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!