2009 March

This will be our last installment for the 2009 "snow bunny" adventure to Arizona and California.

We thank all of the people listed below for a great time this year. We thoroughly enjoyed the campfires, cookouts, conversations, tourist treks, game and card playing, ATVing, and birthday parties.

Arnie and Penny
Butch and Mary
Dan and Jeanne
Gary and Sandy
Gary and Sharon
Jack and Jerri
James and Wanda
John and Greta
John and Peggy
Ken and Virginia
Larry and Roillena
Larry and Sherri
Mike and Linda
Randy and Bonnie
Randy and Nancy

We had planned to go to Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming on our way home, but have decided to make that trip later in the year since we saw everyone in February for Bernadine's Memorial Service.

These are pictures of a couple of vehicles we have spotted in parking lots in Yuma. As it got hotter in the desert, we started going to Yuma more often - air conditioned Walmarts and Sam's Clubs are wonderful in over 90 degree weather.










This is a picture of Tony, with a borrowed hat from Arnie. Arnie sewed a hair piece into one of his hats, just for fun. OK, so maybe sometimes, we don't have enough to do in the desert so we have to find something to do for fun.

We went to Mexico for dinner with Dan and Jeanne. They drove their car into Algodones.....it took longer to drive out than it would have taken to walk out.....and people do not like it when someone lets a car in the line - everyone honks....for some reason they prefer that you go to the end of the line and wait your turn. This is a picture of one street filled with dentists, ready and waiting to give you a deal on extraction, cleaning, plates, caps, etc. Whatever you need, they will take care of it for at least half the price if not more than it would cost in the U.S.

Sharon's birthday occurred during this month in the desert. Thanks to the Quechan Indians....the birthday lasted for several days. Everyone at the camp celebrated with snacks, drinks, and fireside conversation. One gift was a hat with a musical button on it - which played "God Bless America". Instructions were - "when the British give you flack, just play the music". Sharon almost wore out the music box. Later in the week Dan and Jeanne and Tony and Sharon went to the Quechan Casino (new this year). The casino was nice enough to let Sharon go away with $125.00 profit.

Exercising has become a necessity for at least one of us. We have been riding bikes a lot...one day we road down to the Interstate and back - a total of ten miles.

We took a day trip to the Imperial Dam Date Farm http://www.nvo.com/imperialdate/door/, the Imperial Dam and Martinez Lake. Pictures show an unusual tree, a tree

with a ladder up to it at a very high spot (this is how these trees are trimmed), and a grove of date trees already harvested with machinery sitting in the grove.

Next picture is of a very picturesque place across from Martinez Lake.

There was a car show and an air show while we were in the Yuma area. We drove around Yuma and saw a lot of the old cars cruising around. During the air show we went to both the Racetrack Vendors and the Yuma Vendors and watched the air show at the same time. This year we joined Sam's Club because we needed to buy new batteries for the motorhome.....eight years must be the limit for batteries the way we use them.

Another day trip was to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately we were too late to see much of the wildlife. All the Sandhills Cranes had left just a few days before. Family and friends in Nebraska should have seen them by now. We will have to go back next year at an earlier time in the year. http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/CibolaNWR/. However we did get this picture of cactus in bloom.

Our ATV rides were always fun and eventful....through geocaching we found where kids had made bowls to ride their ATVs in and around. It was great fun. Then we went on to ride on the sand dunes for a little while but not very long. It was a little scary....not knowing what was over the next sand peak....or what wasn't there.

This picture shows where some people are living in the desert. Many of their belongs were inside the cylinders. It appeared that one person was living in the little shed.

One ride led us to hike up a hill to see what was there....see the computer picture....it was placed on top of a hill and used for target practice....much to our amazement, the monitor glass was over a quarter inch thick.

These two pictures are from our last ride before we had to be towed back to camp (some serious repairs needed in the transmission before summertime - actually our resident funny guy, Dan, said we weren't towed back, we were pushing Arnie's ATV with a rope). Pictures are of unusual formations of sand, and some sort of lizard (not sure what the proper name would be).

This picture shows more of the desert in bloom....yellow flowers lining each side of the road for miles.

Loading up and heading north from California desert to Quartzsite for a few days before we started home on Wednesday, March 25; and arrived home on Friday, March 27. It was a great trip. We hope we are able to go again next winter.

Thanks to everyone for all the fun we had this year. Thanks to everyone who reads and enjoys our blog. Thank you all for the emails and phone calls along the way. Staying in touch is great!!