Last few days at Quartzsite, Final dinner entertaining - Jan 30th - Feb 4th

Monday is my "big cooking day". We invited Steve and Dianne and friends Greg and Debbie from Logan Lake, BC over for Prime Rib dinner. Everyone arrived shortly before 4 and we sat inside the coach as the clouds came in as well as the wind.

I started the roast on the barbecue in a cast iron pan, but at 4:15 pm the wind came up and blew out the barbecue so I finished it in the microwave convection oven. Fortunately I'd made the mashed potatoes earlier in the afternoon and they were staying warm in the propane oven. The gravy is made and staying warm on the stove. With the roast done and resting under foil and a towel, it's time to make the Yorkshire Puddings, especially for Steve. lol They didn't take long as the oven is pretty hot to start. Everything came together by 6. Not too bad with the hiccup with the barbecue.

It's nice and cozy with 6 of us at the extended table. :) Everyone took turns filling their plates so we could all fit. We started with Dianne's amazing Caesar Salad.

Cheese!

Debbie contributed zuchini sticks and carrots. Yum.

Earlier in the day I made a pie for dessert.

After dinner everyone is definitely full. So happy my roast turned out perfectly, medium rare. By 7:30 everyone "waddled home" as Dianne would say.  Another  great evening with friends.

Tuesday morning, Dianne and I headed off to Parker for our pedicures and grocery shopping. After our pedi we headed over to Walmart. OMG was it busy with only a few cashiers open. After we were done there, it's over to Safeway to pick up some more things. Finally we were able to go for lunch at the Pirates Den a little further up the highway towards Lake Havasu. Great views and pretty good food.

While gone, our RV tech came and and fixed our dryer. What a procedure. He got stuck in the bathroom holding up the dryer as the table collapsed under it. Emergency call over to Steve to come and help. With the help of Ray, Steve and me, we were able to get the dryer out to the living room so he could work on it with more space. What a production. Even the TV over the fireplace came off the wall so the door opening is large enough to fit through.

After a lot of playing with it with Steve's help the dryer is fixed with it's new dryer drum band and apparently a wire came loose as well. The process then reversed with Steve and Colan carrying the dryer, Ray climbing over the washer to plug it in while I held the TV sideways so they could get by into the back bathroom. Best news !!!! the dryer is fixed!!!!

At one point Steve was bracing his foot against mine for leverage. lol

Tomorrow Colan will be back to change out the sensor for the mid coach heat pump and fix the sensor for the stairs then .,.,,, we should be done and off to Yuma for the new tilt bed install.

Wednesday I headed off to do the laundry at 8 am leaving Ray behind to wait for Colan and start putting away all our outside stuff. Hard day for Ray, he's a hurting unit as we normally take a couple of days to put things away but were booked a day earlier for the bed install so time to move.

Colan came by and put in the new sensor but unfortunately it would not "talk" to the heat pump. He believes it's the controller on the roof. Oh well, we'll have that dealt with back home. He did manage to get the magnet working properly on our door. I donated a chunk of wood out of a wooden spoon so we could get something thick enough to work. 

I decided to try the fresh pizza dough from Safeway and use my gas oven to make a pizza. Turned out pretty good.

As the day went on it's clear I was sick with a cold again... lots of sneezing and runny nose. At 4 pm Ray headed over to the Colibaba's for Happy Hour and a game of core crash. Cheryl's just getting over her cold. so she kept me company for a great chat. Ray came back early though, as his back just couldn't take any more sitting in the strongback chair. I even started our little propane firepit to take the chill off as we were still yaking after 6 pm. By 6:15 though, Dave came and "retrieved Cheryl" as their dinner's ready. Great visit Cheryl.

February 2nd - Groundhog Day. Well some of the rodents said early spring and some said 6 more weeks of winter. We will hope for the early spring prediction. lol

A little slower start as we were no hurry to get to Yuma and we decided to go to the Paradise Casino for the night for $10 to be ready for our 8am appointment on Friday at RV Decor. Friday morning after showers, we started to get ready to move. Dave came over to help Ray lower the solar panels for travel. Thanks a bunch Dave. With everything stowed and a quick goodbye to everyone, we left at 9:45 for the sani dump. Only a few rigs ahead of us and once dumped and filled with water, we were on our way an hour later. Not too bad. I'm still sick with this cold so happy to just sit and veg while Ray drove. At the casino we found this isn't the nicest parking lot, especially if it should rain, but it would do for one night. We won't be back.

After setting up at the Casino we headed out for lunch at the Pint House Bar and Grill, downtown Yuma. A very nice place. Ray ordered a humougous burger and and me wings with onion rings. Yumm.

Back at the coach, we actually napped as both of us didn't sleep well the night before. Ray due to his sore back and me due to coughing with my cold. For dinner we went to the casino for their steak special. Well.... the steak was ok but the sides were terrible. Back to the MH for the night. We didn't even turn on the TV so we didn't have to worry about putting the dish down etc. 

Friday morning we were up at 6:45 and on the road by 7:15 heading for our appointment at RV Decor. We arrived at 7:45 and waited a few minutes until they could tell us where to park. By 8 am the guys were working on the coach and we went out for breakfast. We were told to try out the "Broken Yolk" restaurant a short distance away. Certainly is a good choice, reasonable $$$ and wow Ray ordered an amazing breakfast with crepes, nutella and strawberries.

The rest of the morning we went to various places for Ray to get some pictures including the West Wetland Park and Gateway Park along the Colorado River. 

First up West Wetlands Park 

Looking down river from the boat launch.

Butterfly Garden and Pavilion

Fishing Pond

Fishing pond again

Next up the Yuma Territorial Prison Museum. Ray toured it while I waited in the car reading. I'm coughing too much to bother anyone else. Here are some pictures of the river from their parking lot with the historic Colorado River Crossing and East Wetlands Park.

The Prison: I will turn it over to Ray.

Alarm Bell

Cell Block above and below

Typical cell above and below

Steel bunkbeds circa 1903

Cells leading out to the exercise yard

Low door to the exercise yard

Guard tower front and back below

Layers of construction material

Museum above and below

Prison Block entry

Women's Cell Block carved from granite

We then went to the Gateway Park, a short distance from the prison.

Next up on Ray's list is watching the fighter planes taking off at Yuma Airport. Wee parked ourselves at the Yuma Fairgrounds across from the airport and got a few shots. Boy are those planes loud as they flew over the car. He hoped to get pics of an F35 but no such luck.

F18 Hornet above and below

Nothing much else for us to see so we headed back to RV Decor which is at the Arizona Marketplace. We did a quick tour of the market. Other than some replacement LED lights, there's nothing we were interested in. Mesa Market is much better than this place and we found Quartszite vendors more interesting. 

Now going on 1 pm time for lunch. I managed to find an Asian place with good reviews called the Lemon Grass Asian Cuisine. Boy were the reviews correct. Very delicious  with reasonable pricing. A definite do again if we are in Yuma.

Back to RV Decor and were delighted to find out they finished early... about 3:45. By 4 pm we were on the road back to La Posa South for a couple of nights. The bed seems to be a little wider than the previous base, but being able to tilt it is definitely a plus. The bed is about 4 inches higher than before so it will take a little getting used to. The fact you can tilt it while travelling enables us to get to the back if we need to.T he bed definitely goes up much higher so easier to access stuff underneath. Love the light too. Unfortunately, we did not gain anymore storage space though. 

Ray says it's very comfortable to watch TV.

Definitely taller than before as the plywood platform used to rest on top of the carpet.

We arrived back at La Posa by 5:30 with Core Crash going strong at Steve and Diannes. It's nice to see everyone. We stayed for a short visit before getting back to the coach and setting up for the night.

Satuday we both woke up at 4:00 am .... I tried to go back to sleep but we gave up at 4:30 am. We definitely took it easy today, puttering around the coach. I made a lasagna for dinner as we cancelled going to Dave and Cheryl's as she's under the weather and I did not want anyone to catch this grunge. 

Ray went back to the Gem show to see if he could find some "cap stones" for the walking sticks he is working on and came across this. It's magnesium. Apparently really easy to catch fire and hard to put out.

Ray took me into town after lunch to see the yard art place we'd heard about. Certainly some interesting stuff, but after working at a sheet metal shop for 8 years in my past life, their tack welds left lots to be desired and I knew they would rust fairly quickly.

The temps today are the warmest at 21C/72F with a breeze. After cooling down the coach with the fantastic fans, I napped for an hour. At 4:00 it's over to Steve and Diannes for our last Happy Hour before leaving tomorrow. We stayed well away and downwind from everyone. Small crowd this time, Jerry and Debbie, Marilyn, Steve and Dianne and us. Dave popped over to say hi, and he is also feeling like he is getting this cold.

That's it for our stay in Quartzsite this year.