January 6 through January 13, 2005

Thursday January 6:

Our bags were packed, with small plastic tyraps holding the zippers closed.  (We were not allowed to use locks, but at least we would know if the tyraps were cut and the bags opened)  Four carry on duffels close to the maximum 50 pounds allowed for each, plus a carry on bag each, plus a purse/small backpack each.  We had about as much as we could take.  :-)  We left a l'il reminder on the picture window for Matt on behalf of our feathered friends just before leaving.  

( From this vantage point in the southwestern desert, that picture looks totally UNREAL! How soon we forget!) We started the return to Yuma in snowy weather. Driving on roads at 6:20 AM was not good, but Matt drove expertly and we made the bus to the Boston airport on time. We found the curbside baggage check in to be very efficient and worth the $5 tip to avoid dragging all the heavy bags through the long check in line.  :-)  Security was the usual hassle, but the plane was present and we boarded on time.  America West's flight was delayed about an hour for deicing, which was VERY necessary this day.  The red fluid slowly washed the snow off, then green fluid was sprayed to keep further ice from collecting before take off.

The view out the window as we taxied made us quite happy we had taken the time to de-ice.  We did not see much of the ground until we neared the end of our flight, but then the views were spectacular.

 Our arrival in Phoenix was just over an hour late, causing us to miss our connection to Yuma.  America West said the delay was weather related and offered us booking on a flight the next day, the first seats still available to Yuma, and discount coupons for reduced price on a hotel for overnight.  They were not responsible for any added cost to us for weather related delays.  We tried standby on the fully booked flights remaining to Yuma today, but the closest we got was that ONE of us could go; we declined, but insisted on boarding passes NOW for the morning's flight. The clerk reluctantly gave them to us...saying we could get them in the morning.  Yeah, RIGHT! With all the unhappy stranded passengers trying to get to Yuma!.....  We considered a one way car rental, $87 to Yuma, but we would get in near midnight and have to wrestle the RV out of the storage area in the dark.  We elected the hotel for $61 after 13% Arizona and Phoenix taxes....and collapsed.  This hotel was in the midst of extensive renovations, and I could see why they would need to discount!  :-(  I thought briefly of our four heavy bags of luggage sitting in the airport in Yuma on the Mexican border with nobody (hopefully)  claiming them, before drifting off to sleep....

Friday January 7:

There was a very welcome complementary hot breakfast at 6AM in the morning (our peanut butter and cheese sandwiches we packed for lunch yesterday were getting pretty old, and were nearly gone).  Then the air travel hassle began anew...  The 9:41 AM flight to Yuma was over booked.  At least we had our boarding passes with seats assigned!   At about boarding time the airline changed the gate, so we had more exercise going to another wing in the terminal...  Air travel today requires that you be able to walk...and best chances go to those who can run fastest!  :-(  They put a small jet on for this flight instead of the prop plane originally planned, had to change some boarding passes to agree with the new seat numbers, and we waited, always wondering how they would mess us up next....  Finally we boarded, they counted and found 5 seats unfilled, and we took off.  The 30 minute flight was uneventful, and by noon we found our bags had been secured and were available when the ticket clerk returned from loading the plane for the return trip to Phoenix.  :-)  We were invited to get them from the secure room ourselves, as they were too heavy for the clerk to lift, and we found the tyraps still in place, indicating that none of them had been opened.  Lisle from All Secure Storage agreed to pick us up in his truck, and arrived shortly.  We waited outside in the parking lot while he bought some caulking at Home Depot, and noticed happily that house flies were landing on us...the weather really was pleasant, although showers were in the forecast.  We found the RV in good order.  Two of the seven tarp material roof vent covers I had tied on had blown off, but the others were there.  The refrigerator outside mechanism was dust free this time, but the smell inside the fridge was not too pleasant, as we had failed to open it before leaving. We decided to start it now, and take care of the smell later.  There was evidence of a hard wind at some time during storage, as some of the borax we had put on plates to discourage ants and roaches had scattered.  Nothing else looked disturbed.  The dry food in the taped closed plastic storage container was fine, and everything looked good to go.  The batteries were still 75% fully charged.   The generator refused to turn over at first, but cleaning the fuse and pressing the switch real hard finally got it cranking, and a LONG time later it sputtered to life...WHEW!  We NEED that electricity!  The main engine compensated for the generator's problem by starting on the first touch of the key and running smoothly.  We hung the bikes on the rear ladder rack, lit the gas stove and started the fridge on gas...everything works!  :-)  We moved out to drain our 2 months stale water and refill it with 50 gallons of drinking water from a coin operated establishment next to the storage place for $5. We filled propane here too for $1.36/G.  We arrived at Fry's parking lot by 4:30 PM, and ate dinner at a small Mexican restaurant in the shopping center.  The pork in green chili sauce was a DELIGHTFUL way to welcome us back to the southwest!  The weather had turned decidedly cool and raw when we left the restaurant.  We shopped for supplies, then unpacked some of our bags before turning in around dark...we were still exhausted from the trip.!

Saturday January 8:

I awoke early to use the Internet, then Claire prepared lentil soup for dinner and I finished unpacking our bags before proceeding to Walmart for some essential items (like motor oil for the engine which had been out of stock when we stored the RV).  We then found a clean uncluttered parking lot to grease the RV before finishing our shopping at Sam's Club.  We proceeded to drive 7 miles to Fortuna pond BLM area and found quite a few RVs here now.

 This is WHY we put up with the hassles of getting here, and all things considered, it's WORTH IT!  We picked a spot near where we had camped before, as our previous secluded spot between the trees was quite muddy from the recent rains.  There was quite a bit of activity from All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) as dusk fell, but we had deliberately parked near a clump of bushes to discourage their running into us. We watched a crop spraying aircraft doing his swoop up turns at the end of the field, then dive into his next run with lights on...it was dark enough I could not easily pick the plane out without the lights.  I do wonder how the pilot avoided the hazards from mountains and wires in that light... The loud music and ATV activity slowed around 10PM, and we had a good night's sleep.  :-))

Sunday January 9:

I arose at 4AM to use the Internet.  Temperature is 54 under the RV at 8 AM.  It gets light late here at the western edge of the mountain time zone, around 7:30 AM.  This was still a rest and recovery day, and "stuff" keeps turning up needing to be put in a good home.  We enjoyed the view out of the widows, and in the morning calm today the reflections in the pond were exceptional.

We used the net a lot, and the phone also.  We called our friends Gerald and Lillie we'd met in the fall in Tucson.  They are wintering in a Yuma campground.  I was happy to hear that the Roebic K67 Bacterial Drain and Trap Cleaner we'd put in their stopped up gray water tank there had cleared the blockage by the time they'd reached Yuma, and that they'd had no further problems.  We'll always keep that stuff around to use on our own tanks in an emergency, although it does create much more odor than the bacterial product we usually use.  I had put a heavy dose of it in our tanks before we stored...phew!  :-(   Claire prepared stir fried tofu and vegetables (she used some inexpensive fresh Brussels sprouts as one of the veggies this time, and they really added a nice flavor).  It was easy to go to bed early tonight...still recovering from the trip, perhaps?

Monday January 10:

This morning we finally installed the DVD player we'd carried since leaving home in the fall. We stacked it on top of the VCR in the cabinet over the passenger seat, using Velcro. It did not work at first, but we finally discovered (by reading the book carefully) that the VCR we need to use to convert video output of the DVD player to the Channel 3 TV signal that the TV will accept has a "Blue Screen Mode" that does not pass a picture coming in on the video input.  Once I got into the setup and turned that "feature" off, it worked, with a BEAUTIFUL picture!.  I replaced the units in the overhead cabinet, and of cuss it did not work then....and I cannot even get the VCR menu to show either.  GRRRRR!  'Nuff of this nonsense for one day!  Gerald and Lillie are coming to visit this afternoon, and besides, I need to think hard on this problem.....  About 4 PM they found us and had their delightful Maltese dog, Shadow, along too.  He does not like to be left at their trailer alone, and we enjoy seeing him too.  We put our chairs by the pond and chatted for nearly an hour.

Then, characteristic of the desert near nightfall, it got cool enough to come inside.

Shadow enjoys the warmth even more than the rest of us...  -)   We enjoyed the view over the pond from the windows too, and the wildlife is willing to come closer when we are inside too.

This great blue heron watches motionless for a meal along the pond's edge.   The sun was low in the sky when we parted company with Gerald and Lillie, agreeing to meet at Sam's club for shopping before going to Algodones, Mexico together on Wednesday.  Dinner was microwaved left over lentil soup, quite satisfying.

Tuesday January 11:

This morning we decided to try the gift pedometer we'd received at Christmas.  It required setup, but perhaps we'll have better luck with it than the DVD player…  :-)  We laid the 30 foot tape measure out to check our stride length, and chose a calibration midway between Claire's and mine.  We got it set up, then I thought that with the tape measure already set out, it was a good time to assemble the gift ham radio antenna too.  

The morning was pleasant for outside work, although the day was forecast to be stormy later.  A couple hour's work had the 5 band trap dipole antenna assembled and coiled snugly into the now unneeded DVD box for storage.  We will tune it later, when we get the ham rig out.  I'm pretty sure our old batteries will not take much ham rig operation without running the generator a lot....heck, they are not even lasting well for a full evening's TV watching, and the furnace knocks them flat.  Replacing them is on the agenda before the end of January.  We went for an early afternoon hike, and I checked the pedometer against the GPS for miles walked.  Predictably, the pedometer showed slightly less mileage than the GPS, but the stride setting was shorter than my stride.  The difference was only 0.79% so that is certainly acceptable for my use.  We will see how it works for Claire next hike.  We walked along the levee road, which runs along a drainage canal carrying irrigation water.

There are fenced in sluice gates to control flow, but otherwise we are free to fall into the canal where ever we wish!  :-) The water is flowing pretty fast now, so we do not wish to fall in!  It is interesting to observe the number of bullet holes in the sign, though... from both sides!  Perhaps it is not good to stand too long near it.   :-)  After we returned to the RV, the wind came up strong; dust flew, white caps were visible on the pond, and we spent the rest of the day inside. We did finally figure out how to make the DVD player work reliably; there is an obscure "magic" button on the VCR control that switches the VCR from TV to VCR, and when set on TV the menu does not show, and the input video does not pass through the VCR...geeze!   We have never used this VCR for anything except playing tapes...it is easy for that; just insert the tape and it plays.  The control has more buttons than I can ever conceive of needing, and getting them all set right is a challenge.  Hopefully most of the setup will hold when power is removed.  We did try a part of a yoga DVD, and found we can do the exercises inside the RV with only a few modifications because of the low ceilings.  Mmmmmm, these yoga stretches are just what I need for overstressed muscles...  :-))  Dinner is steak, squash and rice...very nice, and we ate the whole thing!  

Wednesday January 12:

48.5 degrees under the RV at 4:12 AM.  Today we will go to Fry's and shop before meeting Gerald and Lillie at Sam's Club at 11AM.  We intend to return to Fortuna pond for the night, but very soon we will need to dump.  We can do that at Senator Wash BLM campground 25 miles north of Yuma, but Claire mentioned she'd like to see Palm Springs.  We can dump in California along the Salton sea on the way to Niland too, buy our new batteries at the Slabs there, then proceed to Palm Springs with only a short detour on our way to Quartzsite.  Palm Springs is a better match to my healing "mole removal" wound on my back than the hot springs near Holtville (I really would find it HARD not to soak in the hot springs there, against Dr's orders until January 18.  Perhaps this place is better visited AFTER the Quartzsite stay!)  We can dump again in Blythe on the way back into Arizona for the January 23 Quartzsite ham radio camp out.  We need full water and empty tanks to last the full week of that cam pout....  We met Gerald and Lillie right on schedule, and after coffee and a look in Sam's they drove us to Wendy's for lunch.  I was not aware that Wendy's gives a senior discount, but at Gerald's urging I asked, and our lunch bill was under $10 for both of us.  Claire enjoyed her hamburger and fries, as I did my grilled chicken breast sandwich and baked potato (yeah, I DID eat the sour cream and blew the fat goal totally!).  We proceeded to Algodones Mexico, parking in the Indian parking lot at the border.  The parking charge for the pickup truck is only $3, while the motorhome would have cost $8.  We cannot help noticing the barred little building just on the Mexican side of the border, in the customs parking area, and can envision being held there for some unwitting infraction....not nice to think about!

The US border fence is at the right, with a monument marking the border standing on the hill.   Gerald wants new glasses, and quickly finds an eye doctor he's heard about.  He negotiates a good price ($125) for progressive glass lenses with photo gray transition, and after his exam, he finds he must come back in two days.  Plastic lenses he could have in a couple hours, but like me he finds plastic scratches too easily.  He got the Dr to agree to replace the glasses free if they were not satisfactory within a year.  Claire uses the exam time to buy jewelry, then we wander around looking for some medications Lillie wants, and Claire finds a pot she likes, and a wooden buffalo.

There are endless trinkets to buy, but traveling in an RV we must always remember to buy small and have means to protect the fragile...   By the time we are ready to come back, and look at bargain liquor, we find our cash is a bit low and the liquor store wants 5% more to use a credit card; I guess they do not have to play by the same rules here as in the states!  Gerald had filled his gas tank at Sam's, taking advantage of the low prices, and since they would not accept cash he'd paid me and I'd charged it on my card...that cash saved our day!  :-)  We really should not let our cash get so low, but we are used to being able to charge almost EVERYTHING where ever we go....with no penalty!  We returned in mid afternoon, finding the border crossing to be trivial compared to two years ago.  The line moved as fast as we could walk.  We drove around on the outskirts of Yuma looking for a camel farm, but did not find it.  This field full of sheep was interesting; it appears the vegetable farmers plant cover crops in some fields, then the sheep are brought in to feed on the pasture for a few days with temporary electric fences being erected to contain them, before the land is plowed to plant new crops.  When we got back to Sam's and the RV, a passerby agreed to photograph the four of us before we parted.  

Who knows when we meet again; they live in Ohio and are returning there in March.  We will be later, waiting for better weather up north.  Perhaps we will meet again in Quartzsite at the end of the month....we'll see, but they are good people and we enjoy spending time with them.  :-)  We bought a few more things in Sam's before heading out to Fortuna Pond, arriving just at dusk.  Dinner is microwaved lentils frozen from a few nights back.  I am quite ready for early bed tonight!

Thursday January 13:

Temperature is low 40's under the RV this morning, and the furnace runs a lot after 4AM.  Today is planned as laundry day on the way out of Yuma to dump at Senator Wash.  We see no reason to go early, as the laundry is expected to be less busy by mid afternoon.  We hike 2.5 miles around the pond on the path we had taken Tuesday, but with Claire carrying the GPS and pedometer.  The GPS was 2.5% higher than the pedometer...perhaps I need to set the pedometer stride higher, as Claire's stride seems to be slightly larger than mine while actually hiking.  There is wildlife to see...even though we had not noticed the owls that fellow campers had heard, then seen at midnight, we found these snowbird coots swimming shyly away as we approached.

The fields are active today and we alter our route to avoid the most intense activity.  Here a machine harvests red leaf lettuce, with just a few men involved.

The leftmost (leading) conveyor machine appears to cut the lettuce off at ground level, where it falls onto the moving 45 degree angled conveyor belt, which lifts it to the man placing it in boxes stored on the back of the machine,  which are moved by other men to the backing up truck which follows down the row.  It seems it is then trucked to washing facilities before being packed for shipment.  We must drive through this dry wash to reach Fortuna Pond campground, OK in dry weather, but not passable in flood.

 Around 1PM we leave, heading for Sam's Club for cash at their ATM (usually the cheapest in any town) and gasoline fill.  The gas pumps are crowded, so we decide to gas at Walmart's for the same price.  Claire returns from Sam's reporting that gas is up two cents since yesterday, and the cash machine refused to give her money after two tries, acting like it could not communicate with our bank; zero for two so far.  :-((.  We move on to Walmart where we find the cash machine temporarily out of service, but the gas price with shopping card is still $1.669.  We forgot to bring our list, but we do not think we need much here.  Claire tries to get her prescription filled while I fill gas.  She finds that she must come back in two hours for the prescription, so we decide to do laundry now.  Near the laundry is an oriental gift shop, and we find some neat foodstuffs to buy.  We now have a lifetime supply of Vietnamese fish sauce, Miso, and some wide rice noodles for Claire's Pad Thai...  :-)  It was very late in the afternoon as we returned to Walmart's through heavy rush hour traffic.  We passed Staples, and I decided I must have a 2005 appointment book which I had no luck finding elsewhere.  I had thought we had bought one before leaving the RV for the holiday break, but it was not here when we returned, and Claire recalled that SHE had bought hers, but I had not found one I liked...with memory like that it's no wonder I miss my appointment book!  :-)  When we reached Walmart's, I brought the list and we spent quite a bit of time buying those things we did not recall we needed, and ended up with over $60 worth of stuff.  It was almost dark when we came out, and we decided to return to Fortuna pond for the night as we had enough water to last if we conserved, and it was close.  We arrived in total darkness, but found our way in easily and Claire prepared macaroni and cheese while I stuffed our new purchases into the refrigerator.  This was a busy night with laundry to get out of the way, fresh bed to make and dishes to do, but by 9PM I was ready to call it a day...VERY ready.  It did not seem like we had done much today, but we are both exhausted.  Claire watches a bit of TV, but I retire.  Claire comes to bed reporting that the Gila River a few hundred yards from us in this campground will be in flood stage by Tuesday, and the area's county roads will be closed...YIKES, remember the dry wash!  It's time to be elsewhere!  California here we come!

PLANS:  We'll leave Fortuna Pond today, heading to the Slabs in Niland.  We expect to find good Verizon cell coverage there, and free dump and water on the way.  After we get new batteries, we will tour Palm Springs before heading for free dump and water fill in Blythe, then back to Arizona and to Quartzsite for the ham Quartzfest starting January 23.  After that we have a choice of dumping in the Quartzsite LaPosa long term visitors area for a fee, or moving on....  This is TBD later, with a watchful eye on the wild weather out here this year, of course.

Until next time, ENJOY!  We are!

Barrie & Claire