Thursday February 2, 2012

Our dental appointments were at 8:30am this morning over in Los Algodones. When we arrived, I told Larry I would walk to Dr. Gaspar's and he could go to his appointment at Dr. Castro's. He insisted he would walk with me and it was a good idea as I was totally on the wrong street. This town is basically a 4 block square so I could not imagine I had gone the wrong way. We found the office, Larry dropped me off and headed back to Dr. Castro's for his appointment.

Dr. Gaspar completed my root canal and placed two posts in my tooth. When I came out to the waiting room after my appointment, Vanessa informed me that Larry was on his way over from Dr. Castro's office. At first I thought she meant he was coming to meet me and then I realized he was coming for an appointment, which was not good news. When Larry arrived, he said Dr. Castro cleaned his teeth and sent him to Dr. Gaspar to have a root canal on one of his lower front teeth. This particular tooth has been very sore since he got hit in the mouth by a tree branch out at his hunting property last fall. As it turned out, he had a small abscess at the root of the tooth which was probably started by the trauma of the blow to his mouth.

I left Larry at Dr. Gaspar's and walked to the Purple Pharmacy to look for something to eat, since we had not had breakfast. I bought a bag of peanuts, a diet coke and a carton of cigarettes. Hopefully, I will not be questioned on the last time I took cigarettes across the border as we each took a carton across last week. They allow one carton per person per month. They rarely record anything when crossing and I was pretty sure they did not make a note on the cigarettes from last week. Guess I'll find out today!

I walked around looking for a fanny pac that I had seen last week. I thought I knew where I had seen it but never did see it today. I liked the fanny pac because it was made out of fabric rather than leather and looked a little classier than a normal 'fanny pac'. I did find one fanny pac that was very nice but the lady wanted $25 for it. I didn't try to bargain much with her even though she dropped the price $5 when she saw I was leaving. I wasn't sure she would be willing to drop the price to anything close to what I was willing to pay and I didn't have a lot of time to try bargaining before my appointment with Dr. Juan. I walked by the stained glass guy and just stopped quickly to find out if he had my order from last week completed. He said it would probably be Monday before he finished so I told him I'd check with him next week. I walked through the shops located in a little alley area behind the main sidewalk shops and thought I saw a stained glass for the Cleveland Browns. I stopped to look at it, knowing Larry would love it, since he is a Brown's fan. When I looked again, I realized it was not a Brown's logo. The young guy at the shop came over to talk to me and said his brother could make me a Brown's stained glass. I laughed and asked him how many brother's there were as I also met another 'brother' last week while shopping. He said there were 3 of them and his oldest brother was the one who made the stained glass, which is the one I've bought my previous pieces from.

I made my way to Dr. Castro's(Dr. Juan)and decided to set inside to wait for my appointment as I was freezing. I wore capri's and flip flops today and it was only 44 degrees when we left home. It always warms up quickly but at 11:00 it still felt very cool.  Larry came back from Dr. Gaspar's office to tell me he would wait in the plaza at El Paraiso's for me.I waited over an hour for my appointment and the office girl was laughing when I told her that by the time I got through, Larry would have had WAY too much to drink!  I fear our bar bill will exceed our bill for dental treatment!!

I was called for my appointment and Dr. Juan prepared the root canal tooth for a crown. These dentist amaze me as they make their own temporary crowns and they look like the finished product. He told me next week when I return for the crown, he will send me to the implant dentist to have a consultation regarding the procedure and the price.

I walked over to the plaza and talked to Reuben, who is the waiter where we normally sit. He laughed and said he thought the drunk man setting at the table was my husband. When I walked over where Larry was setting, I realized Reuben was probably serious about the drunk man! When Larry told me how much he had to drink I assumed he was feeling pretty relaxed at that point. I ordered a strawberry margarita and sat down at the sunniest side of the table. I was still freezing and the sun felt wonderful! The band was very good again today. They play all of the best of American music and play it quite well. I'm sure they have all worked very hard to learn to play this music to please all the drunken Americans who sit here daily!!

Reuben came by again and we ordered nachos. The bag of peanuts I had 3 hours ago had pretty much lost their effect! I finished my margarita and ordered a BIG(quart) Pacifica Beer. We talked to a couple next to us who were from Sedona, AZ and she gave me her card to contact her after I had my implant. She said her friend was interested in having an implant so she wanted me to let her know about my implant. We ordered another Pacifica and by the time we left I was warm and VERY mellow!!  I fear our bar bill will exceed the cost for our dental plans!

We walked over to the lady who sells T-Shirts at one of shops located inside the plaza. Last week she tried to get us to buy shirts and we told her we would buy some this week. She said she remembered us from last week. We left the plaza and walked through some more of the sidewalk shops and bought a metal cat sculpture before making our way to the border.
When we walked over to the border line it was very short today. There must not be that many snowbirds in town today as earlier I noticed all of the bicycle taxi's were setting idle. It only took us about 30 minutes to cross and the border guard didn't even mention my cigarettes so I didn't have to tell her the last time I brought them across!!

I drove home, since believe it or not, I had the least amount to drink today! When we got home we were both so tired we laid down for awhile. We ended up having an apple and peanut butter for dinner since neither of us wanted to cook.

Wednesday February 1, 2012

When we fed the cat's their morsel of moist food this morning, Charlie barfed his back up within about 5 minutes of eating. We decided to take him to the Vet today so I called the Foothill's Animal Hospital for an appointment. They told us to bring him in at 10:30am. We got our showers and took him into the clinic and the doctor checked him out. Of course, he was like taking a child to the doctor as it appeared everything was fine with him when we got him in the car. He was all perked up the whole time we were in the vet's office. The doctor said he actually thought he was doing quite well for a cat of his age. We explained that he has just not been himself since we left home. He appears to have lost a lot of his eyesight and in the past he has always responded to his name but doesn't even act as if he hears us recently. They weighed him and he was 6 lbs today. When Larry took him 6 weeks ago to our vet, he weighed 8 lbs and our vet said he was 10 lbs when we had him there last year. Since he has defiantly lost weight, the doctor today recommended drawing blood for a Thyroid test. It has been my opinion within the last 6 months they he might have a Thyroid problem as he looks a lot like Sara, one of our previous cats. Sara had a Thyroid problem and when they did surgery on her, she died from the surgery. The doctor today said that if Charlie has a problem with the Thyroid that he possibly could give him medication to make him feel better. They are to call us tomorrow afternoon with the result. I told Larry that since Charlie acted so upbeat when we took him over to the vet maybe he is just down right bored and that is why he sleeps all day. Depression is bad I guess--no matter WHO has it!!

We brought Charlie back home and went to Daybreaker Cafe for breakfast. After we finished eating, I remembered that the Farmer's Market was open today so we headed down Frontage Road to check it out. Larry had driven by the area a couple of weeks ago but I did not know where it was located. When we arrived, it was in the parking lot of the Methodist Church. I would be hard pressed to call it a 'Farmer's Market' since they only had one area of produce and the rest was like craft items or flea market type merchandise. It was fairly large and probably had about 30 vendor's. I bought a hand made scarf for Taylor, some books and a box of strawberry's.There was also a group that had a booth selling dates so I asked if they knew any date farms that offered tours. The lady said yes and that her family owned the Imperial Date Farm located in Winterhaven, CA. Her son offered to call to find out when the next tour would be and told us February 9. He forgot to ask if it was a public tour or a private tour so the lady gave me a card with the phone number to call them back to make sure we could be included in their tour next week.  By the time we left the market it was really getting quite warm so decided to drop the strawberry's back by home.

 Some of the old Military Tanks at entrance of Military Proving  Grounds

Who says there's no water in Arizona-------Imperial Dam at Imperial Recreation Area, Yuma Military Proving Grounds

We checked our mailbox when we came into the resort and received the mail that Pete sent out to us on Saturday. We took some time to look through the mail and then left to drive to the Imperial Dam, which is on RT 95. We passed the entrance to the dam when we drove to Quartsite a couple of weeks ago so we were pretty sure it was not that far out of the Foothill's area. We drove about 20 miles and Larry realized we were getting very low on gas so we decided if it was much farther, we would turn around and go a day next week. We found the road into the dam soon after and turned into the area. The Imperial Dam is located in the Imperial Recreation Area and shares a massive area of land that is also used as the Yuma Military Proving Grounds. When we entered the area, there was a small park area displaying old Military Tanks and Planes. We stopped and Larry walked through and took a few pictures. As we drove further we passed the military base, which appeared to be rather large. We continued on the main road another 8 miles or so and found a road that lead back to the dam. We parked and walked out onto the dam and looked around for awhile. We talked to a couple that were 'dry camping' in the recreation area and they told us there was a Military Museum located on the military base. The guy said that they allowed civilian's to enter the base to tour the museum so we headed back toward the base. We drove into the main entrance and talked to the MP at the gate and he said the museum closed at 4:00, which was only a half hour so we decided to go back another day. I read that the Military Base has about 2,000 personnel stationed there but the housing area around the base looked to be pretty big. I'm wondering if some of the military personnel located at the Marine Base here in Yuma may also be involved with the proving ground as well. When we drove by the base originally, we saw a good number of RV's that were parked in what appeared to be a campground on the base. I remembered someone in Mesa told me last year that her deceased spouse was retired from the military and she could camp on any of the military bases free of charge. We asked the MP if the RV's parked on the base were retired military and he said yes.

We drove back to the Foothill's and pulled into the gas station to fill up before we forgot since we are due in Las Algodones at 8:30am tomorrow! We went over to Appleby's for dinner before heading home tonight.

Tuesday January 31, 2012

We talked about driving over to Bard, CA to try to find the Date Farm but I could not really find much information online to indicate they even give tours of the farm. We decided to go to clubhouse instead for the weekly 'Burger Bash'.

We took our showers and dressed and walked up about 11:45. The hamburgers were better today and were actually cooked all the way. Last week they were just a little rare which I have a hard time eating. We got our food and sat down across from a couple from Manitoba, Canada. Their names were Keith and Virginia and they were very friendly and easy to talk with. Keith owned a farm in Manitoba and was near a town called Swan River, which is on the way to DePaw, Canada where Larry use to duck hunt. Larry and Keith talked a great deal about Canada and Virginia and I talked about our trips to Los Algodones, Mexico.

The entertainment was basically the same with the VERY OLD Country music. The guy we met last week was playing with the band today and he sang one of the songs, which was good. They had an older lady that recited a poem named 'The Cremation of Dan McGrew' and did such an amazing job she captured the audience. It was a very long recital and I could not believe she had memorized the entire poem. It was very entertaining for all.

We spent a couple of hours at the clubhouse visiting and when we came home it was getting quite warm. I changed into shorts and a tank top and sat outside in the sun to read. I got so hot setting outside that I had to come in to cool off. This would have been a perfect day for the pool!

I called the University of Southern California again today and changed our tour date for Friday. The guy I spoke with did not have the list for Friday with him so didn't know how many were scheduled. I imagine Friday could be even busier than tomorrow with the weekend crowd but he assured me they always had plenty of room for all.

We decided to pick up chicken from Frye's Deli for dinner and beer, that is on sale. The beer prices in Arizona are quite high and much more expensive than home. We left to go over to Frye's and saw that the car wash was not as busy so pulled in line to wait. We sat for about 20 minutes to get our car wash but the car sure looked nice afterwards. The dust here just coats everything and doesn't take long for the car to start looking gross.

Drove on over to Frye's to pick up our grocery items and our chicken. We went to the salad bar and picked up a small salad to share. This grocery store is huge and has a ton of choices in their Deli as well as many items to take home and heat. It also has a Starbuck's located inside. They certainly cater to all things that scream to the 'snowbirds' and it is always so busy it's hard to find a parking place.

I called our friends Jan and Jerry as we had not talked to them since we left home. Jan was bowling so I talked to Jerry for quite awhile. They are in the process of remodeling the Condo they bought a few weeks ago. Jerry has been spending most of his days working there and they plan to move in at the end of February.

Watching Charlie struggle each day, we have decided we need to take him over to the Vet.. He acts like he is just very sick so will have the vet look him over again tomorrow.

Arizona (Monday Jan 30 2012)

Monday January 30, 2012

I worked on posting my blog when I got up this morning. The Internet service was so slow last night that I gave up. It was much better response this morning.

Received a call from Bob, the washer repairman, about 9:00am and said he planned on being here about 10:30. I worked around the RV doing some cleaning and walked up to office to check our mail. Nothing in the mail today. Leslie sent mail and Larry's prescription drugs out on Saturday so should receive maybe tomorrow.

Bob showed up right on time and started working on washer. He ended up having to remove front panel to get to one of the main drains from the washer. When he removed the hose he found Larry's comb and a dryer sheet plugging it. He cleaned out some pretty nasty gunk, which I think was from the rugs I washed when we first arrived here. I have never washed rugs in my washer before. I had the feeling that I should not have washed them in my washer and started having problems with washer shortly afterwards. He worked on the washer for more than an hour and when he left his bill was $100. I guess I could have bought several new rugs for this price. The repair seemed quite reasonable considering the guy that was to come last week charged $60 just for a 'trip' charge. Bob has a repair service in Idaho and lives in Yuma for the winter. When he is here he runs his  repair business here as well. He was such a nice guy that I was happy we called him.

When I was setting outside this morning, Don the guy next door was out and we talked for awhile. They have a tiny dog named Missy. He brought her over to see Raven, which was not a big hit. Of all the cat's, Raven is not the ' PR'  man of the group. Yuma is Don and Cynthia's permanent residence but are from Indiana originally. They work as security for the park part time. Cynthia was the one that helped us get settled on our site the day we arrived. They are both very nice people. We are very lucky to have such great neighbors all around us. Everyone is very friendly and very helpful with whatever is needed.

We called the University of California to make a reservation for the Farm Tour and we are scheduled for Wednesday. They told us that Thursday would be a better day as they have fewer people but we both have dental appointments on Thursday. After we talked about it, we decided to call back tomorrow morning to find out if Friday might be a better day to go than Wednesday.

After the repair call, we went to the post office to get a box to mail my friend Cathy's medications, that I picked up in Mexico last week. From there we were going to take the car through the quick wash but there were 6 cars waiting in line. We drove on down to Walmart to return rope lights we bought last week and pick up a few groceries.

Leslie called when we got home and said she took Ava to Bass Pro after work. I did not know that they allow people to bring their dogs into Bass Pro when shopping. When they walked in, the guy at the door asked if Ava could have dog treats and he gave her 3 handful's of treats. When it came time to leave, Ava refused to walk out the door so Leslie picked her up and carried her to the car. Ava is almost as big as Leslie so she is not easy to pack around. To say Ava is spoiled would put it mildly! Pete is much stricter with Ava's training than Leslie. When Pete is traveling for work, Ava gets very spoiled by Leslie while he's gone.

Sent Taylor a text message to find out if they got home from Florida today. They have been at Disney World since Thursday and I have received several pictures from Taylor of the girls while there. I am missing them terribly already!!! Taylor sent me back a message that they did get home without a problem so I was relieved they were home safe.

Sat outside and drank a couple of beer. The weather today was absolutely the best. The first day since we've been here that it got almost hot and there was no wind so was beautiful setting outside. Raven thought it was wonderful being outside today as well. I had him out 3 times--2 times on the leash and once  in the pet cage. Tucker refuses to be put in the cage and he doesn't really enjoy being outside at all for some reason. Poor Charlie hardly has the energy to get off the bed during the day. I feel so bad for Charlie and am afraid we may have to have him put down. He is so thin it is like picking up a feather. I'm beginning to seriously worry about him.

Larry put brats on the grill and I cooked onions and peppers in a small amount of the garlic olive oil that we bought in Las Cruces. I steamed the cauliflower and broccoli that Doris gave us last week. Dinner was either very good or I was very hungry! I was so stuffed  and was very uncomfortable for most of the evening. We went back outside and drank our coffee and sat out on the patio until after 7:00 without a jacket. This is the first time it has been warm enough to be out after dark without a jacket since we arrived in Yuma. If we continue with the warm days, I will be spending my afternoons lounging at the pool soon.

We talked about going to the Date Farm tomorrow. I looked on the Internet to find out where it is located. I don't remember where the brochure said it was but I don't think it is very far from Yuma. When I looked up information on the Date Farm, I found there are several around this area and a few in Southern California. The Bard Date Farm is located in Bard, AZ which appears to be just outside of Winterhaven, CA. We were in Winterhaven last week and it is only about 8 miles out of Yuma. On the website however, it sounded like  they only give tours to groups. I may call before we go over to find out what's available. I would love to see the farm as it sounds like it is a very interesting process.

Arizona 2012 Sunday(Jan 29)

Sunday January 29, 2012

We decided to take a trip to San Luis, AZ today. I keep seeing signs for this area but have no idea what it is like. I read that Somerton, AZ is only about 12 miles outside of Yuma and San Luis is another 12 miles beyond Somerton. San Luis is a border town and doesn't appear to be very large but thought it might be interesting.

We stopped by our local Daybreak Cafe but there was quite a wait for breakfast so decided to go on to Yuma to eat. We drove by a small 50's diner that I saw an advertisement for in the local paper. It didn't appear to be too busy so we decided to go in and give it a try.  It was a pretty small place and there were 3 or 4 couples waiting for a table so we opted to eat at the bar area. We waited awhile for our food but basically it tasted pretty good.

Border Fence from Somerton to San Luiz, AZ

We got on RT. 95 from Yuma, headed South to San Luis. We drove through many vegetable fields on our route. We started noticing a 'border' fence running not far from the highway. The area of the fence visible from the road was probably 20 miles long and ran all the way into San Luis. When we drove into the edge of town, the first thing we saw was what else but a Walmart! We drove on into town and it started feeling more like a Mexico town as it was so dirty and poor looking.

 We drove down the main street and had to promptly turn onto a side street to keep from going across the border. We pulled around to a McDonald's and ordered a soda and I asked the cashier about going across the border to San Luis, Mexico. I asked her if there was any shopping there and if it was safe to go across the border. Of course she and everyone else in town was Hispanic and when I asked these questions she gave me a strange smile and answered yes to all my questions. Later she told me that the shopping was about the same as in San Luis, AZ. This promptly changed our minds about going into Mexico because when looking along the street here, the stores were very 'seedy' looking. We pulled the car into a parking space along the street and walked about a block on both sides of the street. The stores we went into made the 'dollar' store look like a Macy's!@!! I cannot believe anyone would have a need for this junk, which as I looked at the prices and they were very expensive. I can understand how Walmart can exist in this poor area as they must be the only place in the town to buy decent merchandise. Well, needless to say our trip in and out of San Luis took less than 45 minutes! Wow, I'm so glad we came!

 Imperial Sand Dunes

We made a quick trip back to Yuma and decided to take a drive toward California since it was still very early in the day. We headed toward El Centro, CA which we noted by the road signs was only 45 miles from Yuma. El Centro is where we want to take the 'Farm Tour' as soon as we can find a day to do so. We drove out of Yuma about 15 miles and starting seeing huge sand dunes with lots of RV's and 4 Wheelers. We stopped at a rest stop located in the Imperial Sand Dunes. Part of the dunes are obviously in Mexico as the 'border' fence was visible from the roadway in many areas running along RT 8. I can only imagine how much fun it must be to run the dune buggy's over these massive mounds of sand.

After we ran out of the dune area we again started seeing huge vegetable fields. It is impossible to figure out what is growing in these fields looking at them from the highway. Some looked to be broccoli or cabbage and a lot of the fields looked like they had been harvested recently. I'm curious if the broccoli reproduces after being harvested as the plant itself was left in the field. If it has only one harvest, I would believe they would plow and replant the field immediately. Maybe when we take our farm tour we will learn a bit more about the growing process.

We exited RT 8 into El Centro. The town was medium size and appeared to be very clean. We decided to have a burger at the In-and-Out as it had been several hours since breakfast. We got our food and sat outside at the tables to eat. The day is very sunny and the temperature shows 77 degrees but we were cold setting outside. Larry had on shorts and I had on capri's with a sweatshirt but With the lack of humidity, the weather always seems cool. 

As we left the restaurant, the RV's starting arriving back in town from the dunes. We drove through the rest of the main street and wound our way back to RT 8 headed back to Yuma. There were lots of business's along the main street in town and a large mall on the west side of El Centro that appeared to be pretty new.It seemed our trip back to Yuma went much faster than the drive over as it usually goes, I guess.

We came home and let the cats outside for awhile. None of them seem to enjoy this for some reason. In years past, they were constantly wanting to be outside. Raven seems to be more in tune with being out than Tucker or Charlie. Actually, Charlie seems to be aging very fast since leaving home and feels like he's skin and bones. I'm wondering if he will live long enough to make it back to Illinois.

Lights on our Palm at RV Site

We sat outside and drank a beer and put our new lights on our palm tree. By the time I wrapped the lights around the tree my hands were bleeding! The trunk of the tree, where they have trimmed the palms, are like a knife and both Larry and I have snagged our arms and hands several times while walking by it. The sun was going down and the temperature was starting to cool so we packed up and moved inside for the evening. It amazes me that we are this far south and the days are so cool feeling. There is only about two hours out of the day that feels really comfortable without a jacket but I still prefer this in January over the weather in Illinois.

Arizona 2012 Saturday (Jan 28)

Saturday January 28, 2012

The wind is horrible this morning. I listened to it blowing during the night and feels almost like a winter morning.

We decided to check out 'old town' located on main street in downtown Yuma. We first found the visitor's center which is near the river in the Quartermaster Depot State Park. When we found the park area they had a large Civil War Re-enactment going on. We looked around the visitor's center and picked up books and pamphlets with information on the Yuma area.

We drove back to main street, parked and walked through a few of the shops located along this area. None of the shops looked like they would be in business within the year. There was nothing unique about any of them and I wondered how they could possibly make enough to pay their rent. The wind is just horrible and it's hard to decide if a jacket is needed or not. When in the sun and out of the wind, it's quite warm but once the wind hits, it is very very cool. One of the shop owners said the foot traffic in 'old town' was down considerably because of the wind being so cold. I would hope that today's shoppers are not a normal day for these places.

 Inside Lutes Casino

We continued walking and found Lutes Casino. I have read a lot about this place which is basically a restaurant and bar. The history on Lutes states it was never a casino but rather a billiard and domino hall in 1901. It is a quirky place with lots of crazy antique items hanging from the ceiling and old posters on the wall. The front of the restaurant has bars on the windows and doors and a large window where they are preparing food on the grills. The history states  that the Lutes family obtained the building from the original owner due to a gambling debt owed to the family. With most things, I'm a little disappointed after all I've read about the place.

We found a table and ordered a pitcher of beer and looked at the menu. I read their hamburgers are the best but wasn't in the mood for another hamburger just yet. We decided to split a tri tip sandwich and an order of onion rings. We ordered the Philly style tri tip and it came on a hoagie bun with peppers, onions and cheese. When we were in Mesa last year we had a tri tip sandwich at one of the craft shows that was wonderful. Tri tips are a special cut of beef that is known for it's tender texture.  Arizona is the only place I have seen tri tip as an offering. Our food came and we were both a little disappointed in the sandwich. The meat was wonderfully tender but just no flavor to speak of. We doctored it with ketchup which helped considerably! The onion rings were very good and of course, the beer made it all go down smoothly. We ordered another small pitcher of beer and listened to the piano player who was quite entertaining. 

When we left 'old town', we drove over to Home Depot as Larry is still looking for a lightweight ladder for the RV. While there, I looked at the rope lights and found a 48 ft. length for $35, which was far cheaper than anyplace else we've looked, so decided to buy.

I looked up the address for Lowe's and we drove over to price their ladders. We found that Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe's all carry basically the same ladder for various prices. Larry decided to look around a little more before buying.

We headed home with the idea we might give the cats a little time outside in their new pet cage. When we got back to the RV the winds were still bad and the temperature had cooled so decided the cats would not be so thrilled to be outside today.

I looked through the brochures we pick up at the visitor's center and found many interesting facts about the produce agriculture here in Yuma. I read that Yuma County has over 530 farms averaging 1,435 acres each. Some of the crops grown here include, lettuce, spinach, onions, apples, endive, figs, kale, squash, mustard greens, okra, radishes, zucchini and tomatoes. There are 13,000 acres of broccoli, 7,000 acres of Cauliflower, 10,500 acres of melons, including cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelons. The citrus farms are fewer than in years past because grower's found other countries can grow it cheaper. Lemons are the citrus most produced here with about 12,000 acres of groves. There are still a few orange and grapefruit groves in the area. Another crop that is produced in the Yuma area is something called Jojoba. According to the brochure, Jojoba is grown for the liquid wax contained in it's seeds. Jojoba is commonly added to soaps, shampoos and cosmetics. 

Yuma is also a large producer of Medjool Dates which is a $35 million dollar industry. Last week we stopped at the farmer's market located in the parking lot of the Yuma Mall. While shopping one of the vendor's offered us a Medjool Date which I found to be very good. I have never been a fan of dates but these were very tasty. There are several stores around Yuma, owned by the Bard Date Company, that offer stuffed dates, chocolate covered dates and the much advertised Date Shake. It was interesting to read about the intense care needed for the growth of these dates. Yuma is one of the only areas producing the Medjool Dates outside of the Middle East. It is basically a 12 month care program which includes, thinning of the trees, de-thorning and each fruit cluster must be draped with bags to prevent birds eating the fruit or the fruit falling to the ground. It takes 7 years for a tree to start producing fruit and a tree can live up to 60 years and beyond. The surprising thing I read was a date tree only thrives in low humidity and high heat but one tree can consume 100 gallons of water per day!

The Yuma area is also a producer of cotton, 40,000 acres of wheat and 35,000 acres of alfalfa. The wheat and alfalfa grown here feed  thousands of head of cattle, some locally owned and others by large corporations who own over 120,000 head of cattle. Sheep are also a local industry but the sheep are basically imported to the Yuma area from the northern states in late September, because of it's winter climate. The sheep are brought to the Yuma area to graze the fields, bear their lambs and put on weight, preparing them for market.

WOW--I had no idea Yuma had this multitude of industry! Of course it take hundreds of workers to maintain these business's. The climate here pretty much makes it possible for agriculture to be ongoing the entire year. I also read that the permanent population of Yuma is around 100,000 and temporary population counts of 30,000 military personnel and 90,000 snowbirds. The Foothills, which is where we are staying, has a permanent population of about 35,000. I also read that the agriculture workers number around 50,000. All in all, Yuma area is larger by population numbers than would be expected. Yuma has a small town feel; much different than the Mesa-Phoenix area.

Arizona 2012 Friday (Jan 27)

Friday January 27, 2012

When I got up this morning I was a little surprised at how sore my mouth was from my dental procedure yesterday. Dr. Gaspar gave me a prescription for antibiotic and pain but I have not yet had any pain from the tooth. I am hoping it will settle down and by next week and I can proceed with my treatment plan.

Larry and I walked this morning and went back to the far end of the park. I had not been back to this area yet so I had no idea the park was this large. There are a majority of the spaces filled by park models and a big majority owned by Canadians. This is not surprising as I think at least half of the snowbirds in Arizona are from Canada.

When we got home, Larry called another RV Repair to make an appointment to have the washing machine looked at. This guy is somewhat cheaper on his service call than the one we scheduled earlier this week. I was mad enough about the missed call on the other place that we decided to not call them back.  The place we called said they would be here Monday afternoon. Hope I can hold off on laundry until then. Of course, I am assuming the repairman will be able to fix the washer on Monday, if not, I'm back to the laundromat I guess!

I got dressed and was setting on the patio with Raven and Tucker on the leashes. Our neighbors across the street came over to see the cats and introduced themselves. Their names are Sharon and Cecil and they are Canadian, which was not surprising. They both were very nice people and we talked for quite a while. They are in a 5th wheel and plan on being here until the end of April.

We drove to the 3rd flea market in Yuma. It is an outdoor market located on 32nd street just west of Walmart. We walked through the isles and found this market to be much superior to the one we went to in Yuma last week. Larry bought sandals and various items for repair around the motor home. I bought a couple of new beads for my Pandora bracelet and a sweatshirt. I love browsing through all of the shops as they carry so many unusual items that are not normally found anyplace else. The prices vary but most times they are reasonably priced.

We found a vendor selling pet items and looked at a collapsible pen that we thought the cats would enjoy for outside. It is a waterproof fabric with mesh all around the outside and the top. They really hate being on the leashes when we put them outside. It amazes me the attention the snowbirds give to their animals. Everywhere we go we see dogs in strollers with their cute little apparel. When we walked into the food court area later, a lady had a small dog in her dog stroller wearing a sweater and

a pair of matching sunglasses. The sunglasses were like goggles and strapped around the dog's head. I told Larry I could see Ava in a pair of these as Leslie has bought her a coat and doggy boots for the snow. The snowbirds replace their empty nest with their animals and go nowhere without their dogs. The pet shop had tons of dog strollers which look like a baby stroller with mesh that zips around the seat area for the dog. We stood in the pet shop and debated on buying the pen but decided to think it over for awhile.

About 1:00 we bought a corn dog and soda for lunch and sat outside for awhile and ate. Nothing sold in a fast food area is healthy so decided to just go with whatever sounded good. We have tried to limit our unhealthy choices but some days there are few healthy choices.  Yesterday took it's tole as this morning when we weighed we had both gained a few pounds. I'm sure our beer extravaganza yesterday was to blame.

We walked through most of the vendors and found a few items that we liked but decided we'd think them over before buying. We really don't need a lot but there are so many unique items at the flea markets as they cater to the RV community.

We went back to the pet shop and the lady told us if we bought the pen we were looking at, that we could return it if it didn't work out. We decided to buy it and give it a try. It is such a nice pen and collapses down into a flat carrying bag.

We stopped at Walmart on the way home. Larry wanted to look at ladders and I was going to buy more rope lights for our palm tree. We saw rope lights at the flea market that were cheaper so I decided to return the set we bought at Walmart and maybe look at them again  at the market later this weekend.

The new Pet Pen--'Castle of the Kings'!!!

When we came home we set  the pet pen up on the patio. I put all of the cats inside and Raven started with his angry attitude. He was so nasty that the other two cats were huddled down in the far corner

as far away from him as possible. We thought we were going to have to throw him back in RV if his attitude did not change . He finally settled down and the other two were not exactly happy but I think they all will eventually decide they like it. We will try them in it again tomorrow when the weather is warmer.

Tonight the wind has kicked up again and it feels pretty cool. Larry said a lot of the neighbors were outside earlier taking pictures of the sunset. I did not see it but Larry said it was very red and quite beautiful. Wonder if this indicates a change in the weather??