John and Aileen sometimes on the road: THE END OF ANOTHER YEAR HAS ARRIVED

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

THE END OF ANOTHER YEAR HAS ARRIVED

Well, it would appear Jacquie and Jim’s real estate saga is over. The certified copies of their passports came back last Thursday and they were able to get their realtor to pick the copies up and deliver them to the title office to get the deal completed. There was a big sigh of relief!

On Sunday morning, we were on the road about 9:40 heading for Indio, CA to meet our friend Carolyn who used to live two doors down from us in Salmon Arm, BC. We hadn’t seen her in person for six or more years. She and Aileen email often. Aileen drove til Chirlaco Summit where we took a break. There were strong winds blowing at us all the way and blowing dust in several areas. We arrived at the Jackalope Ranch Restaurant about 11:55 our time which was an hour ahead of when we were meeting the group. We took a short exploratory drive a little further then came back to the parking lot so we could get the best shady spot for Mitzy.

I think it was about 11:30 when Carolyn arrived driven by son in law Richard and daughter Liz. Later son Cary and daughter in law Robin arrived from Oceanside. We sat out on the patio and had a great visit. They were all very friendly. Most of us had ribs, some combined with chicken, and they were pretty good.

After about three hours of visiting, it was time to hit the road. After our farewells, we went across the road to Shield’s Date Farm to get me a date shake. We also got Bev some Mejool dates and Aileen some coconut sugar. Unfortunately, the shake wasn’t very good, as they had them premade so not very fresh and not much flavor either.

Traffic was really heavy all the way back to Quartzsite. Aileen suggested it must be Sunday traffic as it was predominantly cars and RVs/ATVs. With the terrible wind going and my driving 80 mph home, our gas mileage was only 9.8 lp100k. That’s the worst in a long while. We’ve been getting low 8’s lately. We drove up to the motor home just as it got dark so that was good. We just had a bowl of soup for supper then it was early to bed.

Jim and I have been out a few times looking for geocaches and the ladies have joined us some of the time. They have also been to the tee shirt and sock stalls a couple times as well as the local Beall’s Store. We made another grocery run to Parker this morning.

We moved down to Quartzsite this afternoon and will probably be here the rest of our stay. Our two weeks free at the last spot was up tomorrow and we didn’t want to move on New Year’s Day. We are a little further back from the highway than in previous years and I think there will just be the Jordan’s and us here this season. We’re hoping no morons move in close to us as has happened in the past. Thousands of acres to choose from and some people just have to crowd you.

Aileen and I would like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year!