Just For You, Mark Hall

My friend, Mark Hall has been giving me a bad time about updating my blog this week.  Well, to be perfectly honest there hasn’t been a whole lot going on except shopping and eating.

The first day we were here we showed up at the potluck Mac & Netters were having.  The next day we set out to do some shopping and have lunch.

Dortha did the salad bar

The next day was appetizer day at Mark & Dortha’s.  Now, when we do appetizers it’s really a meal.

After all that food we decided to bring the leftovers to our “house” the next night to finish it up.

I can’t really remember all the places we’ve been for dinner or lunch.  I know one of those was Sam’s Club for our $1.50 hotdog lunch (which is now $1.70).  We also went to Rudy’s for barbecue but I didn’t take any pictures there.  There was also Dairy Queen for dessert.

That brings us to last night and our baked potato potluck.  I went online to find out how Olive Garden makes their salad because I had bought a bottle of their dressing when we were in Yuma.  I wanted to replicate the exact salad that they serve in the restaurant right down to the type of lettuce.  It ended up tasting exactly the same.

Our hosts, Lynette

 

And Mac

The potato bar

And guess who cleaned up afterwards!!

So that gets you all caught up on what we’ve been doing down here in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.  Today we’re headed out to the Flea Market to find more stuff we absolutely can’t do without.

Sneaky, Sneaky, Sneaky

I’ll explain the title later.  It’s been so long since I’ve updated my blog I have to think about where we’ve been.

We went to one of Phyllis’s friend’s house for their weekly Bloody Mary Sunday.  Everybody brings a breakfast item and their own Bloody Mary fixings.  There was LOTS of vodka at the bar…

Jalapeno poppers for breakfast appetizers

Patty, a friend from high school (who now lives in Yuma) came to visit

We spent our last day in Yuma with Rod’s sister, Sue and her husband, Rich.  I did a few loads of laundry at their place then we headed out to the Yuma Territorial Prison.  I went there as a child but it still pretty much looked exactly the same.

 

 

Did you see Rod in there, Sue??

They wouldn’t keep him though

Rich got tired of waiting for us

We ended the evening with dinner at Mimi’s, then said our good-byes till we see each other again

 

We drove across Arizona to Apache Junction to spend a few days with my mom.  She took us to dinner at the Arizona Opry.  This is a dinner show that is put on by the Barleen Family.  She assured us that it wasn’t ALL country music because she knows we don’t listen to that.

The next night we went to Organ Stop Pizza to watch this guy play a gigantic organ.  The pizza was really good too.

He was even able to activate instruments on the ceiling

The next day look what we found for lunch!!!

We left Mom’s house and headed to Discount Tire to have one of our tires checked for a slow leak.  They found a piece of splintered wood in it so patched it up and sent us on our way.  We sometimes use boards to level one side of our rig if our spot is a little unlevel but we accidentally left them at Phyllis’s place.  I guess she can keep them.  LOL

We headed out across the Arizona desert (which I just love) and were supposed to be going to John’s house in San Antonio.  We had been talking to some friends of ours since we were in Needles and they kept harassing us to come down to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.  There are a lot of our friends there and we decided it would be fun to go see them but we thought it would be even more fun to not let them know we were coming and to just surprise them with a visit.  We had been giving them every lame excuse as to why we couldn’t go and the whole time we KNEW we were.  So, that explains the title of the post.

Driving across the Arizona desert

We went through at least two Border Patrol Inspection Stations every single day

Finally made it to Texas!!!

We left I-10 and headed south on US 83 all the way down to Mission, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley but first had to go through MORE inspections

We got to our RV park where Gregg & Lynette (Mac & Netters) and Donna & Nolan were staying.  As we drove in the gate we saw where Mac & Netter’s 5th wheel was but nobody was outside.  As we pulled up to the office there in big letters was “Kendall #48”.  Amazingly, nobody saw it!!  We drove to our site and got set up.  I had been chatting with everybody the night before in our RV chat room and knew that everybody was getting together at Mac & Netters for happy hour at 4:30 so we were going to just show up and surprise everybody.  Well, after Rod got done with his outside stuff he came inside and said, “I can’t stand it.  Let’s go for a walk”.  I knew he wouldn’t last till 4:30.  Boy were they surprised to see us!!  I wish I had thought to bring my camera to capture the looks on people’s faces.  I think Donnas' was the best!!  She walked in Mac & Netter’s 5th wheel and her jaw dropped to the floor.  Mark & Dortha saw Rod walking down the street as he was coming back from getting something in our rig.  Dortha thought it looked like Rod but her brain wasn’t registering it.  When she finally realized it was indeed Rod she was pleasantly surprised as well.  Chuck and Kathy came later and Rod asked her a question and she answered without realizing she was talking to Rod.  Again, another jaw dropper.  So, we had a nice visit with everybody and even met some new friends, Gale & Anna from the chat room that showed up later.

So now that we’re all together again, it’s time to EAT!!!

Today we’re going back over to Mark & Dortha’s to finish up the food we didn’t yesterday.  Yes, we really left food uneaten.

We’ll be spending a couple of weeks here and then head up to San Antonio to visit John & Erica.  I know John is chomping at the bit and we can’t wait to see them too!!

Yuma, Arizona

Tuesday we finally (and reluctantly) left our cozy little campsite in Needles and headed out to Yuma.  We had heard the weather in Yuma is fantastic in the winter and we were in no hurry to head to Texas yet.  It’s been VERY cold at John & Erica’s house.  We also hadn’t seen Rod’s sister, Sue since we left Port Angeles and she and her husband winter in Yuma.  We weren’t sure where we were going to stay but after talking to our friend Phyllis who also winters in Yuma we decided to head for her place.  She has a friend who owns the double lot right next door to her so that’s where we’re parked now.

Headed out through the desert

Across the Colorado River

And back into Arizona

We even drove through Quartzite which is a HUGE RVer’s paradise.  Some people camp out in the desert here with no hookups called “boondocking”.  Not something we would do for more than a day or two but some of these people do it for weeks or months at a time.  Every winter people come by the thousands to check this place out.

Phyllis and Bob came out to meet us and direct us where to go

We had a nice visit with Bob & Phyllis over Happy Hour at their motorhome and then went and had some dinner.  We made plans for Wednesday to see some of Yuma and run some errands.  Since they don’t get up early either (we like that!) we made plans to go to lunch.  We went to Old Town Yuma to this cute little place that says it’s a Casino but it is no longer.  LOL  It had pictures and antiques ALL over the walls.  There really wasn’t any room for anything else and you could probably sit there for a week and not see all of it.  Lunch was burgers and fries which was just an okay burger but the atmosphere and the company was FANTASTIC!!

From there we headed to where else?  The Casino!!  None of us had a withdrawal, just left a small deposit

From there we went to check out a Miniature Golf place.  We weren’t going to play, Phyllis just wanted us to see the little town they had constructed there.  It was really cute.

We ended the evening with a campfire in Bob & Phyllis’s back yard.  What a great day!!

Yesterday we met up with Rod’s sister, Sue and her husband, Rich at their brand new park model.  They used to tow a 5th wheel down here from Washington state every year.  Then they decided to leave their 5th wheel here and just use their car to come down.  After several years living for 4 months in their 5th wheel they decided to buy a park model.  It’s much bigger than their 5th wheel and they’re very happy with it.  It’s very nice.  We met them for lunch and a trip to the HUGE swap meet.  Oh my gosh, we got LOTS of “treasures” .

We went back to Sue and Rich’s for Happy Hour (see a pattern here?) before going to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse which is one of our favorite places to get a good steak.

Today I am going to lunch with some of Phyllis’s friends.  It’s just a “girls day” so Rod and Bob will have to amuse themselves.  Tonight is “pizza night”.  Every Friday somebody has pizza at their place and tonight it’s at Mike & Betty’s who we met the first night we were here.  Should be another great day.