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1 to 15 December 2016 16 to 31 December 2016

Friday December 16, 2016

We are having breakfast at the clubhouse this morning.

We are having breakfast with some people we met at the pool. On our way back, we stopped at their place and chatted until 12:30!!!

A few days back, we were at the Salvation Army Thrift Store and they had large salad bags for free.
I took a few bags to give away to our neighbor's. The bags weight between 2 and 3 pounds each.
Even with one bag, we have too much salad and it will be going bad on us. Jacky, where we were this morning, told us we could make lettuce soup with the salad.
Michele did some research online and found 3 recipes she wants to try.
First you cook the lettuce with the other ingredients.

Once cooked, it all goes into the blender.

You warm the soup up and it does taste very good!

The weather turned bad this afternoon. The wind picked up and we have lots of sand and dust in the air.
I am not complaining, it is -30°C in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and with the wind, it is -45°C...

During the evening, we had to close both of our slides because the wind was making our slide awning flapping hard and making lots of noise. Just to be sure, we even close our satellite dish.

Saturday December 17, 2016

The wind finally died down and we could get our slides out and the satellite dish up.
We now have dust everywhere!

We are in Somerton for the Tamale Festival 2016.

What are tamale?
Simply, just click here and you will know all about Tamale.
Somerton closes the main street and some 30,000 people come to the festival.
They have music and food stand with tamale. It is also a competition to find who makes the best tamale.

Putting the tamale in the steam pot for cooking.

We are not crazy about Mexican food. For us everything tastes bland. If you want and kind of taste you have to add sauce all the time.
This is our opinion only.
On our way back, we can see the Pasadena Mountain and the fields.

Michele started to get a small earache a few days back and now I have a sore throat...

Sunday December 18, 2016

the wind is still blowing, but not as hard and with no dust or sand.
A cold front is going through the area and with the wind it makes it cold. We had a nice +5°C this morning.
We missed the Christmas Parade today!!!

We do not want to stay indoor all day, so we head to the movies this afternoon.
We will be watching Collateral Beauty.

The movie theater is in the historical part of Yuma. The Regency has been renovated many years back.

Our neighbor's told us that the seats were very comfortable. They are! They are the Lazy-Boy style and it cost only $6 to get in .

It went up to +18°C this afternoon. We spent the rest of the day indoor.
My voice is very scratchy and Michele still has an earache.

Monday December 19, 2016

Once again no photos!
Maybe it is better this way because we both have a cold.
Michele has an earache and I got the sniffles, cough and it feels like my whole body hurts.
I am even losing my voice, Michele is not complaining.
We stayed indoor all day because the wind is blowing hard and it is on the cold side.

Tuesday December 20, 2016

I got a call from the windshield repair place and they will come Friday to replace the MH windshield. We will see...
Michele is now sure it is one of her tooth that is causing her earache.
We are on our way back to Los Algodones by 11 am.
They took an X-ray and sure enough, a tooth has an infection and it will need a root canal. It is not a tooth they worked on.
We waited until a dentist could start the treatment. We got out of the dentist office by 5 pm. Now there was some confusion at the dentist, one dentist did the root canal and another did the crown. They did not talk to each other. The first dentist said take antibiotics and come back in 5 days to get the crown done. This information did not make it to the other dentist and he started the crown. After some more talking to the front office, they told us to go to the pharmacy and buy amoxicilline and start taking some for the infection. We ask for a prescription and they said, none needed! Sure enough, we bought the smallest and cheapest we could. We got 100 capsules of 500mg generic amoxicilline for only $6.00!!! It was the cheapest way to buy amoxicilline.
Michele's next appointment is Thursday at 9 am. Maybe the two dentist will have talked to each other by then!

When we got back home, we learned that the man doing the windshield and side windows cover came by and measured the windshield and windows, good! We will get them done when the windshield is replaced.

My cold is getting better.

Wednesday December 21, 2016

My cold is back with a vengeance...
My voice is almost gone and Michele is happy about this!!!
I am making a ham soup tonight.
This is the only photo of me working on the soup.

The ham soup is really good, we will make some more I am sure.

Thursday December 22, 2016

We are back in Los Algodones for the second appointment for Michele.
We waited just a little bit and 15 minutes later we were done.
Michele finds the dentist to be a little rough when working in her mouth.

When we got home, Michele went shopping to stock up on meat for when we will be in Quartzsite. Groceries are more expensive in Quartzsite. Michele found some chicken at $0.57 a pound and other good deal on meat.
I am cooking all the hamburger meat and we place it in one pound bags after.

Hey hey hey!

We have no news about the replacement of our MH windshield.

Friday December 23, 2016

I feel much better today.

First thing I did this morning was to call the windshield repair place and find out if it will be changed today or not.
They will be here in one hour to replace the windshield.
We put the slide in, take the MH of the leveling jacks and clean the inside front of the MH for them to access the windshield from the inside if needed.

Michele is back in Los Algodones by herself for the last appointment for her tooth.

I am waiting for the new windshield.
A view towards the north and one towards the south. The RV Park is not as full as it usually is. Many Canadians are not coming because of health problems and/or the exchange rate being so bad for the Canadian dollar.

Just so you remember, here is the bull's-eye in the windshield.

They get here at 10 am.
Darn, that windshield looks big!

They go to work right away. They are cutting the adhesive around the windshield to remove it.

Next, they prep the structure to receive the new adhesive and the windshield on top of it.
Within a few minutes, the new windshield is out of the box and ready to be installed.

It is not easy to install a big windshield like this one. They are good. They put some small plastic spacer between the bottom of the frame and the windshield to maintain the gap. The tape at the top is to hold the windshield in place until the adhesive cures.

The work is almost done. They only have to come back to do fill the gap around the windshield. They will be back on Monday.
We will keep the slides closed until tomorrow morning to give a chance to the adhesive to cure properly in the right position.
It only took two hours to change the windshield.

Michele is back from Los Algodones and everything went well. She even has all the claim paperwork done for both of us.

I was off to dump some garbage and on the way back I stopped to chat with some other campers for about half an hour.
When I came back, I found this note on the table...

We decided to take a dip in the hot tub before supper.

Pork roast with potatoes and carrots, hummmm.

I contacted the man who will be doing the front and side windows cover and asked him to come on Tuesday.

We had a quiet evening in a rather narrow MH.

Saturday December 24, 2016

We woke up to rain and it lasted until noon. First thing I did when I woke up was to put the slides out. Darn we have a lot of room when the slides are out!

The sun came out after lunch, but the temperature is still cold for Yuma.
Our neighbor's invited us for the Christmas Eve get together they are having.
The arrow points to a lady who is 99 years old.
They had some kinds of propane heater in the enclosure to keep the ladies warm.

The men were outside and we had two propane fireplaces to warm us up.
We even had a large snack for supper.

I am preparing some nice hot spicy red wine.

It is not warm at all, only +10°C.

We had a very good time tonight.

Sunday December 25, 2016

Merry Christmas!

The sun is shinning, but it is still cold today.
We have signed up for the Christmas potluck diner at the RV Park.
Diner is at 2 pm. We are sitting at a table where we do not know anybody, but they are very nice people.

I must be telling a story!!!

Like all the potluck in RV Parks, after the meal is over, get out!

We do not understand why they do this! It is the same at all RV Park in the south...

We went to the hot tub again today.

Once again, we are invited to another potluck for supper, but we declined because we just had lunch at 2 pm.
We did go for the evening.

Even if we have a great Christmas, we are still thinking about friends and families that are far from us.

Once again...

Merry Christmas

Monday, December 26, 2016

It is still windy and cool. Not very pleasant.
The windshield repair place came back today to do the final sealant bead around the new windshield.

Some tape to make the bead prettier.

Hard at work.

Our new windshield is fully installed.

We spent the rest of the day reading and doing other stuff indoor.
Michele went out to do some "Boxing Day" shopping.

Tuesday December 27, 2016

Guess what? It is still windy and cool.
This morning I completed all the paperwork required to claim our dental work and glasses from our insurance.

I also contacted Gold Stitch to find out if he is coming today or not. He says he will be here tomorrow morning.

I found a slightly used RV GPS on Craigslist.
New it costs $399, the person picked it up on sale for $299 and sells it for $100.
I called him and offered $80 for the GPS.
We are going to see the GPS and decide if we take it or not.
After we had a good look at it, we bought it for $80.
We are now the owner of a Rand McNally, model 7710 GPS.

This GPS is very different from our Garmin GPS. Since I am not as young as I used to be, I did have to read the instructions to learn how to operate this GPS properly.

Wednesday December 28, 2016

The man from Golden Stitch got here at 11 this morning.
He is fast and installed the windshield and side windows covers/shades quickly.
The only bad thing is that he does not clean up the small pieces of fiberglass after he drills the holes.

Before and after.

We are very happy with the work done.

The covers/shades are done.
Some of you may want to know why we got those covers/shades?
With a MH, it does not matter what RV Park you are in, the windshield is always close to the road.
When people are walking, they always look in the MH. It is normal, we do it too!
So the covers/shades cut down the view inside the MH, but the light is still coming in.

Here is what it looks like from inside. We can see everything outside, but they cannot see inside.

Now that the man from Gold Stitch is gone, I take down the covers/shades and clean up all the little pieces of fiberglass stuck between the glass and the covers.

We are very happy with the results and for only $210.00 US we are not complaining.

After lunch, we decided to head to Quartzsite and look for a site in a RV Park for the month of January.
We could phone, but since the month of January is the busiest because of the RV Show, we prefer to go and talk to people in the RV Park.
This is kind of funny, when we want to use the interstate. We leave Arizona to go to California, get on the interstate and head east and after a minute, we are back in Arizona.

Michele wanted to take a photo of the temperature, but this truck happen to go by just as she took the photo!!!

We are now on US 95 heading north. We had to go through a border patrol checkpoint.

In Quartzsite, we checked many RV Park and found no site for us. They are all full.
But lucky us, we found one who just had a cancellation.
But first, we saw this metal art in one of the campground. We will have to come back and take more photos.

Our new home on January 5th. The Scenic Road RV Park.

We will be here for a month.

The weather is still windy and cool at +18°C.

Thursday December 29, 2016

We decided to treat ourselves for lunch. We are at the Round Table, a pizza buffet style restaurant. We have a coupon for a meal at $4.99 plus we pay for our drink.

This afternoon, we spent some time with our friend Alfred and Lucille (on the left) and their friends Dennis and Judy.
We had a lot of fun meeting our old friends Alfred and Lucille.

Michele still has a toothache.
Tomorrow morning we are going back to Los Algodones so Michele can see a dentist.

I almost forgot, I got a copy of the bill for the new windshield. With labor, the total cost was $3079.00 US or about $4100.00 CDN.
The MH insurance is paying for the whole thing.

Friday December 30, 2016

We are back in Los Algodones at 9 am with no appointment.
They found a spot for Michele at 11 am for the initial exam.

While we are waiting, we walk around Los Algodones.
Michele decided she needs a haircut. She has to wait a few minutes until they open and are ready for her.

While I am waiting for Michele, I look around the street to see what is going on.
It is amazing what you see when you slowdown and really look at what is going on around you.
This pretty house belongs to a dentist. No stop sign here, only Alto sign...

We are on a side street, but you still have dentist, optical and any kind of vendors.
Pollos al carbon simply means chicken on charcoals.

It may seem like no much is happening on this street, but while I am watching many things are happening. Plenty of couriers on bicycles taking tooth imprint from dentists to the place where they make the crowns and then back to the dentists. Food delivery from small restaurants to other vendors on the next street. There is constant movement on the street

And there is this dog. He goes from one side of the street to the other trying to get food from people sitting at tables. He seems to be the "King" of this street. When other dogs come along, he goes right away to check them out. It is funny the things you see when you really look.

Michele is done with the initial exam and sure enough, two crowns will need to be changed and possibly a root canal. Next appointment is at one this afternoon to see if she needs a root canal or not and start the replacement for the two crowns.
Time for lunch and some margaritas...

We still had to wait for the next appointment. Michele got on the chair at one and I went at the restaurant for a few more margaritas.
She came out the chair at 5h 15.
She has another appointment tomorrow at 11 with a dentist who can do the root canal. She will still need more appointments to finish the crowns. The two crowns are still under warranty.

We had some rain while we were at the dentist, but lucky us, the rain stopped when it was time to go to the car.

What a day!
Michele has not been very lucky with her teeth this year.

Saturday December 31, 2016

I woke up to fog this morning. After the fog lifted, the sky was still cloudy.

We are going back to Los Algodones for the root canal for Michele.

They sure have some weird looking truck taking the fresh produce from the fields to packaging plants.

Michele does need a root canal. Everything went well and now her next appointment is on January 6th to continue with the crowns.

On our way back, we drove by the Quechan Casino. This is the "free" RV/Trucks parking where we stayed for almost two weeks in 2014.

We skyped with Jeremy and Gabriel just before supper time.

At around 7 pm, we decided to take a little dip in the hot tub.
Surprise! It closed early because it is New Years Eve!!!
We are back home and watch all the comedy shows on Radio-Canada including the traditional Bye Bye 2016.

Until next time.

Life is good...