On the Road Again--2009 Edition

We left Salt Lake City on January 12th, right after Steve's mom's 98th birthday. We had recently moved her from her home to an assisted living center, and things were pretty stressful for awhile, but we were able to get most of the services she needed in place so we could leave town reasonably guilt-free. They say old age is not for sissies; managing life for an ageing parent is not for sissies either!

We are back in Arizona for the winter season. We had hoped to be in Mexico again but it just isn't feasible this year. The main reason is that the ultra-low sulfur diesel that the Royal Palms requires isn't reliably available in the parts of Mexico that we want to go. You can get it as far south as Encinada, but, as far as we're concerned, that's where it's barely starting to get good. Supposedly, everyone has to switch over to the ultra low by January 2010; we'll keep our fingers and toes crossed that this time next year we'll again be eating fresh-caught shrimp with the waves of the Sea of Cortez lapping at our feet.

We had parked the Royal Palms in my brother Jeff's garage-mahal in Prescott Valley last October after Steve finished up work on Jeff's wine cellar, so we caravanned down fronm Salt Lake with Steve driving our "new" 20 year old Suzuki Samurai and me the Honda CRV. We were hoping to get away with just the Samurai, but it's tiny, and the dogs take up most of the available space, so there was no way. We drove as far as Page, AZ the first day, and spent the night at Motel 6. Only forty dollars (senior discount!) and no charge for the dogs. Dinner at an excellent Mexican restaurant called Fiesta Mexicana that the clerk at the motel recommended, and then up early the next morning to finish the drive to Prescott. We spent a day there loading up, getting groceries, and Steve hooking up ariels, internet router, and other electronics on the roof. Then he headed off to Quartzsite in the Palms, towing the Samurai, to hobnob with the View/navion techies at their rally, and I drove the Honda to my folks in Sun City West. He came to get me on Tuesday, and we spent the day glued to the TV, watching Barack Obama get sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, and watching George W. Bush climb aboard a helicopter and get out of town,k possibly my favorite part of the whole thing. Just kidding.

Now we're in Quartzsite, camped at La Posa South, a ten minute walk from the big RV show and flea market. Steve had met up with our friend, John Ruch from Virginia, whom we had met and bonded with at the Nehalem rally last summer; we are camped next door to him and his lab-mix puppy, "Hey," who is the same age as our pup, "Tex;" they are in love. If Ellie, our 7 year old border could roll her eyes, she would. We are paid up here until the 28th. After that, we will mosey on down to Yuma, the Hot Springs, Tucson, and Ajo, not necessarily in that order.

It's fun to be back on the road and out of the cold weather. It's T-shirt weather here--70's during the day, 50's at night.Pictures next post.