1/2/2006 Happy New Year!! It seems funny to type 2006 for the date. Sure hope you are having a relaxing and exjoyable holiday weekend.
Since our last post, we have returned to the desert west of Yuma to rejoin our Boomer friends off Sidewinder Road. There was a group of 23 rigs here for New Year's Eve festivities. First there were games such as cards or pegs and jokers for those who wanted to do that in the afternoon. Then at 4 pm, instead of our usual Happy Hour social gathering, we had a delicious potluck, with socializing during the the eating and afterwards. At 8pm the Z circles started. This was set up this year by Ed & Jolene Northup. This is where 1/3 of the rigs are host rigs while the other people visit them. There are 4 visitors and 2 hosts with the visitors bringing desserts to the first rig they visit. After 45 minutes of getting to know each other better, sharing travel tips, etc. the visitors go to new rigs and the host rigs get 4 more visitors. We had three hours of socializing with 6 different couples, and then Ron & Sharon Mead had a big campfire going outside. All the leftover desserts were brought out there, and everyone who wanted to bring in the New Year with a toast brought their beverages out. Barry & Jan Kessler had fireworks which he shot off for everyone's enjoyment. At midnight we toasted in the New Year, hugged everyone, and headed back to the rig to hit the sack. All in all a very pleasant evening and a great way to see in the New Year.
Elaine and I thought we would get a leg up on the usual New Year's fitness craze by starting on the South Beach diet on Dec. 26. Several other Boomers are on this weight management plan and have been having good success, so they acted as our mentors and coaches. It has been a fairly easy regimen to follow and we each have lost 5 pounds during the first week. In conjunction with the new eating plan, we have been walking 4 miles each morning and doing some exercise ball crunches and working with small weights. Many days other Boomers join us on the walks and the interesting conversations make the miles fly by. Since we have a cruise planned for April, we want to fit into those cruise clothes!! We also want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to maintain our good health.
Barry & Jan have their internet dish set up so we have access during part of every day. We are using this to maintain our blog site, check our e-mail, and do travel research for our upcoming Europe adventures, once our cruise ends in Lisbon, Portugal. Later this week we hope to relocate to Ehrenburg, AZ where we will join Lee & Susie at the Boondockers gathering there, and also reconnect with other Boondocker friends we haven't seen for quite a while.
Last winter was pretty cool out here in the AZ deserts but this year has been much warmer. Usually the days are warm and sunny (70's) and the nights have been only around 50 degrees. There has been no rain, although some days have been overcast, such as it is today. There is a huge gathering of dune buggy and ATV enthusiasts in the desert near us, off Ogilby Road, and they create a LOT of dust. So we were hoping for a little rain from the recent California storms to help keep the dust down. I'm sure most of these people will head home today, as it is the end of the holiday weekend, and the desert will be left to us boring old retired RVers again.