The Holidays

Some of my favorite people helped me get through Christmas without the depression that kept threatening to creep in.

Friend Suzanne (standing), who is caretaker for Belle (in recliner), and Belle's daughter, Judy (on left) all put together a great meal seasoned with lots of joy and merriment.  Belle has the most delightful sense of humor that belies her age of 96--she is another inspirational nonagenarian.

In attendance were some furry, four-legged friends as well.  Sweet Angel above and...

darling Erin helped greatly in making me smile.

Then an afternoon with Belle and Suzanne at the movies followed by dinner and this mega-desert.  It seems that Belle and I share a chocolate addiction.

Thanks, friends, for a lovely Christmas before I high-tailed it out of town mere hours ahead of a week long spell of freezing weather.

I have resisted winterizing the RV because I travel in it intermittently all winter.  Winterizing means emptying all the tanks, wrapping pipes, covering stuff and then waiting for spring.  But I want to take small trips that include spending the night, when I might want to use the toilet, cook a meal, or take a mini-bath. 

Hence, the RV is at risk when a freeze comes through.  That is when I look for warmer desert.  Yuma (3 hrs away) is my best go-to place, though San Diego (6 hrs away) is a possibility if the temperature drops too far down.  This past week the nights have hovered just above freezing here in Yuma so I have been on the edge of moving into the Central Valley section of Calif.   

Yuma has two really nice libraries and I have spent most of the time going from one to the other.

For reading time and mealtimes I have been parking here on the Colorado River under the oldest bridge in Arizona.  It is picturesque and quiet enough for a nap.

 One day I drove out into the desert but it was too windy and chilly to do any walking. 

I found this little house and wondered what might be living in there.

It is a shocker to come across these fields that are unbelievably green in an otherwise stark landscape.

Anything will grow in the desert if it just has enough water.  

This made my mouth water.

I continue boondocking and prefer it over the RV parks that are filled to overflowing right now.  It seems I am not the only one looking for warmer weather.   One fellow RVer informed me that there was always plentiful free parking at the Paradise Casino on the Quechan Indian Reservation...

And he was right.  There is this enormous dirt lot that covers acres of desert and when I arrived there were only these few RVs.  By night fall there were many many more--but still more room.  I spent one night and it was very quiet--I think everyone was inside playing the slots.  All but me that is.

Yuma has a great variety of free places to stay.  There is endless BLM land that is open for parking but I thought it was just too cold and uninviting.  There are two Walmarts with huge areas for RVs plus a Sam's Club, a Cracker Barrel, and 4 or 5 truck stops--all okay for parking.  As usual I favor the Cracker Barrel and had it all to myself for most of the week.

So it has been a week of reading and trying to answer some of the correspondence that I've let lag.  Winter is not so bad when I am curled up, all toasty warm, with a mug of hot chocolate and a good book.  The only thing missing is Sigh Me to snuggle up next to me.

Two more nights and I will return to Tucson to paint the kitchen, weed the yard, and shampoo the carpet.  I sure hope another freeze comes along soon.