Pepe at 'El Gourmet'....Los Algodones

Colorado River Oasis - Ehrenberb, AZ

Feb 16^th – 26^th...Got out of Indian Waters at 950a and arrived at Colorado River Oasis park in Ehrenberg around 1p after loosing an hour. We are back in Mountain time zone. We were fortunate enough to get the last site on the water – 100. The wind was blowing but it was pretty warm .

On Sun., the 17^th we drove to the 'Desert Bar – Nellie E Saloon” about 10 miles north of Parker. We met Dad, Elaine, Doug, Fran, Tammie and Elaine's son & family there. The last 5 miles is a dirt road that is very rough! The place was not quite what we expected...it was larger and many, many more people than we would have thought. The parking was difficult and some lines were long but it was a neat place! We stopped in Parker for a McDonald's before heading back home.

Mon. the 18^th we made the 85 mile trip to Los Algodones. We arrived around 830a for Dixie's appointment to have the broken crown fixed. Dr. Rafael pretty much started over – a bit more grinding and a new impression. We were advised we had to wait until 3pm for the crown to be done. We had a cup or coffee and decided to go into Yuma to a movie. We dined at Jack In The Box and saw “Silver Lining – Playbook”. It was good! From there we made a Walmart stop and then headed back to Algodones to listen to Pepe play some tunes at “El Gourmet” outdoor cafe. He just recorded a CD that we had to buy. We then went to the street TACO place and had fish & shrimp tacos (we hadn't had one there in all our trips down this season). We headed to the dentist at 3p and ended up waiting for the Dr. until just before 4p. They wanted Dr. Rafael to complete the 'project' so it was worth the wait. He put the crown in and it fit fine – no grinding needed. All is good with the crown! We checked out the customs line and it was extremely long so we decided to go listen to Pepe again. We went to get in line at 5p thinking it would have gone down.....WRONG! We got in line at the very end of the walkway – almost to the road. It took 1 hr and 10 minutes to get through customs...not as bad as we thought it would be.

On Thru. The 21^st we made a trip into Quartzsite. We were surprised to see that many of the vendor had left already. Even the stop that I get jewelry supplies at was closed for the season. We made a few other jewelry supply stops and then decided to go to Silly Al's for a Pizza/Beer.

Friday afternoon we made a trip to Blythe to the grocery store and Kmart. We drove around town a bit to see what was there. It's bigger than we thought but not much there.

The rest of the time in Ehrenberg was pretty uneventful. Dixie did 11 haircuts, we got things ready for our Puerto Vallarta trip, and we hung out! We had a very windy day on the 24^th but did get to the pool for a bit on the 23^rd. We went to the firepit on our last night and had fun visiting with several couples.

Tues., the 26^th we headed the 86 miles to Elaine's house in Lake Havasu City. We will park there while we go to PVR. Doug & Fran arrived in the afternoon. We leave for Las Vegas tomorrow!

 Danny, Doug & Fran watching the Polo Match intently~

The REF on his pony!

Our last stay this season @ Indian Waters!

Feb 5^th – 15 … We moved back to Indian Waters on the 5^th where we were in site 191 next to the wall. Site was good but it's noisy there as there is a street on the other side of the wall. Doug & Fran moved to site 150 where they will be for 3 more weeks. We spent 11 days here and Dixie kept quite busy doing haircuts (28) plus she even did a perm and a toenail polish (this was a first!). Dixie also worked a few days on Fran's medical billing. Mike spent his time on Ebay. We were quite busy!!!!

On the 7^th we got up at 4am and drove to Algodones to get Dixie's broken tooth fixed. We arrived at 830a (with the time difference). The plan was to get the crown in one day, however once it was checked out they determined a root canal was needed. Of course that meant it couldn't all be done in a day. We got out of the dentist around 11am. We walked around a bit and then went to the outdoor cafe where Pepe played. We had a nice lunch and listened to the music (the shrimp salad was great). We then went to Yuma and did some shopping and stayed overnight with John & Angie Hebblemen. We had a nice visit & dinner with them. Friday we headed back to Algodones for a 930a appointment. Of course the crown wasn't ready so they suggested we go have breakfast. We headed to the restaurant that is across from the customs line. It was a great breakfast. The crown didn't fit real well so the dentist had to keep grinding it down to get the bite right. Then when it was cemented in, it was high again....more grinding. We left around 11am with it still not feeling right. We made the 138 mile drive back to Indio and within an hour of arriving home a piece of the crown broke! My kind of luck!!! I called to let them know and we decided I would go back on the 18^th once we move to Ehrenberg. That evening we went to Doug & Fran's for and excellant dinner and Danny came over.

Saturday the 9^th Buster and Sandy come for lunch around noon and we visited for the afternoon. Doug & Fran went on a bike ride with a local group and then come for dinner with us.

Sunday we went to the Polo Games at Eldorado Polo Club. Doug, Fran and Danny went with us. It was a first for all of them. We watched 1 ½ games. One went into overtime so it was a good game! We came back for dinner at our place.

Monday I went to a lady's 5^th wheel & gave her a perm - Not something I usually do but I had done one for her several years ago. It was nice to do it at her place – she had the smell instead of us. Fran and I went 'junk' shopping in the afternoon. We had to go to the new Revials store over by Costco.

On Tuesday we went for an early Valentine's dinner at 'Chef George'! We tried the soup this time. Doug had an excellent cream of mushroom and I had the fresh pea! The greek salad was suburb as usual. We both shared entrees – Mike the goulash & Fran a combo Italian plate.

Wednesday Fran and I had a pedicure (Deal Chicken 'deal'). After that we had lunch at Sub King and shopped some more. Mike & I met Ross for dinner at the Grill on Main in old town La Quinta.

Thursday Doug & Fran went to Ontario to pick up Tammy Bergman. We met them in Palm Springs for the Village Fest street fair at 6p. We walked around a bit (not much as Doug's back is really bothering him) and then stopped at the Village Pub for a happy hour drink and dinner. Early in the day we went out and opened a checking account at Wells Fargo. It will be nice to have a bank that we can do business with while traveling. We also had to make our last Trader Joe run (boo who) to stock up on a few things!

Friday was the last trip to WinCo (another fav). I cooked brisket for dinner for the group...Danny also came over. Lexi had a Valentines Dance so she wasn't able to come. Our last night at Indian Waters for this season!

Sunset @ Carlsbad beach   ~  Scene 1 

 Scene 2

Scene 3

 Paragliders @ Torrey Pines

Doug & Fran at the Torrey Pines Golf Tournament

Desert Pools ~ the beach @ Carlsbad!

Jan 22^nd – Feb 5^th …We drove the 26 miles to Desert Hot Springs on the 22^nd. We were able to talk the office staff into letting us leave our motorhome on the site while we go to Aunt Marge's timeshare in Carlsbad. They did put us in a site in the far back of the park, site 284. It turned out to be a big site with no one around us ~ actually a pretty good site! Wed. was laundry day and getting things ready for our trip to Carlsbad. Thurs. we drove to Indian Waters to have dinner with Doug & Fran (they got there on Tue.) We all had tickets to the Entertainment that was at the clubhouse that evening. He sang and told jokes..all in all it was pretty good!

On Friday we got to Doug & Fran's a bit after 10. We packed up all our stuff and headed to Carlsbad about 1045a. We went over the mountains (Hwy 74). We had a great lunch at a little Italian Deli called Campini's in Temecula. Mike & I had eaten there once before. We went to the 'Chopper Gallery' next door, where Fran bought a leather jackets and Doug shopped for motorcycle parts. We arrive at Tamarack Resort around 315p. We were able to sit on our patio for a bit before the rain/fog started coming in. We decided to walk around a bit a find a place for a drink/dinner. Well we got pretty wet before we finally decided to stop in at 'Knockout Pizza'. We hit the hot tub when we got back.

Saturday we started with a walk on the beach and then we drove to Ross's condo in Solano Beach (down hwy 101 about 10 miles) with the intent of picking up our tickets for the golf tournament at Torrey Pines. . It was very foggy at course so they kept postponing the start time. We ended up eating our packed lunch at Ross's. We then left for the tournament...parking in a garage and riding a bus to the course. The fog only got worse so they never did start play. We walked around the course some but couldn't even see the water. We stood in line for 15 minutes or so to get a bus back to our car. We stopped at a Trader Joes on our return for some grocery's!

We decided to go back to the golf tourney on Sunday. We were able to park at the course and walk in as the lot had dried out some. We stayed at the 7^th hole for awhile where we watched several players, including Tiger Woods. We then walked around to different holes and saw Phil Mickelson and Tiger again. We left the course around 3p. From there we drove just across the road to the Glider Port and watch the para-gliders take off, fly and land. It was a neat site – at one time there were at least 15 in the air.

Monday we headed to the train station just a couple of blocks from the condo. We purchased a day ticket ($14) to ride the “Coaster” into San Diego. We got off at 'Old Town ' where Doug wanted to go to another motorcycle place. From there we got on the Trolly (also included in our day ticket) and got off a Seaport Village. We walked down Harbor Blvd and decided to have lunch at Anthony's Grotto. We opted for the outside area ~ we had clam chowder and crab/shrimp salad. We even splurged on a 'Beignets' ...not nearly as good as at the Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. We then got back on the Trolley and rode through downtown and south to Chula Vista. We got off there and took the next trolley back to Old Town. Once there we picked up Doug's purchases at the cycle place and stopped for a drink in Old Town. Then it was back on the Coaster for the hour long ride back to Carlsbad.

Tues. started with a walk on the beach and a return on Ocean St looking at the other side of the big homes on the beach. We drove to Oceanside to have lunch at Hooters and made a Trader Joe run and a couple of other shopping stops. That evening we went to a wine and cheese party at the condo and Dixie broke a tooth on a cracker seed! It was a tooth that had been built up back in 2009. I guess we will be making a trip to Algodones, Mexico.

Wed. we decided to drive back to Old Town ~ Doug had another item to check out at the cycle shop. First we went to pick up a golf club for Ross at the Taylormade factory...then a stop at the Harley Davidson shop. Once we made it to Old Town we had a wonderful lunch at Guadalajara Restaurant. We walked around Old Town and then headed back to the condo.

Thurs. it was time to head home. We got to Aunt Marge’s about 1030a. Dixie cut and colored her hair and then we took her out for lunch. We went to a good Barb-b-que place in the shopping village across from her condo. On our drive back we stopped at the Cabazon Outlets for a short time. We made it back to the motorhome late in the afternoon.

Fri. Dixie did 3 haircuts and we went tot he pool for a bit. Sat. we ventured into Desert Hot Springs for grocery's and a Kmart stop.

Sunday was spent preparing for our SuperBowl Party ~ Danny, Doug & Fran and Bob & Cheryl came over. We had Chalupa's, a Chile Rellenos dish, Reuben Meatballs (thanks Fran) and snacks! It was a good game and we all had a great time!

Monday was another stay at home day! Dixie did a haircut and worked on a project for Ross and Mike worked to see if he could figure out how to get our blinds down so they could be fixed...it didn't work. We had a guy in the park come look at them but he didn't really want to attempt it either, especially since we were leaving the park tomorrow. I guess the 2 bedroom shades will stay crooked! It's quite an undertaking and also quite costly to have repaired. Tomorrow is move day ~ back to Indian Waters for 11 days.