THE Border Fence

Went for a walk into the desert, more than once. It's only a couple blocks away.The area we walk in is full of trails people have taken with their vehicles to park and walk their dogs or unload their quads to ride. It's quiet...full of bunny (jack rabbit) holes and flowering now with low-growing purple verbena and white mallow or desert lily.

At the end of Foothills Road, which we take from the freeway to get to our place, the road enters the Barry Goldwater Firing Range. We're not allowed to enter this area unless we have a permit and make a phone call on the day we want to go in.

At the beginning of the desert road is the equipment to install the border fence. We stopped one day and took a look at the materials. It would be impossible to climb the expanded metal unless you had three Mexicans and a rope...hee-hee. But it is easy to see through when a person stands a few feet away from it.

We've been told conflicting stories about driving out to see the actual fence. One was that everyone was doing it...the other is it is in forbidden territory and you can only get within seven miles. We won't be finding out this year. Not too many days until we leave; not enough time to bother getting the permit this year.

But this is a picture of the fencing material. Standing with me is our neighbor Joel and his dog

Penney.

MCAS...Marine Corp Air Show

Yesterday was the FREE air show on the Marine base. This was our third time going; we really enjoy it. Yesterday morning about 8:30 we left with our neighbor in the pickup, took the 6 mile shortcut through the desert to be one of the first to enter the base. There is always a big crowd. The lines on the two streets used to get to there are always a mile or more long. Then the young Marines drive shuttle buses from the parking lots to the show alongside the airfield.

There are all kinds of aircraft to look at...a B-52 bomber, a huge cargo plane (it has six wheels on each side...whew), a F-16, a F-18 Hornet, a F-5 (made like a Soviet fighter), a Blackhawk helicopter, oh dear, and many more planes and helicopters which are either on display or can be walked through. Some of the planes did flybys for us. A fuel plane did a flyby with a Harrier and a F-18 attached to the fuel lines. Darnit...I missed this demo because I had just sat down in the 'blue boy' and couldn't get up at that moment...lol. But, WE STAYED TO THE VERY END TO SEE MY FAVORITE PLANE, THE HARRIER do a flyby, land and take off like a helicopter and fly sideways.

We also got to watch several stunt planes do all kinds of tricks. Two of my favorite tricks are the hammerhead (they fly straight up until the motor stalls) and when they go straight up and fall end over end. We even got to watch a wingwalker stand on the upper wing of a stunt bi-plane. As the plane did loops and flew upside down, she would wave to us. Now I don't think I would be comfortable doing that even though there was something holding her on.

Oh...then there were all the vendors. I tried to win a t-shirt from an Indian casino nearby, but just got a little purple sack of freebies. And I got some free wings to send to our grandkids. And I had a lady take my picture behind this cardboard cutout with my cellphone (forgot the camera).

KOFA (King of Arizona) Wilderness

I'm creating a new song..."OH, I got desert pin stripes, desert pin stripes on my truck..." That is creosote brush beside the truck. It almost grows in the road in some places scratching the truck on both sides, as we did about 35 miles of 4X4 road through the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge. It was a beautiful drive! The desert is really greening up. The creosote brush is fully leaved out as are the ocotillo (walking stick cactus). The cholla and another small cactus is budding and will be in bloom soon. The saquaro didn't appear to have any buds, but I did notice some small new arms forming on a few.

This was a stunning view across the King Valley with the Kofa Mountains in the distance. We did some exciting 4-wheeling sections over rocks and up some steep but short climbs. And laughed about the cars that had tried to make the road and found it necessary to turn around. One followed us quite a ways.

We stopped several times and poked around looking at rocks, cactus and a tiny lizard, the only wildlife we saw other than birds. We found a huge (three foot across?) obsidian boulder, which surprised us. Most of the rocks do not look like the volcanic type to us. We're told this whole part of the desert was once a huge sea, and shells or shell fossils can be found. But we found none.

We began our trek at the Dome Valley museum/ghost town. It's the re-created town of Dome Valley that served the hundreds of mines/miners in the area in the late 1800's and early 1900's. At one time it was bigger than Yuma. It was a fun stop and worth the fee. An easy drive for cars over a well-graded dirt road.

This was a great day that began with me waking up grumpy "wanting to go home, NOW".

it's not just the BINGO!

OK...played again last night and still didn't win...BUT...it's not just the BINGO! It's the friendships, the laughter, keeping my brain young and active...hee-hee..., the snacks and the laughter, again.

These are some of my bingo gals...we all have bingo pins or earrings. I was going to have earrings until Peggy found out I didn't have pierced ears. Then they all threatened to pierce them...NOT! So now I have one earring, which I wear as a pin.

"keeping my brain young and active"...omigosh, Tuesday we played some really tough games. There was 'small h' which could only be in the B, I & N rows. Then there was 'picnic table' (straight across the top and an X). We have highlighter pens to mark the card with whatever that game is, if we think we'll get lost. A fun bingo game, which we play each night, is the Texas Blackout. We mark either all the odd or even numbers on our cards, then the caller calls only the opposite numbers. Last night one of the gals only had six numbers to be called to win after marking all the odd ones. Did she win? Nah, she still had three open when someone won...whaddadeal!

OH...and last night we played easy games...one bingo any way, two bingos the hard way (no free spot allowed), picture frame, nice easy ones to mark.

A fun weekend, followed by Monday, of course...lol

Saturday began with a bike ride in the warm sunshine at 9:30am; we didn't even need jackets! Joel joined us for the trip down by Ma Fajitas to watch the Hank Day parade. Hank is the guy who made the really big bucks buying up all the desert real estate around here. And then re-selling most of it to the snowbirds. Everyone thought he was nuts...I should be so NUTS! The parade is just a small one but a lot of fun with bunches of candy all the old farts (including us) were picking up all over the street...lol. Norman even got a booby hug from one of the crazy Red Hat ladies going by. Well, alrighty, it was Margo...hee-hee.

Then we had a nummy bbq tri-tip steak lunch put on by the Kiwanis of the area and enjoyed the classic cars on display. The ride home was pretty easy, even though it was uphill nearly all the way. I guess our legs are getting stronger.

The rest of the weekend?...Guess it's a blur of fun...I sure don't remember what we did. Norman watched the Nascar race on Sunday. I did grocery shopping and the laundry and sewed some on the quilt. Hmmm...well, some of the weekend was fun!

Oh yeah...we joined Joel last night and went to a country-western concert at one of the RV parks. It was pretty good. Only problem, since it was Sunday night the park agreed to let them do an almost complete gospel show, which we didn't know about. The whole audience seemed to know all the songs except for us three. It would have been fun to sing along, but we didn't know the words to any of the songs.

Jill's folks parked next to us this morning. They were a pleasant surprise. It didn't take them long to get into the Yuma spirit, as this pic shows. And Penny, the neighbor's dog, adopted them right away...

And we got a pretty good picture of the four of us for Jo and Cole...

Good morning

Third day in a row the coach has been torn up with the broken washing machine at the middle. We've called in a repairman, a retired fellow from a couple blocks over. I hope he can fix it. It's really nice to not have to go to the laundromat except for once in a while.

It's been a quiet couple days. I lost at bingo again the other night. We've been dog-sitting Penny, while Joel has had his brother visiting. She is beginning to think this is her second home. A nice doggie...but sure big. Penny takes up a lot of room when she's inside.

Went to a movie last night. We saw "Fool's Gold" with that cutie, what's his name, and Goldie Hawn's daughter, what's her name. Gees, another senior moment...hee-hee.

We're going to the Elk's tonight for dinner with some of our Eugene friends. It will be our Valentine's celebration. Hmmm, could be the first time we've ever celebrated it!

NOT a Maytag moment...

Dang washer quit spinning the clothes yesterday right in the middle of washday! I had to take them outside in the Tupperware popcorn bowl (the only thing I had big enough for soppy wet clothes) and wring them by hand. Then I set-up the folding ladder, got some hangers and hung them all over that ladder in the sun to dry. Today Norman gets to figure out what's wrong with the spinning part, while Margo and I play in Mexico (well, we're getting our $5 haircuts...lol).

Speaking of "spinning"...Joel ran over and asked how we managed to shake his coach as our washer was spinning. We didn't! At 11:30am we had our third earthquake in three days! We just thought it was the washer too. Then just after we went to bed last night, the coach shook again for another couple minutes. That makes two in one day!

Looked on the internet this morning, we're on the Algodones and Imperial faults, AND the San Andreas fault is just a hop, skip and a jump away.

Boy, earthquakes are really a weird creepy thing...I felt like a little kid last night, hanging on to the edge of the bed and wanting Norman to stop the shaking.

Sunday evening

Chrissy passed away last night just after dinner. Everyone was home; we all knew she would pass on yesterday. The signs were there...

Hospice came and did their thing...then Norman and another RVer had to help carry her out of the RV on a sheet. Pretty upsetting for Norman, but I guess he's old enough to learn to deal with death.

Penney, Chrissy's dog, knew she had passed. It was nearly impossible to quiet her down. She paced from one coach to another. I took her for a walk while Chrissy was taken away. That seemed to settle her a little.

Today will be a long day for Joel...

A Typical Sunday?

Here I am back from our morning walk...notice the long shadow...it's early and warm. Mmmmm, I like that part of being here. I'm doing the 'typical g'morning wave', that we snowbirds give each other. There are so many out walking, I've thought of recording my voice saying "good morning". Then I would just have to hit a button instead of saying it over and over.

The owner of this lot thought she wanted some aloe vera plants, but didn't want to buy them until next winter. She doesn't know much about plants and what needs watering and what doesn't. This morning we found four bags of aloe plants hanging on a fence for "free". We brought two of them back and planted them on the outside of the fence. That's where we've planted other "free" plants we've gotten. Donzelle can move them or toss them next year when she gets around to landscaping. The front of the fence looks pretty good now...awfully bare before.

After a quick breakfast we ran down to Ron and Margo's place. They live in one of the hundred or more RV parks in the area. Many of the folks have bought 'park models' and no longer drive their RVs to Yuma. Margo and Ron bought an older park model with tip-outs. It's not much bigger than our RV. There are quite a few couples from their part of Eugene that live in this park and many Canadians. The advantage of the parks are the many activities that bring the residents together into close-knit communities. This is where I go to play bingo. But the parks have rules, and many of us don't want more rules in our lives...hee-hee...

Norman spent a couple hours helping Ron install new flooring and a beautiful toilet, while Margo and I ran around in her golf cart and sat in the sun and gabbed.

The rest of Sunday was pretty quiet...read the paper...chatted with the neighbors...a bike ride...watched a little of the Pro-Bowl game...

a Super Shopping Day...

Whew, nearly wore me out...

first Norman and I garage-saled for over an hour. HAD to get to that block sale by 7:30 am, ya know! I did find a nice stainless steel colander and a couple pair of pretty earrings...Nah, not gonna wear them. The earrings are for the Christmas tree craft I'm going to do someday. I've been buying pretty and cheap jewelry down here for years to make the tree. Ran into several friends, garage-saling, it's the thing to do...Oh, Norman browses through everything...hee-hee...

Then Margo picked me up, and we went to JoAnn's Fabrics. I have all the squares for my quilt top finished now, so I needed to buy the fabric for the sashing, border and back. Margo is more excited than me! Sheesh, she nearly wore me out looking at fabrics. And I ended up buying what I planned in the beginning. She's already figured out where we're going to lay it out to sandwich the layers together, told me what else I need to buy and given me instruction on adding the sashes and backing. I guess I'll be finishing this quilt, instead of taking it home unfinished. Hee-hee....

Norman and I had lunch at a new place...the Brown Bag Burger or the Big Bag Burger...I don't know which it is. But the burgers are WONDERFUL, DELICIOUS AND BIG! We had to wait in line about half an hour, but it was worth it! I'm drooling just writing this...yum...

OH, it was during lunch I told Norman about Margo and I going to Mexico without him. He's pretty disappointed, but will be OK. We're going to stroll through all the places he and Ron won't go...hee-hee. You see, there is some kind of shopping I like to do.

The young girl who took our order mixed us up with the couple in front of us. Then she laughed and told us "we all looked alike". Hmmm, is that because we're all older OR because we're all dressed in swapmeet clothes...lol

We picked up the sunscreen fabric for our workshop windows. It will replace the window screens and provide shade and privacy. Much cheaper to buy the stuff here in Yuma, where they're dealing with RV's all the time. We use the sunscreen fabric on the RV front and some of the side windows, when we're parked.

Last stop...the Arizona Marketplace (the swap meet)...oh, yawn...I've about had it with this shopping. Fortunately, the fellow Norman wanted to see wasn't there, so we turned around and went right home...yippee!

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sunshine, drinking our drink of choice, gabbing with the neighbors and reading...

a Dream is ending...a Lesson to learn...

Didn't sleep real well last night. Yesterday I sat for a while again with the neighbor lady, while her husband ran some errands. Several of us in the neighborhood give him a break at some time every day, so he can ride his bike, take a walk or play with the dog. Oh, and all of us take care of Penney, the dog...You see, Chris in the RV next door is dying of ovarian cancer. Yesterday I believe she is nearing the end of her journey here on Earth.

The "Dream" ending?...She and her husband sold their home and stuff to travel and live full-time in their RV just in the past year. Their two children are only in their early twenties...She arrived in Yuma just a few months ago vibrant, full of life, walking the dog every day, visiting the neighbors and gadding about with friends. She knew when she arrived the cancer was in her, but she and her doctor up north thought treatments were working and could be continued here.

She'll never see her children married...no grand children will be rocked in her arms...she will never share another sunset with her husband.

"Lesson" to learn...what's that old saying? Don't put off til tomorrow what can be done today...OR...Take time to stop and smell the roses.

I wonder if some of the millions of dollars we donate to breast cancer research is being diverted to ovarian cancer research? I don't think there is even a reliable test for it. Sad...

So, today I share a 'not so happy' part of our life down here...

a QUIET day

We walked this morning...brrr, it was cold. Then I put a stew in the crockpot; I'm trying to learn how to use this contraption. Most of the food has turned out OK.

Then I spent most of the rest of the day sewing blocks for a quilt. Hmmm, will I ever complete one? Dunno...

Norman spent most of the day with Boo. They shopped Home Depot and Ace Hardware for guttering and faucet parts. Boo's had a leakey kitchen faucet forever. Norman had quite a job getting everything cleaned up and the faucet repaired.

I lost at bingo again tonight, BUT I guessed the correct amount of people playing. Everyone at our table puts in a quarter and makes a guess. I'm doing all right winning those quarters. This is about the fourth time...yippee...

Super Bowl XLII

New England Patriots vs the New York Giants...hmmm, I think the game was pretty boring. A lot of push and shove without the big plays we all like to see. In a way it's too bad the Pats didn't clinch a 19-0 season, but on the other hand they were caught cheating to achieve some of those wins. The Giants...well, heck, always good to see the underdog play the game well and come off the winner.

Bellichek?...Poor loser...left the field before the game ended...didn't have a good word for the winning team (wouldn't a 'good' coach at least say "Congrats"?) Maybe he'll get fined for leaving?

Forgot to look up my "Change of Possession" rules...worked out ok since, none of the couples bothered to bring money (we were all just walking across the street). But we did do an abbreviated 'change of possession'...it worked and not so expensive.

That last possession?...since there was only 1 second on the clock AND everyone had flooded the field AND the Pats had left the field...why wasn't the game just called then? Afterall, it was just a kneel-down play at that point...BUT it did put the quarter pot in Norman's hands for the last possession...YIPPEE!

Oh yes...mustn't forget my favorite ads...

always love the Clydsdales!

that cute chick that danced with the Sobe lizards

the girl with the one eyebrow who used Planters peanuts for perfume

and the homing pigeons vs Fed Ex

Brothels n Drugs en Mexico

Yep...here's our usual stop for liquor and meds...what can I say, both in the same store...We don't even know if it has a name; it's just the "purple front" store. And this is the last stop before getting in line to cross back over the border. Why the last stop? Well, two bottles of liquor and several bottles of that good vanilla are heavy to carry all day.

The Hawaii Club is the newest brothel in town. We headed here to get the Green Door t-shirts, from the old brothel. But that picturesque old place has been replaced by this one. The old one was in great Mexican-style. It had a small green beat-up old door on the left of this picture. Then a rusty wrought iron balcony above with a series of doors behind it. This is where the girls hung out or maybe I should say 'over' the railing displaying a hint of their wares...We did find the ol' Green Door. Still operating, but in a different area. And, "no" we didn't buy more t-shirts. One brothel t-shirt is enough.

Had a great Cuba Libre with my chicken mole', and Norman had a Margarita Grande with his enchiladas. Why do the drinks and food taste better there? Maybe it's the mariachi (sp?) band playing "Feelings" while we eat?...hee-hee

Oh the line to get out...my oh my...people just don't pay attention to the news. AND we knew better than to go yesterday. Two pieces of ID required to get back to the US, and many people didn't have it. Here's a picture of where the middle (sorta) of the line is. The car line backed up at least a mile all afternoon. The line of people was backed up about 1/2 mile, two and three people wide. The folks sitting around in the foreground are waiting for their friends to get to this corner before standing in the line.

I guess I didn't really get a good shot of the line of people. Shoulda stood on that concrete bench thingy. We got IN LINE along that wall in the background way down by the black n white sign in the middle of the pic (on the bridge over the canal). It took us one and a half hours to finally clear customs. WHAT WE DO FOR FUN! Most people are used to the line, although it took longer today. So we all laugh and joke and tell stories, find out where we're all from and where we're all staying, and what we've seen or done that was fun.