Wrapping up Yuma

Things we learned about being a Snowflake: we like a park with outside Pickleball (I even found a backhand and my serve), bridge, a restaurant with a bar. Westwind was a busy place with over 1100 sites, and Saturday night concerts (tribute bands). Next time we will make sure our site has more sun (westward facing?) --we did not sit out very much. Being across the border from Mexico was OK but unimportant. The things they have cheaply were prescription drugs, dental work, and manicures which we did not need. The yard art (metal works) was interesting but still more than I wanted to spend. We did acquire a taste for dates and beautiful flat farms. Next week we head for San Diego where the temps are supposed to be warming up. They better-- it has been colder than expected here this winter (all the local weather people are astonished) but next week they expect it to be 80 here and 75 in San Diego. I hope it gets there.

Winter Texas vs Winter Yuma:

Mainly Midwesterners--Mainly from western Canada

Small, less expensive park (500 sites)--Large Park (1100)

Progresso, Mexico (long on pottery, painting)--Algodones, Mexico (long on ironworks)

Conservatives--Don't talk about politics

Overcast, constant wind, chilly -- Sunny, chilly wind

all radio stations were Mexican--a lot of musicians playing country or oldies

Terrific citrus--good veggies and dates

Mostly 65-75 years old---60-87 years old

Overcast skies--clear, blue skies with great sunsets

Border wall at San Luis Port of Entry

Terry went to a great model plane show out in the mountains while I stayed home to watch the Vols loose to LSU

We ain't in Kansas anymore

Brown rocky mountains in the Yuma Proving ground where they test a lot of bombs

Castle Dome is a silver mine that we drove 10 miles on dirt/rock  to see

Castle Dome nestled in the mountains

Went  to a fun birthday party for some pickle ball friends and took dates filled with
goat cheese, wrapped in bacon for our appetizer

 

Happy Valentines!

Due to crappy weather we have put off our trip to San Diego this week--rain, cloudy and 60 degrees there. RV'ers have the luxury of changing the timing around like this and we really appreciate this way of seeing America. Very few times do we go to new and exciting places in a snow or rain storm. So our schedule is now Feb. 27-Mar. 3, San Diego/Catalina Island, Mar. 3-10--Los Angeles, and March 10-17--San Francisco/Napa. Then we will head to Las Vegas via Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, and if the weather is good --Grand Canyon and Sedona. Then fly home for a couple of months the first week of April. We will return in June to tour the Northwest.

Our sweet little neighbors from Saskatchewan (Clare and Pat) are going home this weekend and they had promised to teach us to play Cribbage. So last night we combined the 2 with a little going away celebration and Cribbage lesson. Their longtime friends (Lavinia and Wayne-next door neighbors) had the 6 of us over for dinner, drinks and Cribbage (starting at 3:30). These four 85 year old's' teaching Terry and me what seems to be a pretty complicated game was hilarious. All we retained was that 15 and 31 are important numbers, if you mix up which pegs are which--no big deal, and that if just 2 people play it is different from that which we had just learned. There were times when I felt like Funniest Home Videos was filming from the corner. So bottom line-if we buy the game, make sure it comes with directions and read them. Dinner was delicious--topped off with rhubarb pie. Yum --and we rolled home by 8pm

Dinner tonight at the Cactus Café here at Westwind is a 4 course price fix steak or chicken dinner for $20 and it starts at 4:30! Great deal and we won't be eating lunch. We will walk home in time to watch the end of the Daytona 500 duals. My way of spending the holiday.

Best valentine for your spouse in the over 65 crowd--make a pledge to not correct each other's stories. We learned this in spades last night. Love goes out to all our family and friends back in Tennessee.   

Settling into Westewind RV and Yuma

After a month here in Westwind we are getting to know what the high points of this park are for us and the low points. We gave up our weekly contribution to Bingo (we'll leave that for the pros), but Terry continues to enjoy his pickleball (as long as it isn't the 8am draw) and I am enjoying playing bridge once or twice a week. The tribute bands every Saturday night are a good source of entertainment--so far Bob Seger, Billy Joel/Elton John, Jersey Boys and George Strait and yet to come are ABBA and Chicago. My idea of a concert: lasting an hour and a half, walk 5 minutes out your front door and no awkward encore. Now if I could just get the tall people to sit behind me.

Bocce Ball is big--we may have to learn

A lot of people get around by golf cart here.

Pretty par 3 golf course

Love the Canadian names here--nobody tells you their last name upon first meeting them
you would just spend the next half hour learning how to pronounce it.

or the origin

The Orchid and the herbs are thriving here. 
The Orchid is cause for people to pause and point in the neighborhood.
Our pride and joy--who would ever think we could get something to re-bloom!



Didn't know that we would enjoy having a restaurant on site as much as we do. They have nightly specials but the best is the Friday night fish fry. It draws such a crowd that the 2 times we have gone we told the hostess that we would be glad to share a table with any of the other couples. This has worked out great in that we have gotten to know some really nice people. Art and Debbie have children/grand children in the armed services in the area so they come down from Michigan to Yuma for the winter to be close. They work in the Golf Store on Friday and Saturday's and have good tips and tricks for the area. The Linkimer's are another couple we met this way. Tom --retired from the Garment Industry in Manhattan and Chicago and for the last 7 years before he retired he worked for Sean P. Ditty Coombs to make sure P. Ditty would not show up on the front page of the paper for bad business practices. Sandy --middle school music teacher. Homebase is Princeton, New Jersey but both graduated from Indiana University --basketball fans. Sandy is quite the cook and fixed dates filled with feta and wrapped with bacon and Tom grilled some ribs for the New England Patriot win over LA Rams Super Bowl party. Next week they are off to spend a month at Sedona. They do 1 or 2 Habitat for Humanity projects each winter --we will pursue this worthwhile venture next year.

Biking has been a good way to see the area since our boating days.  On a sunny day this week we took a tour of the Wetlands beside the dried riverbed of the Colorado River.  Along the bike route are placards that detail the origin of Yuma and the contribution of the Gold Rush from 1848 on. 

California believed in borders at some point

 


Big osprey (?)  along the bike route in the Wetlands

 

We still enjoy the bike rides but don't take on the hills like we used to.

Yuma Farming, Vols Basketball and Happy Birthday to our Baby Girl.

Martha's Date Farm has 8,000 date trees and this crop is gaining popularity because of its super food properties.  We have become converts.  Not only is the date milk shake very tasty but it is fruit full of nutrition (particularly potassium) and there are lots of recipes out there to try.  We took the 2 hour tour and learned that  the Medjool Date came to America from Morocco in the 1940's when a disease ravaged their trees.  They brought 18 trees over, placed 6 in Yuma Valley, 6 in Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area) and 6 other in the desert near Las Vegas (I think) --those in Yuma and Coachella thrived in the soil and weather--not so much in the desert.  If you ask for dates from the sister trees (they are the surviving original trees--4 of them), these dates are supposed to be most spectacular.  A 10 year old date palm tree produces enough dates to harvest commercially.  A 50 year old tree is too tall  to get product efficiently.  Interesting indeed.

Nels at Martha's was our delightful tour guide and son of Martha.
 Those are Date Palms behind him- a little different than regular palm trees.

The next tour was offered by Western Arizona College and Yuma Visitors Center and called "Field to Feast".  We got up early (7am and went to the hard to find visitor center --go to California, over the bridge and then under said bridge) and hopped on a 50 person bus and first went to a farm where area farmers, in partnership with the college, grow semi-organically a variety of vegetables.  We heard from their Master Gardener, their quality control (poop and pest expert) and an area farmer who makes his living growing veggies and getting them to market. Then we got to harvest some veggies: one bag  for the college, one bag to take home.  Last year they had an E.coli out break in their lettuce and it about did the industry in Yuma. 

Artichoke plants weren't ready to harvest yet or I would have been all over them.

Lettuces, a beet, cauliflower, broccoli, and that little purple thing that is supposed to taste like a mild radish

Farmers must wear hair nets

They had a feast with the fresh veggies we picked and topped it off with a date bar

The good the bad and the ugly:  Men Vols BB -good/great, Lady Vols BB- the bad/ugly.  Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield, Jordan Bone and company are putting on a clinic on the basketball court and hold the no. 1 position in NCAA Basketball. They sure are fun to watch.  On the other hand, the girls are not doing so well.  They do not seem to have any energy and lost their first 6 SEC games --ugh.

Along with the Yuma sunshine the end of January brings Katie's birthday and this year is special--she turns 40! Sally texted me and said what is this? she is catching up to us.  Well what a 40 years it has been for me and her Daddy.  She is so bright, such a great mother and loving daughter.  How blessed we are. 


She was the cutest baby!

And she makes for a truly lovely 40 year old