Friday, Jan. 15th, 2010

On a whim, we left San Diego on Thursday morning, Dec. 31st, New Year’s Eve. We drove over to Yuma and the Clarkson’s lot to celebrate the Holiday weekend with them. We arrived and enjoyed the evening watching the ball in New York fall (at 10PM, Arizona time). We opened and shared a special bottle of sparkling wine made with black currant that we had purchased in Deming, NM last year. The St. Claire Winery makes this delicious wine and it was an appropriate time to break out the wine to celebrate the in-coming New Year. We had a terrific time with Andy & Linda and enjoyed our short stay with them.

During our visit we made trips to the Sam’s Club and the Yuma Swap Meet. The Swap Meet has everything that the Quartzsite RV Show has and at a lesser price. We also had the chance to look at some more property. We found one lot that is very close to Clarksons, is a corner lot, and is “for sale by owner”. His price is way too high, but his retirement has taken a hit and we hope he’ll consider an offer from us. It’s an almost perfect match to what we are looking for so we’ll sit tight and wait.

We had originally planned to leave on Sunday, but there was a Charger game on TV (we were able to use our satellite connection to receive the game) and the weekend traffic from the desert would have been horrendous. We decided to stay one more night and left on Monday for Indio. Before we left, we all went to a local Mexican restaurant and had a great breakfast. On the way home we stopped at the corner lot and the owner gave us a tour of his property. It proved to us that the lot was what we would enjoy and could make us very happy.

We drove up to Indio and the Western Horizons Indian Waters Resort. We had a quiet site with water, electricity, and gravel. It was at the outer edge of the resort and very peaceful for our stay. We went in to the FMCA Rally each morning for the coffee and donuts, then to the vendors to see all the things we couldn’t live without. Somehow we managed to get through the week without spending much money. We did find a vendor that did windshield chip repair, so we had him fix two chips on the windshield of the coach.

Each night there was entertainment. For the four nights we saw some good ones - and some bad ones. And on two afternoons there was an ice cream social with free ice cream bars furnished by Schwann. The rally was enjoyable and we had the chance to see some old friends, including the Raes, Griches, Bahnsons, Wilkes, and Harsches.

We had to leave Indio on Sunday and return to San Diego as we both had Dr. appointments to handle. It was a beautiful drive back to San Diego. We returned to an empty parking lot and got parked and settled in. It was good to be back to our San Diego parking spot and the solitude of the church.

Tuesday I had a follow-up with the neurosurgeons and came home with a good report. Everything is healing well and the recovery is ahead of schedule. I feel good and am glad to be able to get back to work around the church.

On Friday we took the coach to Valley Truck & Auto for our annual maintenance. I had the filters and a case of oil, so the mechanic did the labor, lubed the coach, and got us back in shape. The price was extremely reasonable and it was done in about three hours. After all, the coach takes 22 quarts of oil and has many, many grease zerts to service. It’s good to have the work done for another year!

We decided we aren’t going to Quartzsite this year. With the cost of fuel and our search for a Yuma Foothills lot, we decided to hold on to the fuel cost and stay put for awhile. If something develops in Yuma, we’ll make a day trip to sign papers and get things arranged. Only time will tell…