Summer Travel Map

Friday, January 25, 2008

Time Flies…

January 25, 2008
Scottsdale, AZ

Wow, time really flies when you’re having fun! I can’t believe I haven’t had a chance to update the blog in so many days. Well, here’s a quick update:

We had a great time in Quartzsite, making new friends and catching up with past acquaintances. Although the overnight lows were on the chilly side, things warmed up each day and the wind didn’t stir up too much dust.

We took a ride to the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge which was OK but a bit of a disappointment. We got in a bit of off-road driving (Geri: “Any time you want to do this with other guy friends, have at it.”) but saw no wildlife and had no photo opps (high-tension power lines on one side and a string of yellow “gas pipeline” signs on the other. Maybe we just went in the wrong entrance road. We (er, I) will have to try it again at some point.

We had potluck dinners several nights, and I managed to get over and go through many of the vendors’ displays. The RV tent opened last weekend, and that was interesting but I didn’t feel the need to buy anything, having just spent the budget at Indio. I did find some tools in the other vendor areas and filled in a couple of stray wrenches that I’d needed. In general, I found prices to include few bargains, with some things I saw cheaper at Harbor Freight. As long as a cash sale didn’t generate sales tax (Quartzsite has raised theirs to near 12%), I suppose the total cost would be a good thing.

Here are the links to the remaining Quartzsite pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/QuartzsiteDay5

http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/QuartzsiteDay67

http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/QuartzsiteCrowdJanuary2008

http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/QuartzsiteFromBillCrawford

We reluctantly headed out last Monday for home, leaving mid-morning and arriving back in Peoria mid-afternoon. We’re getting pretty good at getting things ready for storage, with Geri unloading the refrigerator/freezer and getting all the laundry, and me dumping the tanks (we have a sewer cleanout in the front yard and the macerator pump works great) and doing the heavy lifting. We were all set in about 2 hours, and had the coach back in storage before dark. Of course, then we started making a list of the stuff we forgot to grab, but we were able to make a quick run back to pick up the remaining items when we dropped off the clean laundry later in the week.

The primary reason for our return date was that Geri had an appointment with a periodontist on Tuesday. She has a tooth that she’s been “nursing” for over a year, and we’re going to finally get it fixed. She’ll need an extraction and two implants over the next several months, and it looks like everything will fit in fine with our schedule. She’s not looking forward to the work, or the expense, but a bad tooth can wear on your constitution and general health, so we’re moving forward. We’ve met several people who get dental services in Mexico and that’s a definite possibility for the future but we’re not interested in starting off with such a major operation. We’ve done enough research to know that Algodones, a town just across the border from Yuma, has a great concentration of US-trained dentists, and have gotten a personal recommendation for at least one of them. I’m thinking we may try to make a run down there for a cleaning or something next winter.

Otherwise, life back at home has been quiet. Geri’s been back to Physical Therapy for her bursitis, we’ve had a few great dinners (catfish, porterhouse, baby backs), I’ve gotten a backlog of stuff in the study cleaned up, and it actually rained .25” yesterday. Today, I’m spending the morning at the Land Rover dealer getting the Range Rover checked out. It’s been dripping coolant for a while now, and they found a leaking valve that needs to be replaced. They won’t have said valve until early next week, so I’ll be back here on Wednesday. It’s still warranty work, though, and they have a Wi-Fi hotspot in the waiting area so I’m able to occupy my time productively. And, they always wash the vehicle before returning it, so I luck out on that front (it was pretty dirty from the travel and time in the desert). Woo-hoo!

Well, they just pulled the Range Rover around, so my work here is done…

No comments: