Failure to Communicate

As you all know we left Emerald Cove on Friday to move to Yuma. We called Colorado River Adventures’ reservation phone number before we left to make a reservations at their Yuma Lakes RV Resort in Yuma, Arizona. They checked and said yes we could do that.

So Friday we moved to the desert near Quartzsite to spend a couple of days while waiting for Sunday when our reservation at Yuma Lakes would start.

CRA sends an email confirmation of your reservation but we didn’t think to look at in before moving. So, Saturday morning when I was doing my standard email processing I found this:

Do you see the problem? It looks like they made our new reservation at the park we just left instead of the one to which we are headed.

We were reluctant to continue driving south without knowing we’d have a place to park in this very popular RVing city. So, Sunday morning Dave called the reservation phone number again. It turns out they are only open “business hours”.

So, he dug out the book describing the parks. No park phone numbers listed.

CRA’s website has no phone numbers listed either!

Now what?

Ah, with our CRA membership we got exchange memberships in other park systems. So dig out one of their books and look up Yuma Lakes RV Resort.

Yes, a park phone number!

So, call the park. No, they don’t have a reservation for us. How long is our RV? They do have a spot available we can fit in. So they made a note to expect us and when we arrived the lady at the gate said, “Oh, I talked to you earlier.”

So, we are here. With only mild anxiety attacks in the meantime.

In the more two and a half years we been full-timing, we’ve only made five reservations. Two of those have been messed up. I liked it better when we just drove up to a park and claimed a spot. But that didn’t work so well in Yuma before so I doubt we would have risked it again, anyway.

So, we are here. Safely tucked into a spot. With intermittently flaky internet. I hope you all get to see this post today. 🙂

TTYL,

Linda

Rained Out

Our reservation was up at Emerald Cove today. But the weather service said today would not be a good day to move.

Heavy rain, flash floods, gusty winds. None of those make for good RV driving. Especially down US Highway 95 from Earp, California, where Emerald Cove is located to Blythe, California, where we would fill our diesel tank at the Flying J before turning east on I-10 towards Quartzsite, Arizona. US 95 has pretensions to being a roller coaster with many dips across dry wash areas and there was no way we were going to be able to turn around instead of drown if we came to one.

So we moved yesterday instead. We can’t get into our next park until Sunday so we are spending two nights once again boondocking in the desert using that diesel fuel to run our generator for electricity.

About 6 am I heard very heavy rain falling and was glad we were not driving in that. About 8 am I heard thunder and was glad we were not hitching up our car in that. Not that we would have been doing either of those things at that time of day anyway, but you know what I mean.

So, this is the view out our windows this morning.

In the open desert we tend to park alongside some brush to give us a sense of place and to keep us out of roads which are mostly unmarked and can go any which way. Of course the brush only grows where water flows. So last night we parked near a dry wash. This morning it looks like this.

We don’t expect to get enough rain for the flowing water to come too close to us.

So, here we are in the the desert again. We have no problems with dust this time, though.

TTYL,

Linda

Made Myself Sick Eating

But not what you’d think. A couple of weeks ago I made myself sick eating vegetables. It came about this way.

My doctor and nutritionist have both been after to me eat more vegetables. But, I find it really hard to make small changes in my diet. Then I read a bunch of stuff on the internet about Primal Eating. The idea is to eat what our original ancesters would have eaten: mostly vegetables, some fruits and nuts, and meat. No bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, etc. Why they think our ancesters would have cooked meat but not potatoes I don’t know but that’s the plan.

So I decided to try it when we were in an RV park with full hookups so I could wash vegetables and use the microwave without having to worry about running out of water or power. Went whole hog so to speak. Breakfast would mostly be an egg scramble with vegetables in it. Lunch would be a big tossed salad with canned chicken or tuna on it. Supper would be chicken or steak with a half plate full of vegetables.

Turned myself into a digestive machine and spent almost half of each day sitting in the bathroom. Couldn’t go anyplace. Couldn’t do anything. Cramps! Oh, my! More cramps than I ever had in my life!

Tried to wait it out to see if my body would adjust. Kept eating that way for a week. Nope. Not getting any better.

So, I decided that was not the eating plan for me. Now I still eat an egg scramble with vegetables some days but not every day. And I still sometimes eat a big tossed salad but I did that before. And I am eating more vegetables with dinner but not every night and not half a plate full.

Still I learned some good foods while trying this plan. Here’s a couple of my favorites.

Apple Scramble

Finely chop an apple and saute’ it in butter/margarine in a small skillet. Add 1/2 cup Egg Beaters, 1 packet Splenda, and cinnamon to taste. Stir until egg is set. Serves 1.

Sesame Beans

Steam 2 cups frozen green beans according to package directions. Drain and toss with 1 teaspoon sesame oil and 2 Tablespoons slivered almonds. Serves 2?

The next one I want to try is Lemon Carrots

In a 1 quart microwave safe bowl, stir together  1/4 cup water and 2 teaspoons lemon juice. Add 8 ounces of baby carrots. Cover and microwave on high for 7 minutes or until carrots become tender. Serves 2.

Doesn’t that sound good? And easy enough for even us non-cooks to make.

But, I think I’ll have a potato or some rice or a slice of bread with dinner sometimes, too. And now I can eat the whole slice of pizza instead of having to scrape off and eat just the toppings. 🙂

TTYL,

Linda


What Kind of Friend Am I?

Jeri & Terry came over to play cards and I helped Jeri loose her favorite game then beat them all at Dave’s favorite game.

Ed & Linda invited me to go with them to play Bingo. I won $31; they won nothing.

Steve & Carol invited me to go to the pool with them. I brought my instructions for doing water aerobics and talked them into joining me for a good workout instead of the relaxing swim they thought they were in for.

Want to be my friend?  🙂

TTYL,

Linda

What phone?

When you live full time in an RV you do not have a standard phone. You have a cell phone. If there are two of you, you probably each have a cell phone. We have two phones.

Dave’s is an iPhone with a contract at AT&T. Mine is a dumb phone with a contract long expired but still being used at T-Mobile. One of these days I’m going to get an iPhone with Verizon.

Why? Let me tell you what happened today.

An email informed us our friends Steve and Carol would be moving into the same park we are in today. We said, if they let us know when they got here, we could get together and do something. So they came, they called, but we didn’t know.

You see my dumb phone does not get a signal in this park and I forgot to tell Steve and Carol about that. So they called my phone and left a voice message. This was apparently early afternoon. But, my phone did not tell them I would not get that message.

So we spent the afternoon wondering what happened to them while they spent the afternoon wondering what happened to us. We finally decided they didn’t make it here today so went out to supper.

In town, my phone rang to tell me I had a voice mail. From Steve. Hours ago.

I returned his call using Dave’s phone and we’ll meet up tomorrow.

Dumb phone!

TTYL,

Linda