Archive for the ‘Yuma’ Category

Happy New Year’s Day! I’m typing this from my Blackberry (yes, it’s still working ) because I didn’t feel like booting up the netbook at this hour, I’m sure you’ll forgive me this one time
I’m in bed and here in Arizona it’s 2:25am, at my home in New England it’s 4:25am – wow, now that’s staying out late.
So, tell me, how was your New Years Eve?? Mine was great! I did get pictures and I will post them all tomorrow. Tonight (or at this hour I should say “last night”) was great. We ate a wonderful Prime Rib dinner at the Yuma Military Base 20 miles north of where we are staying. Why a Military Base? Well, when in Rome…..I guess a lot of RVers go there to enjoy New Years Eve dinner and wow, what a nice restaurant it was with a very enjoyable atmosphere and setting. After dinner, around 10pm we headed over to the Paradise Casino, but nothing was really going on over there, so around 10:45 we ended up at the Quechan Casino and kicked in the New Year there. In their event center room, they had a band, dance floor and tables for everyone. I lost some money there, but finished up the night with a 50 dollar win at the Keno machine.
So, what is your New Years resolution? Mine is to get up earlier in the morning….boy, do I hate to start this year off with a lie!
Have a good night….I’ll be back tomorrow with pictures, I don’t think we are going anywhere tomorrow, I promised Jake a bike ride around the RV park.

Well, it is almost the last day of the year! Have we accomplished all we wanted to get done this year? Ha, me neither. But I hope we all end this year on a good note and start the new year on the right foot.

What did we do today? Basically nothing. Stayed home all day, had a cook out, felt an earthquake, and went to Card Bingo tonight. Felt an earthquake? Yep, you read right. Let me point you to the article that was posted only a few hours after the quake today. You can click HERE to read it. The link will open in a new window.

I was sitting in the RV at the time of the earthquake and felt the camper shake a little for about 3 or 4 seconds, nothing violent, just a vibration shake. I wasn’t worried or afraid or anything, but it did get my attention. I went outside after and saw others coming out from their homes and talking about it. I’ve never experienced the feel of an earthquake before, that was pretty cool. In Yuma, it was reported as a magnitude-3.9 quake. There was no noise to it, I didn’t find a crack in the earth, no RVs around us sank, it was just a rumble of the earth. That was pretty cool (I know I said that already). We don’t have those in New Hampshire. Maybe we do, but they are too small to notice.

Okay, enough about that. If the snowflakes on the screen are driving you nuts, it’s just a passing snow storm that will just last into tomorrow evening.

Tonight we went to Card Bingo, but we didn’t win anything. Tomorrow we have a New Year’s Party to go to, so we will be out pretty late, so I’ll do a quick blog posting tomorrow night just to say Hi, but don’t expect too much

You have a good night and I’ll be back tomorrow. And thanks for checking on me!

Hi! I’ve never had Christmas dinner outside before. Normally there’s always snow around me back home, cold temperatures, and a warm home. Last winter we spent Christmas in Las Vegas and ate Christmas dinner at the Binion Casino. But today was a pleasant experience. Our wonderful neighbor made us Christmas dinner and, yes, we enjoyed it outside in the perfect weather with great company. I’ve got pictures……

Doesn’t all that food look great! Thank you to our neighbor for all her hard work cooking up a wonderful Christmas dinner!

We also had desert after dinner which was just as delicious, it was hard to decide what to save room for. There was 7 of us together today! Jake enjoyed the day too laying on my lawn chair, he behaved himself. I know you are wondering about gifts, but we didn’t exchange gifts at all. Just to be here on this trip is a gift by itself, I’m sure you would all agree with me about that

I’m stuffed with food and relaxing the rest of the night. I can see Jake is already sleeping, but it’s early and I’ll take him out for one more walk before calling it a night. I hope your day was just as enjoyable as mine.

And one more time before the day is out – Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Sigh. Hi. Sigh. Should I start this blog posting on a good note or end it on a good note. Well, I’m heartbroken and I’m in need of a Blackberry repair shop, quick! No, it’s not because of the email failure that Blackberry was recently experiencing. No, my Blackberry has a trackball that moves me around the screen and the trackball died. I can still make phone calls, but I can’t text, surfing the internet, or, sniff, check my email. Sob!!! It’s like….it’s like….it’s like a regular common cell phone now that can just make phone calls and get voice mail messages. Ugh! Who leaves voice mail anymore…..I need email, internet access to check my social networking sites, and access to daily news sites! My life has come to an abrupt halt. I mean, 75% of my life lives in cyber-world….like an Avatar – Ha!

Okay, enough about that. I’ll get it fix, don’t you worry about me. Because if I can’t get it fixed or if I have to send it into some repair warehouse in the middle of India, I’ll be buying a new one. I can’t go that long without my Blackberry. Okay, like I said, enough about that…..

Okay, so we didn’t do anything today, didn’t go anywhere today. Just a nice relaxing day. I took Jake for a walk around the park. Visited our neighbor. And today is Wednesday so it’s Card Bingo night at the recreation hall here at this RV Park. We won a little bit of money and a “grab bag” with goodies in it. Not much in the bag, just a deck of cards, and some other little household common stuff. How much money did we win tonight at Card Bingo? 5 dollars and 80 cents and there are four people on a team to play Card Bingo, so that is….$1.45 each. Not bad and we had a lot of fun!

Tonight we are watching TV. So that’s my day today. The simple life. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow, but it will consist of scouting for a Nextel repair shop. Have a nice night. Chat tomorrow!

Hi! I’m blogging a little early today because it is Monday and you know what that means…..Bingo tonight! I’m settling in nicely into my retirement schedule: Monday is Bingo, Tuesday  is swimming, Wednesday is Card Bingo….yeah, and it goes on and on….I love it!

Anyways, today we went to pick fruit….we’ve done this many times before and it is always something I look forward to. Yep, I’ve got some pictures!!!

I see the prices have gone up from last year…..hey, to be expected……

Yeah, they have “pets” here…sheep, miniature horses, and roosters!

You use these tools to get the fruit off the tree that is high off the ground…..I’ll show ya how to use it

Okay, got my bucket – follow me!

Ohhh, there they are……

See, there are plenty around…..

They have oranges and grapefruits…....let’s get to work!

We were there for about 30 minutes and look at all we picked! There were five us there picking fruit and filling up the buckets!

This place is pretty big….rows and rows of trees……

I found a lemon tree too!

Time to come home and make some fresh juice. We usually use our electric juicer, but decided to try this contraption out. Don’t ask me how old this thing is, but it sure works great! I guess we had it hanging around the house and decided to bring it with us. This is the first I’m seeing of this thing…..

Well, that’s all we did today. Off to Bingo and tomorrow I’m off to see the movie Avatar!!! I’ll let ya know how it is without spoiling it for you! Have a good night. Chat tomorrow!

Hi! I can already see that this blog posting is automatically going to date itself for Dec 21st, but it’s a Dec 20th blog posting……yep, I’m up late tonight…..

Wow, what a day and I’ve got tons of pictures for you! Meet Leonard Knight….creator and builder of Salvation Mountain in Niland, California…..before I post alot of picture, let me pass the website over to ya (when you click on links in my blog, they will open in a new window), the website is http://www.salvationmountain.us/……

OH, I forgot I snapped some pictures of the California sand dunes along the highway on our way to Niland, California….

Okay we made it to Salvation Mountain…..California does officially recognize this as a tourist attraction…..Leonard is so proud of his masterpiece and he’s really upbeat about it. He’s tells us he get 150 visitors a day! All the paint is donated and the help is purely volunteer. Some of the students from UCLA stopped by on November 1st (on his birthday) and helped with some spring cleaning…….Leonard is 78 years old and lives right there at the mountain……

There he is – Leonard Knight – here’s that website again in case you want to take a peek at the history of Salvation Mountain and Leonard - http://www.salvationmountain.us/

I was here a year ago and I got a free postcard and a DVD video of the history and creation of Salvation Mountain…….and on this visit I got a DVD and a puzzle! – Yes, this is my second visit here…..you can read by blog posting on my visit here a year ago by clicking here http://rvtrip08.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/salvation-mountain/

When we left Salvation Mountain, we knew there was a casino in Salton Sea Beach, California. When I say “Beach”, don’t think this is on the coast or something because it’s not. It’s inland across the street from a huge lake. This is Red Earth Casino. We have seen signs of Red Earth Casino on I-8 in Yuma but didn’t know how far it was away from our RV Park. The billboards just say to come visit Red Earth Casino and I’ve seen commercials on TV about it, but thinking back now, none of these advertisements say exactly how far away Red Earth Casino was…..well, we found out. This casino is two hours from Yuma and about 50 minutes from Niland (Salvation Mountain)…….

There’s the casino…….

And it is attached to a truck stop and gas station……Those billboards make it sounds like the casino was huge, but it wasn’t that big inside. Ohhhh, maybe about 200 slot machines inside and three or four table games…….

We stayed in there for quite awhile……it was dark when we got out……I lost 40 dollars if you are keeping score….

I’m seeing a shift in the level of casino marketing these days….let me explain….I’ve been to alot of casinos….hundreds of casinos and since I’ve been visiting casinos they are always eagered to sign you up for a players card…..no big secret, you know that…..I’m sure you know how it works…..they take your license and punch in your information into the computer and it spits out a personalized players card for you. Now, in the previous years, when you get a players card, you get a gift….an incentive to add you to their database. NOW, I’m seeing alot of casinos give you nothing at all for signing up for a players card, but they will shower you will gifts just for your email address. Seriously! I went to the players card desk and gave her my license and out pops the players card for me and she says to me, “If we get your email address you can get a free gift – your choice of a mug, back scratcher, or a fly swatter.” And recently, this isn’t the first time a casino has dangled free gifts in front of my face just for my email address. Okay, so I don’t need a back scratcher, and I sure don’t need any more mugs, so I point at the fly swatter. And then she gives me a small bag with some other goodies in it along with my fly swatter. So, here’s a picture of my goodies and a ticket for 3 cents I forgot to cash in…..I had a good time and I ventured over to the truck stop (in the same building) and splurged on Subway for dinner…..hey, you can’t go wrong with Subway!

Two hours after we left the casino, we made it home. Jake was hungry, so I took him for a walk around our neighborhood and fed him. He’s a good boy when he’s left at home alone. He just think we are going to work and we’ll faithfully be back a little later…..

So, that was our day today. We have nothing on the table planned for tomorrow, so I don’t think we are venturing too far….but, then again, I have a habit of saying that to you everyday, so you better off just checking in on me tomorrow to see what I’m up to. OH, and tomorrow is Monday – you know what that means……Monday night Bingo at the Paradise Casino Have a good night! Don’t forget to leave me a comment – those just make my day!

Hi! Wow, today was a fun filled packed day. Don’t let me get ahead of myself here, let me start at the beginning…..

This morning was “Jake” time! He wasn’t feeling so good yesterday, but now, he’s back to normal again. Whatever was wrong with him to make him sick yesterday had now moved on and Jake is back to his good old self again. We went for a walk this morning. I got a few pictures around the park, not many, but it’ll give you an idea of what’s around me…..look, alot of empty sites for you to come on down and perch with me!!!

That’s our street….there are some RVs already and in January it is suppose to be loaded, packed full here, so you better hurry if you are coming down to hang out with me…..

This is our street, home is at the end of the street…..I’ll let Jake lead the way!

We are almost there…..This RV Park has manufactured homes in it too, at the other end of the park, and on this side of the park is mostly all RVs…..

See! There we are….The RV closest to you is our neighbor we hang out with….she is showing us all the good places to go! And the Montana is right next to it! Nope, not much grass around here……

Okay, around 1pm we left to go to a Tamale Festival in Somerton, Arizona. Do you know what a Tamale is?? Me neither!! So, let’s check it out……

This is a picture of the T-Shirt you could buy for 10 dollars…..I didn’t buy one…….

They have a live band here….they  were playing music from Santana…..

Alot of vendors are here to sell food…..

What’s the commotion down the street?? Of course I’m going to go check it out – Ha!

Ohhh, they were showing everyone what “Zumba” is! Do you know what Zumba is? I do…I’ve done Zumba before! It’s alot of fun! And you want to hear something funny…..this Zumba team is here from the Cocopah Casino! The Cocopah Casino has Zumba in it’s huge conference room every Tuesday night from 7pm to 9pm. I’m thinking about going……

Awww, now they have another dance show with kids!

Tap dancers made their debut here at the festival! They are very good too…..

Okay, enough fooling around….we are going to find out what the heck is a Tamale!! This is what it looks like….I’m glad I got a picture of this because I don’t know how to explain it to you….

Well, let’s get one…..HA! We got one and didn’t know what to do with it. We were talking to the vendor lady that we ordered it from and asked her, “Do we eat this part?” Meaning the outside part of it. She smiled that big smile and said, “Noooooo, here, let me fix it for ya.” So, she was really nice about it and she showed us how to open it up and peel out the inside….

Scrap, Scrap, Scrap……

Add some fixin’s to it and Viola! Yeah, I tasted it….well, it taste kind of bland. There really wasn’t any taste to it. I don’t know…if you want to try one, come on down, I’ll “fix” it up for ya!

NOW we are in my favorite area! This is my Margarita man…..he is here from the “3 Amigos Tequila” company serving up mini Margaritas for free to pass out…….

Okay, I got my Margarita and my free T-Shirt…..

There are alot of people here. Tequila, 72 degrees outside, and food….yeah, I see why it’s packed here……

What is that?????? Is that a……

YES!!! I wanted to go over and hug it!! A slot machine!!!! Oh Boy!!!!!

I got three free spins on this slot machine, I lost, my Mom won a T-Shirt because she hit the bonus on the slot machine with her three free spins. Then we decided to leave…….we were driving around and, wow, they were picking the lettuce field on a Saturday. They usually don’t work on a Saturday……

Okay, we stopped and there’s our neighbor (our driver too) out there waiting to get free lettuce….You think that those workers are going to stop working, get some lettuce, and bring it to her????

Yep, take a look. The guy in the blue shirt in the background asked her how many she wanted and she said, “Two” and sure enough…..

He gives them to her…..

Another happy customer with her fresh lettuce. OH, you can not tip these workers. They absolutely will not take any money from you at all. And the guy in the blue shirt goes back to work…..

Okay, that’s all we picked up from the field today. We are on a roll and decided to stop at Paradise Casino (you knew THAT was coming up didn’t ya – ha!), so on the way to Paradise we had to go down these back roads (short cut roads) and there were cats all over the place……not sure why….I guess someone is feeding them……

So we went to the Paradise Casino and of course I couldn’t bring my camera inside….that’s a no no, unless I sneak it in….and I really didn’t want to get kicked out. So we spend about an hour at the Paradise Casino and I won $35 on Keno. They have the Keno on the slot machine (not live Keno), and I had a good time…..

After we left Paradise Casino, we went out for dinner. So, let’s head over to the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant!!! Have you been to this restaurant before?? They have peanuts everywhere!

Yep, I’ll take some of those…..

Oh, our name is called and I can’t wait to open the menu……I’m hungry…..

I know! I know! I take pictures of everything! I brought my camera with me……I order the ribs and the salad. Very good food there…..

And of course!! An appetizer……we had a coupon for a free onion blossom…..

I got a to-go box. Did I finish all my food? Yeah, I did….but I still got a to-go box, bet you’re wondering why……

Yum! Peanuts! The waiter says, “I don’t see anything, I don’t know anything” Haha! So we walked out and I brought my peanuts home with me…..

Well, I know that’s alot of pictures, but I wanted to share my day with you! I hope you enjoyed my blog because I had a great day today. Tomorrow is going to be a relaxing day and I hope that’s exactly what we do – relax and hang out! But you know us, we could be doing anything, so check back tomorrow so we what we do! And don’t forget to leave me a comment. Nite Nite!

Hi! Wanna know how I started my morning?? I made some more lemonade and had a supervisor, see that little furry guy watching me!!! Look…..

I already made one container of lemonade earlier this week, but it obviously didn’t last too long – that stuff is sooooo good!

This afternoon we went to downtown Old Yuma….the older part of downtown Yuma that has Lutes Casino….remember I talked about Lutes Casino a few blog entries back…..anyways, we went back there for dinner today. I had the hamburger and fries. And, no, there is no gambling in this casino, just a beer and hamburger joint. It’s so good too! Definitely stop by if you are in Yuma!

This picture is across the street from Lutes Casino. Just a typical Main Street.

This is inside Lutes Casino. I guess someone was getting an early present……

Oh, here’s the menu….can’t really read it – I swear I need a new camera. My camera is only one year old, don’t get me started on getting a new camera already!

There’s the back of the menu – it’s only a simple two sided menu…..

This is the napkin dispenser on the table. Noooo, you don’t pay for your napkins, you just take the napkins out the sides of this….this…..what do you call it. Anyways, you put a penny in and pull the level down and the reel spins…..yeah, you’re right, just like a slot machine. I invested 7 cents into this thing tonight. You think of a question and it will reveal your answer. 5 out of my 7 spins I got the answer “Don’t even think about it!” Geezz, nothing like telling me off…….

They have a menu on the outside of the restaurant for you to peek at!

Oh, Lutes Casino does sell scratch tickets and Powerball tickets…….I bought two Powerball tickets and these…..noooo, I didn’t win anything…..BUT Powerball is Saturday night……will I win 92 million dollars????? Ha, we will see……

This is just down the street from Lutes Casino where we parked. Hmmmm…..I’m not really a nightclub person, but hey, what happens in Arizona – stays in Arizona, right?? Except if you have a blog, then you just rattle off everything that you do! HA! No, I didn’t go to the night club…..

Well, other than that, it was a quiet day. Our Montana leg came back today from the repair shop. I’m not sure exactly what they fixed to repair it, but they installed the leg back on the RV and we are good to go. See, we didn’t have to take it into a dealership shop…..down here, they have the repair shop come right out to your camper, take the part off and zip it to their garage. If they couldn’t fix it, we would of gotten a new leg and the warranty did take care of the whole cost except for the 50 dollar deductible.

Jake was a little sick today. We didn’t do much with him today except for a typical walk around the park. He was acting strange, then he got sick, and then he fell asleep, but now at 11:33pm he’s okay. I fed him a little tiny bit tonight and now he’s out cold next to me. Tomorrow we will go for a walk and hang out. Not going too far tomorrow. Maybe it’ll be a “Jake Day”!!! Have a good night and, yep, I’ll be back tomorrow!

Hi! Okay, I know I’m going a little crazy with the camera lately but I want you to see everything I see!!! Get comfy, this is gonna be a long one…..Today was a typical touristy day!

This morning we went to Mexico from 9am to 11am….I brought my eyeglasses prescription with me in the RV from home because I wanted to get some eye glasses in Mexico. I have a pair of glasses now that I got from my eye doctor back home and I requested a prescription written because I knew I would be visiting Mexico and wanted to explore their eyeglasses style. (Did I just repeat myself – sigh – senior moment). So, anyways, we went to Mexico this morning and..ohhhhh….they have all the brand name eye glasses down here – Prada, Gucci, Versace, and they even have a brand here that I’ve never heard of before called “Casino”!!! I don’t care how they look on me……I love them already!

Oh, prices…….the prices between eye doctor offices in Mexico vary because they are all craving for your business, but with the transitional and anti-scratch lenses, and frame, the Casino brand ones that I want are $109.00 complete. Not bad huh? I might get two pairs of glasses! They have neat eye glasses styles down there……anyways, I got a few pictures of Mexico today…..

Don’t know why this picture came out hazy…..anyways, this is the police car in Mexico – ha, like you can’t figure that out, huh

We went to the bakery today in Mexico and you see on the top shelf is loaves of bread…well, they are 30 cents each. Very good bread, we bought 3 of them today…..

Everything is for sale in Mexico – these here are 60 dollars. Well, they started off at 60 dollars. When I started to walk away, they guy brought the price down to 40 dollars and then again down to 30 dollars. I kept walking…….

Oh, we went to the liquor store to buy Dad some cigarettes. This is Margarita mix – no, I didn’t buy any liquor today, but I wanted to show you the price…….

Ohhhh, this is the place I was looking at frames for new glasses!!! I can’t wait to take my prescription back and see which ones I decide on……

Okay, moving on, after we left Mexico around 11am, we headed over to the Quechan Casino which is on the same road to go home (how convenient!) and I walked in with $100 and walked out with $84 dollars, so I lost, but not too much. We ate lunch at the buffet and I didn’t have to pay a dime – I had COMP points on my magic players card that paid for my buffet! You can’t lose with a buffet, all the food is really good, but when the buffet is free somehow it just tastes sooooo much better!!!

So, we left the casino and flipped through our tourist magazine we got free in Yuma and saw that there was a Antique Car Museum in Bard, California – not far at all, right next to that Imperial Date Factory we went to earlier in the week. About 30 miles away. So we stopped by there and checked out the place…..

We are still exploring…..do you see what I see????? Is it a….??

It IS a slot machine…..Oh, boy! Yesss……Do I touch, do I not touch??? Hmmmmm…….

Yeah! Let’s touch!!! Nickle goes in…….

Hang on and let er rip!!!!

Oh, it actually works!!! LOOK at those reels spin!!!! I won 3 nickles……..

Okay enough with the slot machine…..didn’t want to break it…….moving on to do other exploring…….

Okay, that’s what we did today. And tonight we are having dinner at the rec hall here. We bought tickets for a steak dinner for $6. We bring our ticket, they provide the steak and we have to cook it ourselves on the grill. Pay for it and cook it ourselves?? Hmmmm…..I’ll let ya know how mine comes out – Ha! Have a good night and I’ll bug ya tomorrow.

Hi! I was a ghost hunter today! We went to a ghost town in “Castle Dome” not too far from here. From where I am…probably 30 miles north. This a mine town right on the base of the mountains on outskirts of the north part of Yuma. It’s a small town. Remember those movies with the cowboy towns and everything is right next door to each other – hotel, bank, bar church……yep, a small town…..I’ve got pictures! (Oh, this is so far out in the middle of no where – both Nextel and AT&T cell phones had no service. This might not be important to you, but I was tapping the screen of my phone trying to find service)

This is the road to get there!

See! It says Ghost Town!

A little bit of history for ya!

It’s like a mini town!

This is the hotel lobby….

There’s a safe in the bank! Wonder if there is money in there??

Yep! I just had to look……

Someone’s bedroom…..

OH, a miner in the hole…..let’s look……

No one down there now……

This room here….anyone that served in any part of a military branch can sign the wall!

Want to buy some cigarettes???

Found running water inside one of the cabins…..

Close up picture of running water…….I was told that they dug 780 feet below and couldn’t find any water, they dug 1,100 feet to find water!

Me holding a gun…oh boy……

Hey, don’t forget, we are still looking for a ghost! I swear these rocking chairs were rocking by themselves! Spooky!

This is the grocery store…..

Okay, that’s what we did today. I didn’t find a ghost this time…..

Tonight we went to Card Bingo. Playing Bingo with a deck of cards every Wednesday night. I like that game. And tomorrow we already have plans to go to Mexico tomorrow morning! I’ll bring my camera cause you never know what will happen down there. Is it dangerous in Mexico? Nope, where we cross, they welcome tourists, we keep their town alive. I had my mail forwarded to me last week (I have one of those UPS Store boxes and their service ships mail to wherever you are), anyways, I got my mail last night around 7pm by UPS and I got my “Popular Science” magazine which I love! I read alittle bit of it last night before I fell asleep. So, that’s what I want to know….what is your favorite magazine! Do you like the magazine “Popular Science”? Well, that’s all I’ve got for today. Check on my tomorrow! Have a good night!