Saturday to Tuesday, February 11 to 14, 2017 (La Posa South LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ)

Well...talk about a drastic change in the weather between yesterday and today...it was up to about 29C/85F yesterday, today I don't think it got over 18C/65F! And it was cloudy with light rain on and off...geez, just when you think it has finally warmed up! Oh well...not to despair, it will be up into the mid          
20's C/70's F next week.

For the most part, we spent the day inside. Our only outing was a bit of a walk...shortened due to rain. We managed to get a couple of blog updates done...so that was good. I also did some knitting and Steve some reading.

At 5:00, we took our chairs, a salad (our contribution for dinner) and our drinks and headed next door to Art and Jan's...for a clam feed. Although a little chilly...thank goodness it wasn't raining or windy!
Allison opening a bottle of bubbly (Prosecco Wine)...her cork must have flown about 30 feet!

Art cooking the clam strips...

Jan...

Bob, Sue, Allison, Earl and me...

Yum!

And Jan's delicious pie for dessert!

Sunset behind Art's truck...

Then Steve brought over the Campfire-In-A-Can. We had a wonderful evening...thanks Jan and Art!

The original forecast for Sunday had been for rain and wind but luckily that changed to a slight chance of rain...we had broken clouds but it was still quite windy out.

After our resistance exercises, I headed out for a power walk while Steve had his shower and breakfast. Unfortunately, about halfway (and a mile and a half away) my right foot started acting up. I have been having problems off and on with it...I get excruciating pain through the top of my foot and toes with the motion of walking. So between my sore, swollen left knee and my on and off again pain in my right foot, I feel like a mess! I find it particularly worrisome because I love long walks and especially hiking...not sure what my future holds if I don't get these issues resolved. Hopefully my orthopedic surgeon will have yet another "shot" we can try for my knee....and as far as my foot is concerned, well, we'll have to get that looked at when we get back to BC....and hopefully resolved! My walk took a lot longer as I hobbled home.

While I was having my breakfast and shower, Steve got started on his "pump and dump" chore. He noticed the tire on my quad was going flat again...so much for the repair! He had to switch quads, moving the hitch ball from my quad over to his so he could finish. Once that chore was done, he took the wheel off my quad...we'll be making another trip to the tire shop in Blythe tomorrow.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon relaxing...I worked on my knitting project while Steve read. 

We were on our way to Blythe just before 9:00 Monday morning. Once at Alex's Tire, they said that it would take about an hour...so since we had some time to kill, we decided to take a drive out to Midland BLM LTVA.
We would normally have stopped there to visit our good friends, Dennis and Charlene, for a few days before continuing onto Quartzsite but this year since we were late coming down, we skipped Midland, planning on stopping on our way home instead. As it turned out, when I contacted Charlene mid January about meeting for lunch, she said that they had just sold their motorhome and were heading back to Michigan. What?!!
It turned out to be a good decision for them but we were SO sorry that we didn't get a chance to see them before they headed off. We definitely will have to plan a visit with them when we make our trip across Canada to the Maritime...possibly the summer of 2018??? 

We did stop and have a lovely visit with Armand and Anne...we forgot about the hour time difference, though...sorry for the early visit! Great seeing you both and best of luck with your health issues, Armand.

We were back at the tire shop an hour and fifteen minutes later...and the tire still wasn't  ready. They tried a patch with a plug and it was still leaking from the split in the tire, so the only other option was putting a tube in it.
Once back home, Steve put the tire back on my quad...hopefully it lasts. Our tires are the ITP Mudlites and are almost 7 years old so have aged out even though they have lots of tread left. They're probably not the best tread pattern for all the rocky riding we do down here so maybe it's time to upgrade...but not right now!

Steve had picked up the slide topper material the other day, so his job this week is to  get started on replacing them. This afternoon, he removed the old topper off of the bedroom slide and cleaned the roller and rubber seals. One down, two to go...tomorrow.

We love this mountain view from our rig to the east of us. It looks like a head laying down and below the chin and mouth area it looks like a running animal...some say a horse...

Tuesday morning just before 9:00, the fellow from Shade-Pro called...he would be here in a few minutes. So Steve headed out on the quad to meet and direct him into our spot. Well we're not too happy with Shade-Pro. The tech was embarrassed as he was the second one sent out with the wrong awning again! Steve had placed the order January 16th with the owner and a week later the first tech showed up with the wrong awning. They only stock the 2 piece and ours is a 1 piece. So he got on the phone and placed an order to have one made and said it should be about a week. He also told Steve that he could get us a used awning motor for a $100 as the new ones were $499. We had stopped by the Shade-pro booth again as we hadn't heard anything and it had been more than a week. The lady said the material is still on order so it would be the first week in February. Steve called them last Friday on the 10th and was told that they should have everything and that the computer showed we were booked for 9 a.m. on the 14th. Nobody told us! Steve called again on the 13th just to confirm that the awning was in as well as a used motor and was told that they were ready to go for the 14th. So this second tech was understandably embarrassed as he new nothing about the runaround we were getting. And to top it off he said they don't sell or carry used motors and the new ones were never $499 like the other tech had said but have had a recent price increase and are now $799! Steve is pissed with the company and the tech was also pissed so he got on the phone to try and straighten the whole thing out. We now have an appointment for Saturday...last chance for these guys!

The day/night shade over our dining table had broken yesterday, so we called Larry, the repair fellow. He arrived just before 10:00. He fixed it all up...and almost two hours later, he was on his way. Larry is slow and methodical in his work...and a really nice fellow, but very chatty, so it takes him twice as long as it should have. He has a lifetime guarantee on his work and will come out to do adjustments for free if they loosen up on you. He's now done most of our blinds and we highly recommend him if you're in the area.

After Larry left, we had lunch and then Steve got on with his chore for today...removing the remaining slide toppers and cleaning the rollers and rubber seals.
There is a screw that holds the topper in place that must first be removed from the topper channel...

Then the anti billow device must be removed from the end of the roller tube. Ours are only held on with one screw even though there are 2 holes in it. These devices prevent your topper from unrolling while your driving...

Steve called on Harry for some help on this topper. The tube has an internal spring so it gets harder to roll with each turn. The tube is rolled until all the topper material is off of the roller tube and the slot it sits in is in the 12 o'clock position. The roller tube ends have slots in them that allows for a small allen key to be inserted through a hole to lock the tube in place. Then you pull the topper out...

With the toppers off Steve wanted to clean and treat all the rubber seals. They recommend using rubber roof cleaner before applying the seal treatment...

Applying the rubber seal treatment...

After cleaning up inside and baking some trail bars, I sat outside for most of the day knitting. Later in the afternoon, I thought I'd try to get a little exercise and see if I could find a geocache that was about a mile away. I started out on foot but soon realized that the mile was "as the crow flies" and it was actually a lot further away. My knee and foot also starting hurting...sheesh! So I walked back and hopped on the quad to go find it....

With the slide toppers all cleaned and ready for the replacement material tomorrow, Steve's work was done for the day. We sat out in the late afternoon sun...and were joined by this Roadrunner that spent quite a bit of time scooting around our site...

Meep! Meep!

Shortly after 7:00 Earl and Allison came over and we had an evening of Rummikub. I think we played six games with everyone winning at least one game...and a couple of us (Allison and I) winning two! A great way to end another day here on the desert!