The Tooth Fairy Visits us in Yuma 2014

 

Last week in Quartzite, I broke a crown on #15.  That’s the rear Molar on the upper left.  We’ve been hearing the sweet stories of the Mexican Dentists, now was the time to test it as while in Yuma we border Los Algodones, MX, a hot bed of Dentistry, Optometry  and Drug Stores just 8 miles away. 

Immediately after walking across the border, you are in the center of town.  There you are besieged by a virtual mob of street vendors wanting to herd you to their employers specializing in the above services.  The town is plastered with bill boards as well as the usual street vendors of curios and food.  

I had prearranged an appointment with Eva Urena D.D.S., she quickly (and painlessly) prepped me for a crown which was finally fitted today (Thursday).  The little waiting time we had to do was done in the pleasant courtyard of her office.

While in town we were directed to a very nice local street side {meaning much of the food is cooked at a grill on the side walk!) where we feasted on Fish and Shrimp Tacos.  Fancy? No.   Good?  Great!    Price $11, I only had 1 beer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A rare picture of Anne-Marie as she is repatriated to the United States.  B.T.W. camera usage in the secure border areas is strongly discouraged, ask me how I know!  This Shrimp in Coconut was her homecoming feast on this side of the border.

 

Meanwhile, back at camp the work continues.  I removed the 4 Golf Cart Batteries (About 350 pounds and $600) and put them into our new to us Bounder.  I took the dead Bounder’s ‘Interstate’ 5 year old D.O.A.  P.O.S. and swapped the out for some good stuff to put in the 5th wheel.  Did you follow that?  Neither do I!  My back can attest to juggling all those 80 pound batteries however.

Tomorrow, We tow to Las Cruces, CA where we will spend 3 days preparing for our Mexican Connection trip.

Passing of a Friend, Moving Forward with Life. 2014

Sad here to learn of the passing of Bob Marvin.  It appears he had sudden illness in Orlando.  I can only hope he was on vacation with family. Bob lived in New Hampshire and was a sales rep. for the small foundry I worked for.  AS I’ve noted before, our life style turns painful when we cannot respond to this type of personal crisis.

I’ve been hint for the past few weeks that we are looking at buying a motorhome.  We’ve had several motorhomes and would like to go back to that lifestyle.  Our trip to Alaska kind of ruined both of our backs, a 3/4 ton pick-up is very rough riding.

I focused in on Mid-Cost diesel pushers. They cost about $200k new, our budget was about 1/2 of that.  That meant that we would get a unit that is several years old with good records.  We saw several that we liked, once we added up the improvements we want the price shot up.

Well we found one!  Here is a U-tube video of a very similar rig that we are buying.  Our is a 2004, this one is a 2005.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WafgYxTrz9s  Our 38N Bounder has a dinette where this one has a 2 person table.  We do not have a sofa, that space has 2 recliners.  Our also has a nice custom built desk in the area in back of the passengers seat

I drove it about 40 miles, it does nothing rude, smooth power delivery out of it’s Cummings Turbo Engine, Alison Transmission, Air Brakes and Air Ride.  At 74,000 miles it should last a very long time.

Anne-Marie is happy with interior storage, it even has a walk-in closet going across the back wall.

 

 

 

 

I suspect that the recliners will be swapped out for a sofa when we are in Elkhart next year.

We will take delivery mid-March as we are time crunched with our upcoming Mexican Connection and AMA’s surgery. 

Got to Love the Wal-Mart's here for their great sales!

 

Too damn many buttons & gages here!

2014 Quartzite, Last Days

 

Do these folks look like they are having fun?  This was a 1:00pm gathering that featured ‘60s music and hors d’oeuvres.  Great crowd of about 200 Escapees, all involved in one capacity or another.

It really shouldn’t be to tuff to figure out which song these folks are singing on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been a while since I had a bottle of Yuengling.  This sign brought me a pleasant memory when I found it in middle of the desert.  It is easier to find a cold beer than a drink of FRESH water out here.  Tap water is very hard, ruins coffee pots and water heaters at an amazing rate.  There are street corner kiosks selling RO {reverse osmosis) water, the cost is about $.25/gallon.

 

Tomorrow {Wednesday} we will relocate to Yuma, about 90 miles south.  Daytime temperatures will be in the high 70’s, not too bad as it’s a dry heat.  Of course the wind chill at 10 mph will drive it down a bit .

On Thursday we will be test driving and evaluating the 38’ Bounder that we are interested in.  It’s a model 38N which is a Cummings diesel pusher with 3 slides.  Being 10 years old, it has a few maintenance issues that I will attend to before it’s launched.  6 new tyres and 4 new house batteries are it’s unguent needs. 

Our plan is to use our present rig to do The Mexican Connection trip in the 1st of Feburary.  We will return to Austin where Anne-Marie’s surgery is scheduled.  After her recuperation, we will possibly fly to Yuma to transfer the Bounder, do some of the maintenance and travel back to Austin.

Well, that’s the plan…..

 

 

 

2014 Quartzite RV Show Opens Today

We’ve been camping in the desert outside Quartzite for the last week tending to several social obligations as you may see here.  Anne-Marie and MooCow went to visit the Too Crazy Ladies to finalize the badge design for our anticipated trip next year to Kino Bay, MX.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had several Social Hours, The standard start time is 4:00 pm which allows us to get a head start on working folks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temperature's are in the 60’s during late afternoon with an ever-present breeze, sweatshirts or light jackets are the dress of the day.  Note the mountains in the backround as they go into shadow while the sun sinks in the west.

Our bid has been accepted on this 38 foot Bounder It is a model with triple slide and all the bells and whistles, next week we will give it a test ride in Yuma and seal the deal with a large down payment.  After Anne-Marie’s surgery we will return here, put some new sneakers on it and return to Texas.

How about the ‘40 Ford Coupe Barn Find, I sure hope someone restores it rather than making another Hot Rod.  In my heart, I’d like to see it built as a  50’s style hot Rod with a Flatty, Duel Pipes and 3 Stromberg carbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got to eat some time, our group is shown here at Silly Al’s one of our favorite Pizza Houses.

Quartzite 2014 Arrival

 

We arrived in Quartzite, AZ on Sunday afternoon. We’ve set-up camp with The Boomers, a BOF {Birds Of a Feather} group on the Escapees RV Club.

Quartzite gained notoriety as the base of the United States Army’s Camel Corps in the mid-1800’s.  Proposed by Jefferson Davis, it was one of his 2 well known poor career choices.

 

 

 

 

This is a rare photo of a camel in Quartzite.          (Not my Photo)

Hi Jolly is the nickname given the fellow who was imported with the 70 camels.   The Government ended the experiment as war erupted, Hi Jolly bought some of the surplus camels using them to move freight.  There is an appropriate monument in the town cemetery to acknowledge Hi Jolly’s achievements.                    {Not my Photo}

{Not my Photo!}

This is also the home of The Quartzite RV Show, which will open next weekend.  This show is said to draw a million RV’ers  into this area every January.  I’m sure the 75° daytime temperature's have some thing to do with that also.

Map Below:  We are located about 2 1/2 miles west of I-10.  It is a mine road which means it is a huge dust storm when ever we use it.

 

 

 

A few folks have asked me about the software I use for this blog.  I use Window’s Live Writer which is freeware from Microsoft.  I’m not a huge fan of M/S but this program rocks as far as being easy to learn and run.

Equipment Upgrade in Yuma 2014

 

We are in Yuma, AZ enjoying the warm daytime temperature of 70°.  While suffering with this, we are have a few upgrades made to our 5th wheel   Our first stop is an appointment at Starlight Solar, our preferred Solar power provider.  I need them to move our existing panels back about 14” to make room for our new A/C install.  This took about 1 1/2 hour's.

next we went down the road to Sumbum RV, they were recommended by Starlight.  Great work here, they seem to be the Beaver Experts as they had 5 in the yard they were working on.  Unlike many Rv’s our unit was not prewired for a front A/C which required them to pull wires to the ‘basement’.

Later we went to The Texas Roadhouse where I had a great siloin, very rare as requested!

Tomorrow there is a car show I hope to attend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arizona at 65° is Wonderful 2014

We really like Deming, NM, it has good services and shopping along with historical linkage to the early western culture.  I even noted a masonic S&C on this pillar at the cemetery.

We spent one evening at The Dreamcatcher’s Escapee Park before we had to move on to be in Yuma, AZ on Friday morning.  This is BIG FLAT country, I-10 is straight as a arrow and has a great surface.

We arrived at Rover’s Roost at 3:00, being another Escapee's Park, we were warmly greeted even though we could only stay 1 night.

 

Note that we took our walk as the sun was retiring in the west as witness by the long shadows.  65° in the sun wasn’t too hard to take.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something a little special here for Dawn to enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, we will drive to Yuma in anticipation of our appoint to add a second A/C to our unit.  We are ‘lucky’ as there is a huge flea market about 1/4 miles from where the installation will be done.

You know what a flea market is; It’s a place where every thing is never on sale