill tank on my left, then I remembered our propane tank was on the right side of the motorhome, so I backed up as far as I could, and turned sharp left. I was going to be close to a post, so I had Ann get out and "spot" for me. Luckily, I was able to get by the post and get propane. It took 15 gallons of propane to fill up and we paid $2.45 per gallon. Sorry, about that for those living in the Midwest, where I have heard that propane has sold as high as $7.00 per gallon during this cold winter.
Then it was on to Hi Jolly, a 14 day free camping area a couple of miles north of Quartzsite. We had drive by here several times, but this is the first time we had stayed here. The terrain is rougher than the other places we have stayed in the area, but it is closer to town that the others. There were more people here than we expected, but we had no trouble finding a quiet spot that will do for a week.
After getting set up, Ann went to town to do laundry, while I kicked back and relaxed, but I did get a couple of pics before we had a dinner of shrimp and pasta.
Here is a pic looking southwest of Quartzsite.
And one of the sun going down.
Monday February 17 In the after noon we went into town for some water and some groceries, and on the way in we saw this RV leaving the camping area. Looks home made, but I am sure it serves it's intended purpose well.
Once in town we got a few groceries, but we had forgotten the list we had made, of course, we didnt get everything we needed. We also got a couple of birthday cards for up coming birthdays. My birthday is Wednesday February 19, and my grandson Camden's is the 20th. We then went to the water stand where we filled our 5 gallon just and strapped it is, so it wouldnt tip over again on the way home.
Before heading back, we stopped at the DQ that is attached to the Pilot Station and cured our ice cream craving. On the way out of town we noticed another unusual RV; this time an Avion pull type camper mounted on a Kenworth truck chassis.
After dinner we went for a walk in the campground which is long and narrow. First we walked to the east end where there are day use trails continuing farther east, but no camping.
Then we headed back west to the campground entrance, where these signs are posted.
And then the usual sunset pics. The first looking east with the setting sun on the mountains, and then the last rays of sun light for the day.
Tuesday February 18th Started off partly cloudy, but warm. Hopefully, we will get enough sunlight to recharge our batteries. We have been fortunate to not have to run our generator to charge our batteries for a couple of weeks, which really saves on the gas, as the generator uses about .8 gallons per hour, and we love the peace and quiet of no generators.
During a break in her work, Ann went to town to go to the post office to mail some stuff she got for her kids, and to mail a birthday card to my grandson, Camden. She also got a few things at the store. Seems there is always something we need.
After another nice walk from end to end in the campground, which I would guess is about a mile, we got back just as it was getting dark Perhaps, we should have started a little sooner, or walked faster. While on our walk I did get this pic. I would like to have at least one pic for each day.
Wednesday February 19th Happy Birthday to me! My birthday is really not that special to me, but I am glad I am still having them. I have spent most of the day working on the blog update, while doing my usual facebooking, blog reading and forum reading, so this up date is taking longer than usual, but hey, what else have I got to do. So far I have had many happy birthday wishes on Facebook, and text messages, including text messages from my grandson Camden, and my youngest grandaughter Carolyne. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!
This evening we are going out for dinner to a yet undetermined place, and then return to our RV parked in the Desert for the evening.
Until next time,
Paul
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