2/27/10
It is raining fairly heavily here in Yuma, AZ where we just arrived about 2 hours ago. We are set up on the lot of our friends Carol & Ron Leonard, who have also graciously hosted us on their property in Sacramento, CA in the past. It was so good to see them again and we are looking forward to a nice visit here. The main reason we have hurried so much to get here is because Elaine needs her tooth repair ASAP, so we have arranged for an evaluation appointment in Algodones, Mexico on Monday afternoon. Of course, we will also take advantage of our time there to buy some booze and meds, have a haircut and eat some shrimp tacos. Yummy.
Of course, one of our problems is that we have been doing a bit too much socializing and eating of yummy food during a time that we are supposed to be getting lean and mean for our next cruise. In Austin, we spent 2 days with our cruise friends David & Diane Wilson. Not only do they have a beautiful home, where we were able to park in the driveway, but they served us a gourmet dinner on Friday. Saturday they showed us around Austin, and we ended up having drinks and appetizers at a place called the Oasis, which overlooked Lake Travis.
That evening we went to downtown Austin for a special dinner at Louie’s, and afterwards walked around so we could experience the nightlife.

And Sunday morning we walked their 2 dogs on the golf course in their neighborhood.

We then moved our rig to another part of town and drove our car over to visit Elaine’s nephew, Mike, his wife Judy, and their children, Sam & Josie. It has been quite a few years since we saw them, in fact, they hadn’t even gone to China to adopt Josie then. So we were happy to meet Josie, and catch up on all the family news. Mike is the son of Elaine’s sister Penny, who lives in Tucson.

It had been our intention, as we traveled West, to visit more of our friends along the way. But as we proceeded across Texas, the weather reports were not very good, and we realized that we needed to hurry in order to miss a batch of snowy weather headed our way. Unfortunately, that meant missing a visit with our friend Pene DeMore, who lives in El Paso. That evening we made it to Las Cruces, where we stayed with former full-time RVers, Stephanie & Paul Bernhagen. When they built their home, they made sure they had plenty of room for visiting RVs in their side yard, so we even had an electrical hookup. That evening we went out to a BBQ place with them, called Smokey Dicks. Here is a picture of all of us in the restaurant.

The forecast was for snow showers the next day but there was sunshine when we left. However, as we drove west on interstate 10, we were being passed by lots of trucks who were covered in snow, or who were dropping huge chunks of snow and ice on the pavement. So we knew it had been snowing in Texas and we were lucky that we had missed getting caught in it.
Tucson has always been on our agenda when we are in Arizona because Elaine’s Aunt Marion and sister, Penny, live there. Marion lets us park on her property and we always have good family dinners together. Here is a picture of Marion’s son, Tom, with Marion, Elaine & Penny, taken when we visited him at his office.

Marion also took us out for a delicious Mexican lunch at El Charro, and here is the picture taken there.

One of the nicest parts of this visit was that the weather was sunny and warm and we were able to get in some nice walks, as well as pick oranges, grapefruit and lemons from some of Marion’s trees and also the neighbors.
Yesterday we drove as far as Gila Bend, where we stopped at the Elks Lodge. This is Elaine’s home lodge, and when we went inside to pay her dues and have a beer, 2 couples we knew from the Boondockers came in, and then Billy & Marianne, from our Newfoundland trip last summer, arrived. What a small world it seems when we keep running into other RV friends in unexpected spots! In fact, we have learned since leaving Bayou Segnette State Park near New Orleans, that 3 other RV couples we know were there at the same time we were and none of us knew it until later, when we e-mailed or read each other’s blog.
Don’t know how long we will be here in Yuma, because it all depends on the dentist now. I will post more information next week.