Clean teeth, haircut, and Mexican food

We headed to Los Algodones this morning. I had made an appointment with Dr Lilia for 10:30am. I checked online and thought that Los Algodones was on Pacific time, so had thought the appointment was 11:30am Arizona time. We had planned to leave here about 9am to make 10:30am Arizona time, but left a little later than that thinking we had an additional hour.

As it turns out, at least my dentist's office goes on Arizona time - so I arrived just in time for my appointment. Dwayne left to go get a hair cut. They took me back within just a few minutes, and my periodontist (Dr Lilia) took a look at my gums. She said that they are looking much better (I am not brushing so hard anymore). Rosa then cleaned my teeth and applied "Gluma" which was great for dealing with the sensitivity that I have at the gumline. Last year they just put it on the right side (which was where my gums were in the worst shape because I am right-handed and put more pressure on when brushing) - and there was a noticeable difference between the right and left side on sensitivity (none on right, a bit on left). So today I asked to get it on both sides, so I am hoping that I will have no sensitivity at all now. Dr Lilia said that the Gluma would be removed with the teeth cleaning. I had thought that she may have said last year that it would wear off after several months, but I had not noticed any issues with that.

Some pictures from today:

The border wall from the parking lot on the US side.

You won't be able to see it, but Dr Camacho's office (and his daughter, Dra Lilia) is right below the Mexican flag - this picture is from the parking lot on the US side - they are right at the border.

The US customs on the left, Mexican on the right, walking path on far right.

Walking path into Mexico; the parking lot is up the hill to the right.

Just over the border - there were signs after I took the picture on the walking path indicating no pictures - I think from US immigration/customs. There is a revolving door made out of metal bars that everyone passes through before entering Mexico. There is kind of an odd serpentine type path around/through buildings, but no one checks any documents when we entered Mexico (other than both of us checking multiple times that we had our passports!!!).

 After my teeth cleaning, Dwayne met me out in the dentist's office waiting room, and we walked into the market to see if we could see Juan, Anna, and Jesus that we met last year (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/03/another-day-in-los-algodones.html).

Picture from last year of baby Jesus (3 months old in March) and Anna

We found the shop right away and I asked if Anna was there - she came out and brought Jesus (he is probably just over a year old now) out to see us again. Juan was also there though he was busy with a customer.

We stopped for lunch - Dwayne is taking a picture of the menu so he would remember the prices of what we ordered.

We had eaten at this restaurant last year - it is probably pricier than some of the street places, but they have nice places to sit - some under shade (we were under shade) - all outside. They had a band playing too.

I think this was a poinsettia growing naturally and blooming. I had heard that they need to be forced to bloom for Christmas plants (with prescribed light and dark).

Going back over the border is a little bit of a wait - the line from where we got into it went down about 30 feet and then turned back around to the right about the same distance. But it moved pretty quickly. There were folks selling things or asking for money all down the line.

I probably wasn't supposed to take this picture either, but there were American military persons checking vehicles that were preparing to cross the border on the street right next to our line. No cars visible in this picture, but they would pass between the military folks and where we were standing. Who knows, they may have been checking the pedestrians too!

Again, you can't tell from this picture, but just to the left of that red wall is where Dr Camacho's office is where I went today. The cars there are waiting to cross over into the US.

 We got back across the border with no problem and came on back to the bus.

This afternoon, I practiced a little "sand art" with my rake in the sand next to our campsite.

I was enjoying making designs, but then I realized I couldn't get to the building to put my rake away without messing up my design!

Dwayne suggested that I close the door of the building, then re-sculpt my sand art, and stow the rake under the bus - which is what I did!

Goin' to Mexico

We are heading to Los Algodones, Mexico, to see Patti's dentist/periodontist today.
If you don't hear from us, see if someone is trying to climb the wall!!!  ;-)

p.s. we are not anticipating any problems, just kidding!

Shopping!!!

We can get packages shipped to us at our site here in Yuma, so I've placed an order for cat food from Pet360 (Tabitha gets a prescription diet) and Amazon. Today we headed out to get prescription refills for ourselves from CVS, a visit to the ATM for cash (we dipped into our "mad" money while we were at Quartzsite - the money we keep hidden away in case we get mad at "our date" and have to pay for a ride home - so had to replenish that), Lowe's for a Y-splitter for our water supply, Sam's Club to replenish some household supplies, and Walmart for groceries.

I thought this was rather artistic at Lowe's!

Checking prices on Turbo Tax at Sams - but I just checked Amazon and it is cheaper from there.

Sunset from our site at Cactus Blossom RV Retreat

Moving on down to Yuma

We pulled out of the Blue Birds' nest and headed to Yuma today. It was an easy drive (of course it was, Dwayne drove!!!) and we arrived in the morning to get into our reserved spot at Cactus Blossom RV Retreat.

We stayed at this location last year and enjoyed it - it isn't an RV Resort nor an RV Park, but a set of 3 city lots that an RVer has made into a parking location for RVs and set it up the way he would want it set up. Each of the sites has a 6'x6' storage building and we are looking forward to being able to sort through a lot of stuff and re-inventory everything during the month we are here.

Our site until the end of February

We are glad to get settled in with full hookups and start getting some laundry done!!!

The last day at Q, 2017

First - sorry for no post yesterday - I was fighting off a cold and felt pretty miserable yesterday, but succeeded in killing it off with various vitamins, supplements, and rest. I didn't leave the bus yesterday; Dwayne went to the Quartzsite museum, but he didn't have anything to write up about it.

Today was our last full day at Quartzsite for 2017. We decided we had better dump and get some fresh water today. We were very conservative last week and made it through the week without any need to dump or get water. This week, we knew that the dump and water was just 1/4 mile down the road, so we weren't anywhere near as conservative, but still made it over a week. We probably could have made it through today and gotten to our full hookup site tomorrow, but... the fresh tank was showing "empty". It still has some in it even when it shows empty, but it is **really bad** if we run out of fresh water, so we decided not to chance it.

There was a bit of a line up for the dump station - but it was ok... the line moved along pretty quickly.

While waiting, we checked GasBuddy and decided we should fuel up in Quartzsite rather than waiting for Yuma - there is one station here in Quartzsite that seems to have better prices.

Our odometer on the dash seems to have gotten flakey, so I got the mileage off the ProDriver. For some reason, it doesn't agree with the mileage of the odometer on the dash, but I guess we'll need to use it to figure MPG until we get the odometer on the dash working again.

The odometer on the dash shows this odd 4 letter message before the mileage comes up. I don't know whether it means something or not.

The odometer on the dash then blinks this value - which I think may be 69999.9. The last time we bought fuel (just south of Phoenix on our way to Cottonwood), the odometer indicated 69959.6, and it was while we were in Cottonwood that I noticed it was blinking and seemed to have 69999.9. Note: the first digit (the 6) has not had the lower right vertical bar showing for a while.

Dwayne took a picture so we can remember the amount that we fueled, but I won't be able to calculate the MPG because I didn't record the ProDriver mileage the last time we filled up. Our MPG would be pretty bad since we've been running the generator so much since we've been at Quartzsite.

One of the things we got in the Big Tent was a "Flag Pole Buddy". It is supposed to allow you to put up a flag pole without having to climb up high. Well... you do have to climb up high to install the brackets, but once they are installed, it seems to be pretty easy to mount the flag. You may be able to see the two brackets on the left side of the rear ladder of the coach.

There's the flag flying high! We also got a "solar globe" that lights up at night on top of the pole and changes color, and a solar light that will light the flag up at night so we don't need to take it down at night. The brackets definitely make it easier to get the flag pole up and down.

Tonight was BBQ night - the same folks who made the Prime Rib made pork and beef BBQ. It was yummy! The sunset didn't have clouds so it wasn't quite as majestic as last night, but still nice.

Tomorrow, most of the Blue Birds will be heading out to various spots - 15-20 are heading to Mexico. A few, like us, are heading to Yuma. Others will be making their way back home. It has been a fun time, but we're ready to get to Yuma and hopefully clean out some of the dust that we've accumulated here in the desert!!!

Mexican night, horn night, beautiful sunset night!

We had Mexican night tonight and enjoyed Mexican food contributed by all the folks here at the Blue Bird encampment. We also had "horn night" which was well organized by starting at one Blue Bird and then working it around the circle in an orderly fashion. We played "Deep in the Heart of Texas" (our signature leaving-the-campground tune).

The sunset was again beautiful!

So lovely!

The view towards the east was also beautiful!

God painted another Master-piece!

Our "balloon trip" with Progressive Insurance

When we visited the big tent yesterday, we went through the Progressive Insurance booth and got a picture and a video!

We were "acting" in front of a green screen - are you impressed????

A trip into town

We went into Quartzsite today to look for a 1 1/8" socket that we needed for the spare tire carrier. We had borrowed a socket from one of our neighbors here to put the carrier on, but wanted to have one to use for the future.

I thought the "truth in advertising" was pretty interesting:

I was wandering around the shop with my camera on and the proprietor thought I was making a video, and he requested me to turn it off... so I only got these couple of pictures. Not sure why a video was not allowed!  

But, we did find the 1 1/8" socket - so it wasn't *all* junk, I guess!

Yep, Prime Rib in the desert

One of the Birds of a Feather group, Ray, and his wife, Leslie, have a tradition of providing a prime rib dinner in the desert each year. Yum - it was GOOD!

Ray and Leslie carving the prime rib

Chuck entertaining before the meal

Our plates - YUM!

God's painting in the sky

Another view of God's Master-piece

After dinner entertainment by Steve on bagpipes

Tuesday - another "work on the bus" day

Being around all these other Blue Birds makes us invigorated to work on stuff around the bus. We got two projects done today and I have pictures of two other projects that we worked on in the past couple of days.

First, the projects from yesterday:

New spare tire carrier installed.

New tow bar installed - today we tried hooking it up to the Jeep and made sure lights still worked, so we think we're in good shape for now.

 p.s. for Jimmy's consideration - we will need to consider the depth of the spare tire carrier in the piece that you will be creating to alter the Blue Ox Hi-Low hitch. We're thinking it would be better to do the whole project while we are at the farm in the spring... so you can add your wisdom to the mix!

Today's projects were on the roof of the bus. The wind finally was not quite as high today and the sun was out, so it was a good day for activities on the roof.

First, I got some pictures of the Birds' Nest.

In the middle of this picture you can see the wood pile for the nightly campfire, and just beyond it to the right are the tables set up for various pot lucks through the week.

There is also a second (and maybe third) row behind us - I could only get the ones that are on our side of the circle, but I'm sure there are more across the circle too (though we have not walked over there yet).

 The major project today was to see if we could clean out the air horns. They have been behaving oddly - blowing at times when we are not trying to blow them, and they sounded like a strangled duck when blowing on their own or when we blew the horn. We had various opinions on the strangled duck sound, all involving cleaning the horns. So, we took the horns apart and cleaned them:

Passenger side horn

Driver's side horn. We took the back plate off to remove the diaphragm to  clean it.

We found that the area just in front of the diaphragm was quite dirty (corroded) too.

Dwayne sent me up with the drill and dremel - I wasn't quite sure how to use it so he came up to do the work.

Dwayne working on the passenger side horn.

That got a lot of it...

Then with a smaller head

The one on the driver's side wasn't quite as corroded.

Dwayne cleaned it too.

It is getting clean

working on the horn

 I ended up going down to get some items that Dwayne needed - and one of the other bus owners came over and recommended checking the long tube to see if it was plugged up - it was - so Dwayne cleaned that out too...

Paper towel with various spider web and bug residue which Dwayne cleaned out of the horn.

While he was up there, we decided to run the wire for the Cellular booster down through the area above the refrigerator so we would not have to run the wire out the window any more. Ultimately, we plan to mount the antenna on the top of the TV antenna as that will get it high in the air and hopefully give us the best reception from it, but that is a project for Yuma.

So, we got quite a bit done, and are now preparing for our Prime Rib dinner in the desert tonight!