Wednesday (Mar. 8) morning we said goodbye to Dave and Cheryl. They are going down to Yuma and since we are heading that way Sunday, we hope to get together one last time before we all head north.
At about 10:00 Steve led a final ride...another familiar but pretty ride. I lent my quad to Dave, so it was just Steve, Dave and Colan and Marilyn. I'll pass this over to Steve now...
We're repeating the Horse Face Mountain and Livingston Mine ride...
We stopped for another break to take in the view...
Staghorn Cactus...
Teddy-bear cholla...looks fuzzy and cuddly but is nasty...will go thru your tires and shoes!
Wildlife Guzzler watering station. We were invaded by many other groups on this ride!
Another break...
Lunchtime at Livingston Mine...
Lots of quartz here...
Another great day on the trails for our final ride...
At about the same time as they headed out on the ride, Leslie and I headed into Parker. Leslie had actually managed to secure the last 2 appointments for pedicures! Parker Nails was a very busy place today!
After pedicures, we did a little shopping...my last grocery shop here this season! We were back home in time to get the groceries put away before it was time for happy hour.
Tonight is 'Survivor' night, so I put together a simple dinner and Dave and Leslie joined us. Earlier Steve had jokingly told Dave it was a tie event for dinner and this is how he showed up...too funny!
After dinner, we settled in front of the TV to watch Survivor.
Thursday (Mar. 9) morning was spent working. I washed floors, vacuumed and dusted inside while Steve washed both quads...
After lunch we went into town with Dave and Leslie to run errands...gas, drinking water, propane, etc. and then went to Beer Belly's for the last time. Both Steve and Leslie bought "Beer Belly's Adult Day Care" t-shirts.
It was a beautiful warm sunny day with temps in the mid 20's C/high 70's F...
So wonderful starting off our winter season in November with these two...and now ending it with them spending a couple of weeks here!
Back home, Colan and Marilyn joined us all for happy hour...
Friday (Mar. 10) morning Steve was out before 9:00 loading the quads into the truck. Luckily he got it done before a brief rain started...
Steve's is on and he's now loading mine...
It wasn't in the forecast and ended up just being a passing shower, so Steve continued working on his "pack up" list.
It ended up being another fairly windy day, so later in the afternoon Steve moved the truck over to Dave and Leslie's site for an additional windbreak.
Colan had been up bright and early this morning at 6 a.m. to put a pork butt roast on the smoker...and Marilyn had baked beans in her slow cooker. So at 4:00 we all gathered for happy hour and games of 10K. Marilyn taking her turn...
At around 5:30 Colan and Marilyn went to get dinner, and the rest of us put out our side dishes. The cooks, Marilyn and Colan...
Chowing down!
The pulled pork and baked beans were fabulous! Thanks so much guys!
Saturday (Mar. 11) morning we woke up to wind...at least it was warm! The day was spent packing up and getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. Later that afternoon looking out our back window Steve noticed smoke and flames near the Love's Truck Center. With thousands of RV's of every size, shape and condition out here this seems to be quite common. I think this is the fifth one we've seen this season.
At 4:00 we left to have our last dinner at Silly Al's Pizza. Unfortunately, there would be about an hour's wait for a table for 6 so we decided to go to The Yacht Club instead. A good meal and much quieter than Silly Al's...
The Edmonton Oilers were playing tonight, and we even managed to get it on a satellite channel, so Dave and Leslie came over to watch it. The Oilers started off well...but quickly went downhill.
Sunday (Mar. 12)...and departure day! We were busy doing our final pack up...Steve outside and me inside...when Bob, Dave, Leslie, Colan, Marilyn and Debbie all came over for a final chat.
Dave and Colan came inside to help us hold the slide "slickers" that we now put down to help protect the floors/carpet as the slides come in. They've turned out to be a pain in the butt because it requires 3 people, one operating the switch and two to hold the slickers in place while the slides come in. Thanks for your help, guys!
With that done, we gave big hugs and said goodbye to Dave and Leslie. They are off to Palm Springs for a few days before starting their journey back north to Alberta...
After big hugs and goodbyes to everyone else, we hitched up. It was 10:30 when we headed to the sani-dump. With only 3 RV's ahead of us, the wait wasn't too long and we were soon finished and pulling out of La Posa South LTVA. Hard to say when we will be back.
Steve here... with some final thoughts on the idiots we've come across in La Posa South BLM this year, starting with the Bi#!h that insisted in walking thru our site with her dog almost daily for more than 3 months! Apparently she can walk wherever she wants within 15' of an RV. Then there was the nearby drum circle group that drummed nightly and did their yoga in the mornings (at least that was silent). Oh...then the nearby family that had two large dogs that barked incessantly day in and day out at times! Then the the guy that started towing his travel trailer thru our site towards the back of my truck and looked like he was going to try and get by until I told him to back out. About a week later a Class C tried doing the same thing, and when I told him this wasn't the road he backed up not where he just came from, but far enough to circle thru Greg and Debbie's site within feet of their rig! Apparently there was at least one another when we were away. And finally on our last day after packing everything away this door knob in a Class A drove right thru our site within just a few feet of our rig over the rockery almost taking out our Satellite dish. WTF people...there's thousands of acres out here!!! Rant over. 😁
As we headed south on highway 95 towards Yuma, Steve noticed that the hitch was not "aired up". He thought I had forgotten to do that after hitching the trailer, but no, I had done it. The air-hitch is not keeping air! Every time he put air in it, it went down...so he spent the whole hour and a half drive to Yuma manually airing the hitch up. So we now have to find someplace in Yuma to get that fixed before we head north next Sunday.
We arrived at Carefree Village RV Resort around 1:00 and went directly to our site (#150). The office is not open Sundays so they had called us yesterday to let us know that a package would be available outside the office door for us.
The only complaint about Carefree is that the roads are not very wide, especially when having to back into a site that is not angled. Steve was lined up perfectly backing in but did not have the maneuverability with our truck because of a motorhome parked across and over one site. Apparently had our neighbour behind us not had their car parked in their site, we could have driven straight through into our site (she later came out and said if there's a next time she'll move her car). However, the lady across the street came out and suggested she move their truck so that we could pull into their driveway to allow us to maneuver back into our site. Being a corner lot, Steve came in on the side of our site and pulled through, across the street, and then backed up. He had to drive across the cement pad but he had no choice...just glad that it didn't crack.
The sites are very wide and perfectly level...bonus! We got unhitched and started our very hot set-up. It was 28C/82F out there today! Once all set up, we got the AC running to cool it off inside and then sat outside in the shade where there was a nice breeze.
Monday (Mar. 13) morning sunrise...our door faces east...
Today is the first of 3 trips this week down to Los Algodones, MX for dental appointments at
Bernal Dental Group. There was a long line-up of vehicles going into the huge parking lot where you park and walk across the border. That can only mean one thing...it's going to be busy in town and the lineup wait times on our return will be long!
Steve's appointment for crown impressions to complete his 2 implants was at 11:00. Unfortunately, Dr. Bernal was late arriving, so Steve was about 45 minutes late getting in...Mexican time. 😁Finally in the chair!
Luckily, I was taken right in for my 12:30 appointment...which was quick. My upper front teeth are a bridge that I have had for about 45 years and the teeth are are starting to splinter. Dr. Bernal recommended it be replaced...6 crowns, $3600 (US) and it would take 2 appointments. I hadn't planned on getting it done now, but after discussing it with Steve, decided to see if it could be done this week. We really didn't know when we would be back here and one thing we know for sure is that the cost to have it done in BC would be at least 3 times as much. So, my first appointment for the crown prep will be Wednesday...which works out well because Steve has to come back for his crowns anyway. My final appointment will be Friday.
Rather than stop for lunch, we went right to the border to beat the rush and stood in line for about 45 minutes before getting State-side and back to our truck...not a bad wait time.
After a quick stop at Home Depot, we went to Rush Truck Center to talk to them about fixing our trailer hitch. Steve was not impressed when he was told that they don't do that...really? But you work on all sorts of semi trucks but can't check an air system!
They suggested a place called 3:10 Diesel Works, so I put it into Google Maps...luckily it wasn't too far away. Apparently they are booked up until March 30 but agreed to squeeze us in when time allows on
Thursday.
By this time it was going on 3:00 and we were starving, so we decided to go to our favourite spot we found while here last November...Wheezys Grill and Sports Bar. Great burgers and beer!
Tuesday (Mar. 14) morning we got out for a walk to checkout the resort. Carefree Village RV Resort is a 55+ community that is comprised of a mixture of RV sites intermingled with new park model homes. There's a ton of activities if you care to partake...from mini-golf...
Pickleball...
Shuffleboard and bocce ball..
and even a bowling alley...
There are 2 pools...
There is also a clubhouse and multipurpose room where tons of activities are scheduled daily.
As I had mentioned earlier, we had said goodbye to Dave and Cheryl who were going down to Yuma...well, Dave texted us to meet up one final time for lunch. So they picked us up at 11:30 and we went to Wheezys again as they had never been. We didn't mind going again, besides today was 'Taco Tuesday' with $3.50 Margaritas!
We enjoyed lunch and a great final visit with them. Safe travels as you head north!
After our visit with Dave and Cheryl, we walked down to catch up with more RV friends, Darrell and Kelly. They are also from BC and winter here at Carefree every year. They had joined us for happy hour back in November when we were at Fortuna de Oro. So nice to see them again!
Wednesday (Mar. 15) we had to be back in Los Algodones for my dental appointment at 9:00. After a short wait, I was in the chair getting my face frozen. The freezing went from my upper lip up to under my eyes! And there I sat for about 2 hours as Dr. Bernal was drilling and grinding away, prepping for my crowns. I was pretty sore as he was finishing up...the area just ached, so he gave me a couple of pain killers (ibuprofen, I think) and it wasn't long before I was fine.
Poor Steve sat in the waiting room waiting for my appointment to end...so he could have his appointment! He was getting the crowns cemented in...well, he got one done. When the dentist was grinding off a high spot metal began to show so that crown had to be remade. He will return on Friday with me.
As soon as we were finished we went out for lunch to El Paraiso. Great margaritas...good thing I had a straw or I probably would have dribbled it down my frozen face LOL! Actually by then, a lot of the freezing had come out.
One of the entrances to the restaurant. There is a small indoor section and a large outdoor area. Even in here you have to deal with friendly vendors constantly coming to your table trying to sell you something...
After lunch it was time to go, almost every building is either optical, dental, or pharmacy's...
Making our way to the lineup next to the border wall...we found a much shorter line today. It only took us about 15-20 minutes to get back into the USA.
Late afternoon, we started getting weather alerts on our phones...Severe Thunderstorm passing through. The sky got very dark, the wind came up and we had lightening, thunder, and a bit of a downpour but thankfully not the quarter sized hail that the warning had said we could possibly have.
Thursday (Mar. 16) morning Steve was out the door just before 8:00 to take the truck to 3:10 Diesel to have the trailer hitch looked at. Over to Steve to tell you about his morning...
I arrived shortly after 8 and it wasn't too long before they took the truck to one of the service bays.
I was never able to hear the hissing of escaping air and neither could the tech. When he finally came out to talk to me he said he had sprayed a soap solution on the air bags and fittings all the way from the cab and couldn't find the leak. However there was a box that the air line went to that he said probably housed the lines that tee off to the air bags and that he was going to check that next. Turns out it's the air bags after all so now they had to source them. Calls were made and I had to wait around for call backs. Meanwhile I went on the Hensley Trailer Saver chat line and was given a part number for another brand of air bag which I'm assuming is the same one Hensley uses. I asked if I wasn't successful in getting replacement air bags was it safe to tow with flat bags and was told it won't hurt anything, but will be a rougher ride. Well the soonest I could get replacements was a week away, so I hope our trailer survives a rougher ride! I finally got home around 1:30.
While he was gone, I cleaned up inside and then started on laundry...I certainly got my steps in going back and forth to the laundry room! Once that was all done and put away, I decided to defrost the freezer and the fridge fins that frost up quickly.
Steve spent time in the afternoon calling local places to see if he could find airbags for the hitch but had no luck. While he was doing that, I continued working on this blog update.
Late afternoon, we were sitting outside so invited Darrell and Kelly to join us. Another great visit. They too, will be leaving soon and slowly heading north.
Our dental appointments on Friday (Mar. 17) weren't until 1:00, so after a lazy start to the day, we decided to go to the Arizona Marketplace. We wanted to go back to a T-Shirt place that we had wandered through last November and hoped that it would still be there. Actually a lot of the vendors were still open, including the t-shirt place. This place has rows and rows of t-shirts, along with some other clothing, mainly dresses, but absolutely thousands of t-shirts to choose from. Steve picked out a couple for himself and I picked out some for our grandsons.
We were wandering around, and as I was checking out a vendor, I heard Steve talking to someone...well, if it wasn't 2 couples from Peace Arch RV Park in Surrey! George and Betty had left BC the same day as us back in October and were staying at an RV park in Yuma for the winter. Al and Debbie had apparently just arrived. So funny when you unexpectedly run into folks from 'back home'! We had a quick visit with them and then we had to head off back to Los Algodones.
We arrived at the dental office at about 12:30 and Steve was taken right in to have his crown cemented. Dr. Bernal wasn't in the office today, so we both had a different dentist take are of us. He was running a bit late for my appointment, so I wasn't in the chair until about 1:15...and the fun began! He had a heck of a time getting the temporaries off. After using all sorts of tools and getting his assistant to help, it finally came off and work began on placing the new crowns. We were all paid up and out by about 2:00...and I had my new front teeth!
Time for lunch...so we headed back to El Paraiso again. Vendors along the way...you end up saying no, gracias a lot!
Steve's favourite...Negra Modelo and my margarita. The band playing in the background...
Fish tacos for Steve and Shrimp tacos for me...both delicious!
My shiny new teeth, LOL!
This late in the day it wasn't nearly as busy as the other day we were here...
After lunch, we went in search of a belt for Steve...got him down from $22 to $15...
All sorts of shops/vendors...everywhere!
As we neared the border crossing we were expecting to see a huge long line up...it was 3:00, after all. But to our surprise, there was no line up!! Only a few people ahead of us at the doors to go into the Customs office...amazing!
Saturday (Mar. 18) morning Steve and I got out for a walk around the resort...and took a few pictures. There are a lot of these new homes being set up...
Homes and RV's intermingled together....
One just going in...
This is the main area where there is the office, clubhouse, laundry, pools, pickleball courts, etc...
The main road into the resort..."double-wide" compared to all the others...
The rest of the day was spent preparing for our long drive home...we leave tomorrow morning. Steve greased the suspension on the trailer, blew out the Quartzsite dust from the trucks air filter, and putzed around doing a bunch of stuff outside while I worked on this blog update...this will be the last one until we get home.
And so ends our winter "down south"...it has been a fast 5 months! Also one of the coldest and windiest we have ever experienced down here...but still better than what the folks "up north" have had.
The US Marine Core Logistics Base is across the street...
There's rows and rows of military equipment loaded onto rail cars...
At about 7:00, we wandered over for dinner. View to the right as you enter...
The waitresses are also in 50's diner attire...this was Vera, our waitress. The meals are large and reasonably priced...
I really had a shock when I went into the ladies restroom! There was a man standing over a urinal with his back to me! Well, it turned out to be a statue...but holy cats, for a split second I thought I was in the wrong restroom, until I realized it was a mannikin. Steve had a good laugh when I told him! Just too bad I didn't take a picture...sheesh!
These photos don't come close to showing how large this stockyard is...
Flooded Discovery Park in North Sacramento...
Notice the building submerged in water...
More beautiful yellow fields...
Crossing the Sacramento River...Alamar Marina down there...
So much water in the fields as we continue on the I-5 towards Woodland. We have to slow down on this bridge because it sets up a rhythmic bounce...
In the distance you can see a line of rushing water...
It was after 6:00 when we pulled into Rolling Hills Casino in Corning, CA...a long 10 hour travel day but we are glad to have that behind us! By staying ahead of the atmospheric river we should have 3 more dry travel days.
