Over to Desert Pools

Having a wonderful winter as always and moved over here for a week out. As the sign say, it is now a public park, having been sold by Western Horizons last summer. They've paved all the roads, put a new roof on the clubhouse and added a fitness room, so looking pretty good. AOR members now pay $15/night as do WH members.

 
They power washed the pool and 3 hot tubs but they definitely need repainting which is hopefully next summers job.
The best part of all was that we found Rich and Tina, friends Sandy and Michel introduced us to and we all cruised the Panama Canal together in 2010 and enjoyed a visit with them.

Walking in the Desert

Ida, Donna and I walk 3 times a week and today went up the mountain out back.

Had a dull day today but lead to some interesting clouds with the sun breaking through.

There are 2 crosses up here, one with initials and dates.
 Met Pat and Dick going back down.

Here is an old wash that is taller than Donna and I.

If You Want a Party

We were going to have a few couples over but then saw more playing pool, then another mini golf group and finally the whole bocci ball crowd so we planned a big party on the green beside the courts. Due to large numbers it turned into a 'If you want party".
If you want to sit down - bring a chair.
If you want to eat - bring some food.
If you want something to drink - bring a bottle of water. Well that didn't tickle someone's fancy, so more than water certainly came along and a wonderful time was had by all.

We actually had a bit of rain and went into the clubhouse but had a great time. We remembered Pete and saw pictures of Mike and everyone, on Dave's computer of previous bocci ball games back even when they played on the grass.

COD College of the Desert

Glen and Leah came up from Hemet and we joined Pete and Sandy at the COD. There were hundreds of Vendors.

                              Needed a little sustenance, then checked out the Elks in Indio.

Visiting with Old Friends

We went to Jo and Willy's today and Don and Lila came over as well.

Jo is hidden behind Ron on the porch and we watched the sun set behind Mt. Jacinta.

We had our tacos and beer at the VFW Wed. Usual good stuff and lots of laughs.

Over to Desert Hot Springs

We drove I 8 West past the Ocean to Ocean Bridge over the Colorado River.This was one of the earliest crossings on the river linking east and west.


Next was crossing the Imperial Sand Dunes, 45 miles long and 6 wide, covering 118,000 acres of land. They get over 1.4 million visitors a year. A lot of dune buggying here.

We went past the Salton Sea and arrived at Catalina Spa our home park.

There's a lot of talk about reclaiming this sea and it sure needs it.

Lutes Casino

I have to go here for the chuckle. This was won in a poker game and is actually the longest operating billiard pool in the state.
Ron nearly got arrested going in.

I crack up over the men's washroom door with the one way glass to keep on eye on your pool game when you have to leave the table.

The entire place is filled with memorabilia and remember, this is where the 'Elite Meet'.

Yuma Arizona

We arrived here about noon Saturday, overlooking all the fields of red, green, butter, and Romaine lettuce, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and more. The agricultural industry produces 48 % of the revenues in Yuma County. I'm sure that's due to the fact that they get 339 days of sunshine per year.

 Food safety is one of the most important concerns for the growers of the winter vegetables. A few fields are fenced, dirt roads watered to keep the dust down, equipment is sanitized daily, workers wear hairnets, gloves, aprons, protective gear. If an animal ( dog) print is found in a field,  a mandatory buffer circle 5' all around from the print, cannot be harvested. If animals graze in an adjacent field, the buffer is 30 feet between fields, and if the field is downwind of animals the buffer can be as much as 400 feet. If animal droppings are brought into the fields, tractors  or workers could contaminate the crop and hundred of pounds of produce would need to be dumped. The average cost to produce an acre of most crops is $3,500 - $4000. The fields have a continual rotation of vegetable and seed crops from now until March.You cannot enter the harvested field because you don't know why some produce was left in the field, you could contaminate it and it is stealing.

                                                 I measured this one, it was actually 14" across.
We had several nice visits and dinner with Myrna and Roger.

We also had a great visit with our friend Vicki.

                                                              

It is pretty watching the birds and they have old wagons and silly driftwood horses around the grounds.

Happy New Year 2015, then Quartzsite

We celebrated our New Year with champagne at midnight and good wishes for 2015 for all. These were our Millennium glasses with 1999 on one side and 2000 on the other. Hard to believe we almost thought all computers would fail 15 years ago.

We watched the Rose Bowl Parade with coffee, amazing feat of flowers.

We laughed at the sign, drive hammered, get nailed on our way to Quarzsite. 

It was so cold, down to 32 degrees overnight, we had the fireplace going on the road.

I was so cold, I wore my  2010 Olympic mitts to the Main Event flea-market.

There I discovered the Adult Day Care, a beer garden.

The city of Quartzite made it into the Guinness Book of records for the largest human made letter last summer.