Monday, January 5th, 2009

Happy New Year to everybody! It’s been a nerve-wracking year for us and last two months have been especially stressful. Some things just aren’t meant to be!

We found a lot in the Foothills of Yuma that we fell in love with. It is a small lot with a 560 sq. ft. casita on it and room for two RVs to park. We started the process of pre-qualifying for a loan with Wells Fargo. After many faxes and a lot of patience, we were finally approved. We drove over to Yuma on New Year’s Day to join the Clarksons for Linda’s traditional New Year’s dinner of ham, black-eyed peas, and greens. The Clercs were there visiting on their lot and Other friends of Andy drove over for the weekend. The four couples of us walked the short block up the street to see the lot and met with our realtor, Gretchen Hossler. She is a Rotarian in Yuma and has been in the real estate business there since 1973. Gretchen wrote up the offer, we signed the papers and left a deposit check, and drove back home that afternoon. We were on pins’n’needles for the next few days awaiting an answer to our offer.

On Sunday after church we struck out with the coach and headed for Indio and the Western Horizons Indian Waters park for a week. We’ll stay here and attend the FMCA Western Area Rally about a block away at the Indio Date Fairgrounds. On the way up we received a phone call from Gretchen. She told us the seller declined our offer and didn’t even make a counter-offer. She was asking $155,900 for her lot (which was WAY over-priced) and turned down an offer of $130,000 about six months ago. We offered $90,000. The lot and house have been shown quite a bit, but no offers had been made outside of ours. The seller has obviously gotten some bad direction on her price and will probably be owning the house for quite a while until she comes off her asking price. We’d love to be in the market when she drops her price, but it will likely be several months. She is coming to Yuma in March and will learn that she is over-priced, especially in this slow real estate market. The bad news was very disappointing to us, but maybe there’s a reason we aren’t aware of. We are looking at a couple of other possibilities and will wait for more information.

One of the high points of the last month was the great time we had with Ray & Glenda Roe. They have been stuck at Holland Motor Homes awaiting a part for their microwave oven. They have been very frustrated with the delay, but they also have had a free place to park for the Holidays. Glenda, like me, is a fan of craft beers. We have had the opportunity to visit some of the microbreweries and brewpubs and sample some of the local beers. It has been a very educational time for me and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed their company!

When the Indio Rally is over here, we plan to go to Quartzsite for a few days and then on to Yuma for some premium time with the Clarksons. We feel we need to stay in San Diego a little longer and spend more time with Mother before we depart for Georgia. Dottie has been a big help to her with their shopping trips, Bingo outings, and other tasks around Mother’s apartment. I have re-worked our travel itinerary to delay our departure and we’ll be leaving on Feb. 12th to make it to Moultrie, GA by March 2nd. I’ll be working the Parking Crew for the Monaco International Pre-Rally. Following the Pre-Rally we hope to drive to Melbourne, FL and visit my brother and his family. Also we’ll have the opportunity to see Bill & Sandy Crawford who are staying in Melbourne for an extended time while Bill works for Eckard’s Drug.

We will probably have some company joining us along the trip east as Jim & Peggy Grich have indicated an interest in tagging along with us. We are really looking forward to that! My trip planning has included stopping points where both of us can stay with our memberships. Our travel schedule includes travel days of less than 200 miles and several easy days.

Our plans are still in the air as I have an appointment with two surgeons to see about a tumor that has been discovered on my auditory nerve. It is applying pressure on the nerve and causing a decrease of hearing on my left side. There are three options - do nothing and check it with an MRI in 6-12 months, radiation (not an option in my opinion), and removal with a gamma knife process. I go back to San Diego tomorrow for the appointment and will know more then. In the meantime, we are continuing to enjoy our freedom and lifestyle.