Friday, January 20, 2012

Arizona 2012 Monday(Jan 16)

Monday January 16, 2012

We left the Las Cruces KOA at 8:00am. We had the random 'quirky' issues with the RV -- this morning the stabilizing jacks would not totally retract which means the air bags also would not totally inflate. When leaving here last year we were unaware of this problem until we pulled out onto the road and hit a dip in the road. It felt like the bottom of the RV fell out as we hit so hard. This problem either occurs when it's been setting for awhile in the cold or possibly the jacks have a little rust from setting without use for months. Regardless, we had to stop and power down the jacks again and shut off engine for everything to reset before trying to retract again. After working with it for awhile everything reset and we left the RV Park and took RT 10 west toward Tucson.

We drove in rain and wind for about two hours but the farther south we drove the weather started clearing. I started looking for an RV Park somewhere between Tucson and Yuma so we would not have to drive as far a Yuma, which was about 515 miles from Las Cruces. Basically there is not much human life between Tucson and Yuma, just miles and miles of open land. The only places I found were about 30 miles east of Yuma so decided we were not saving much in mileage to stop at any of these RV Parks. We talked about where we wanted to call in Yuma for an RV site for tonight and decided to call Las Quintas, the place we have reservations for February. When we called they said they had a site we could have and we could decide if we wanted to start our time from tonight or just stay for a day or two. We talked about driving on to San Diego and staying somewhere there for a week before returning to Yuma. We told them at Las Quintas that we would tell them our plans tomorrow and they gave us our site number since the office will be closed when we arrive.

The weather cleared up and the sun came out. It got too warm driving so Larry opened the window on drivers side for some fresh air. We arrived in Yuma about 5:00pm and found Las Quintes RV Resort easily. We pulled into the park and found our site, stopped and unloaded the car and unhitched the car dolly from RV. Larry went back to RV and when he started to open the door it was locked. We had a set of keys in the car so I retrieved but found the key for door only unlocked one of the door locks. Well---this is interesting---who in their right mind would build a motor home requiring two different keys to unlock the locks on the SAME door!@!@??? We kept trying the key on both locks but nothing was working. The window on the drivers side was still open and we were able to slide it open farther to where we could get inside but we left home and forgot to load our latter. The distance from the ground made it impossible to get through the window. I told Larry to knock on someones door and borrow a latter but he kept trying to think of a way to get to window. He remembered the removable latter on back of RV used to access roof. He unhooked it and was able to lean it against window to climb up far enough to remove the keys from the ignition. These keys had an extra key that was for nothing other than that extra lock on the door!@! HOW STRANGE! We scored a lucky break but of course not before we saw 3 or 4 of the park residence standing outside watching the big event!! The 55 plus RV Parks are like living in a very small city as nothing happens that the entire park does not know within 15 minutes!!!

We pushed the car dolly onto the RV site. A lady that was setting outside with a group walked over and said she worked for the resort and could help guide Larry backing the RV into site. She showed us where to locate motor home on lot and Larry backed in. Her name is Cynthia and her husband is David. They are parked next to us and they were having 'happy hour' at the RV behind them so she invited us to come over when we got settled. I walked over later and she introduced me to Bruce, who is from BC Canada. I also met Joe and Cari from Canada as well. Doris, who owned the RV where everyone was gathered, is from Boise, ID. They were all very nice people. Cynthia and David are from Indiana and are permanent residence here at Las Quintas. I talked for awhile and gave my regrets about joining them as I told them we had not had dinner yet.

Larry hooked everything up and when water was hot he took a shower. We drove across the highway to Appleby's for dinner. It was packed, which is typical for a 'snowbird' city. Doesn't matter the day or hour of day every place is packed. We went into the bar and had a beer and waited for our table. They finally called us and took us to our table and we sat for 25 minutes waiting for a server to appear. We ordered our meal and another beer and sat another 25-30 minutes for our order. We asked for a couple of needed items when they brought our food but the server never appeared with them. We finished our dinner and waited forever for our server to bring check. What a ZOO--I'm not so sure our poor service was strictly because the place was busy or just that we had a poor server! Anyway our tip reflected our service!

We came back to RV and when I finished a cup of coffee, I was ready for bed. Tomorrow we need to decide if we are staying here or leaving again. I would like to call dentist and find out if she can see me before my scheduled appointment of Feb 2. If I can get an appointment soon, I'd rather stay and take a day trip to San Diego or even an overnight trip. It is only about 140 miles over to San Diego so we could make a few trips if we want but I would like to stay here since we are settled. I hate moving and reorganizing all the time---guess I'm just not a REAL RV'er as I like the secure feeling of a home base!

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