12/25/05 Merry Christmas! It has been so wonderfully warm here in Tucson for the last week that we can hardly believe it is the end of December. Today it was 81 degrees and we wore shorts, tee shirts, and sandals all day. Sure makes it a lot easier to get out there to do our 4 mile walk around nearby Reid Park everyday. We have been parked in the driveway of Penny's rented house, just off 22nd Avenue. Quite a change from her old neighborhood up in the northwest part of Tucson. Besides trying to keep up our exercise routine, having visits with Penny, and also her daughter Suzanne, and family, who live across the street, and doing some shopping, we have been trying to clean up the car and RV.
During our week here, we had a delightful lunch with Diana and George Rulens, who are Boomer friends. They were camped at Beaudry RV, the upscale RV resort. They also provided us with quite a delicious lunch, and a bagful of lemons, oranges, and grapefruit, all growing in profusion at the resort. Another day we lunched at Metropolitan Grill with Elaine's aunt Marion, and Penny too of course, since we were using one of her gift certificates! Quite delicious food is served here, and we would recommend it. It is also located in the same plaza as Trader Joe's.
Christmas Eve day we shared the cooking duties with Penny and the three of us created a traditional turkey feast with all the trimmings. I tried a new recipe for yams with citrus and it was much better than the usual marshmallow ones. Penny made really tasty and moist mashed potatoes, stuffing, and tender delicious turkey. It was great having all the leftovers to eat today and not having to cook again.
Christmas is a family time and we certainly miss our kids, grandkids, and siblings on these occasions. Luckily we were able to talk to many of them by phone today. We usually visit them on our RV travels at other times of the year, leaving them free to share these holidays with other family or friends. We hope they all had a marvelous Christmas!
Now that we have succeeded in catching up on our chores, and we have had adequate visits with Penny, we will be hitting the road again tomorrow, heading back to Yuma and the Boomer gang at Sidewinder Road.

Penny's Christmas tree. 

Pretty delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings. 

Elaine & her sister, Penny toast each other on Christmas Day. 

Mary & Elaine on a sunny Christmas Day in Tucson. 

Penny's house with our rig in the driveway. 

12/18/05 Hi from Tucson. We are here visiting Elaine's sister, Penny, and we will be spending Christmas with her. Prior to coming here, we had been at Sidewinder Road with the Boomers. Last Monday, our good friends Lee & Susie left the SKP park where they have their new lot, and joined us out in the desert. Susie and I are both of Norwegian heritage. Susie knows how to make a Norwegian potato pancake called lefse, so we had bonding over lefse making. The hardest part is getting the potato mixture the correct consistency so that the finished product hangs together but isn't tough. Susie did that part. Then we took turns rolling out the dough and transferring the flattened disks to the hot griddle. Just as I approached the stove with my first attempt, it broke in two and half fell on the floor. Luckily, things improved after that and I kind of got the hang of it. Both of my sisters were experts at making this dish, so now I feel like although I am not in their league, I have at least learned a bit more about my heritage. Thanks Susie for your patience as my teacher!!
It was sad leaving our friends, the Boomers, on Friday. We were so comfy out there, especially since John and Vi Primmer had arrived with their datastorm satellite dish and we all had internet access!! Thanks John and Vi! The gang that is left will be having a nice dinner in a Yuma restaurant for Christmas. And they will be having a get-together at Larry & Debbie Crutcher's on Dec. 21 for the annual Parade of Lights. Boomers know how to have a good time!
We will be glad to rejoin them after Christmas so we can be there for the New Year's Z Circle.

Mary rolls out lefse. 

Susie & Mary make lefse. 

Susie cooks lefse. 

12/10/05 Our activities this week involved going with some of the group of Boomers here at Sidewinder Road to a place called the Graffiti Plains, just north of Winterhaven. This is a fairly large area where many people have used the larger rocks to write their names, the dates of their visits, and some messages. Ed & Jolene Northup helped Elaine and me learn how to program our GPS receiver to find some hidden containers called geocaches. It involves following the directions of the GPS to the place where the container is hidden, so it is fun and helps us get a nice walk too. The hilarious part occurred when I programmed in the second one and the GPS told us to go 6885 miles to our left. Ed checked everything and discovered I had entered East instead of West for one of the coordinates! The other funny part was when we found the first geocache and then realized that the rocks at the site spelled out "geocache".
Once again there was a carload who went recreational shopping at garage sales and Elaine returned home with many treasures. The best one is in a picture below - a small fiber-optic Christmas tree for the dashboard of our rig. Below it in the picture is our lighted and decorated ceramic motorhome which we got last year from our friends Bob & Nancy Colbert. We have a few other decorations hung up, including some beaded snowflakes made by Elaine, so our rig is looking quite festive.
The last picture below is a sunset picture taken tonight. It was a beautiful sunny day today, with no wind, and this colorful sunset. There are still about 8 rigs here, although some have left and more have arrived to take their place. We will probably leave sometime late in the week to drive to Tucson to spend Christmas with Elaine's sister Penny, and her family. But we have certainly been enjoying our laid-back time here on the desert!

Graffiti Field. 

Ed,Jolene & Elaine With Geocache. 

Mary at geocache. 

Graffiti & Mountains. 

Graffiti Field. 

Christmas Decorations In Our Rig. 

Sunset On The Desert 

12/4/05
Another update from the desert off Sidewinder Road on the west side of Yuma. Yesterday and today have been very windy again, but the rest of the week was pleasant and warm. There are 9 rigs of Boomers here and today we had an afternoon potluck to celebrate Frank’s 65th birthday. The food was delicious, as always, and the company very enjoyable, even if the wind did make it a bit uncomfortable to be eating outside.
New arrivals this week were Jim & Diane Fisher-Baker, Ed & Jolene Northup, Karen and Mickey Bennett, and Kaaren and Bill Payne.
This week we have been doing a few projects around the rig in between trips to Yuma. Elaine has broken out her paintbrushes and is once again painting Mexican colors in our rig. She has also put up a few Christmas decorations to make things look festive. Beading with Laura and Gretchen happens periodically as well. One day we drove over to Algodones, the Mexican town just across the border, where we had delicious shrimp tacos for lunch and bought some medicines and kahlua. Yesterday we drove all over Yuma with Gordon and Laura, hitting garage and yard sales. Wednesday we had lunch with Lee & Susie at their new lot at the SKP park, had happy hour with Helena and Jack Vincent at their place in the Foothills, and then crashed in on Eileen and Ray Cooper, who live nearby. One of the enjoyable parts of being here at this time of the year is that so many of our friends are here too!

Camping on the desert. 

Elaine paints picture frames. 

The gang at Happy Hour. 

11/26/05 Today is a windy day yet warm day on the desert. Elaine has gone into Yuma with Laura and Gordon to do some garage sale shopping while I catch up on the internet chores. We spent Thanksgiving with the RoVing Rods at Mittrey Lake on the north side of Yuma. ( See pictures below.) It was a very enjoyable time with good friends, some new acquaintances, and lots of delicious food. We even managed TWO walks on Thanksgiving Day just to walk off some of it!
Yesterday we moved to the west side of Yuma, off Sidewinder Road, and joined the Boomer group. There are about 10 rigs here and once again, a very amiable gang of people. Today we will be having a potluck, although with this wind, perhaps it will be a short gathering. We will be here for a few more days and we have a good cell phone signal, which equals being able to get onto the internet for all your welcome messages....

RoVing Rods camped near Mittrey Lake for Thanksgiving. 

Closeup of Mittrey Lake near our parking area. 

Darran & Elaine 

Mary, Darran & Elaine at Mission Bay 

Our rig in boondocking area at Jojoba Hills 

Elaine at Jojoba Hills 

RV sites at Jojoba Hills