Yuma, Arizona

We have found that we love spending winter time in Yuma, AZ. It is a small enough town to not be overwhelmed with crowds, except with snowbirds, but large enough to have all the amenities of a big town. We have some good friends that live here for the winter from Penn. We go out with them on their ATV's which is soooo much fun.
They even let us stay with them for the time that the motorhome was waiting for it's new rearend to be installed and the KIA's engine needed to be replaced. We were loving called their house husband and wife. Duane was able to help Bob fix things around the house and other honeydo's. We are now back in CA and Bob and Marlene are back in Penn until next winter.



Motorhome was here at the repair shop for over 3 weeks
Marlene & Bob with Duane in background
Marlene & Jo looking for gold
D & J on ATV
Bob is 6' standing next to this cactus

Laundry

Last year when we were in Lake Havasu City, I went across the street from the RV park to the laundromat. It was a small setup with only 6 washers and dryers. Well I did the laundry and then took it all back to the motorhome to fold it. All was done but I was missing one of my black socks. Anyone who does laundry knows how the washers love to eat socks. I went back to the laundromat but no sock. Fast forward to 2009 and I am back at the same laundromat doing laundry. I wash and dry the clothes like normal and take it all back to the motorhome to fold. I now have an extra black sock left over. This is not a match to the missing one, but a totally different type. I figure the washer was sorry for eating my sock from a year ago and gave up one of its own. Remember to beware of strange washers.

Happy New Year 2009

Happy New Year to all our family and friends. We are currently in Lake Havasu City, AZ.

We did make it home in October and time flew by. Duane and I looked for a job to no avail. I did get hired by Mervyn's for their final weeks before closing down. With no work we played some instead. We went to Disneyland with Shannon, Karen and the boys the day after Halloween to see the decorations and for Brandon's 6th birthday, which is on 11-5. Two weeks later Duane and I went again to Disneyland by ourselves. We did all the "Mountain" roller-coaster rides and other "grown-up" stuff. Two weeks later we went to Disneyland again with Russell and Brenda Peterson who came in from Nevada City, CA. We also went to Knott's Berry Farms Craft days. They had a special rate for seniors. Five dollars to get in, but no rides included.

During this time we parked the motorhome in front of Karen's for a few days and then put the rig into service for the gray water tank leak that was supposed to have been fixed back in February. They had it for a week. We picked it up and moved in front of the Albee's home for a week. Then it was back into a different service to have the body repaired that happened back in February when the parts driver backed into it. We got it back just in time for Thanksgiving and went back in front of Karen's.
We went to Shannon's to have Thanksgiving dinner. After Thanksgiving the motorhome was once again back in service for a vibration. They replaced the parking brake drum, but still had the vibration. They next balanced the driveline and tires to no avail. We went ahead and picked it back up on Friday 12-26 so that we would be able to come to Lake Havasu for the New Year. We were without the rig for the whole month of December. But don't feel bad. The first week we were at Karen's and the second week we had friends whose parents were not able to use their week in a timeshare condo in Capistrano Beach. It was across the street from the beach and was wonderful. The sunsets were beautiful. The last night we were there we had the Albee's and O'Brien's down for a night of dinner and Uno Attack. We went back to Karen's for a week and then the O'Briens offered us to stay in their home while they were away to Logan, Ut for the holidays. Then it was off to Lake Havasu.

In between all this fun we did get lots of other stuff done. We got our dental work done, including cleaning, fillings and new crowns. I also needed gum surgery to clean out an infection above the root of a tooth. Duane had several doctor appointments to get ready for his hernia surgery. At his appointment with the surgeon he was told that he had two hernias, one on each side. He also needed to see his cardiologist to get clearance for the surgery. He got the green light and was told that he could go off the coumidin forever not just for the surgery. Yeah!!!
Wednesday 12-17 we were at the surgical center at 6am for the surgery. All went well and we were back to Karen's by noon. That evening at about 8pm Duane and I were watching TV and talking when he said that he didn't feel so good. I asked him if it was something I needed to be concerned about. He looked at me funny, so I asked him his name and he had a blank look on his face. Karen called 911 and off to the hospital Duane went. It was determined that Duane had had a stroke. He was in the hospital for 2 days and had a slew of tests done. The MRI showed that he had 3 small strokes. He was very blessed because only his speech was affected. The doctors have said that he will make a complete recovery and he will need to be on coumidin the rest of his life.

All this time Karen had been working on getting her daycare license. When we got there in Oct. she had turned in all her paperwork and only need one class and then the inspection of her home to be licensed. So we thought!!!!!!!!! They came out for the inspection and because of the neighbor's pool, the chainlink fence on the lower slope needed to be childproofed. Duane and I attached corrugated plastic to the links and then the wait was on for a re inspection. Karen was originally told that she could email pictures in of the fixed fence and she would be licensed. Oh no!! The inspection finally happened but we were told that the cactus on the slope and all my rose bushes needed to come out. The kids might poke themselves. So out it all came with the help of Bob Tripp. Duane was recovering from his surgery. To help not hold up Karen getting her license because we were there Duane and I went and got our fingerprints done. Mine went through in a week but we are still waiting on Duane's. He passed the FBI but Homeland Security is holding him up. I didn't know he was a terrorist????????. It was now 12-31-08 and still no license after 3 months because of Duane. Karen contacted her caseworker to see want needed to be done to push this through. Duane had to write a note, and fax it to the caseworker from Havasu. We aren't even around there anymore. Karen called at 4pm on 12-31 to say she is finally licensed. YEAH!!!!!! Boy was that alot of work.

The New Year is off to a quiet start but who knows what is in store...........

Going South

We have been heading south for awhile. We left Washington Sept.19 and headed to Salem, Oregon to visit Dan and Glenda. We stayed for 3 days and then started south once again. It took us 2 days to get out of Oregon and then another day in northern CA before we reached our destination of Oregon House, CA. This is north east of Sacramento by Marysville. We stayed for 8 days here seeing the sights and visiting with some friends from our Sydney cruise, Russell and Brenda Petersen. We moved on to Gardnerville, NV to visit and stay with Bob and Carole Tripp. We were here for 5 days. While we were here I found out that my father was moving to Idaho for awhile so plans got changed and off to St. George we went, via Las Vegas. Bob and Carole are traveling with us now, so they stayed in Las Vegas and Duane and I went up to see Dad and family. From there we kept going south and we are now in Yuma, AZ. We needed to go to Mexico to get drugs for Duane. Medicare only covers about 6 months worth and its cheaper in Mexico to get the rest of the years worth. Tomorrow we head out once again. We will be in Palm Springs for 2 days and then Lake Elsinore for 2 days. We will be arriving in Mission Viejo on Friday Oct. 24. our final destination for awhile.

I wanted to get an update out so this is a quick update. Watch for photos and more details in another blog.

Adna - Property update

I uploaded the pictures to the blog site a week ago but the reception at our campground was so poor and slow that I'm just now getting back to it. We are now at Bob and Carole Tripp's house. I'll update all that later, back to the pictures.

This is our property in Adna, Washington (Chehalis address). The picture showing Duane weed whacking was taken before I went to CA. He went on and got so much more done while I was gone. He had 3/4 of the property mowed by the time I got back, but when I did, I took over the mowing and he dug out small and not so small tree stumps. Our goal was to get it all mowed and weed killer sprayed around the fence line before we left for the winter. We finished with a day to spare.

It was really alot of fun working on the property. We had a few problems with the lawnmower but they turned out to be pretty minor. Both belts ended up needing to be replaced. Of course we didn't do them at the same time, that would have been to easy.

The property now has access to the road. Or the road has access to the property. Either way the driveway is in. The permit we got from the county is officially for a road approach not a driveway, but it looks like a driveway to me. It goes for about 150' onto the the property so there is plenty of room to park the motor home.

Duane weed whacking

Before being mowed, and the big pile of debris waiting to be burned.

Mowed and unmowed sections

Joanne mowing. Picture isn't fuzzy, that's the dust and grass blowing around.

Duane showing me how to use the mower.

Joanne getting the hang of mowing.

Ditch drain pipe under our new driveway.

The road approach to the new driveway.

The motor home on the property the last few days we were in Washington.

Duane changing the belts on the lawnmower.

Julia's 8th Birthday

I missed Julia's actual birthday while I was in California, so we celebrated it a few days late. Duane and I went up to Sarah's for a few days leaving the motorhome at the Chehalis campground. The birthday celebration was fun. Julia choose to go to Denny's for her birthday dinner. As the pictures show she got a new bicycle, art supplies and Richard built for her the bunkbed/art center setup. It is totally cool. We brought Julia back with us to the motorhome for the weekend. She had been looking forward to another time with us for awhile.

Pictures

I have such a cute family that this blog is for all the pictures that weren't used in the previous blog. ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!