Tuesday AM
A bit of an ohmage to an old movie, so I hope it caught your attention. I take to the blog today with a heavy heart as Dick Tootle was called home late Sunday night. Having been part of his family for almost 60 years, he truly was a wonderful influence in my life. From his love of Ohio State and Lompoc athletics, to his joy he took in pheasant hunting, he truly lived a long and caring life and touched so many. A true light has left us, but we are better off having known him. Please keep, Diana, Doug, Oliver, Emily, and all his extended family in your prayers as they go through these tough times.
We arrived in Yuma Monday at Araby Acres Encore park after a short drive from Palm Desert. Needed gas, but gave a hard pass to fuel in the Salton Sea area. $7.099 for a gallon at a Chevron station! Are you freakin’ kidding me!! I get delivery costs, but that’s just plain price gouging. I’m going on a rant here, but oil companies don’t need taxpayer subsidies any longer. The R’s are all about cutting welfare, then by God cut these damn oil company subsidies first. They are raking in record profits and all people want to blame is the President. Granted, he’ll be unelectable in 2024, but he doesn’t control gas prices, oil companies do. But enough of this, no need to bore you with my political views, let me get back to our adventures.
It seems everywhere we go we experience faulty or poorly maintained equipment. Here at Araby Acres we are right across from one of the pools and hot tubs. So yesterday morning, we jumped into our bathing suits, (which was a rather interesting feat in and of itself) and headed across the street to the pool. We literally were inches from the tub when a member said that this hot tub was down because it leaked and was turned off for maintenance. We had to walk to the other side of the park to the other pool facility. Not a big issue, just an annoyance. Certainly a first world problem and goodness knows we needed the exercise.
We did head to East Yuma to Walmart to reprovision and what a mad house. People were definitely stocking up for Thanksgiving. We are not doing turkey this year, we’ve decided on Cornish Game hens so this should be fun.
We’re heading to Los Algodones today to see our dentist. Hopefully it will entail a simple cleaning and we’ll be good for another year. Then we are going to try to get together with our Canadian Connections Kathy and Jon and even go shopping for RV’s. Should be a full day.
Wednesday AM
Tuesday found us in Los Algodones early in the morning to see Dr. Lastra for our annual dental appointment. Vicki’s check up went great, while mine was not so good. Had to get a root canal and a second tooth capped. After much drilling and no pain, the root canal was finished and both teeth were ready to be capped. The temporary cap on the front tooth gave me the Micheal Strayhan gap, but luckily it was only for a day. Had both teeth crowned today and it was all for only $900. That’s why we love coming to Mexico for the dentist.
We bought some candied pecans from a street vender and when my cement hardens will feast on sweets! Kathy and Jon came over last night for a wonderful visit and we decided that we would partake in Wakanda Forever. Looking forward to the next installment in the series and will be interested to see how it works without Chadwick Boseman. He fit the role so wonderfully. He definitely will be hard to replace. Also went to Wally’s World RV emporium and picked up a few items for the coach. Always good to have spare parts. And talk about a store that has everything! Looking forward to a quiet, peaceful Thanksgiving with micro-turkeys (aka Cornish Game hens), and our traditional sides of red cabbage, mashed potatoes, green beans, and fresh baked homemade rolls. We finish the feast with a pumpkin pie topped with real whipped cream. Should be spectacular as always.
Sadly just learned of another colleague that was called home on Monday. Carol Upton, one of the nicest people you’d ever meet passed suddenly. She always had a nice thing to say about everyone, a glowing smile, and an ear for any problem one may have had. She was truly a professional, but her humanity always proceeded her. Stanwood school district has lost a great person but has added an incredible guardian angel. Rest in Peace to a lady I had the honor of calling friend.
Saturday PM
Had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast just the two of us in Yuma’s Araby Acres RV Park. We had a delicious meal of Micro Turkeys (aka Cornish Game hens), Mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and Vicki’s Red Cabbage. She has definitely carried on the Schiessl tradition and makes it from memory. No measurements needed. I made dinner rolls for the first time and love our Cairn Springs flour. It makes them so flavorful. Topped it off with Walmart Pumpkin pie and an excess of Redi Whip!
We did a one night stand outside of Tucson at the Pima County Fairgrounds. A nice place to stay for a night and as has been the case of most of the campgrounds this time of year. Definitely easy in and out and only $30 for full hook-ups. Didn’t hook up water or sewer as it was dropping into the low 30’s and didn’t want to risk frozen lines. Have filled the tanks to 3/4 and they should be fine. After Tucson, we continued down I-10 to Demming, NM and are expecting a really chilly evening. We had a tail wind all the way here and that definitely helped the gas mileage. We are staying in an Escapees park and it is also mostly empty. We are expecting temperatures in the 20’s so we’ll definitely bring in the Brass Monk keys. We’ll start heading more southward once we pass El Paso Texas tomorrow and hopefully find the warm weather we’ve been searching for.
Nothing else to spectacular to report, so until next week, stay safe, know we’re looking forward to hitting our home base for a few weeks and then head out on yet another adventure. By the way, did I mention we’re still loving retirement!
