Some outings in and around the Yuma, Arizona area

Street Festival in Yuma. Fun with bubbles.

Waiting for root beer floats at the festival, Yum!

St Thomas Indian Mission Church, Winterhaven, California. The parking lot is across the street, in Arizona.This is where we attended church.

Views from the Church

Also from the Church. Here you can see the Ocean to Ocean Bridge over the Colorado River.

The flea market in Calexico, California where they are selling just about everything. More fun time.

Ocotillo Heights

We spent some time camped out with friends near Sidewinder Rd in southeastern California. They have named the location Ocotillo Heights. The weather was wonderfully warm, with a few windy days. The sand dunes to our west brought us some dust on those days. All in all, very nice weather for February and March.

Arriving, with "Scooter" towed behind the motorhome for the first time.

This large desert tortoise wandered by one day as we were enjoying social hour.

Our friend Chico with his Mexican rider.

The campsites are nice and roomy here.

Scooter, our Toyota Echo, which is getting great mileage, 38 to 43!

Christmas in the Arizona Desert

We celebrated Christmas with friends in Quartzsite this year. We are still waiting for our last home to sell, so here we are.

All decked out for Christmas, with our LED Christmas lights inside the rig.

It was too warm to wear our hats, so we put them on the rig.

Christmas decorations on the dash of our new home, looking out at Doug and Terry's new home.

A small town we drove past on our way to Quartzsite.

Maybe it's the grammar teachers here that are beyond hope.

Our New Home

After living full time in a variety of 5th wheel trailers, we decided to give the motor home route a try. This is a 35 foot 1995 Winnebago Vectra Diesel Pusher. As we are known to have done in the past, we plan to do some remodeling on the inside of the coach. These photos were of the way the rig was when we purchased it.

It has awnings over the windows, a power patio awning, and a built in propane powered generator. The holding tanks are more than twice the size we had before, so we can go longer between visits to a dump and fill facility.

We will start the tour in the front and work our way to the back. The cockpit area with the TV overhead. We will be getting a different TV, but not as large as in the last rig. It has privacy drapes to go over the front window area.

We have already taken out the living room furniture you see here. We are looking for a small love seat recliner instead. This will give us more floor space for visitors and for playing Wii.

The kitchen, will stay pretty much as it is. It has a convection/microwave, which we are learning to use and yes, a dishwasher, which will be reserved for the occasional time we are on full hook ups. The cherry cabinets have adjustable shelves and are in great condition for the age of the rig.

Across from the kitchen counter are the large refrigerator and dining table. The chairs seen here are gone now. Still looking for the perfect ones and are using some folding ones for now.

Large closets across from the bathroom with an area between for the combination washer dryer.

Nice shower area. The only change we have made here was the addition of towel bars.

In the back of the coach is the bedroom. The headboard and decorative window treatments went in the dumpster. The rig has wall to wall carpeting which we plan to take out and replace with a wood floor. The cabinets are cherry and in great shape. It has day/night shades throughout. So far, Larry likes the way it drives and we are enjoying fixing it up the way we like. Right now we are acquiring all the components for a solar charging system. It will be similar to what we had on the last rig, only larger.

Jeremy's House Rebuild Part 3

We reached our goal of getting all the utilities turned on, the outside work done, and getting Jeremy moved back into the house. The house is far from done, but since the evacuation on June 22, he is back living in his home as of the 31st of October. The weather people were predicting SNOW, so we left Minot on November 2. It was bittersweet. Five days later, some of them really long, we arrived in Wickenburg, Arizona. It's nice to be back in the desert with friends.

The first major obstacle on the house was the north basement wall which had collapsed and had to be re-built. The same contractor that put in supports so he could enter his house did that job. Today the hole was filled in and the lawn was graded. Very muddy!

This is the north side with the new wall.

Jeremy enjoyed driving the Bobcat.

Grading the back yard

As it showed in a previous post, we had to rebuild the front corners of the porch. Now it's ready for siding.

We put the new siding up and got it painted before it got too cold. Now we were able to move our RV to his muddy yard. When the flood waters receded they left a thick layer of silt that turns to slick mud when it rains. We cleaned the sidewalks periodically.

New siding and basement windows on the south side.

Jeremy and Laura Beth carving jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. They had fun carving and we had fun watching. It was important to take a few minutes now and then to do 'normal' stuff.

New windows and basement wall on the north side, all painted and finished.

The rest of the pictures show some of the work he'll be doing over the winter. The furnace is running, with the cold air return and vent in place, but all the ducting needs to be installed. Right now it just heats the basement and the warmth filters up through the house. The new water heater is running, but when we left, the second floor sink was the only place to use it. He needs to do all the plumbing to the first floor bathroom and kitchen.

He was able to save most of the 100 year old hardwood trim in the house. We took all the nails out of it, washed it to kill the mold and stacked in the basement for him to re-finish and install.

More hardwood trim, stashed away under the stairs.

The new wood flooring for most of the first floor.

Jeremy and Laura Beth put the insulation up in Jeremy's room, on the day he moved in.

The next day, while Jeremy was at the base, Laura Beth put it up in the bathroom and office. Good job!

60 sheets of 54" by 12' drywall. He is hiring someone to put this up. It was delivered in front of the house by the road and Larry helped Jeremy carry it in the house. This is heavy stuff!