Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Card Bingo
Our neighbors invited us to go to "Card Bingo" with them tonight. It's played with a deck of cards instead of BINGO cards. There are 4 people on a team. You deal the deck so each person gets 13 cards. You then lay them out in front of you in suits. Instead of calling B6 like in regular BINGO the caller might call 2 of clubs. If you have that card you put it in a discard pile. When all your cards are gone you yell BINGO. There were 132 people playing tonight and each person brought 6 dimes, 6 quarters and 1 dollar. We played 13 games and sometimes the prize was dimes and sometimes quarters and the final game the winning team got the $132.00. The winning teams split the money between the 4 team members. Our team won a quarter game, so we came home with $16.50. Big winners!!!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Algadones, MEXICO
It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to head to Algadones, Mexico. This is a food court area that also has some vendors. As far as I can tell, "Paraiso" means paradise. The vendors were very nice and not "in your face" pushing us to buy, buy, buy. I was also surprised to see that they all had about the same things for sale. 
I have heard about people coming here for dental work and eye glasses. You can get a crown for $164.00, and you know how much they cost at home. I was not prepared for what I saw. This is a typical street in Algadones. If you enlarge the picture you will see several signs advertising dental and optical offices. There are no stores. The vendors are on the sidewalks outside the medical offices.
Here is Ron on the other side of the street under Dr. Gomez' office. Looks like Veronica is a dentist and her father/brother/husband handles the optical side of the business. You can just barely see the purple sign that says "& Pharmacy Liqors". That is for "The Purple Store". It is very large and carries just about any medicine or alcohol that you could ever want or need. You can only bring back 1 bottle of alcohol a month.
As we were getting in line to cross the border back into California there was yet another opportunity to have dental work done. This time it's braces, but also look at the items for sale on the steps.
Here's another side street with more medical offices. I was told there are 250 dentists in this town. Amazing!
Now this dentist must be doing very well. It's a very nice building and there are no vendors on the sidewalk.
And here is our line to go through customs. Yes, it's was as bad as it looks. The line went down the hill, under the green awning and then around a corner before going into the customs building. It took us 1 hour and 15 minutes. Did we have a grand adventure? Of course we did!
I have heard about people coming here for dental work and eye glasses. You can get a crown for $164.00, and you know how much they cost at home. I was not prepared for what I saw. This is a typical street in Algadones. If you enlarge the picture you will see several signs advertising dental and optical offices. There are no stores. The vendors are on the sidewalks outside the medical offices.
Here is Ron on the other side of the street under Dr. Gomez' office. Looks like Veronica is a dentist and her father/brother/husband handles the optical side of the business. You can just barely see the purple sign that says "& Pharmacy Liqors". That is for "The Purple Store". It is very large and carries just about any medicine or alcohol that you could ever want or need. You can only bring back 1 bottle of alcohol a month.
As we were getting in line to cross the border back into California there was yet another opportunity to have dental work done. This time it's braces, but also look at the items for sale on the steps. Here's another side street with more medical offices. I was told there are 250 dentists in this town. Amazing!Now this dentist must be doing very well. It's a very nice building and there are no vendors on the sidewalk. And here is our line to go through customs. Yes, it's was as bad as it looks. The line went down the hill, under the green awning and then around a corner before going into the customs building. It took us 1 hour and 15 minutes. Did we have a grand adventure? Of course we did!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
It's Life
Sometimes people ask how we are enjoying our "vacation". I'm thinking this really isn't a vacation, it's just normal life in many different locations. Then again, maybe we are on vacation every day! That's a nice thought. However, unlike a vacation, we still have the day to day chores, just like at home. Here Ron is filling our drinking water jug. Yup, drive up water. This station is a few miles from our park. The water here is not very good, so for 25 cents we fill a gallon jug for drinking and cooking. 
Then there is the laundry that still needs to get done. No one is doing it for me, so I have to do it. It's really not to bad, as I can load several machines with dirty clothes and then several dryers with the clean ones. I can get it all done at once, instead of one load at a time like at home. It gives me time to read, crochet or stitch.
Then there is the laundry that still needs to get done. No one is doing it for me, so I have to do it. It's really not to bad, as I can load several machines with dirty clothes and then several dryers with the clean ones. I can get it all done at once, instead of one load at a time like at home. It gives me time to read, crochet or stitch.
Walk and Swap
Today was the "Walk and Swap". It's the parks version of a garage sale. Anyone with things to sell can set them out in front of their homes between 9:00 and 12:00. Since Ron bought a new tow bar he was hoping to sell our old one. Unfortunately no buyers today. There actually weren't many things out anywhere today. There is a BIG shuffleboard tournament this morning and people seem to think that cut down on the "Walk and Swap".
Friday, February 5, 2010
Laughing Bird
Tonight we went to a concert with a group called "Laughing Bird". They play original contemporary folk music, bluegrass, and country. It's light-hearted with a dose of comedy. Were they ever good. We laughed, tapped our toes and sang along,
Janey is full of energy and her main instrument is her voice. Can she ever sing. She also plays the mountain dulcimer, bass, banjo, and various percussion instruments and can put on quite a show as she plays the spoons.
Tupelo writes the songs, plays the 8 and 12 string guitar, banjola, dobro, mandolin and harmonica. Can you see the harmonica in the picture? He can play the guitar, the toe-tapped tambourine, and the harmonica all at the same time. Definitely a multi-tasking man.
Here they are singing the "Red Dress" song. I don't remember the real name. Janey keeps pulling things out of her dress as the song goes along. Here she is singing, "Ive got your picture, she's got you."
More stuff coming out of the dress. She also had a record, class ring, wrench, big spoons, fishing pole, gold club and golf balls, and probably some things I don't remember.
And here comes the fishing lure with a fish! You can tell by the look on her face that she is quite a character. 
This is George the Appalachian dancing doll. Can she ever get him dancing!
I never got a really good picture of Janey and Tupelo together as they were always on the move. They are a high energy group. I also didn't tell you that this show was in our park, so we just rode our bikes to the club house. Oh, and it was only $6.00. What a deal!!!
Janey is full of energy and her main instrument is her voice. Can she ever sing. She also plays the mountain dulcimer, bass, banjo, and various percussion instruments and can put on quite a show as she plays the spoons.
Tupelo writes the songs, plays the 8 and 12 string guitar, banjola, dobro, mandolin and harmonica. Can you see the harmonica in the picture? He can play the guitar, the toe-tapped tambourine, and the harmonica all at the same time. Definitely a multi-tasking man.
Here they are singing the "Red Dress" song. I don't remember the real name. Janey keeps pulling things out of her dress as the song goes along. Here she is singing, "Ive got your picture, she's got you."
More stuff coming out of the dress. She also had a record, class ring, wrench, big spoons, fishing pole, gold club and golf balls, and probably some things I don't remember.
And here comes the fishing lure with a fish! You can tell by the look on her face that she is quite a character. This is George the Appalachian dancing doll. Can she ever get him dancing!
I never got a really good picture of Janey and Tupelo together as they were always on the move. They are a high energy group. I also didn't tell you that this show was in our park, so we just rode our bikes to the club house. Oh, and it was only $6.00. What a deal!!!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Rancho Rialto
Here we are at Rancho Rialto in Yuma, Arizona. After looking at many parks we chose this one as it has the amenities we were looking for.
This is the main gate to Rancho Rialto. It is locked at 6:00 every night. Things close down early around here. I guess these retired people don't go out much at night. We do have a gate code if we are out later than 6.
One of the things Ron wanted was tennis courts. He is pretty happy with these. He will start playing with the group tomorrow morning.
This is the putting green, horseshoe pits and maybe a boccie ball area.
Shuffleboard is really big in all the parks here. They have a regular tournament schedule between parks. I not going to be doing this. We are not here long enough to get involved, but the real reason it that this is for OLD people, and I'm not old, right?
We are on "H" Street. For those of you that don't know our motorhome it is the second one from the right. We have met a few of our neighbors and everyone is very nice. The funny thing is that most of them are from Washington.
This is the main gate to Rancho Rialto. It is locked at 6:00 every night. Things close down early around here. I guess these retired people don't go out much at night. We do have a gate code if we are out later than 6.
One of the things Ron wanted was tennis courts. He is pretty happy with these. He will start playing with the group tomorrow morning.
This is the putting green, horseshoe pits and maybe a boccie ball area.
Shuffleboard is really big in all the parks here. They have a regular tournament schedule between parks. I not going to be doing this. We are not here long enough to get involved, but the real reason it that this is for OLD people, and I'm not old, right?
We are on "H" Street. For those of you that don't know our motorhome it is the second one from the right. We have met a few of our neighbors and everyone is very nice. The funny thing is that most of them are from Washington.
Chapel
Today we left the desert and headed into Yuma. We have driven this road several times over the last few days, but I never saw this tiny chapel sitting in the fields. I'm so glad I didn't miss it on our last trip. What a beautiful picture it makes. At this time I know nothing about the chapel. I'm not even sure there is a real road to it. I may have to do a little research and then report back to you. Ron just reminded me that each time we drove this way there were trucks and people in the fields picking the lettuce, so we probably couldn't see the chapel.
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