Hope all of you had a terrific Thanksgiving! We enjoyed the pleasure of a ham and all the fixing’s cooked at my Mother’s place. It was a quiet afternoon with Mother, her best friend, Kathy, and Dottie, Nancy, & I. It was a wonderful way to spend the day after a wet drive from Yuma. Yuma?

Yep, we drove over to Yuma on Sunday right after church. Our goal was to spend some time with Andy & Linda Clarkson on their new lot in the foothills of Yuma. We had a great time with them checking out a Mexican restaurant, the local Sam’s Club and Super Wal-Mart, and cruising around the area looking at RV lots. We are in the process of negotiating on a lot we found, but we’ll have to have a great deal of patience during the next four weeks or so. Once a deal has been firmed up, we’ll announce the location and details. In the meantime, we’re trying to hold our enthusiasm down and under control.

Clarkson’s lot is a little piece of Heaven in the Foothills. Traffic around the area isn’t too congested yet, but the snowbirds haven’t really arrived. Once the first of the year has come the traffic will probably become horrendous and drivers will need an extra amount of patience driving around the area. The Foothills has a spectacular view of the mountain range to the east of Yuma and has everything a person could want or need. There are three Super Wallys, a Sam’s Club, Home Depot, Loew’s, and all the major shopping stores you’d find in a major metropolitan area. While we were there, we had the opportunity to experience some of Yuma’s adverse weather. The area only gets about three inches of rain per year - on Wednesday they received 2.2" in one day! It’s amazing to see the runoff areas and the collection ponds that actually have water in them.

Yuma also has some of the least expensive fuel in the whole Southwest. Super Fuels had diesel fuel for $2.18/gal. and propane for $1.75/gal. Unfortunately, they were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday and we couldn’t fill up before we left town. It was an otherwise wonderful break in Yuma!!

Back at the church we’ve been replacing light bulbs, doing a lot of yard work, replacing ballasts in some of our older fluorescent lighting fixtures, and managing to stay busy. It’s all “fun work” that needs to be done and gives me something to occupy our time. We’ve also been attending two Bible classes and the weekly LOGOS group for younger kids. The evening meal on those nights has been outstanding and cooked by one of the couples in the church. The calendar for December has a lot of activities scheduled and we’ll be looking forward to being involved in those varied functions.

I’ve already done some trip planning for 2009 and we have our itinerary set for all the way to October. As many of you know, flexibility is the key and we’ll probably be changing our schedule several times before we actually execute the plans. Most of the fun in the trip planning comes from sitting down and playing with the maps and directories to set up the itinerary. It’s something that I really enjoy doing.

Once again, we hope to see many of you in the San Diego area while we are here. We are already planning to see several of our motorhome friends in the next month and shortly after the first of the year. Don’t hesitate to give us a ring…