We have had a wonderful two weeks in the Desert Southwest! We stayed in Indio, had some fantastic meals with friends, and made a few new ones. We enjoyed the vendor area and made some necessary purchases for the coach.

On Sunday, Jan. 11th, we packed the coach and drove to Quartzsite, AZ for the RV & Travel Show. The Clarksons and the Clercs traveled with us and it took about two hours to drive the 130 miles to our camping site north of town. We were parked on BLM land where the camping was free. At one point we had eleven coaches parked around the campfire. Each afternoon brought an early Happy Hour, usually helped with some of the most delicious concoctions that the women could devise. We had several potluck dinners where everybody contributed something to the table and all of us ate heartily. There was absolutely NO lack of good food PLUS a lot of terrific fellowship! One of the high points was the spaghetti dinner cooked and served by Ron & Wanda Farrar. We even made it to town one afternoon to pick up 40 of the $1 hamburgers with grilled onions! Those are some of the tastiest burgers you’ll ever have the chance to eat. Moreover, if you can’t eat all of them you ordered, they can go into the fridge and make great luncheon sandwiches a few days from now.

After nearly a week, we needed to re-supply our water tank. I started the coach, pulled out of the campsite, and headed for the RV Pit Stop in town. This little business has their act together - they have two lines for everything. There are at least six fill points for propane, four dumpsites with sewer hoses, and several fresh water fill points. There is a crew of workers that are organized enough to move RVs through the lines quickly and efficiently. We took very little time to dump our holding tanks and a little longer to fill our 100-gallon fresh water tank. All this costs only $10!

On Wednesday, the 21st, Clarksons and Andersons started dismantling the covered patio and eating area and started packing our coaches for the drive to Yuma. We were on the road by noon and drove south to the Clarkson’s lot in the Yuma Foothills. When we got to Yuma we filled the fuel tank at the new Flying J fuel stop, and drove over to the lot.

We had talked to our realtor in Yuma and she told us she blocked off Thursday to spend some time with us looking at properties. When we awoke on Thursday, I awaited her phone call. She finally phoned and gave us a list of possible properties to look at. We spent the next four hours driving around the Foothills looking at the various lots and slowly seeing how they all began to look alike. We didn’t see anything that jumped out and grabbed our attention. Many of them were mobile homes or park models and just didn’t appeal to our liking. By noon we were tired and beginning to get disgusted with what we saw. We still have one property in mind that seemed to be just what we want, but the seller took it off the market on Jan. 16th. We left Yuma without becoming property owners - some things require a lot of patience and there’s probably a reason for not finding the right lot.

During our stay in Yuma we had the opportunity to visit the Yuma Swap Meet and see many of the vendors that we had just seen in Quartzsite. We also visited Doug Irvine, another Monaco owner, and saw his lot in an organized RV community. The remainder of the time we enjoyed Andy & Linda Clarkson and their hospitality. Their lot is on a fairly quiet street where we sat out at night and watched the stars and the Marine jets heading out to the Barry Goldwater bombing range. It was so unbelievably peaceful with the clear skies and myriad of visible stars.

Saturday morning we packed the coach and prepared for our trip back to San Diego. I was dreading the 4-hour drive, but it proved to be an enjoyable trip with very little wind and comfortable temperatures. We arrived at the church about 1:30pm and settled into our parking spot. Our first visitor was Harvey Throop, our Pastor, with his Welcome Home wishes and news of the death of a friend. Harvey is always the first to greet us and really makes us feel welcome when we return. We went to Mother’s apartment for dinner and to pickup our mail.

Sunday was a wonderful morning after the light rain we received on Saturday night. It’s always humbling to see the many friends we have in this church and get back in the many activities that are always occurring here. We will be here until Thursday, the 5th, and then return to Yuma before departing for Georgia. We have several things to accomplish before we leave and will be busy for the next ten days getting prepared for the journey across the country. Of course, we’ll always welcome any phone calls or visits!

Thursday, January 8th

Many of you have written asking about the results of the consultation with the neurosurgeons on Tuesday. We drove down to San Diego and arrived about noon. We spent some time with Mother at her apartment across the street from Kaiser Hospital. She had cooked up a pot of vegetable soup that really hit the spot after the drive.

At 3PM we walked across the street for the appointment. We were taken to an observation room to wait for the Drs. Three of them walked in and started talking. The tumor is attached to auditory nerve. It has already done its damage and I will not regain any hearing in the left ear. The auditory nerve does not regenerate itself, but the portion of the nerve that affects balance is self-regenerating. In the meantime the right ear will compensate for the loss of balance.

The tumor is small, about 3mm by 6mm. It is a benign tumor and is common. The course of action can be radiation gamma knife, removal by surgery, or monitoring and doing nothing right now. I would prefer surgery, but they could not schedule me until March. Plus there’s a 4-6 week recovery time. Since we have so many things planned in the next few months, we decided to wait until September when we return to San Diego, get another MRI and hearing test, and check the tumor then. The Drs. agreed that would be a good choice since the tumor is so small. They have over 300 patients they are monitoring like this and said it’s not an imminent problem.

We left somewhat relieved knowing that we can take care it in 9 months and continue with our plans. We drove back up to Indio that night and enjoyed our own bed.

We are parked at the Western Horizons Indian Waters Resort and walking the two blocks to the FMCA Rally. The park has electric & water hook-ups, and we’re parked right next to the dump station so I can run a hose over to the dump to empty our gray water tank. It’s very convenient and easy to handle with the comfort of electrical connections.

Our plan, as of today, is to leave Indio on Sunday and drive to Quartzsite for 10 days. If we need to go to Yuma to look at property or submit an offer on one, we can drive the car the 90 miles to get there for a day trip. We’ll take the coach to Yuma on Wed., Jan. 21st, for a few days and return to San Diego on Sat., Jan.24th. We hope to stay in San Diego until Sunday, Feb.1st, and go back to Yuma until the 13th. At that point we’ll head out for Georgia.

Those are our current plans - as you know, it’s could all change! We hope to have a piece of Yuma real estate by the time we leave and have a place to return to in September.

Thanks for all the emails and encouragement. We really enjoy hearing from everybody and knowing what all of you are doing.

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.