Car Show and Burger Bash

The Palms RV Resort is doing a real good job this time providing us visitors with plenty of activities and entertainment. Every Saturday they have a "Burger Bash" around the pool with some type of theme.
This past week was Elvis week and they had an Antique Car Show and Elvis impersonator for the music around the pool.
It was open to the public and in talking with some folks, they said that 1800 burgers were sold and they went through 29 kegs of beer.
More people than I've ever seen around the pool and in the courtyard.
It was a real nice afternoon and everyone had a good time. The car show was excellent, and lots of great cars to drool over.
Once again I was pleasantly suprised with this resort and feel very fortunate to be here.
This Friday they have an "Abba" concert. The Burger Bash will be In Park and Guests only so the crowd will be much less, but
I think we'll still have a good time.

Day Trip to Quartzsite

We left home at daybreak and made our way north up Hwy 95 about 80 miles to the town of Quartzsite.
It is located at the junction of 95 and I 10 just east of the California border.
During the months of December January and February the population of this very small place explodes by many thousands, as it becomes the biggest RV meeting and Swap meet in the nation. A big top tent is erected and holds different events on different weekends. This weekend is the last of the RV Show and they will have an Arts and Craft Show and Rock and Gem show in February.
About 5 miles south of town we began to see lots of RVs "boondocking" and the closer we got the greater the masses became! The town itself was a bit overwhelming and it had not even begun to wake up yet. We stopped off at the edge of town to get our bearings and turned in behind the Main Street Traders location to find a central place to park.

We happened onto the cemetary and learned a little of the history and lore of the town's beginnings and the camel herd that used to roam the area.
A legendary gent, Hi-Jolly is explained in a plaque at the cemetary.
After spending some time and money in the Hardies bead store..we browsed through some of the other trader's tents in that central location until it was time for lunch.
We met some of our Escapee friends that moved up from Yuma last week. Silly Al's is notorious for their pizza, so we sat around a table for eight, swapped some more stories and made up some new ones.
Enjoyed lunch and all too soon had to say good-bye once more for now. I'm sure we will meet again!
DH and I went back to the Main Street merchants for a while, and then finally made it to one of the RV Stores....RV Lifestyles....and back. The traffic at this point was a bumper to bumper crawl both ways. We drove down the main street by the bigtop....stopped and browsed the outer booths, and never made it into the Main Big tent!
The whole place is rather overwhelming to me, and it would take days and days to see it all. I'm sure it's the place to be if you are in need of anything for the RV lifestle from Rigs to tools, kitchen gadgets to rocks, beads and crafts. There's even portable Service Bays set up for repairs. Everyone should experience that event, and I think I'll go back before it's over this year and probably go again next year too! About 17 miles south of Q is a place that we spotted along the highway in the morning...
The Stone Cabin....it was the perfect place to stop as the afternoon sun was going down. I was in the mood for a cool drink...DH headed for the ice cream....however will I keep his cholesterol in check? lol The traffic was heavy for while, but thinned out soon after we started for home.
I think quite a few rigs are starting to leave the area. We saw lots on the roads, but it still leaves many for miles and miles around Q. It's definitely going to be worth a repeat visit, but for now, I can say that I definitely survived my very first trip!

Pizza Party at DeBoyz

Although the Escapees Reunion in the desert has now passed, a few folks stayed behind here in the city of Yuma. Was in contact with a couple of folks wanting to get together again.
We headed downtown yesterday to DaBoyz, which is in Old Town Yuma to meet with 3 other couples from the Escapees KOFA COOP park. That place has turned in to one of my favorite places! I love the atmosphere there and their food is excellent. Although no reservations were made, and there were 8 people, they gave us our own room, the Elvis Room, and we were seated around a round table, a great set up for visiting with a bunch. The wait staff was excellent and they have gone out of their way to make us comfortable.
We had so much food brought into that room, I thought we'd never get through it!It just kept coming and coming! The small salad is big enough to feed four easily and ours had a funny face looking back at us! If you have the chance...please take the time to have that experience when you're in Yuma! Our friends from the Reunion invited two other Canadian couples to dine with us.
It was fun to meet and visit with them. The bonus of the evening for me was that Toni had been the benefactor of some local lemons and made a lemon meringue pie, through the forum I had mentioned that it was my favorite pie of all times, and she brought me a piece! I had it for lunch today and it was very yummy! Thanks Toni! Seems like our whole existence the last few weeks has been food based and I guess thats what happens when you have gatherings with new friends and they don't drink or play sports!
It seemed like just a short time, and we were back on the road for home and on to play Cribbage in our Tuesday night group. Today I have been takin it easy, doing some mundane financial stuff and getting some cleaning done. DH is busy organizing a block party for us in a couple weeks to honor one of our neighbors for their anniversary. Once again we will eat! I'm thankful I don't have to organize or cook or anything, just show up! This week is in honor of Elvis here at The Palms. The dance tomorrow night and the Burger Bash will use that theme. It should be another fun weekend.

All Good Things

Well, the time has come...the 2011 Class of '08 Reunion in the Desert has ended. It was such a blast getting together and meeting with everyone. We had some pretty good visits and great food.
Looking forward to seeing some of you that stayed around here for a few days, and will catch some of you on the move...somewhere down the road. We are staying put here at The Palms in Yuma until April. In March we will be attending Nick's Gypsy Journal Rally here at the Fairgrounds, which is right down the street from us. Once again we will not relocate our rig, but go in on a day pass. Our days have continued to be busy. This week we had a Country Western dance, the Canadians had a parade Saturday morning to Salute Canadian Week here at the park.
Check out the goggles on this dog riding in the parade,what a hoot!
It was fun to see all the Canadians dressed in their National Colors,representing their different provinces while displaying flags. In February they will have America Week....don't know what we'll do for that. Saturday, our neighbors here on Antigua street, and ourselves got together for the weekly Burger Bash by the pool and this weeks live entertainment was a comedian/auctioneer.
After an entertaining lunch we decided to give the ground shuffleboard courts a try. There's just enough for two teams, and we not only played in the afternoon, but returned to the courts for another game after supper under the lights.
Yes we got our butts handed to us both times! It's really not as easy as it looks. Today I'm spending some quality time with the dog and getting some laundry done. DH went to Yuma's Gun Club, joined the Club and shot blue rocks so he's keeping his aim polished up for next year's hunting season. It's almost hard to decide what to do next. One of our neighbors went to an Orchard down the street and picked a ton of Oranges and divided them between us, so I got busy and made fresh orange juice this morning.
The produce and citrus is fantastic around here.

Da Boyz

Being busy has it's advantages. Time passes quickly! No grass is growing under our feet and every day so far is filled with activities. We have had several meetings of the Escapees out at the BLM land. A great pot luck Monday night. Today DH started the day off with an 8:23 tee time at Los Barracas golf course out foothills. I went to Line Dancing class at 10:00.
When the golf game ended, it was after noon and warming right up, so DH went to the pool for a while and then it was time to get ready to meet our group of friends at an Italian Restaurant in Old Yuma called "Da Boyz."
They have an excellent menu, with everything from pizza to pastas and salads to deserts.
It was great and I'm so full! Once again we had fun chatting about our different activities and taking pictures with every one.
It was nice to have our own room for our party. Tomorrow is one more trip to the desert and quick supper, before we head back into town for the weekly dance, which this week's theme and band is country western, so we should enjoy it. The weather here has been picture perfect, getting into the 80s in the day time and 50 at night. The skies in the evening are rosy and look like cotton candy!
I have to pinch myself every once in a while...it can't get much better than this!

Always Room for New Friends

This week we've been burning the candle at both ends! A group of folks that entered the RV Lifestyle when we did in '08 - we call us the "Class of 08" are having a reunion gathering on the BLM land west of Yuma just across the California line.
We email and talk on a blog forum through the Escapees group but I have never met them in person....until now. It is so nice to be able to put a face with a name!
What fun. They are "boondocking" in the desert in a group, and we will be "tailgating" with lawn chairs since our coach is set up on a lot here for 3 months. Tuesday night was our Cribbage Game here at the park. We went out and visited in the desert Wednesday after DH and Ed played golf.
Thursday three couples went shopping at the Indoor and Outdoor Marketplaces. DH got a wonderful new hat! :€
Last night we met at the Quechan Casino for their seafood buffet. Thursday night we had to sqeeze in a 50s-60s dance here at the Palms with our neighbors and today we have a Harley Davidson Motorcycle Show and "Burger Bash" around the pool with a live band. Later this afternoon we will go back out to the desert and visit with our graduating class...and meet more of those folks that have showed up the last couple of days. It is warming up nicely in the daytime and not getting quite so cold at night. The wind blew pretty hard yesterday...it wasn't a day to be outside...but today is supposed to be nice. Next week in the 80s. One of these days I'll stay home and get some work done. One of these days!

Life at The Palms

This morning DH went golfing and I decided to walk around the park. The sun was just coming up and the streets were still quiet. I am amazed at the amount of building that is going on here in this community, and not sure that I understand the concept but the ammenities here are wonderful and it is a very safe secure community.
There are some pretty fantastic looking structures, and then some rather ordinary ones.
The Palms is a park that is very versitile, where you can buy a lot just for your motorhome or 5th wheel, you can have a small "Casita" on the side just for storage and maybe a bathroom.
Then there are those that are bigger living spaces and garages. I have gone around and picked out my favorites, however, I think if you were going to put this much money and work down for a few months, I would look at other real estate here. We drove around a neighborhood a couple of days ago that had some very beautiful homes and when I'm done running around the country, I could be happy in Yuma.
We would have to do the exact opposite that we do to get away from the cold, and get away from the heat of the summer! I will share some pics of some of my favorites here, and the beautiful grounds.
We finally met up with some more folks that we had never met from our Escapees Retirement Class of '08. We had a nice visit with them and will be getting together more in the coming week for our reunion. Tomorrow we will meet up at the Outdoor Marketplace that is just down the street. That place has many vendors and you can get anything and everything. I wouldn't call it a Swap meet, because most of the stuff there is new. There has been a little more air activity lately with jets and helicopters from the Marine Corp Air Station about a half mile from here. They are having an open house with tours and fly overs in a couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to that. Seems like jets are not the only thing flying, time is also flying. I have to get serious about planning a trip to Quartzsite Arizona to the huge RV gathering up there before the end of the month. The first part of February we will be going to California for a few days. I have a feeling this three months is just going to "FLY" right by.

Friday before Saturday!

I had really good intentions to spend the day doing absolutely nothing. At least nothing I didn't want to do! That didn't work out, and the day's almost over. I have been a little lax in posting and haven't taken many pictures since we've arrived here in Yuma. We've got set up and acclimated now. Today was a work day. I got up and made Chicken and Noodles right off the bat..even before breakfast. The neighbor across the street was having his coach washed today and when he made the appointment I asked if he would go ahead and make one for us too, so we could get the road grime washed off.
Now we're nice and sparkly clean for the moment. The same guys washed and polished us today that did it back in April last year. There's lots of activity here, sales of lots and construction of Casitas all around.
Today I watched a coach come in and I watched him turn around and leave. I think there's no vacancy here now. The helicopter unit that graced us with their training schedule last year at the Marine Corp Air Base down the street are nowhere to be heard and outside of a couple of commercial passenger flights a day, it is very quiet here.
We have spent a few hours at the Pavillion here. We played cribbage on Tuesday, did laundry, DH played pool on Wednesday night and we have gone to the Fitness Center. This week's theme is "Come Fly With Us" and we attended a very good Pancake Breakfast complete with Blueberry Pancakes and Mimosas. It's been too cold for this chick to get in the pool...I tried that last year and got sick twice. We ran around yesterday, walking around the Indoor Marketplace swap meet...it is awesome and having lunch at a Wienersnitzel outside. Still a little breezy and cool to eat hot dogs outside, but today the breeze died and it was above 70...there's hope. Tomorrow is the Up, Up and Away Burger Bash by the pool, complete with live music.
We have tickets to that and also got tickets to the Oak Ridge Boys. They will play here in February in our Ballroom. We could be busy every minute of the day with some exercise or class of some kind. This place is pretty awesome.
Tomorrow we will also try to squeeze in a walk through the huge outside Swap Meet Arena just down the street. I will spend time doing nothing....one of these days!