Since leaving Quartzsite we have spent a week in El Centro, CA with friends from New York Ken and Marsha Holmes whom we met last Fall in Florida.
Rio Bend Golf and RV Resort is eight miles west of El Centro and next door to NAF El Centro, winter practice home of the Blue Angels. Each day we got to look up and and watch their formation practice 500 to 1000 feet over our heads. It also has a nice golf course (Jeff & Ken) and pool (Sue and Marsha). The city is distinctive and not full of RVers as the rest of the SW seems to be. The weather has been delightful, highs 75-80 and lows in the 50s.
We also made a few trips to Algodones, MX where we purchased glasses, jewelry, haircuts, and teeth cleaning for Jeff. The town is right on the border just west of Yuma and you walk over and back. Great prices!
After El Centro we spent a week with Betty and Terry Brewer, members of the RV Forum we met 4 years ago at an FMCA rally in Redmond, OR. Terry and Betty own a large lot in the foothills area east of Yuma that has space for three RV's. They are in the process of building a home a half block away and were wonderful hosts. While there we had dinner with the Petersens and the Radfords, fellow members of the Puget Sounders FMCA chapter in Seattle. It's a small world.
While in Yuma Jeff purchased a Satellite Internet system from Ron Ruward, another Forum member we stopped to see last summer on our way home from Maine. This update is now being uploaded via satellite, much faster than cell phone modems!
We are now in Goodyear, AZ on the west edge of Phoenix for a few days. Last night we attended a mini rally at a Forum member's lot at Happy Days Resort in Surprise, AZ. About fifteen of us enjoyed a long happy hour and dinner catching up on the past few weeks since leaving Quartzsite. Today we visited Sue's nephew Steve Taylor and his family just north of here. Steve is in the Air Force and stationed at Luke AFB here in Goodyear.
After a couple more days here seeing more friends from Washington we will move over to the Mesa area to spend more time with Sue's sister Pat before flying to Hawaii to see granddaughter Emmy and her family. The winter is flying by!
