Road Rage Rita Rides Again!

Road Rage Rita has arrived!  We picked her up in Phoenix, where we were staying the night.  She made quite an entrance, having dolled herself up for the occasion.

The next day we headed to Yuma, but first stopped for lunch at the Space Age Hotel in Gila Bend.  In an effort to fit in, she donned the requisite alien sunglasses but thank heavens she had ditched the wig.

No rest for the wicked, either.  We arrived in Yuma just in time for the obligatory late afternoon dinner.  I always felt sorry for old people because they always seemed to have to eat so early.  Hah!  The reason they do is because they have so much freakin' stuff going on in the evenings that they have to eat at 4 p.m.    Anyhow, we went for dinner, and went directly to the rec hall for a rousing few games of euchre and dominoes.  Poor RRR didn't even see the inside of the RV until nearly 9 pm.

 Timing is everything, though, isn't it.  She no sooner arrived than the weather in Sudbury  dropped to -45C.  She also brought us some warm weather - since she arrived, the temps have been in the high 80s and 90s, which is just as well since her friends told her she'd better come home with a tan!

All in all, it's gonna be a busy few weeks now that RRR is here.  Looking forward to more adventures

Rockin' It.....

Thanks to Marg for the photo

Sorry for the delay in posting, folks.  It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks.  Thanks to our friends Syd and Lynda and Gary and Marg, we've made it out to the desert on several occasions.  The first time was to look for agates (they sort of look like lumps of leftover bubble gum).  On that occasion, Jackie blew out her nearly-new Nikes (NIKE stands for "Nobody I Know Exercises").   On the next occasion, she came prepared.... there's nothing like duct tape to keep life and sole (sic) together!

We found a combination mining museum, knick-knack shop, rockhound supply depot and RV park in the middle of nowhere.  It even has its own golf course (El Rocko - Par 3).  We decided, though, that we would probably not be staying there anytime soon.  There's being away from civilization but you can take it too far!

Our goal on this trip was to find some dumortierite, which is a dark blue/gray stone that is virtually indistinguishable from the billions of other dark blue/gray stones in the desert.  Still we managed to find some and had a great old time.

Scratchin' Our Asses

Today was a fun day!  Our friends Syd and Lynda took us out to the Valley of Names or Graffiti Mesa (we're not sure what it's called).  It is awe-inspiring to see miles of names written on the desert floor with rocks.  This has been going on since the 1940's, when Patton's army was stationed nearby.  The story is that the guards got bored and started writing their names with stones.  People have been going out there ever since, which is quite amazing since the road is definitely not made for little Chevy Sonics.   So many people have gone out there that there are very few rocks left and you now have to bring your own!  Syd offered to leave us in the desert so we could do our own names but we politely declined.

On the way back, we rounded a corner and came across three wild burros.  The burros are descendants of the animals that were brought out here during the gold rush.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, in the desert around Yuma but they are pretty reclusive.  These 3, however, were pretty friendly.  We fed them apples and carrots and they even allowed us to scratch them.  Carm was like the ass-whisperer....she almost put one of them to sleep.

It has been a trifle cool here all winter.  Still, it came as something of a shock to see snow covering the ground.

Just kidding.... this is salt that leaches out of the ground.








We ended our day by visiting two different lakes.  Who knew there would be so much water in the desert?!  Mitry Lake is less than 15 minutes from us.  You can boondock (dry camping) there for free.  At the rate the Canadian dollar is falling, this may have to be an option for next year.

It was another great day in the desert!  Looking forward to our next adventure!

Balls! Great Big Pink Balls!

You learn a lot about yourself when you go bowling with a group.  For instance, I learned that I don't take direction very well.  This is unfortunate, since I really need direction.  A lot of direction!  First they told me to aim for the middle arrow....and the bright pink ball hit the gutter every time.  Then they told me to keep my wrist straight, elbow straight and thumb towards the pins.  I hit the gutter again, but on the other side - which I suppose is progress.

Then I was told to stand sideways.  I just about dropped the ball on my foot.  I hit the gutter even sooner that time.  I even tried bowling left handed.  Bad idea.  The "two-handed slow roll of  death" technique worked well for awhile but it's embarrassing.

Needless to say that my scores will not qualify me as a challenger on any TV bowling shows anytime soon....unless they start setting up pins in the gutters.

On a more cultural level, my non-sick sister and I went to a fiddling jam session at the library the other day.  Great fun!  I even asked about taking fiddle lessons but.....wait for it.... the cold came back with a vengeance and I've been flat on my back for a week.

I have removed myself from all human contact and finally broke down today and saw a doctor.  What a pain!

Memories of Christmas

Christmas was so much fun!  Our brother and sister-in-law, Don and Lou, flew in on the 20th to spend a week with us in Yuma.  We spent a great week sightseeing, eating, playing board games, eating, playing card games, eating, and even bowling, followed by eating.  We decorated the Beast up in hopes that Santa would come.  We must have been good or Santa is demented - we opened christmas gifts for nearly 3 hours.

The first visit was to the Yuma Territorial Prison (check out the film 3:10 from Yuma).  Very interesting.  The view from the grounds is spectacular.  You can see why very few of them escaped though - there is a whole lot of nothing once you hit the desert.



Christmas Eve saw us going on a tour of Candy Cane Lane and the 'Night Before Christmas' themed neighbourhood.  Everyone decks their place out, have fires going and hand out candy canes and candy to the hordes of visitors that come through.  My favorite was the Arizona Snowman - a snowman made out of tumbleweeds.  Then we came back and sat around the fire with our friends before going back to the Beast to open presents.  Don decided to get comfy in his new PJs.  He asked Santa for longer legs but no luck.

Christmas day saw Don, Lou and I going out geocaching!  Don't get to do that very often on Christmas day.  We found 9 of them - a personal best for me.

And then, all too soon, it was over and we were waving goodbye to them as they headed back to Langley.

By then Carm was getting over her cold (which I gave her) but Jackie was starting on hers (which she got from Carm)  And so the cycle continues.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and all best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Becoming Yuman Again

I got back to Yuma on December 7^th, which is a good thing.  I’ve never been the type to get homesick, but I have to admit that I was missing a) sunshine and b) my clothes.  I had decided not to bring luggage back to BC and just live with what I have at home.  Turns out, I didn’t have much.

Anyhow, the first couple of weeks back were busy.  Between replenishing supplies, getting the RV washed inside and out, catching up with my sisters and old friends and Christmas shopping, I didn't have a lot of down time.  Add to this that I came back with cold #4 (the first one was in late August and I’ve had a cold a month ever since), and you’ll understand why I didn’t post. 

So, here I am, ready to be a full-fledged winter Yuman and looking forward to some heat!  Yay!

Road Rage Rita Returns

That's right....Road Rage Rita is packing up her bathing suit and will be heading back to the sunny south.  She decided that SNOW (defined as Sh*t No One Wants) is not going to be part of her vocabulary this year.

Regular readers will remember RRR as my 86-year old aunt who acted as co-pilot and communications engineer on the first trip to Yuma.  She is tasked with giving appropriate hand gestures to anyone who cuts us off or otherwise irritates the heck out of us when we're on the road. She's really good at that!

She was relieved to learn that another of her tasks has been rendered obsolete.  On our last trip, she was required to hang out the window, holding onto the passenger side-mirror, while I drove down a 5-lane highway in Chicago at rush-hour.  This time, the mirrors have been anchored so she's likely to get pretty bored, with nothing to do but count churches in the Bible Belt.

I predict that we'll be playing a lot of that f*&^(&* game.  And we're still going to try to get up in a hot air balloon.  I mean, you've gotta do something, right?