IT’S OFFICIAL - We are “Winter Visitor’s” in Yuma Arizona!!!!

The past three weeks have been a whirl-wind, and seems more like three months! On Friday, October 18th, we made an offer on an RV lot in the foothills of Yuma Arizona ---- on Thursday, November 6th (exactly three weeks later), we signed the final Escrow papers and took possession of our new-to-us lot! It is still sinking in - it all happened so fast.

During the last three weeks we have made several day-trips to Yuma from San Diego, completed some Doctor and Dentist visits, held our “Homecoming/Farewell” Gathering, dismantled our shed and moved the gazebo and all our “junk” over to MJ and John’s site, moved off our lease site and into another “regular” site, had a wonderful visit with my Brother Lawrence and his Wife Connie, and attended several very Happy Hours along the way.


November 9th - we picked up our rental truck from U-Haul. With the help of our friends at Pio Pico (MJ & John, Diane & Ray, Darlene & Gene), we had the gazebo dismantled and everything loaded in the truck in about 2 hours! It was amazing! I intended on taking pictures of the event - but everything happened so fast I didn’t get a chance. It was like watching a big ant hill - very organized and well executed! Thanks to everyone that helped. We were all done with time to spare before the kickoff of the Charger’s football game. The game turned out to be what we call “heart attack football” - we were all having heart attacks - until they managed to pull out a win at the very last second! Go Charger’s!!!!

It is seldom that you can rent a vehicle and not have any problems. We had a minor problem that could have turned into a major disaster. When we got the truck back to our campground, Andy (in the truck) went ahead of me (in the Jimmy) after we entered the gate. He had been following me all the way from the rental place. We are very fortunate that he went ahead of me - I noticed that the driver side dual tire looked odd. Upon further inspection we discovered a bulge the size of a softball on the sidewall of the tire - a disaster just waiting to happen! A phone call to U-Haul’s Roadside Assistance was all it took. They made arrangements for someone to come out to the campground and replace the tire. We loaded the truck and almost as soon as we were done the service man arrived and in short order replaced the bad tire with a brand new one.

Monday, November 10th, is moving day! The rental truck is all loaded and ready to go. We will be meeting up with our friends Flor & Ron Pratl along the way. They will be coming with us to help unload the truck and get us settled a little.

Today the weather is wonderful! No wind and sunny skies - a great welcome to the desert southwest for sure! We are in line and ready to hit the road. I will be driving the coach and Andy will be driving the rental truck. It should be a fun day. After farewells and hugs we get underway.


At the Buckman Springs Rest Area, we meet up with Flor and Ron. We continue on to Yuma, to get started on this new chapter of our lives.


Upon arriving at our lot in the Foothills, we unfortunately made a very noisy entrance! Thankfully most of our new neighbors aren’t even here yet. In the confusion and distraction of leaving Pio Pico, we both neglected to remember to turn the power on to the Jimmy - so the Jimmy battery was dead dead dead on our arrival. Unfortunately, the Jimmy alarm system thinks it is being stolen when the battery is dead and it screams bloody murder until the last drip of energy is left in the almost dead battery. Jumping with normal cables didn’t even phase the almost dead battery. Finally, the super duper charger/starter gizmo that Gene turned us on to worked like a charm - once again! With all the noise stopped, we managed to get the coach parked, the rental truck parked and both other vehicles secured. Wow, we still have lots of room on the lot! It is unfortunate that the laws in this area only allows two “rv’s” at a time - cause the lot will accommodate at least a couple more (maybe that is the reason for the law?).


We were all tired and hungry, so instead of unloading the truck we headed for a local Mexican restaurant to fill our tummies! The food was good and the cold Amber Bock was even better!!!! After indulging, we headed back to the lot to get busy. In short order we had the truck unloaded and the gazebo set up. Satisfied with all our hard work, it was time to relax a little. With glasses of wine and bottles of beer, we all sat down to enjoy a great game of Mexican Train. Tired from all the excitement and work of the day, we retired with expectations of another busy day tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 11th, dawned as most days will in Yuma - bright sunshine and mild temps. This morning we are all hungry and since we have to return the rental truck, we take advantage and just continue to the local Cracker Barrel Restaurant for a good country breakfast. After a trip to Home Depot, we return to the lot to get just a little organized. Flor and Ron have to return to San Diego (some people have to work!), so after bidding them farewell Andy and I got busy setting up the foundation for our shed. By the afternoon, we finished the foundation, but both of us were dead tired. We took showers (in our new RV Accessory building) and retired.


This is our first of many beautiful sunsets here in the desert southwest! Everynight is absolutely beautiful - the full moon makes it really special. It is so quiet and dark here that it is very easy to sleep soundly for hours!

Today is November 12th, and we spent a wonderful day putzing around our lot. We made a run to the local Super Wal-mart for a few supplies. I finally found the instruction book for the shed, so tomorrow we might get further than the foundation - no worries and no hurry, we are just taking our sweet time and enjoying every minute of it all! When we purchased this lot there was some “personal property” that the previous owner’s left behind and became ours by default. The large BBQ and Washer and Dryer all worked perfectly today when we tried them out! A definite BONUS!

To our friends with RV’s - we have one full-hookup site available for visitors to come stay with us. To our friends without RV’s, we have a small RV accessory building that has a ¾ bath and Sofa Bed for visitors to come stay with us. To everyone, I have started a “reservation calendar” for both facilities, so they do not become "over-booked". We welcome all our friends to come and visit us when ever we are here in Yuma. Please let us know when you would like to come and if our facilities are available we will be very happy to accommodate you.

We will be here at 12757 E 47th Drive in Yuma until the 1st of December, when we go back to Pio Pico in San Diego for 9 days to complete Doctor stuff and visit with friends. We will return to Yuma on the 10th of December. We are undecided about how much time we will spend in Yuma in December. On the 3rd of January we will leave Yuma for Indio and the Western Area FMCA Rally and then to Quartzsite Arizona for two weeks. We will return to Yuma the end of January and will likely be here for at least February and March. Haven’t planned further than that at this point.

We think we have made a wonderful decision in buying this lot in Yuma. We are both very happy here and the best part is that it belongs to US! We aren’t just throwing money at somebody else to have a place to park. We have a “home” - kind of - at least for the Winter.