Monday, 2/4 It is a sunny day here at the Jojoba SKP Park after a windy, rainy and nasty day yesterday. Quite a change from the weather we had on the desert! Darran, Elaine's son, drove up from San Diego to have brunch with us and he brought flowers for his Mom, since it was her birthday last week. He is looking good and it was wonderful to have several hours with him, just catching up on the happenings in his life. After he left, we just hung out in the RV and watched the Superbowl since the weather was so ugly we didn't want to go out. How nice that the game was an exciting one that wasn't decided until the last few minutes.

We arrived here from Boomerville, near Quartzsite, on Friday. We are parked in the boondocking area and have a nice view over the nearby valley and looking up at some hills. There was even snow on the top of those hills when we arrived and more fresh snow this morning! Saturday we shopped in nearby Temecula, which seems like it is growing into a huge city at an alarming rate. But here at the SKP park it is rural, quiet, and serene. Saturday night there were 16 Boomer friends helping Dick Schneider celebrate his birthday at Killarney's Irish Pub. The beer and food were good but the noise level was incredibly high so visiting with anyone not located right nearby was impossible. We were seated across from Laurie & Odel King, and near Carole Schneider, so we had very pleasant company. In fact, we will be having a tuna dinner with these same people this evening up at Dick and Carole's lot.

Most of the pictures below were taken at Boomerville, near Quartzsite, AZ. Besides shopping at the various stalls and the big tent in town, and attending social events and seminars at Boomerville, various daily tasks contributing to life on the road still had to be performed. Nancy gave Jerry a haircut on one of the windier days. Carolyn Kimpton had previously given me and Elaine haircuts (Thanks, Carolyn!) but we had her do it in our rig. Bruce and Maria, friends from our Panama trip in 2004, moved their big green bus over to park near us and joined us for Happy Hours around the campfire. Maria also joined the gals for beading sessions which were mostly held in Marilyn’s rig. Marilyn is a fantastic jewelry maker (see picture below) and also does beading. She was also the shopping expert when beads, crystals, wire or stones were needed and she coached everyone on where to buy and what to pay. I should have taken a few pictures of all the gals at work in her rig but I find that I snooze through photo ops occasionally, which is also why I don’t have a picture of the gang at the Irish Pub. I did have the camera available when our old friends, Lee & Susie Blattner brought Marv and Sylvia over for a visit on one of the sunnier days. They were heading for Phoenix the day we left for California so we won’t see them again for quite a while and we were pleased that they drove over for a visit.

Wednesday we will drive back to our lot at Park Sierra. There are taxes to do, things to finalize concerning the re-rental of our Santa Clara house, and packing to accomplish before we head for San Francisco airport on Feb. 26. We won’t arrive in Johannesburg until Feb. 28 and I’ll bet we will arrive with a serious case of jet lag! More later about our upcoming trip....