Saturday April 6 2013

Today is my great nephew's wedding day. I would have loved to attend but knew we would likely not make it home in time to go as he is getting married in Kentucky. I mailed a card and gift earlier but today I sent him a wedding wish on Facebook and I saw later where he actually went fishing this morning before the wedding. He is such a great guy and a real outdoorsman. We drove and drove today. I again took a turn and drove about 200 miles. The wind was horrible and I had a hard time keeping the motor home on the road at times. It really wears you out when driving in these terrible winds. We drove around 565 miles today. We had not planned to drive so far but had a hard time finding a campground that was open. The KOA in West Demoines and Council Bluffs were both closed until April 14th. We ended up calling the KOA in Newton, Iowa to make sure they were open. We have stayed here at least 2 or 3 times and it is a nice campground. They gave us a camp site to take as we told them we were going to arrive rather late. We finally arrived around 8:30pm. Larry was filling out information to drop in the night box when the owner came down on his golf cart to help us. He lives just up the hill from the campground and saw us pull in. He was really great about taking us to the site and helping us get pulled in. It was pitch dark as there are few lights in the camp area itself. Raven goes crazy when we stop and thinks he should be the first one out of the motor home. I usually put him on a leash and let him walk around a little but if we are in an area with a lot of traffic he is so afraid that his stomach drags the ground when he walks. I'm sure both of the cats are anxious to get home, however, each year when we arrive home, they both are afraid of being in the house for a couple of days. Raven goes into his anxiety attach and growls and foams at the mouth, which is exactly what he does each year when we put him in the motor home to leave. Tucker has become a recluse as he refuses to go outside. All he does is sleep and even in Yuma when we would put him outside on the leash, he could not wait to go back in. I would think as many trips as they have been on with us that they would become more comfortable with the traveling. Guess they are getting old and set in their ways! The wind is still bad even though the campground is in a pretty sheltered area. I hope tomorrow is better, however, it looks like the forecast is for rain. Actually I looked at the forecast for Peoria and they are predicting rain all the way through Wednesday! Should make it wonderful to get everything unpacked from the RV! I will be very happy to get home, as I feel I've been gone from the family for a very long time! Can't wait to see my girls and granddaughters! Will just be good to get settled and not be moving all the time. Hopefully we will make it home tomorrow as I think we are only about 165 miles from Peoria. It's been a good trip but I've had enough for awhile! There is no place like home for me!!!!

Friday April 5 2013

I got up and got my shower and dressed so I could call Dr Couri at 7:00. We are an hour behind home so the office opened at 8:00. When I talked to the receptionist, she already knew I need a new prescription and had called it in to the Peoria Walgreens. Wow that was easy, I assume the Walgreens here in Rock Springs must have sent a notification last night when I was there. We decided to go in to town and eat breakfast so I could stop at Walgreens and try getting my prescription refilled. I called them at 8:00 when the pharmacy opened and they had already received approval to refill and said it would be ready in about 15 minutes. We went to the Village Inn and had breakfast and stopped to get the prescription. I was able to get it refilled in record time. We went back to KOA and loaded the car on the dolly and left by about 9:15. We drove all day again. I took a turn at driving again and drove another 150 or so miles. We ended up at Sidney, Nebraska and found Cabela's had a very nice RV Park right next to their store. We set everything up and walked up to the store. They had a restaurant, which was more like a snack bar. We decided to just grab a hamburger there rather than unloading the car to go eat. The food was just barely palatal! I could have cooked a better hamburger in the RV but that's typical when eating out, the meals are either good or bad. After we finished dinner, I walked back to the RV and Larry stayed to shop. He is in Heaven as he has not been in a Cabala's since last spring when we were up at Taylor's. He must have enjoyed it as he was gone for almost 2 hours. When he came back to the motor home, the winds started picking up. We have driven in pretty bad wind for the past 2 days but by the time we went to bed, it was blowing so bad it was rocking the motor home so bad I was wondering if it was going to pick it up off the ground. It also started raining before we went to bed. Between the rain and the wind it was pretty rocky weather and I had a hard time going to sleep as I wasn't sure we would still be in this state by morning.

Thursday April 4 2013

We left West Windover around 8:00am. We traveled all day again and ended up in Rock Springs, WY. We are again staying at a KOA which is ok but the camp sites are nothing but dirt basically. We do have a pretty view out the back of camp ground as there is a small mountain range. I guess it is more like Mesa's as they are rather flat on the top. We went up to the KOA Office and talked to the two couples who are camp workers here. They were all giving us different ideas about where to go for dinner. They were very friendly and told us a bit about their families and how they enjoy doing the camp worker thing. Larry and I have talked about doing a few months as camp workers just to see how we enjoy it. We checked into some of the state parks but never made a decision about doing it. It seems our summers are packed with things going on so not sure when we would work it in. Possibly if we ever sell the house we would have more time to do a few of these things that we always talk of doing. We decided to go to Appleby's for dinner. Larry had a steak and I had chicken pasta--neither was very good but that's Appleby's. We never have the same experience at different restaurant locations around the US as they are all different. We had a very cute waitress and she talked to us a lot. She was from Turkey and was an exchange student here in Rock Springs. She ended up marrying a guy from the area and told us how much she hates living in Rock Springs. She told us how beautiful Turkey is and encouraged us to travel there sometime. We left Appleby's and went down to Walgreens. I have a prescription that I'm almost out of. When I went in to have it refilled, they told me I had no more refills left and would have to contact my doctor. Great--hopefully I can get in touch with Dr. Couri early tomorrow morning and can get the refill approved and filled so we can pick it up early before we leave town. We came back to the motor home and the temperature had really dropped and the winds had picked up. We have been wearing our shorts pretty much since leaving Yuma as the temperature has been in the mid 50's to 60's with sunny days. I'm thinking tomorrow may be a day to dig out long pants as it is very cool tonight.

Wednesday April 3, 2013

We left Reno this morning at 8:00am. Drove a short distance out of town on RT 80 and stopped for fuel. While we were there we had breakfast, which was a buffet and quite tasty. We drove all day and mostly through the mountains, which as always, was beautiful. Almost all the mountains are still snow capped. The weather was beautiful today and the temperature was around 69 degrees. We drove without a break for most of the day. Finally Larry pulled into a rest stop and I took over driving to give him a break. This is about the second time since leaving home that I have drove. He loves to drive and I love to read or just relax so it works well. I drove about 140 miles and we ended up stopping in West Windover, NV at the KOA. The one thing I find that anywhere you stop in Nevada, you can gamble. This town is not real large but has 4 very large casinos. The KOA where we are parked tonight is behind the Main Street with all of the casinos. It is quite pretty tonight as the casinos are all light up like it is Christmas. Also we have a very private site and there is only one other RV here tonight. After we got set up for the night we debated on going into one of the casinos to eat. The gal in the office here at the KOA said they have wonderful food and even have a shuttle we can call and they will pick us up and drop us at one of the casinos. While we were debating, Carole, Larry's sister called and they talked for awhile. We also realized that the time is an hour later than we thought. I decided since it was getting late, I would just go ahead and cook. We had a nice meal, the first I think I have cooked since leaving Yuma. We normally eat something for breakfast in the motor home before taking off for the day so actually we buy usually one meal a day. We eat a late lunch, early dinner and call it food for the day. Even though we eat only 2 meals a day, both of us have gained weight since leaving home in January. Could it be the BEER?????

Tuesday April 2 2013

We got showers and dressed and drove down to Carson City, which is about 30 miles south of Reno. Carson City is the capitol of Nevada and is a decent size city and sets between several mountain ranges. This entire area is beautiful as even in Reno, the mountains are all around and most of them are snow covered. We drove on to Lake Tahoe. The road we drove was nothing but hills and curves and I thought we would never arrive anywhere that was civilized. Mostly the terrain was mountains and open fields of rocky soil. We drove probably about 20 miles from Carson City before reaching the town of Lake Tahoe. The setting of the town is breath taking but it is so commercialized that it's hard to find an area to view the beautiful lake and mountains. There is basically nothing here except ski areas and shops selling ski apparel. Guess that should have been obvious but it reminds me of Jackson Hole, Wy, which at one time was my favorite area before it became so overridden with shops and people. The main difference in these two areas is that Jackson Hole is in the valley between the mountain ranges and Lake Tahoe is at the top of the mountains. We drove through the town and When we left we came out a different road that went back to Carson City. Once we got a short distance out of town, we could see the lake and mountains and it was absolutely beautiful beyond words. The mountains are all snow capped and the lake is such a beautiful blue it's hard to believe it's real. We stopped at a state park on the way out of town and walked on a path into the park so we could see the water and mountains and took a few pictures. I found a huge pinecone laying on the ground so I walked on down farther into the park to try to find at least one more to give to the granddaughters. Larry also looked with me and we ended up finding 5 huge pinecones so figured I would also give Leslie and Taylor one. They were so unusual as they had sharp sticker like things on the edges of the pinecone. Taylor and Kyle went to Alabama, Georgia or one of the Southern States when Morgan was young and brought back pinecones much like these. We drove back through Carson City and then took another mountain road that went to Virginia City, NV. Again we drove around and up and down until I felt car sick by the time we finally arrived. While driving through the mountain road, there were beautiful, huge homes built on every peak as we ascended the mountain. Larry brought up an interesting question about how these people get water since it is impossible to drill into the mountain and find water. I thought about that a lot and wondered just how expensive it must be to build here. When we got to Virginia City, it was perched on the mountain about 7000 ft up. It is an old mining town and looked like another tourist trap with many gift shops and old saloons. We were starved by the time we got there as it was about 3:00pm. We picked out a saloon and went in to check on the menu. We decided to have sandwiches, I had the french dip and Larry had a Rueben. They were both unbelievable delicious. We, of course, had a beer with our meal and waddled out of the Saloon as we were stuffed with food! We walked around the town and looked in the shops but everything was very expensive so bought nothing. We left around 5:00 to make our way back down the mountain side. Larry loves to take the curves at a break neck speed and I asked him several times to slow the pace. The road was good but pretty narrow with huge drop offs. We could see all the way to Reno from the top of the mountain road and the sights was pretty unreal! We got back to RV park and again I was exhausted as it was a very long day. The planes were coming in one after the other up until I passed out for the night. When we were downtown Reno yesterday, there were signs everywhere, welcoming the bowlers so I assume that is the reason for all the air traffic.

Monday April 1 2013

We got everything closed up and left by 10:00am. Not too bad since I still had about 3 loads of laundry to dry from yesterday. The guy and his wife that are parked next to us talked a long time to us this morning. They are from Central Utah. He is a retired dentist and she is a retired nurse. They have a son who lives in San Francisco and a daughter in Seattle. Bill the guy told me he still practices dentistry about one day a week but only when he is not traveling. Sounds like a great arrangement. They were very interesting people to talk with. The drive today was beautiful as it was mostly through the mountains and most of the mountains were snow covered. We actually drove in snow and sleet part of the day when we were driving in the higher elevations. When we ran out of the snow, we had rain and it was very cool. I think the highest elevation was about 7700 ft. There were many ski resorts we passed along the mountain passes. I think they must have sow here up into the very late spring and possibly longer. I tried calling Leslie and Taylor but no one wanted to talk to me as there was no answer. I sent them both a text message but again, no reply. I finally called Kyle to find out what was going on and when Leslie and Pete left their house for home. He told me they just left at 10:00am this morning. I called Beck's Florist in Peoria and order flowers for Leslie for her birthday after finding out they should be home this afternoon. Leslie finally called around 3:30 to thank us for the flowers. They had just gotten home when the florist delivered the flowers. So at least we were able to wish her a Happy BELATED Birthday! We drove RT 80 east and ended up in Reno where we stopped for the night. We actually parked the RV in Sparks, which is a sister city to Reno. We found a nice RV Park that sat next to the Truckee River. We were setting up the motor home when the first plane came into the airport. It was so close to the top of the motor home I felt I could reach up and touch it. We soon found that the planes come in about every 20-30 minutes and they all fly directly overhead. The airport is not too far from where we are parked. Guess we will get use to this but I'm not so sure the cats will. Raven runs to the bedroom and hides under the bed every time a plane comes in. Tucker has been so timid since we left home he won't even go outside most days. We may need to give Raven Prozac by the time we leave here. After we set everything up at the RV site, we drove the car into Reno. The car was so covered in white junk(possibly salt from the roads when we were driving in the snow), we found a car wash right away and ran the car through. At least now we can see out the windows. When we went into Reno, there were lots of Casinos and looked like a mini version of Las Vegas. They have many of the same Casinos, including Circus Circus, which I took a picture of the outside and also the Camel Races on the inside to send to Pete. Last year we all played the Camel Races while we were in Las Vegas and had a fun time. We walked around inside several of the Casinos trying to find a restaurant that looked like a good place to eat. We ended up finding a nice restaurant at the Eldorado Casino. I had Parmesan Crusted Chicken, which was wonderful. Larry had a pork chop meal, which was also good. We chased dinner with a Pacifico Beer, which is what we drank on our trips to Mexico. We left the casino and walked around downtown for awhile but decided to leave as it was very cool and windy. Larry still insists on wearing his shorts everywhere even though the weather is getting quite cool. We came back to the RV and I was pretty much ready for bed. I read for awhile but was very tired tonight. We had a very full day of driving and did a lot of walking in downtown Reno.

Sunday March 31 2013

Woke up this morning to rain. It was not a heavy downpour but enough that everything is wet. I started laundry and worked on it for about 2 hours then we both got showers and decided to drive to Muir Woods. Muir Woods is known for it's large redwood trees and is very scenic. We drove up and down and around curves for about 11 miles to get to the heart of the area. It was so terribly busy when we got there no parking spots were available. We decided we probably had seen the scenic part of the park just driving so we drove on out and took Hwy #1, which goes through the mountains and along the ocean. It was a beautiful drive but very slow as it also had many curves and the road went up and down the mountain constantly. We came out of the mountains to a small town where we stopped at a little restaurant where we had a late lunch. We shared a hamburger and had onion rings and an Anchor Steam beer. The place was very busy and looked like a country cabin inside. The food was passable but pretty pricy for what we had. One guy at the table behind us was upset with his hamburger and let them know that it was not even the size of a McDonald's. The waiter was quick to defend the food and explained that everything they serve comes from local farms and that the beef was top grade beef. Whatever--as I said it was just OK! Actually, the beer was the best part of the meal! We left and drove back to Vallejo to the Walmart to pick up a few items that we needed before leaving tomorrow. The day turned out to be pretty nice as the rain was just an off and on thing. The sun was out most of the day but the temperature was rather cool, especially along the ocean. San Francisco's weather is normally pretty cool I believe as it is surrounded by the ocean and mountains. Out of all the areas I've been, I think San Francisco was the most beautiful and for sure the most interesting. Hopefully next year we can come back when we leave Arizona for home. That is, of course, if we make it to Arizona next winter. Leslie and Pete are having their first Invetro implant done on April 25 so if she becomes pregnant, she will be delivering sometime the last of January or February next year. We told them they sure know how to screw up our winter vacation--of course jokingly! I will be floating on a cloud if she gets pregnant! Today was Leslie's 34th Birthday by the way. We have tried to call her at least 3 times with no answer. Pete and Leslie drove to Taylor's on Thursday afternoon and spent the weekend so I will have to try to reach her tomorrow. We came home around 6:00 and I started laundry again. Hopefully I can get most of it done by the time we leave tomorrow morning.

Tuesday March 26 2013

Today is our last day in Yuma. We worked outside packing up everything this morning. Evelyn, our neighbor next door, came over and told us that her husband, Wayne, went into the hospital yesterday with chest pains. They are Canadian but buy health insurance to cover them while in the US but they told Wayne he needs an Angioplasty and a Stint so they don't think their insurance will cover it if done here. They are talking about medivacing him to Calgary to do the procedure there. Evelyn said if they take him to Calgary, she is staying here to close the RV up and then will drive their truck and follow some of their friends that are leaving on Friday. They will be making a decision on Wayne probably today. Got an Email from Judy Jackson. They left on Sunday for Powell River, BC, Canada, which is where their home is. They were in upper California when she sent the email. She said the weather was getting cooler and jeans would be in order for today's travel. We ran errands picking up items we will need while traveling, groceries, etc. When we came home several of the neighbors came over to say goodbye. Cynthia and Doris both stopped and talked quite awhile and David came by in the golf cart and talked for awhile. Evelyn came home and said they are flying Wayne to Calgary for surgery tomorrow morning at 9:00am. She is staying to close up the camper and driving their truck back, following some of their friends that will be leaving in the next few days. It was hot again today. I think I am ready to move on to a little cooler weather. Not sure I'm ready for the snow but California should be somewhere in between on the weather.

Saturday March 30 2013

We caught the 10:00 Ferry to San Francicso from Vallejo. When we arrived in San Francisco, there was a huge farmer's market at the Ferry Pier. They had hundreds of tents selling fresh vegetables, flowers and food. People were everywhere, to the point that it was difficult to walk around the Pier area. We went inside the Pier building and bought a breakfast sandwich and Larry got an 'Arnold Palmer' to drink. The lady explained that the 'Arnold Palmer' was made of part Tea and part Lemonaide and it had an interesting taste. When we finished eating we walked around inside the Pier where they have shop after shop of anything and everything you could possibly want. We went outside and waited for the tram down to Pier 39 (Fisherman's Wharf). We boarded the tram and rode it as far as we could. We got off the tram and stopped at an information booth and they told us where to go to get tickets for the Cablecars. We walked about 6 or 8 blocks before we finally found Ghirardelli Square, which is the depot for the Cablecars. We got in line to buy our tickets and then waited more than an hour in another line to board. We watched the Cablecars come down and then get pushed onto a turn table that turned the cars around to proceed back up the hill. We finally got on a car and rode it up the very steep hills through Knob Hill, Chinatown, Russian Hill, the Financial District and many more popular areas of the city. We got off the Cablecar at Union Square. This area is the high end shopping district with Macy's and all of the large national department stores. In Union Square, they had an Art Show going on and we walked around and looked at the paintings and photo's for awhile before reboarding another Cablecar headed back to the Wharf. We rode the cars for a couple of hours and sat with our mouth open at the amazing streets and buildings all stacked on the very steep hillside. The trees in some areas were amazing and were so large they grew over the top of the streets. The buildings were such interesting architecture and very, very old. We got off the last Cablecar near the Wharf area and walked the far end of Jefferson Street. This is a totally different area and much cheaper than Pier 39 area. They had street vendors selling all types of seafood and they had some restaurants where you could go inside and set down to eat. We decided to go into Mike's Lighthouse, which was very small and we sat in a booth that was so tight we could slide into it. We ordered an Anchor Steam, which is a local beer we had yesterday at the Crab House. We looked at the menu and Larry ordered a shrimp and scallop pasta, I ordered Shrimp and Crab Cannollini. My selection was amazing and much better than Larry's. The prices here were about 50% less than where we ate yesterday and I felt it was much better. We left this area and started walking back to Pier 39. My legs and feet hurt so bad I could scream after all the walking we've done in the past 2 days. We finally made it to the tram line and when we got on, it was standing room only. It was so crowded there was not even a possibility of making our way to the front to pay our fare. We found out, however, that we have been paying too much anyway as senior's fees are 50%. I don't think anyone who boarded with us paid either, so didn't feel so bad about sneaking a ride. We arrived at the Ferry Terminal and found that we had an hour or more to wait for the next Ferry. It was getting quite cool and started raining. We were lucky to have had such a beautiful day as the forecast called for rain all day today. We walked back into the terminal and bought coffee for Larry and a Latte Mocha for myself. When my Latte came it had the most beautiful design on top that looked like a leaf. Each Latte they made had the same design and the gal made it by pouring the milk from a pitcher to create the design. We sat inside at a small table and drank our coffee and about 45 minutes later, the Ferry pulled into the dock. While we were having our coffee, Pete sent us a picture of the whole family, Taylor, Kyle, Morgan, Addison, Leslie and Pete. What a beautiful picture of our wonderful family. Made me very homesick as they were all out eating, celebrating Leslie's Birthday which is tomorrow. I hate missing the special occasions when we are away from home. I sent Taylor a picture of my Latte and she sent back that she wished she was here with us. We boarded the Ferry and arrived back in Vallejo around 8:00pm. I was so tired, I thought someone was going to have to carry me to the car!! We arrived back at the motorhome and it started raining harder. I went to bed and slept a deep sleep all night.

Friday March 29 2013

When we got up this morning, Larry went over to the camp office and found a sheet showing that the camp site we are in was reserved for today. We had to wait until 8:30 for the office to open. I got my shower and then Larry went to office and he told us there were 2 sites open for 2 days and 1 site open for 3 days. We decided to take the one that was available until Monday. We unhooked the motorhome, closed it up and unhooked the car and dolly so we could back out of our spot to pull up about 5 spaces to the new site. He then went back to tell the office which site we were taking and the guy told him the ferry to San Francisco was scheduled to leave at 10:00. Larry quickly got his shower and we drove to the ferry. We arrived about 9:45 and the line for tickets was huge. I got in line and he went to park the car. When he came back I had hardly moved in the line and before I got to the ticket office, they said the ferry was filled. I was getting ready to leave the line when the lady announced that they were going to try to get another ferry to take the remaining people over. We finally ended up getting our tickets and caught the extra ferry leaving Vallejo at about 10:45. We got to San Francisco around 11:30 and walked about 20 minutes to get to Fisherman's Wharf. We checked on the tour bus that allows you to get on and off at the various stops and one of the bus guys offered to give us a discount of $8 per ticket that was good for 48 hours. We talked about it and decided to wait and decide later. We walked for several hours around Fisherman's Wharf and ended up eating at the Crab House. We spent $95 for 2 crab meals and a beer each. WOW, this place is expensive. The meal was very good, the crab was baked in a garlic butter sauce and we had a great salad and dessert, which was all included in the price of the meal. I told Larry if Pete could spend $200 for a meal for Leslie on Valentines Day, he could treat me for my birthday, Valentines Day and Mother's Day! I should have left the part about Mother's Day out of that deal I think! We shopped around and by about 3:00 the wind had picked up and it was getting very cool. I brought a sweatshirt but Larry forgot his in the car this morning so he ended up buying a jacket. We decided we would go ahead and buy a 48 hour ticket on the bus line but when we went to purchase the tickets this time, no discount was available!!! We decided to forget it since it would have been an additional $16. Decided to wait until tomorrow and try to get a cheaper ticket during the early morning hour. Since it got pretty cool and we were very tired after walking all day, we hopped the trolley to take us back to the Ferry Pier. We were able to catch the 4:30 Ferry back to Vallejo. San Francisco is a beautiful city! It's very unique as everything is built on the steep hillside. The buildings appear to be stacked on top of each other. The harbor area is huge and just a very beautiful sight. We could see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz from Fisherman's Wharf. The flowers and trees are beautiful all around the area of the Wharf. The weather today was perfect for most of the day but tomorrow they are calling for rain. Not sure if we will take the ferry back to San Francisco or drive up to the wine vineyards. Guess it will depend on how much rain we actually get.

Thursday March 28, 2013

When we got up this morning, Larry noticed one of back tires on the drivers side was almost flat. Great! Another issue which is just what we need!! We got showers, the motor home unhooked and arrived at Freightliner by 8:00am. We pulled in and removed the car and dolly and one of the technicians came out and found our problem is less than 5 minutes. A vacuum hose that inflates the air bags that the motor home rides on, had slipped off. He put it back on and the alarm quit sounding and everything seemed fine. Wow, that was a lucky break. We asked if they could check the tire and they told us to drive across the street to a tire center. We took the motor home over and they replaced all of the valve stems and aired all of the tires up to the proper pressure. They checked for a leak on the one that was low but said they were sure it was just leaking from the bad stem and after they replaced it, the tire no longer leaked. Guess we got another lucky break for the day. We hooked the car back on and drove over to Pilot Truck Stop to fuel up and have breakfast. I think we were on the road by 9:30, which was amazing considering our problems. We drove all day and stopped for fuel around 3:00 and picked up a subway sandwich for lunch. We drove through some pretty steep mountains and at one point I started getting shooting pains through my ear as though I was on a plane. The pain was pretty intense and didn't quit even when we started down out of the mountains. This is the ear that has the perforated ear drum and the one I always have problems with. I took some Ibuprofen to try to ease the pain and it helped but did not stop the pain totally. I got an email from Jan and she shared their big issue that happened to them last night. She said that she and Judy were cooking dinner and heard a weird sound in the bathroom. When they opened the bathroom, water was flowing out of the stool. She told Judy to flush it and when she did, the water shot out of the stool all over the motor home and soaked Judy. Jan told her to flush it again to see if it would stop and again, Judy got soaked from the water shooting into the air. Ken came in and he tried flushing the stool two more times and he got soaked as well because the water shot out. He ran out and shut the water off and the girls used everything available to mop up the water. It ended up that he did not put the water pressure valve on the water line and the pressure was too much for the lines. Jan said they changed out of the wet cloths, sat down and ate their dinner and spent two hours doing laundry and taking showers. I laughed like crazy reading Jan's email as she is so witty, however, I felt sorry they had gone through such a nasty experience! We continued driving and I started looking for an RV Park for the night. It's pretty amazing that there are so few in an area that must be heavily traveled. We called 2 or 3 but they were so expensive we decided to continue driving. We found a KOA listed near Lodi so we called to check on availability. The camp office was closed so we talked to an 800 number who verified they had some open spots. We drove out of Lodi on a blacktop and when we found the campground it was also a boat harbor. We looked at the camp sites and decided to drive on as it was pretty sub-par for a KOA. We thought since it was so late, we would just stop for the night in the Walmart in Fairfield, which was about 20 miles from the KOA. I put the address in the Navigator and it took us out into a residential area with no Walmart in site. We pulled over and started looking for another campground and decided to drive onto Vallejo, another 20 miles. By the time we found the campground it was after 8:00. We pulled in and ended up going too far into the back area of the park and the streets were very narrow with cars setting along both sides of the street. We made a turn around a curve and found we did not have room to pull through without taking the car and dolly off the motor home. I told Larry to go up to the door of one of the RV's as ask the guy if he could move his car so we could make the turn without hitting it. The guy was very nice and came out and moved the car and we barely were able to make it through. It was so pitch dark back there, we had a hard time navigating through until we got back to the main road. The office was closed but we saw they had several open campsites. We picked one and it was so narrow, we barely had room to pull in and ended up having probably only 2 foot on either side of the motor home after we parked. What a very long day of traveling. It was after 9:00 by the time we got parked and the water and power connected. When I moved the slides out, the cat food had spilled and was strewn all over the floor and the cloths in the closet had all fallen off the bar. I worked another 30 minutes to get everything cleaned up and put back in order. We must have done more wild driving than I remembered today for things to be in such a mess. Hopefully they do not throw us out tomorrow because the few open sites are reserved. If so, I have no idea where we are going to move to as we still have not found many campgrounds around here.

Wednesday March 27 2013

We hooked up and left Yuma around 9:30AM. We drove most of the day into Southern California. The landscape was pretty much the same as Arizona for the first part of the day. As we traveled further we began seeing areas of wind turbines. Each area had hundreds of wind turbines up on the hillsides on both sides of the roadway. In most of these areas I would guess there were as many as a couple thousands turbines of all sizes. There were the typical ones that looked much like the ones we see in Illinois but in some areas there were 3 to 4 different height and sizes ranging to very small ones close to the ground. As we traveled we also started noticing fields of solar panels and again, these numbered in the thousands just setting on the ground in open fields. I assume California depends highly on solar energy. We had a beautiful day for travel today and the farther north in California we traveled, the air began to cool. I began thinking I wanted to return to Arizona as it got quite cool at times when we stopped. When we got closer to L.A., we saw field after field of grape vineyards. The grape vines are planted in such neat, well kept rows and go for miles and miles. Later we started seeing fruit trees interspersed with the grapes. Some of the orchards looked like possibly olive trees. I looked the olive trees up on the internet as we traveled and the leaves appeared to be the same as those we were seeing. I also looked up almond trees and decided the orchards we were seeing could be almonds as well. I read on the internet that both olives and almonds are grown in central California. In some areas the trees were covered with white netting and the netting was very long and covered row after row of trees. The trees with the netting appeared to be either the olive or almond trees and I'm assuming the netting prevents the birds from eating the olives or whatever. I don't think the netting would be for preventing frost. As we were driving the motor home made a loud sound that we thought sounded like a vacuum leak. Larry keep looking at the gages on the dash but nothing was showing up. Soon after we heard this an alarm started going off about every 2 or 3 minutes. We decided we needed to find a Freightliner Service Center so I looked for one on the internet and found one in a town named Hesperia, which was just north of San Bernandino. We called and they told us they closed at 5:00 and if we could get there in time they would take a look at the motor home. We ended up getting to Hesperia about 4:40 but when we found Freightliner, they told us to come back tomorrow morning at 8:00 as they had no one to look at it today. We found a very nice RV Park called Desert Willow RV Resort. It was just a few blocks from where we have to take the motor home tomorrow. The site they gave us was very nice and the whole resort was spotless with lots of green grass, something we haven't seen much of since leaving home. We pulled in and set up the motor home and decided to walk over to a restaurant named Beef O'Brady's. We ordered a tall beer and an appetizer of homemade chips with bacon and cheese melted over them. We also ordered wings and they brought the chips first which were wonderful! By the time we got the wings, we were so stuffed we ended up with a doggy bag. We walked back to motor home and it was freezing! The wind was blowing and temperature was very cold. I could hardly wait to get in my pajamas and under the covers to warm up!

Monday March 25 2013

Our neighbor, whom we call Rebel's dad(he has a beautiful huge dog named Rebel) left this morning for home. He is probably close to 78 yrs old and lives in New York. His son flew into Yuma Sunday to drive him home pulling his 5th wheel. He is a boat builder and owns a boat yard in upstate New York but neither of his sons are part of the business. He says it's too much work and too many hours for them to work for him. I believe his name is actually Hank and he is a very funny guy and in great shape. Rebel, his dog, is a very obediant dog and follows him everywhere he goes and is very friendly with everyone. Cleaned around the RV and then went into Yuma to exchange some items and to get a haircut. The weather was really getting quite warm by the time we left so turned the air conditioner on again today! I know we are going to be shocked at the electric bill tomorrow when we leave. Taylor called and also sent us a couple of videos of both Morgan and Addison skiing. Addison is really taking to the hills and goes like a 'bat out of hell' down the ski slopes. She was doing her turns when she started at the top of the slope but ended up going straight down and downing a snowplow by the end of the video. Morgan has really become a good skier as this is about her 3rd year skiing. They leave tomorrow afternoon and are driving to Salt Lake City, which is about 45 minutes south of the ski resort. They will stay in Salt Lake tomorrow night and catch a late afternoon flight back to Chicago on Wednesday. Sounds like they have all had a very good time on the trip.

Sunday March 24 2013

Ken, Judy and Jan left this morning around 9:30. Jan was crying when she said goodbye. I really hate to see them go as we have all become such great friends. They plan to travel for about 4 days to get home. I hope they do not run into bad weather going to B.C. I came home and started laundry. I worked all day on the laundry and cooked a nice meal tonight. Larry offered to go out to eat tonight but I was just to tired to go. I enjoy eating at home when I've had a busy day. The reason the Jackson's didn't leave yesterday was because it was terribly windy. Today the wind is a little calmer but still rather windy. The weekend weather has been amazing and has only been in the mid to low 80's. We still had the air conditioner on in the afternoon both days. It get hot inside very fast when the sun is beating on the roof. I can hardly wait to see our electric bill this month. Last month we didn't run the air and it was $100 so I'm sure we are looking at much more than that for March. Talked to Jerry Twedell today as we had not talked to them for a long time. He is having a few issues again with some chest pain so doctor is sending him for a stress test this week. I really hope all is well with him as he had a heart attack in December and had to have an angioplasty. He is due to go back to work on April 1 so hopefully all turns out well. Got a video from Taylor of Morgan skiing. They are in Utah for a week. She also said Addison is skiing like crazy and never wants to slow down. Reminds me so much of our girls when they were that age. Great memories of the ski trips we took with them. I'm so happy the granddaughters love to ski as it gives them something to do as a family. They fly home Wednesday and Pete and Leslie are going up for a few days Thursday afternoon. Pete and Leslie have been dog setting with Molly, Morgan's new puppy.

Friday March 22 2013

Talked to Leslie today. She got her birthday card and the check I sent for her birthday. The problem is that I screwed up the check when I wrote it out. I told her to tear it up and write herself a new one on our account. She told me she didn't want anything for her birthday and was not going to rewrite the check. I have bought her and Pete a few items here but I never know for sure what to buy my girls for birthdays. She told me she just wanted me to take her for lunch when I came home so will differently do that but need to figure something else out for birthday. We made plans with the Jackson's/Norfolk's to go to dinner tonight. Larry and Judy decided they wanted to go back to Da Boyz over in the foothills for pizza. I called and made a reservation as it is a small place and always packed with people. Basically I sat around and read most of today. Judy and Jan are working on packing and cleaning so they were busy most of the day. We met at Da Boyz around 6:20 and ordered 2 large pizza's and a couple of pitchers of Pacifico Beer. Ken loves Pacifico Beer, which is what we drink when we all go to Mexico. We had a great time at dinner and of course, Judy and I always fight over who's paying for what. They ended up paying most of the tab and would only take $20 from us. We came home and the gals went to Walmart to pick up RV Antifreeze and get their internet renewed. They came over around 10:00 and were furious with Walmart as they were out of antifreeze, gave them a hassle about their internet and ended up overcharging them for some items on their bill. No one should ever assume Walmart will not rip you off as they make many mistakes. Not sure if some of them have a dishonest motive or not. Anyway it was late when the girls left to go home. They are planning to leave tomorrow but are still undecided.

Saturday March 23 2013

We went into Yuma to pick up a few items from Sam's and the flea market. I called Judy to ask if they would come for dinner tonight as they are leaving tomorrow so I thought I would save them having to cook tonight. Judy asked me to pick up oven liners at Bed and Bath for them. I picked up hamburger, a fruit tray and salad items at Sam's, stopped by Bed and Bath and then we went to the flea market. I wanted to buy another jar of desert honey as I'm almost out of what I bought last week. It is such great honey and I have been using it in my coffee. It seems to help with my coughing as well. I read that eating local honey helps build your immune system to the allergies that you experience from the area. Don't know if it will help or not but I seem to be hanging onto whatever I have even though I've been to the doctor 2 times and am on my second round of antibiotics. We also took two bags of paper back books back to the book mart and got new books. The book exchange at the flea market is much cheaper than the one we went to in the foothills. After we left the market, we stopped by Walmart to grab a few additional items. It was 4:00 when we got home and I put a salad together and made fruit dip for the fruit I bought today. Ken, Judy and Jan came over around 6:00 and the weather was so beautiful we sat outside and had a beer before Larry grilled the burgers. We had a great meal and lots of wonderful conversation. They stayed quite awhile after dinner but they were very tired as they worked all day packing up and cleaning the park model to get ready to leave tomorrow. We are going to miss them so much as we have spent so much time with them since we've been here. There is hardly anyone left in the resort as each day several people leave. We are leaving on Wednesday but Illinois is still getting snow so may end up in California for longer than we planned if the weather doesn't cooperate.

Thursday March 21 2013

Jan called and asked if I wanted to go for a manicure and pedicure with them this morning. I got my shower and we all left at 10:00 to go over to the nail place in the foothills. We got wonderful pedicures and I got a gel manicure. After we finished, we all went over to Frye's and had Chinese food for lunch. After we ate we went to the hardware store as the gals wanted potting soil and then we stopped at the used book store. I'm glad I did not bring my paperbacks to turn in as the lady does not pay much for them. I bought two books and it was $8. Don't think I will be visiting this place much as I can buy new books for that price. When we started back to the resort, they had the frontage road torn apart to blacktop. We had to get onto RT 8 and come in from the other side of the resort to get home. The road was a mess and I'll be surprised if Judy did not pick something else up in her tire from driving through it all. Ken was drinking beer with Larry again and when he went home, I fixed dinner. After we ate Cynthia and Doris came over and sat outside to visit. We were parked by them last year and Cynthia works for the resort as security. Jan and Judy came back over later and stayed fairly late. They have decided to leave on Saturday for home and they are really sad to be leaving. We are planning to leave next Wednesday on the 27th and go to California for awhile before heading home. From the weather forecast at home, I'm not sure we want to head back to the midwest soon. It appears Illinois is going to get slammed with another snow storm this weekend.

Wednesday March 20 2013

I had an appointment in Mexico with Dr. Garcia at 10:00 for a periodontal cleaning today. Last night Jan, Judy and Ken decided to go with us so we all left about 9:20 in two cars and drove down. We like to take two cars because the men are usually wanting to leave before the rest of us, so it seems to work better that way. Larry and Ken went to Dr. Castro's office as Larry wants to talk to her about the crown she placed on his implant earlier this year. He thinks it should be larger than the one she put on. I asked him for a week if he was going to try to see her and if so to call for an appointment but of course, because his name is Larry Stafford, he thinks they will just drop everything and work him in!!! I walked to Dr. Garcia's and Jan and Judy went to shop. I finished with my appointment and was suppose to meet the guys at El Gourmet but when I walked by they were not there. I walked on to Dr. Castro's office and they were just calling Larry in to see the doctor when I got there. Ken and I sat outside in the courtyard and waited for him to come out. When he was done we walked to El Gourmet but Ken and Larry thought the music was too loud so we went to El Paradios instead. We called Jan and Judy to let them know where we were and they came to meet us there. We drank a couple of beer and no one liked the menu for lunch so we ended up going back to El Gourmet. Of course my man Jose(the waiter) was very happy to see us as well as Brenda, the dancing waitress. We drank more beer and ordered sandwiches for lunch. We ended up staying about 2 hours and went to get in the massive line for the border. It was really hot again today so by the time we got across the border to the car I felt like I'd stepped out of the shower. Ken, Judy and Jan walked to their car and we found ours and when we drove out of the parking lot, I thought they were ahead of us but never did see them again on the way home. Found out they had a flat tire when they got to their car and drove it into Yuma to have it repaired. I felt terrible that we didn't know they were having problems. Judy said she thinks they might have picked up a nail over on our street here in the resort. One of the guys we were parked by last year bought an older 5th Wheel and is ripping everything out of it to remodel so he has been dragging the wood and junk up the street to the dumpster. I wouldn't be surprised if she did get the nail here as she has driven me home a few times in the past few days. I do feel better I think today. I have not been coughing nearly as much as before and feel like I have a bit more energy. Hopefully the shots I got yesterday are going to help me kick whatever I seem to have.

Tuesday March 19 2013

I peeled potatoes, onions and put roast and carrots in the crockpot. I borrowed one of Judy's crockpots as I didn't think I could get it all in only one as the one I have with me is pretty small. I cleaned strawberries and cut them up with sugar to put on top of the tapioca pudding that I made for dessert. I put a salad together and pretty much had dinner ready for tonight. Jan called and asked if I wanted to go to the used book store today. I have a number of paperbacks that I need to turn in so got myself ready and walked over to their place. I also had a package to mail to Leslie and Judy had a package to mail as well so we went to the post office. Stopped at Walgreens and then Judy and Jan told me I was going back to the Urgent Care to see the doctor again. I said to just take me home and I'd bring my car over so they did not have to waste their time setting in the waiting room. They insisted they were taking me so we went into the clinic and actually got in fairly soon. When the doctor came in I told him I had no improvement on my situation and that I was still coughing so bad it was making me nauseated and giving me headache's. He decided to give me a steroid shot and another shot of another antibiotic. He called in a new prescription for a stronger antibiotic and more steroid nose spray. He told me to continue taking the Mucinex 2X daily as well. We left the doctor's office and went over to the book store and by then they were closed for the day! Judy insisted she was going to go back to Walgreen's to get my new prescription before we went home. I was so tired, I would have rather come home and sent Larry to get prescription later. We waited for about 20 minutes to get prescription and finally headed home. It was 4:30 when we got home and Ken and Larry had been drinking beer all afternoon. Ken went home and they came back around 6:30 for dinner. We had a wonderful meal as the roast were great. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the meal. I fixed two loaves of hot bread and we all had plenty to eat. Jan and Judy brought fresh fruit and yogurt dip and I had the tapioca pudding with the fresh strawberries. We all felt like we were going to explode for all the food. They stayed until about 10:00 and we had a great visit. We laugh so much when we are all together. I'm really going to miss them when we all leave here.

Monday March 18 2013

I got up and started more laundry and picked up motor home a bit and got my shower. Judy, Jan and I left to go to Sam's around 9:30am. We spent a couple of hours in Yuma and then stopped on the way back at a craft barn on RT 95. The place was an absolute dump and I'm imagining that every thing in it has been there 15 years at least. It was a dusty mess and before I got out of there I was coughing my head off! We came home and I had lunch. I again am exhausted today. I don't know if I am ever going to start feeling better. I have taken all but a days worth of the Amoxicillin the doctor gave me last week and feel no different than I did before I saw him. I laid down for awhile this afternoon and got up to fix dinner. By the time I was finished with dinner I felt like I wanted to go to bed. I think another trip to the doctor may be in order soon.

Sunday March 17 2013

I woke up with a horrible headache this morning so I laid back down for awhile to try to get rid of it. Judy came over and stayed an hour or so and then I finally got my shower around 10:30. We went into the flea market as I told Taylor I would buy her some sheets before we left for home. I got Taylor two sets of sheets, a king and a queen, that were 1600 thread count for $25 each. I love the sheets I bought at the flea market last year and they all come with 4 pillow cases as well. We bought a few other items at the flea market and had a sandwich before we left. We stopped at Walmart to pick up more groceries as I invited Jan, Judy and Ken to come over to eat on Tuesday night. I had a roast but picked up another smaller one to add to it along with potatoes, carrots and onions. I will stick it all in the crock pot on Tuesday morning, make a salad and call it a meal. It too hot to cook anything else. It was somewhat cooler today but still in the 90's. Another day of air conditioning! I laid down and to rest when we came home as I feel so exhausted all the time. It's this crud that is dragging me down as all I do is cough. I'm pretty sure the cough is what's causing the headaches as well. Judy came over and said she needed someone besides the people at her house to talk to! I don't think they were arguing I just think she gets tired of being with the others all the time. She left to go home to eat dinner and told me to come over later. I came inside to cook something and Larry had been snacking all afternoon and said he was not hungry--worked for me--so we skipped dinner. When we were at Walmart earlier we were going to buy a new Keurig coffee maker and forgot. Our little Keurig has been working about half the time. It is pretty old, probably 3 years old and used a lot. Larry decided to go get the water jugs filled and go back to Walmart to get the coffee maker. I walked over to see Judy and Jan and again tonight, it was so beautiful outside, once the sun went down. We sat on the deck until Larry came back from Walmart. Judy and Jan told me they want to go back to Sam's tomorrow so I decided to come home and do a few loads of laundry tonight since I won't have a lot of time tomorrow. The mattress store is suppose to deliver out new mattress sometime tomorrow but I expect it will be sometime in the afternoon as they are driving from Phoenix with it tomorrow.

Saturday March 16 2013

I talked with Judy and Jan this morning and Evelyn our next door neighbor, stopped by to talk as well. I was telling her how bad I have felt since arriving here in Arizona with the coughing, sneezing and how often I blow my nose. She said she had the same problem two years ago and someone told her to start taking an Herb called ALJ. She told me I could get it over in the foothills at the Herb Store. I came home and we went over to the Herb place and I found the ALJ capsules that Evelyn referred to. I also asked the guy at the store if there was anything else they sold to control my cough. He gave me something called Lobelia. He told me I could take up to 8 of the ALJ capsules and no more than 4 of the Lobelia per day. Evelyn told me she took the ALJ up until August after going home before she started feeling better. The ALJ is a mixture of several Herb's including Boneset, Fennel Seeds, Fenugreek Seeds and Horseradish Root. I told the guy at the store that I had been to the doctor and he gave me 875mg of Amoxicillin to take 2 times per day. The guy said what I had was not going to be handled with Amoxicillin and the doctors should have known that my problems are the common issues that effect many people who come to Arizona. I said I thought the doctor mostly gave me the Amoxicillin because I had a ruptured ear drum and had infection in my ear. So I'm going to go back to doctor next week if I do not start feeling better. We went over to Frye's to pick up groceries. Didn't buy much but always close to $100 to walk out the door! I guess we spend less on groceries to cook than we would spend if we had to eat all of our meals out. It just seems the price of food here if much more than home. We came home and Judy came over and we talked for awhile and then Jan called over to tell Larry that she wanted us to come and eat with them as she fixed too much for the 3 of them. I took a loaf of fresh deli bread and we all walked over to eat. Jan fixed mainly salads and we all had more than enough to eat with food left over. We sat on the deck and talked until 10:00. While we were there, an ambulance and fire truck came into the park and headed toward the back of the resort. The new manager and his wife followed the fire truck and I believe the ambulance left with someone as the lights and sirens were on when they pulled out of the park. No one we talked to knew who it was or what had happened so maybe we will hear tomorrow. The night was so beautiful to be outside after such a horribly hot day. It again got up to about 95 degrees today. I don't think it is to cool down until first part of week. It's so miserable during the day, I can't stand to be outside. I can't even imagine what it would be like spending the summer here!

Friday March 15 2013

I talked to Jan and Judy this morning and told them I had to go into Verizon in Yuma to see what the problems are with my phone. They have been wanting to go to Sam's and don't have a card so I had told them I would go with them. I asked if they were interested in going this morning and we made plans to go. We drove two cars as the 3 of them had to stop at their bank to check on their Visa card. Larry and I drove on into the mall to Verizon. I walked into Verizon and told the guy my problem and he hit two buttons on the side of my phone and it powered up. He said sometimes the phone shuts down and this is the only way to power it back up. He told me there was not a defect in the phone and that if it happens again, I should be able to do the same thing to power it back. I was relieved beyond words that I did not have a bad issue with my phone. I really never think about how much I depend on it until it has a problem. Larry decided to stop in at Master Cuts to get a hair cut. I need one but decided to wait another week and get mine cut just before we leave Yuma. While he was getting a hair cut, I walked over to Ross and bought a couple of bath rugs and a paper holder for the small bathroom. As I was leaving Ross, Jan called and said they were at Sam's and I told her we were on our way. As I walked to the car, Larry walked out of Master Cuts so the timing was perfect. We all went into Sam's and the guys shopped around for awhile and decided to leave to drive back home. Jan, Judy and I continued shopping and by the time we were done, their cart was overflowing. They basically bought paper goods but spent about $150. They kept saying how cheap everything was as in Canada, they pay so much more for everything. They live about 5 hours north of Vancouver which is the closest place for them to find a Costco to do their shopping. I'm not sure how they will find room to transport it all back to Powell River. The gals wanted to get home as they have been going to Art Cook's Computer Classes here in the resort. Before we came home, Jan won some dollies at the craft show a few week ago and we had to drive over to the Foothills to pick them up at a lady's house. We got back to the resort about 12:45 and Larry and I decided to go over to Parish's Bar for lunch. I had my usual French Dip Sandwich and also had 2 Pacifico Beer. This is I think the first beer I have had for more than a week. I have been so sick with this stupid allergy thing that I have drank nothing but water. The temperature was 97 degrees today. It has been in the mid 90's since Wednesday and is suppose to remain hot until about Monday. I am about ready for some cooler weather as I do not do 90's well.

Thursday March 14 2013

Larry bought me a box of 'breathe right' strips and I put one on last night before going to bed. I was shocked at how much it opened my nose and I could actually sleep without waking up to blow my nose all night. I felt much better this morning. Jan and Judy came down to check on me this morning. They are like my hovering angels as they check me out 2 to 3 times a day to make sure I'm feeling ok. We needed several items from Sam's so we drove into Yuma. I also went to Sally's trying to find hair color. Since we have been in Yuma, both of the Sally's stores have been out of the color I use. I ended up buying a different brand so my hair will probably turn out orange, purple or black!!! I do not understand why these stores do not order items immediately when they are out since I can only imagine how many retirees buy hair color here! Larry went into see Anthony at the mattress store to find out if they are going to deliver our mattress tomorrow as planned. He said it did not get on the truck this week and would be Monday before they could get it delivered. Since we have about 10 days before we leave Yuma, they better step it up or I'm going to have to put on my nasty attitude with them. We got home around 4:30 and after dinner Jan called to find out if we were going to come up to their place for awhile. We walked up and stayed until about 9:30. When I got home, I picked up my cell phone to make sure no one tried to call and found the phone was dead. I plugged it in to charge but it still would not power up. This is pretty upsetting since my phone is less than 6 months old. Tomorrow I will go to Verizon and hope they can either fix the phone or at least retrieve all my information. This is not the right time to have this issue as all my contacts are in my phone as well as other information that I need while away from home. I went to bed but didn't feel as exhausted tonight as I have been feeling, so maybe the medication is starting to attack whatever I have.

Wednesday March 13 2013

Yesterday I just felt so lousy, I did nothing but lay around and sleep. Jan and Judy were here several times checking on me. Today I felt better and was glad I did as I had a dental appointment to complete my last crown. Jan also had an appointment so the 3 of us left at 8:00 for Los Algodones. We arrived for our appointments and had to wait about 30 minutes as at 9:00, the office was already very busy. I went in and got my crown placed and when I came out, Jan was still waiting to get in. She finally got in and it was almost 11:00 by the time she finished. We shopped for awhile and went to the Purple Pharmacy to try to exchange 3 cartoons of cigarettes that I had bought a few week back. The cigarettes I bought were horrible as they tasted like menthol. I was lucky enough to find my receipt so they were very nice about exchanging. I have 2 more cartoons at home to exchange, which they said they would do. We walked by the El Gourmet Cantina and Brenda came to hug me and I told her no because I have been sick. We blew kisses and she said she hoped I would feel better so I could come back to drink beer before I leave for home. Jan bought a yard ornament and I stopped at Louis's stained glass shop to pick up my glass I ordered a month ago. I stopped back to the pharmacy and bought more Amoxicillin and Amnion(sp) for diarrhea, as each time I take Amoxicillin, I end up with issues. Judy bought Thyroid medication as she does not have enough to get her home. We decided to get in line for boarder as it was growing very long. While standing in line, Jan ended up buying another yard ornament which was so big and bulky she had trouble carrying it. We stood in line for an hour to get across the boarder. I was starting to feel pretty bad and I think it was mostly because I was hot and hungry. When we got to the car, we drove up to the Quechen Casino and went in to the cafe to get lunch. We had a nice relaxing lunch and all got cooled off. I felt better after eating. It has been a week since I drank beer so I know I have been sick!! When we got home, the girls dropped me off and I came in an hit the bed. I rested for about an hour but really didn't feel like dinner so Larry grilled himself a steak. Jan and Judy came down later and Larry went up to see Ken. The gals stayed for about 45 minutes and when they left I went back to bed. If I still feel this bad tomorrow, I am going back to see the doctor.

Monday March 11 2013

When I got up this morning, I just couldn't get moving. I feel as exhausted when I get up as when I go to bed. I cough all night long so don't get a lot of sleep. I laid around for the first two hours this morning trying to get the energy to get a shower. Jan and Judy came down with their bikes and when they found I wasn't feeling well said they would ride alone. I decided I might feel better if I got up and went with them. We rode for quite awhile around the resort and when I came home I felt worse than I did when I got up. I made myself get a shower and by the time I was finished, decided today was the day to go to the doctor. I had an ear ache when I got up today, which I've had off and on for the past couple of weeks. When I got dressed I told Larry I was going over to the Urgent Care which is just across the highway. When I got to the Urgent Care, the waiting room was packed. I checked in and waited more than an hour to see the doctor. When he checked me out he said I had a perforated ear drum and he could see Pollen Spurs in my ear??? HMM--guess that is part of allergy. He gave me a shot and prescribed Amoxicillin, nose spray and Mucinex to take for the next 10 days. He could not believe I had been suffering for two months with this. I think I am going to check with an allergist when I get home and have some tests done so I can get shots before coming back here next year. The last 3 years I have had very bad allergies when I get to Arizona. I think it's the dust in the air as well as all the blooming vegetation that upsets my system. By the time I left the clinic, I had spent 2 1/2 hours there. I still had to go to the pharmacy to pick up my medication. By the time I got home I was exhausted and had a horrible headache. I ended up going to bed and slept for the afternoon. I got up around 5:30 and watched the news but was back in bed by 8:30. I hope the medications kick this soon as it is really dragging me down.

Sunday March 10, 2013

Well laundry day again! I stripped our bed and got a shower and was just putting clean sheets on when Jan and Judy came over. They had their bicycles and their 'Ladies of the Night' shirt on. They told me to put mine on and we would all go for a bike ride. I changed my shirt and left Larry to finish making the bed. While we were riding, one of the old guys from the resort noticed our shirts--pretty hard to miss the fact they were all alike--just like grade school! Ha! Anyway the old guy told us we looked like real biker babes! Ha! The only difference is that we were peddling our bikes and were about 30 years older than what is normally called biker babes! I worked most of day on laundry and cleaned inside a little. Jan and Judy came back over tonight to visit and Larry headed over to drink beer with Ken. David who is Cynthia's husband works for the park as security. We were parked next to them last year and got to know them. David is like a little old lady and loves to gossip. He told me that BJ, which was the park manager, was fired last week for dipping into the resort funds to line her pockets. We have new managers, a couple from Texas, that moved in to one of the park models down the street from us. He also told me there was another new couple that was hired for Activity Director and Maintenance and they moved into the park model across the side street from Ken, Judy and Jan. Jan and Judy said they met the couple living by them and they seemed to be very nice. Always something happening here and lots of gossip -- just like a small town. We had catfish filets for dinner tonight. They were very good and after dinner, I was pretty much done for the day. I am still feeling pretty bad with allergies and am worn out tonight.

Saturday March 9 2013

Larry got his shower and went down to the bank to get cash for the air show today. While he was gone I got my shower and when Larry came home, he brought McDonald's for breakfast. We finished getting ready and drove over to pick up the Jackson's. When we got to the air base, they sent us to the parking area that we bought parking for. We understood they would have buses to drive us to the entrance but were surprised that we all got to walk. It was a good distance from the parking area to the entrance but at least we had covered parking. We went inside and went into some of the planes and looked at some of the vendor tents. We eventually found the area for reserved seating and the line was two blocks long. We gals waited in line and finally called Ken and Larry to come over to go through the gate and claim our seats. The guys left again to look at the planes and we sat for awhile but soon found that most of the show was happening at the other end of the runway. I could not believe the setup as all of the chair and bleacher seating was so far away we could not see anything that was going on at the other end on the ground. The Marine Band played and we could not even see them. We didn't pay much for our seats but was still irritating. They did several flight maneuvers, which we could see but anything on the ground was out of sight. We finally got up and walked around and looked at the rest of the planes and watched several events from farther down the flight line while standing. We found shirts being sold by one of the Military Units that said 'Ladies of the Night' which we gals decided we all had to have. We bought our shirts and finally met up with the guys and got in line to get food as everyone was starving. We all took our food back to our reserved seats and ate. We ended up staying until about 2:30 and decided we'd had enough. My knees were killing me from standing on the asphalt and walking. Ken was having trouble with his bad ankle as well, so we all made the long trip back to the car. We dropped off the guys and then Judy, Jan and I went to the 'Green Tree' which was a place the gals had gone a week or so ago. It was basically a surplus outlet and much, much junk. We had fun laughing about some of the items they had that we had not seen for years. I think the clerks in the store were ready to ask us to leave. We stopped at Walmart on the way home and I finally drove us back and dropped Jan and Judy off and came home to fix dinner. It was not until we came home from the Air Show that Judy and Ken finally saw the sign Larry and I had put up on the house. Jan and I laughed so hard that they both walked by it a dozen times and neither of them had seen it. When I came home my legs and knees were exhausted. I cooked pasta and we heated the spaghetti sauce that the girls had given us on Thursday. The sauce and meatballs were wonderful and made for a very quick meal. I took ibuprofen and sat down for awhile after dinner to try to rest my knees. Jan called a short time later and said they would come down so we could have the cake for Judy and Ken Anniversary. I also had the gifts wrapped that I had bought for each of them earlier so after we had cake I passed out the gifts. Jan got a laugh out of the shirt I bought her and Ken and Judy both liked their gifts. They ended up staying until after 10:00 and I was exhausted to the point I didn't think I could stand long enough to get ready for bed. I went to bed and read for about 15 minutes and was sound asleep. What a long, exhausting day but the weather was perfect. I think it reached about 71 degrees and there was a light wind so was just wonderful being out in it at the air show.

Friday March 9 2013

I basically did very little today but lay around. My allegories ready get me down at times. I don't think I will get rid of them until we go home. It blows so much here and there is constantly dusk in the air. Larry ran some errands today but I stayed around the RV. I didn't even get a shower today so I am playing the slob for today. Jan called and wanted us to come over for awhile. I told her I had not even showered today so she said if I wanted to shower we could come over when we wanted. We walked over later and she and Judy were on a Walmart run. Ken said they went to get snacks for all of us to munch on. We ended up drinking and eating and stayed till almost 10:00. Needless to say, I again dodged the cooking again tonight. We are all going to the Yuma Air Show tomorrow at the Marine base. We decided to leave around 8:30 and are taking one car since we paid for only one parking pass. Jan told me she and Judy were going back to Walmart and she was going to pick up a cake for Ken and Judy's anniversary, which is tomorrow. When we saw them leave for Walmart, Larry and I took a big sign I had made over to their place to put up. Jan said to tape it to the front of their Arizona Room rather than their deck railing as Judy probably would not see it there when they came home. We put the sign up and even though Ken was at home, he had no clue we were outside taping up the sign.

Thursday March 7 2013

Not a lot going on today. We went to Frye's for groceries since the frig was bare. We picked up a roasted chicken for dinner, which is like 'cooks night off'! When we came home Judy and Jan brought over a big bowl of spaghetti sauce and meat balls. They worked in the resort kitchen again today for a spaghetti dinner they were having this afternoon. There were only 30 people showed up to eat so lots of food left over. Jan has been having such horrible migraines so I offered last night to work with Judy in Jan's place. Jan got up this morning and was feeling much better but as they soon found out when they arrived at the clubhouse, they were the only two working. I was pretty upset with them that they did not call me to help as they really ended up with a big job for only the two of them. I'm glad Jan is feeling better. Yesterday she felt so bad she was ready to fly home. We walked over later to visit with Ken, Judy and Jan. We stayed quite awhile as we all enjoy being together. Had a few beer, came home and decided I was ready for bed.

Wednesday March 5 2013

We talked to Jesse, the service manager at Tiffin, again this morning regarding the mattress. I told him after looking at replacement mattresses, I felt he could give us at least another $100 on their settlement to us. I also told him that we have had several issues with the motor home so a little more money toward the mattress would help with the inconvenience that we have had with having to have the repairs. He finally said he would talk to someone else and call us back. I told him I'd appreciate a call ASAP as we need to order the mattress to arrive before we leave Yuma on March 26. We waited around for about 2 hours and no call back from Tiffin. I told Larry that regardless how much they pay us, we still need a mattress. We drove back into Yuma and ordered the mattress that we had talked to Anthony at Mattress Source about yesterday. He said they should be able to deliver it on March 15. We ordered the king size mattress, with his assurance again, that they could get it into the motor home. After taking care of the paper work for the mattress, Anthony started talking about Los Algodones. He had just been there this morning for a dental appointment. He told us how he loves fish tacos and that there is a guy in Los Algodones that makes wonderful ones. He told us where to find the guys stand so the next time we go down we could try them. We told him we had never tried a fish taco and they just didn't sound good. He said to go to a place on 16th and 5th streets in Yuma and try them for lunch. He said the restaurant has very good fish and shrimp tacos and he was sure we would like it. The name of the restaurant is Las Palapos and when he described the building, I knew where he was talking about. We left the mattress store and drove up on 16th and found the restaurant without a problem. We walked in and decided to order the two specials, one was 2 fish tacos and the other was 2 shrimp tacos. We sat outside in a very cute plaza at tables with thatched umbrella's. The weather was beautiful and very cool setting out of the direct sun. Our order came and we switch out the tacos so each of us had a fish and a shrimp. We went inside where they had a food bar and put shredded cabbage and I sprinkled fresh cilantro on mine. When the taco came it had some type of white sauce on it but I also asked for guacamole to put on mine. The guacamole was very fresh and tasted amazing. We both finished our tacos and decided we liked the fish better than the shrimp. In all the years in Arizona and listening to my friend, Char, from Phoenix talk about fish tacos, we had never tried them. They were not at all like I thought as the fish is dipped in a batter and deep fried before placing in the tortilla so it is rather tasty. When we came home, Judy came down and stayed for an hour or so. Jan is in bed with her migraine again. Judy took her for a neck massage this morning but didn't seem to ease her headache much. I keep telling Jan to go to the doctor to get a shot but for whatever reason, she prefers to suffer. Jan and Judy are scheduled to work at the clubhouse tomorrow morning for a spaghetti dinner so I told Judy I would work in Jan's place if she is still suffering with the migraine. Watched PBS tonight and the group 'Under the Street Lamp' was on. We had seen the program before but they are so wonderful, I sat and watched it in full. They sing 50-60's music much like Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons did. I would love to have a CD or download some of their music, so will have to check it out on ITunes. Taylor gave me a $25 gift card for ITunes for my birthday.

Tuesday March 4 2013

We received a call from Jesse who is the service manager for Tiffin Motor Homes in Red Bay, AL. We have been dealing with him in regard to the very poor quality of our mattresses in the motor home. When we bought our motor home last year, our mattresses started breaking down within 10 days of use. We made a trip to Red Bay in January on our way to Arizona and stayed at the Tiffin RV Park. We had several minor items repaired and during that time we bargained with them for 2 new mattresses. We have a king size bed but have two separate twin mattresses. Again, within a week the mattresses started breaking down. By the time we arrived in Yuma, the mattresses were just as bad as the old ones. I started contacting Tiffin immediately to get a resolution. We have been corresponding via email several times and finally were given the information for the service manager and were asked to send the tags from the mattresses to him. We waited two weeks and I was planning to contact them again when Jesse called us. He told me they pay $185 each for the mattress and they would add $75 for shipping of the new mattress if we wanted to take the cash to buy our own. WOW--WHERE can you buy a mattress for this price!!?? He offered to either send two new ones like what we have or to upgrade to a full king mattress that was $800 value but of course, we would be paying the difference of the price. We decided that if we were going to pay the difference, we would rather choose our own mattress. We told him we would check here for a new mattress and let him know what our decision was. We went to 3 places yesterday looking at mattresses. The final place was Mattress Source in Yuma and Anthony, the sales guy was very knowledgeable about their products. We found we could buy 2 twins which would be custom made to fit our bed for $999 or we could buy a custom made king for $899. Anthony assured us that they could get a king mattress in our motor home. He even called the delivery guy to talk to him to make sure they could get the king in the door and he assured him that they could and had done it in many other motor homes in the past. This morning I called Jesse back and told him that we would not settle for less than $550 since the mattress we had chosen was $1000. After much discussion, Jesse agreed to check with someone else and call us back today. I told him if we were going to get this mattress we had to make a decision immediately to get it delivered before March 26, which is when we plan to leave Yuma. Each mattress we looked at the sales people were not surprised that the mattresses in the motor home were so cheap. They said they had many people in buying new mattresses because all RV's come with sub-par mattresses. Anthony told us that RV Peddler in Yuma deals with them frequently to upgrade mattresses and normally they only allow about $300 credit to their customers. I feel if we can get $550 we will be lucky! We have discussed calling Bob Tiffin as we have his personal phone number and everyone is encouraged to talk to him at any time. We will see what Jesse has to offer on his next call. We had lunch(very late) at Buffalo Wild Wings and finally made it home around 4:15. Leslie called and we talked for a long time. Pete left Peoria on Sunday, made it to Atlanta safely and he will be there until Thursday night. Judy and Jan came down for awhile and then went home and called to ask us for dinner. Larry said he was not hungry and I really was not hungry either since we had such a late lunch. I declined the dinner invitation and they told us to walk over later. We watched the news and later went over and stayed a couple of hours with the Jackson's. Jan has had a migraine since Saturday. Yesterday she got rid of it for awhile but by last night, she was suffering again. I told her she needed to go to the doctor to get a shot to get rid of it. Leslie has horrible migraines and most of the time she has to get a shot of dimeral, or something similar, before she gets relief. Jan has not yet agreed to go to the doctor but I think if she still feels bad, she may go tomorrow.

Monday March 4 2013

We went over to foothills and I had a banner made for Judy and Ken's 50th Anniversary, which is on Saturday March 9. While I was at the UPS store getting the banner printed, Larry walked over to Al's RV to look at water softners for the motor home. We have talked for quite sometime about buying a softner but the ones we have looked at in the past were pretty costly. When I finished at UPS, I met Larry at Al's. He was talking to a salesman about the options for softners and the guy showed him the one he bought and has used for the past 8 years. It was small and compact and softens 300 gal of water between rejuvinations. The salesman highly recommended this softner and the wonderful part is that the price was under $200. We talked for a time about it and decided to purchase the softner. I can hardly wait to get a shower and shampoo my hair in soft water. My hair and skin suffer so badly when here because of the dry weather and the hard water. We went by Walgreens to pick up my perscription and then went to Walmart for some needed items. After leaving Walmart, we went into Sam's in Yuma and had lunch at In-and-Out Burgers. At Sam's I bought a bag of limes as Ken and I like lime in our beer. I split the bag and walked over to see Jan and Judy and to take Ken the limes I bagged for him. Jan has been very sick with a migraine since Sunday and was still suffering yesterday. Ken brought me a beer and then he decided to walk over and have his beer with Larry. Jan, Judy and I sat on the deck and talked for so long that Larry came over with Ken to drag me home. It was after 7:00 so we ended up eating chilli dogs for dinner. The weather has cooled down some since Saturday. The temperature has been hanging around 80 degrees and has been pretty comfortable. Looks like Illinois is getting slammed with snow. I read on Facebook this morning that some of the schools were closed around Peoria. When I talked with Leslie yesterday morning, she said it was snowing and it was expected to snow through the night last night.

Sunday March 3 2013

Relaxed for a good portion of the morning but decided I could only put my laundry off for so long. I started working on it around 10:30 and didn't finish until about 8:30. I washed a couple extra items like some rugs, etc. It did not get very hot today and was overcast most of the day. Didn't upset me at all. It was pretty comfortable in the motor home until around 3:30 and then started to get a little warm but still no air conditioning today. Larry paid our electric bill for the month of February and it was $80. Couldn't believe it was that much as that is not much less than what we pay at home for 4 times the amount of space. I'm pretty sure that the cloth's dryer is what runs up the electric bill here. Larry said we should start taking the wet laundry to the Laundromat here in the resort and I told him to knock himself out. I am not packing wet laundry anywhere and that is why I have a washer and dryer in the motor home. The QUEEN has spoken!!! Taylor called this afternoon and I had only talked about 10 minutes when Judy knocked on the door. I told her to come in and I'd be off the phone soon. She said she would talk to her boyfriend (Larry) outside until I finished. I talked awhile longer and made plans to 'Face time' with Taylor and the girls later. Larry then talked to her while Judy and I visited. Jan is home with a migraine headache. Last Sunday Judy had a migraine all day so told her they needed to lay off the alcohol! Ha! Did I mentioned, Judy only drinks rarely so that is not the problem! I do believe it's all the dust and pollen in the air here. I have such horrible allergy problems every year as soon as we arrive in Arizona. There are lots of dessert flowers in bloom currently and each week I see more so I'm sure that is what kicks my allergies into action. When Judy left, I started dinner so we could be done in time for our 'Face time' call with the girls. We had just finished cleaning up kitchen when they called. It was so great to see them all. Addison was 'Miss Shy' tonight and would hardly talk with us. Morgan started piano lessons Saturday so she had to play two songs for us. Her great grandma Gloria bought them a huge keyboard for Christmas. Taylor had talked to the piano teacher to find out what kind to buy for Morgan to use for lessons, sometime before Christmas. Addison is wanting to take lessons on violin as Mrs. Bear, her kindergarden teacher teaches violin. Morgan tried taking violin lessons and it didn't work out well because she didn't want to practice. I told Taylor that I thought Addison would be more attentive but Taylor thinks maybe Piano might be easier since Morgan's already taking lessons. We saw Molly, the dog they got for Christmas. I cannot believe how much the dog has grown since Christmas. She is an English Golden Retriever and already weighs 30 lbs. Taylor took Molly running with her for the first time today and said the dog actually walked and kept up with her running because she has such long legs! If Molly keeps growing they will have to buy a different vehicle to transport her in as I'm sure the Prius will soon be out grown! Leslie also called today but I missed her call when I was talking to Taylor. I tried to call her back but no answer. I was sorry to miss her call but we talk to Taylor so rarely, I didn't want to cut her off. Was good to see my grand baby's, even though they are no longer baby's! They are growing up much too quickly!

Saturday March 2 2013

I got up this morning and couldn't wait to do my housework and get a shower. I was so hot yesterday and should have showered again before bed but exhaustion overruled.

We decided to go to the flea market today as it has been a month since we were there. I had several paperback books to trade in and we both needed more reading material. We went to the outdoor market which is the larger of the flea markets and they have a large used book store. We found the book store and turned in our old books and found several new ones.

We continued shopping and then had a corn dog and a beer to cool off. The temperature is horribly hot today. It is about 87 degrees and not much of a wind. Won't be much longer until I will be ready to 'blow' Arizona because it will be getting very warm in the next few weeks. From what our girls tell us, it is still very cold in Illinois but we plan to head over to California along the coast so I'm sure it will be cooler there.

We both shopped a little after finishing our beer. I found a T-shirt for Jan that I thought was funny. It said 1 drink, 2 drinks, 3 drinks, FLOOR! Jan is not much of a drinker. She had 2 margarita's Friday in Mexico and was feeling pretty good. I have only seen Jan drunk once and it was about 5 weeks ago when her and her sister Pat showed up at our door demanding wine. They had had so much wine before arriving at our door, I don't know how they walked the block from Ken and Judy's house over here. She and Pat then proceeded to help me drink another liter and a half of wine after arriving.  I found another T-shirt for Judy that said 'Party Girl'---NOT! Judy rarely drinks much so I felt was fitting for her. I bought Ken a beer cozy that said Old Men Rule. I also bought a wind chime about 2 weeks ago for them. I plan to give them these gifts on Ken and Judy's 50th Anniversary which is Saturday March 9. They have been so good to us ever since we have known them and would do anything for us so, I just wanted to get them something small.

We came home and it was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. Couldn't decide if it was cooler inside our outside. It was so late in the day I didn't want to turn on the air. About 5:00 it gets cool enough for a sweatshirt so decided to tough it out.

Larry grilled a steak and salmon on grill and I made a salad and baked potato. Not very imaginative but good enough. I hate cooking when it gets hot. Tomorrow is to be even hotter. I have a week of laundry to do so I will be turning on the air if it is as hot as today. 

Friday March 1 2013

Jan, Judy and I left for Los Algodones at 11:30 this morning. Jan's dental appointment is at 1:00 and mine is at 3:00. Could be a late day coming home.

We got to the parking lot and again the lot was almost full. I hate coming so late as everyone rushes down early and to find a parking spot takes some time. We parked and walked over to Dr. Castro's office arriving about 12:30. Jan went in to tell them she was there and then I decided I'd just let them know I also had arrived. I asked if Dr. Juan happened to have a cancellation and at first they said no. I was getting ready to go out to the courtyard to wait with Judy and the office girl told me to wait inside. She then went into Dr. Juan's office and came out and told me to have a seat as he was going to see me right away. Wow! I was shocked. I'm wondering since I talked to Dr. Castro and each time she comes into Dr. Juan's office to see me, if now the office girls think I'm a VIP. I sure have had short wait times since the first time this year when I talked with Dr. Castro. She probably has told them that she has made lots of money off of Larry and I so they should make sure we get in ASAP. Sounds too good to be true but I have not had to wait more than 30 minutes each time I go in for my appointments. This works for me so hope they continue with their speedy service.

Dr. Juan cut the old crown off my molar behind the new crown he placed on the implant. He is going to make a bigger crown as I have a space where food gets caught every time I ear. He spent quite awhile getting the old one off and it finally came off in three pieces. He prepared the tooth, made my temporary crown and sent me on my way. I was finished about 10 minutes after Jan was done.

We went over to our favorite Cantina and ordered drinks. Jose made sure he was our waiter so no arguments with Mr. Nasty(the other waiter that I do not like).  We had a few drinks and then we each ordered a sandwich. We sat and listened to PePe play for a couple of hours and had our drinks and finally about 3:15 we walked toward the boarder. The line was huge but Judy decided we should get in line and wait. While we were waiting, I started talking to the lady behind me and found that she and her husband lived in Peoria for about 12 years. She said her daughter married a guy from Peoria and when she said his name, I knew his mother and his grandma. I actually worked with Helen, his grandma, for several years. We also found someone else we both knew and ended up talking the whole time we were waiting. She and her husband ended up in Yuma because her husband was transferred here with Union Pacific Railroad. We ended up waiting 1 hour and 3 minutes in line, according to Judy's time keeping efforts.

We got back to the resort about 5:00 and Ken was at our place having beer with Larry. I had another beer and then Judy and Jan wanted us all to go for Pizza. We looked up places to go and found that there was a pizza place just across the road here in the foothills called Da Boyz. We all piled in Judy's car and drove over and the place was packed--a good sign it must be good! We waited about 15 minutes to get a table. We had so much fun. We ordered a pitcher of beer and they ran out of Budweiser (which is what we ordered first) so the waitress only brought a half pitcher. Then she named off 4 other beer they had on draft and while Larry and Ken were debating, Jan told her to bring Flat Tire! God I hate that beer and of course Jan is not a beer drinker so she had no idea what she ordered. We forced the pitcher of Flat Tire down before leaving but I don't think anyone liked it any better than me.

Thursday February 28 2013

Larry went for a walk with Ken and I pick up around the motor home and got dressed for the day. At 10:30 Art Cook, a guy from the Resort that teaches a computer class came to help us change over our Email's so we can drop Comcast for our internet. Judy and Jan has been going to his class the past 2 years and referred us to him. He is such a great guy and really knows what he is doing when it comes to checking out our PC's. He retired from IT at Honeywell and is from Carson City, NV.

While Art was working with Larry, Jan and Judy walked over to borrow an envelope and I sat outside for a short time with them. When they left, I came back in and asked a few questions about my IPAD before Art left. I think he has Larry's PC cleaned up and helped him set up some new Email addresses. He never charges for his time but we plan to get him a gift card for his time.

It got very warm today during the afternoon. So far we have not used the air conditioning but from the forecast, the rest of the week is going to be in the 80's so we may be turning on the air before long.

I read for part of the afternoon and cooked dinner early to get it out of the way. After dinner, Cynthia Brown, who was our neighbor last year came over and we sat outside a visited for awhile. I've seen her off and on but we have both been busy and didn't have the time to talk. She and her husband David are part of the park security and live here full time. She is originally from Indiana and has family that still live in Indiana. She told me last night that she did not get to go home at Christmas so plans to make a trip back soon.

We have a permanent 5th Wheel across from us that has been empty for a long time and I noticed Saturday someone was cleaning it out. Today I saw Linda and Fergy, that was parked behind us last year, working over there so I told Larry I thought they must have bought the place. When Cynthia was here tonight I asked her and she said they did buy the place and were going to try to sell their motor home. Linda and Fergy are from Colorado and we visited some with them last year but neither of us are fond of him. I guess if we come back to this site next year we will be seeing more of them.

Tomorrow Jan, Judy and I are off to Mexico for the dental appointments. The appointments are scheduled for 1:00 and 3:00 so we will have another late boarder crossing.

Wednesday February 27 2013

We all left for Algodones about 9:30am. We arrived and the parking lot was packed so we were figuring it would be a long day after our appointments to get back across the boarder.

Jan, Judy and I decided to shop while Ken and Larry went to pick up Larry's glasses that he ordered two weeks ago. We gals started looking for Mexican soap that is used for stains on clothing. We went to several small grocery stores but the ones we were finding were not the same that we had bought before.  Judy remembered the name of the one we had before and asked one of the clerks if they carried it. She told us they quit making that brand and showed us the one to buy. I bought 3 bars so I had enough to give each of my girls. It is wonderful for rubbing on stains to remove before laundry. Larry has a stain on every shirt he owns and nothing I use seems to remove them.

We looked at several other items and Jan bought a purse and we found a nice tablecloth for their kitchen table but the gal would not bargain with us. We walked around but did not find another the right size anyplace else. We finally gave up and walked over to the Periodontist's office for Jan's cleaning appointment. When we got to Dr. Garcia's office, Larry and Ken were there and they had already called Ken in for his cleaning. Larry asked the office girl if the doctor had time to clean his teeth as well and she said they could work him in after Jan's appointment. I also need a cleaning but will have to wait until my bridge and crown are finished. While Jan was in for her appointment, Judy and I walked over to Dr. Juan's for my appointment.  I waited for about 30 minutes before they called me in.  Before I went in for appointment, Jan, Ken and Larry came,  Jan stayed with Judy to wait for me to finish and Ken and Larry went to drink beer.

It took forever for Dr. Juan to fit my new bridge. It had to be adjusted several times and by the time he had it fit, I told him I would make another appointment to have my final crown prepared. All I wanted to do was get out of there after spending so much time. Dr. Castro came in 2 times to Dr. Juan's operatory to talk with me. About 2 weeks ago I talked to her for the first time in about 2 years and I told her I could never arrange my appointments with her anymore so I had been seeing Dr. Juan. She told me she would see me if I wanted and I said I was very happy with Dr. Juan but I just missed saying hello to her occasionally. So for the past 2 appointments with Dr. Juan she had come in to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and she also has picked up Dr. Juan's instruments and looked at the work he is doing. She is such a sweet woman but after her second visit yesterday, I figured Dr. Juan was wondering what was up.  Before I left his office yesterday, I told him that I hoped he did not think I had asked Dr. Castro to check up on his work and explained what was said between us previously. I told him I think she misunderstood what I meant by never seeing her when I came in and that I wanted him to know how happy I was with his dental work. He laughed and shrugged his shoulders like 'who knows'. He DOES work for Dr. Castro but I'm not sure what is on her mind by coming in each time other than just to give me a hug, which is her normal personality.

I finally finished with appointment and made another appointment for next Wednesday to have my crown prepared. When Jan had her teeth cleaned, Dr. Garcia told her she had a crown that was leaking and she should have it looked at. She checked with Dr. Castro's office and they said they would see her at 4:00. The 3 of us walked over to El Gourmet to meet Ken and Larry. They had sat in the area that is served by Mr. Grouch. He is the other waiter besides Jose and he has no people skills and is always a jerk when he waits on us. I told Larry he should have sat on Jose's side but the place was packed and really was not room for the 5 of us on Jose's side anyway.  We ordered drinks when we got there and the next time we ordered, Jose had made arrangements with the other waiter to take over the service for our table. Jose is the one that Larry thinks has his eye on me. HA! I think he just likes to wait on us because we tip well and I tease him constantly. He is always a very cheerful guy. Brenda the dancing  waitress came over and talked several times and then brought her phone to show me a picture of her little girl.

We left to go back to Dr. Castro's for Jan's appointment. After the doctor checked the tooth she told Jan she needed a root canal. They made an appointment with Dr. Garza and another one for her to come back on Friday. Judy told me to go ahead and try to get myself an appointment with Dr. Juan for Friday and the 3 of us could come back Friday. I got an appointment at 3:00 Friday and then we all walked over to Dr. Garza's for Jan's Root Canal. She did not finish until 5:15. We stopped for a pain perscription and headed for boarder. We walked right through the boarder without a wait and arrived home at 6:30. What a very long day.