more pictures

Jan 25 2009
Our time at the Colorado River Oasis in Ehrenburg AZ flew by, we visited Quartzsite 2 days and had a serpentine belt replaced on the escort at a ford garage in Blythe. We moved to BLM land on 95 south of Quartzsite and met up with Joann and Felix again for some joker. They are staying on here until Monday the12th. Then heading to Tuzon We will leave here tomorrow, (Jan 8th) and drive the 80 miles to Yuma, where we will spend a few days before meeting the Fishers in Quartzsite for the big RV show on the 17th.
Jan 10 We’ve been in Yuma 2 days now. Yesterday we went to a craft show in downtown Yuma with the usual assortment of jewelry food and clothes. From there we drove to Holtzville CA so Norm could soak in a hot spring and on the way back we checked on the lines into Mexico at Los Algodones, and it looked like the parking lot was empty so we decided to go in and check out a place to get glasses. Most snowbirds in Yuma have their dental and eyeglasses done in Mexico. We had a nice visit and ate a mid afternoon lunch there coming out with most of our money and a place to go back to get glasses.
Today we went to a large swap meet and left there mostly intact, we really don’t need much, no room in here!
Sunday Jan11th . Bob and Diane Fisher called today and said they would be here around 3PM, and they pulled in right on schedule, we went out to eat at Memes. Monday we headed for Algodones Mexico, where Diane and I both got glasses. She got 2 pair and since I was trying ones without varalux I opted for a less expensive pair to try them out. We had 2 ½ hours to wait so I hunted a beauty shop and got a $18.00 perm and Diane had a pedicure and manicure. Bob and Norm found a nice chair with a server and enjoyed the wait. This was Fishers first time to visit a border town and I think they had a good time. The glasses are working fine $99.00 including exam.
Monday it was a ride for a date shake and Tuesday back to Mexico. We found purses, jewelry, and good fish tacos!
Tue we took the motorhome to La Mesa RV to have an oil change before we start our caravan, then we moved to Quartzsite for the RV show that starts Sat. We found two nice spots in the desert and today we’re ready to roll!
Well the motorhome show was really big. We shopped for about 4 hours then found Silly Al’s and had a great sandwich.
Sunday we went for a hike up Palm Canyon, located about 19 miles south of Quartzsite then 7 mi east thru the desert. It was a nice hike and about 50 palms were growing right out of the mountain. Two more lunches at Silly Al’s and we’re about Quartzxited out.
We will be leaving here tomorrow Jan 21, and working our way to San Diego to meet with the people we will be caravanning with to Mexico. I hope to have some wifi spots in Mexico so will try to keep in touch that way as the phone service is very expense.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Happy Trails
Lois

The writing in the sky was done with 5 jets.eally impressed me.

JAN 01 2009
Hi everyone,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
It’s been so long since I’ve written my blog I don’t know where to start. I guess I’ll start with the second most exciting thing we’ve experienced since the last blog, and that would be the New Years Parade in Pasadena!
OH WHAT A NIGHT WE HAD! We had the most exciting NEW YEARS EVE we’ve ever had. We spent most of the day and night on the street securing our space for the Rose Bowl Parade. Since the Airstream rally for the Rose Bowl was canceled {for lack of paid entries} we decided to do it on our own. We called the school in Pasadena where the Airstreamers were going to park and learned we could park there on our own and there would be one other airstreamer there also. I got their name and telephone number and what a surprise when we found out it was Joann and Felix Olshefiski, who we knew from Travelers Rest and Region 2 and they live 12 miles from us. We arranged to meet at Indio and spent Christmas with them and traveled to Pasadena together. It sure was nice spending time with someone we knew! As I said we were street people for the night (it really makes you feel for the homeless) on this one night it’s OK to be on the street all night. We placed our chairs on the sidewalk around 10:30 AM and sat there until noon when you were allowed to move them to the curb, where we sat and played joker and watched the old cars go by. By noon all the curb seats were taken and people started to place chairs 2 and 3 rows deep behind us. We played games all afternoon then Joann and I went back to our rigs to prepare our New Years Eve supper. I managed to squeeze in a short nap to keep me going thru the night. The motorhome was parked just 3 blocks from the action. After dinner we went back on the parade route and watched the goings on until 11PM when you were allowed to move your chairs once again out into the street to a blue line they had painted about 5 feet from the curb. Every car that went by was covered with silly string, a lot of it placed there by the young boys just to our left. We stuck it out until 1:30AM when I gave out and told everyone I was going to bed! It didn’t take long for everyone to join me in the walk back to the rigs. We caught 4-5 hours of sleep and went back to the parade route about 6:30AM where some of our neighbors were cooking breakfast and others were sacked out in sleeping bags. Everyone was so nice and offered us hot chocolate . The parade arrived at our location around 8:45 after the Stealth Bomber made a pass down through the parade route. WOW! The parade route is 5 ½ miles long and there were 46 gorgeous floats and 22 bands and wonderful horses with colorful riders all entertaining us!!!! What a MAGICAL way to spend New Years day we highly recommend it.
Two days before the parade we visited the float barns to watch some of the floats being decorated. We waited in line about 1-1/2 hours to get in the first one only to find out when we reached the front of the line we needed our tickets that were only sold at the beginning of the line. There was no one in the ticket booth when we passed it so we thought you bought the tickets when you entered the barns. All ended well, Norm to the rescue, he ran back to the ticket booth and bought our tickets and the people in the front left us right back in.
In the afternoon we visited Griffith Park and toured the Gene Autry American West Museum. We tried to tour the Griffith Planetarium, but the parking was full and they wouldn’t let you anywhere near it, referring you to a long downhill road to walk several miles uphill! NEXT TIME!
Jan 2
We thought about going to view the floats after the parade but to tell the truth, I was beat and it just felt good to rest a while. We had also heard that after the parade the lines would be really long.
We decided to go in the morning at 7AM when it was open to handicapped and seniors. What a wise choice as we walked right in and viewing was great. We spent 4 hours looking at the floats and when we left the lines were long and the viewing was crowded. They have 3 days of post float viewing and you can really get up close and see all the detail on the floats. The post parade float viewing is a MUST SEE. I wish I could send all my pictures!
The only downer of the whole experience happened sometime New Years Eve. We discovered it after the parade. There were 23 tires slashed in our parking lot. All of them were on school vehicles except one on an airstream that pulled in on the 31st. We didn’t sleep as well the next night, with Norm jumping up when Mickey barked!
We moved on to Blythe after the float viewing and are here in a Western Horizon park for five days.
Now on to our Christmas which was also very special. I purchased wifi so we could have our video call with Jen and Troy and Kyle and Carissa, Jim and Jeannette, and Norms Mother. It was almost like we were sitting in the room with them as they opened their gifts! I think we really surprised Norm’s mother, she just couldn’t believe she could hear and see us. We had the call set up and watched her come into the room and sit down, then we said hello and her expression was priceless! It sure did make being so far away a lot easier. They left for church and we went caroling then to a country dance with hot Rum totties and lots of snack food. Christmas morning we set up another call so we could watch the kids open Santa’s gifts, and we had our Christmas dinner at the club house in the evening. The park furnished the ham and every couple picked two sides off a list and we ate the leftovers the next day. We went up in the mountains on the 27th with Joann and Felix joining us. There was lots of snow there and people were building snowmen and just enjoying the stuff. We went to a quaint little town called Idyllwild were we roamed from shop to shop. Another day we went hiking in Indian Canyon with the Olshefiski’s. There are several palm lined canyons to hike thru. I think they lied about the length of the hike but we made it out by dusk and the scenery was spectacular! {Pictures to follow}.
We really enjoyed our month at the park, the location was super, close to all kind of shopping and food. One Saturday we went to Old Town La Quinta for some great entertainment on the green. This is one of those places we could relocate to. We learned a new card game called Pan. It’s a form of rummy and at the park they use 11 decks of cards, taking all the 8s,9s, and 10s out of 8 of them and only using the 3,5,7 aces and kings of the other3 decks. There’s a little gambling involved but you only lose or win one dollar or less, and it all evens out over time. I hope we get to play it again so we are able to teach it to our card buddies.
Well another year is beginning with lots of new and exciting moments awaiting. Sure hope you all have a great one and we can share many of them with you.
Happy Trails
Norm and Lois