We’ve been traveling long enough now to be returning to
places that we have already visited. A couple of days after Christmas we retraced
our steps to the Cocopah RV Resort in Yuma ,
AZ. It was time for our annual dental checkup in Los Algodones , Mexico
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| Cocopah dog park. Schroeder and Lucy reading "the mail" |
Cocopah is a little more expensive than most places that we
stay, but it has a lot going for it, including the best dog park we’ve seen
anywhere. Almost any time of day, a dozen or more dogs are hanging out at the
park, just waiting for a new butt to sniff. It is quite a site to see a pack of
dogs ranging from a Bull Mastiff to a Chihuahua
running around together having a great time. I’ve yet to see any aggressive
behavior.
We felt like old hands as we casually pulled into the Indian
parking lot and strolled across the border into Los Algodones and right to the
Alamo Dental clinic. An hour later we had clean teeth, checkups (one
filling, me) and were back on the street looking for lunch. The bill for
everything was $120. We celebrated with a margarita and beer!
Unlike last year, we felt like we had seen most of what
there is to see in Yuma, so
we spent a few days just hanging out. January is certainly colder than March,
so swimming was out. I took a golf lesson, more to see if I still could hit the
ball than to learn anything. I actually surprised myself, but I certainly felt
it the next day. One night we went to see the new movie “The Martian”. I rarely
like movies but this one really lived up to its billing. Go see it if you can. Surprisingly, the old folks made it to midnight on New Years
Eve, despite killing a bottle of champaign .
I think we kept the dogs awake past their bedtimes, too.
On January 4, 2016 (yikes!) we headed out to Benson to try to get a site in our favorite park for the next two
months. Saguaro SKP Co-op doesn’t take reservations, so we’d been a little
anxious about whether there would be space available. We didn’t really
have a Plan B if there wasn’t any. It turned out to be no trouble at all, and we
soon settled into site 288.
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| View from the coach |
Hundreds of thousands of people move to sunny, warm Arizona in the winter,
to escape the bitter cold and freezing snow of more northern climes. Three days
after we moved in, we woke up to… bitter cold and freezing snow. Ok, it was
only 4 inches, but this is the DESERT, it is supposed to be WARM. Not this
year. Daytime temps rarely hit 65° and hover right around 30° at night. As I
write this on February 1st, we just had a little hail, the wind is howling, and I just disconnected the hoses because it is supposed to get down
close to 20° tonight. El Niǹo certainly is making itself felt.
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| A desert princess and her court |
Weather aside, the Saguaro Co-op is every bit as nice as we
remembered it to be. Happy hour every evening, dinner at the clubhouse on
Monday nights (chili relleno tonight), flexercise on MWF mornings and beading MWF
afternoon keep us both busy. We danced to a pretty decent rock ‘n roll band on
Saturday night and movie night last week featured The Martian. I’ve got a full
wood shop and a pretty well equipped metal shop to play in, too. We are all
taking advantage of the extensive series of trails and washes to hike every
day. We also have decent cable TV and they are installing what sounds like a
state-of-the-art free WIFI system that may be running before we pull out. It
seems like I’m raving about this place, but it really is pretty special.
We are really looking forward to another visit with Ed and
Christine Woznicki next week. Kayeanne is headed to Tucson in the morning for the Gem and Mineral
show to buy yet more beads. I’ve got a visit scheduled with a welder on Wednesday
to finish an upgrade to the tow dolly. Who knew retirement was so busy?
More soon,
Bob
