Looking for Rosa's Cantina

We are Here. EDA in Whitehouse - Tuesday.

On the Road Again

Willie's Version

After a day and half delay due to the wind we finally are heading east. Only made it few hours today before stopping at an Escapee park that offers free boondocking. Thought I would just use the regualar TV antennae for tonight but it looks like if you don't speak spanish, want a sermon, or want to buy something TV is going to be pretty sparce here. Oh well, we can only run the generator until 7:00 pm anyway, then the question will be "What did the pioneers do?"

I feel the earth move. . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoHuxpa4h48

If you have been reading or hearing about the earthquake in Mexico yesterday and wondering if we felt it here the answer is we definitely did. The center was 60 kilometers south of Mexicali. As you can see on our map, that's not that far away from Yuma. We were playing in the weekly Sunday afternoon pool tournament at "Crazy Earl's", a bar in town, when things started rocking and rolling. We have experienced some earthquakes in past years in Yuma but this was the strongest one we have felt. It didn't take long for us to be standing out in the parking lot watching parked cars and light poles shake around. If you haven't been in an earthquake it is a very weird feeling for sure. We didn't incur any damage from it, nor was there any damage reported in Yuma, but I could tell it wouldn't have to get much stronger for some damage to start. There have been many aftershocks since the original event but they aren't as strong. We feel pretty good about our house during an earthquake, after all it goes through the same thing every time we pull it down the road. I only worry about the front jacks, but they can stand a lot of movement (such as being run in to by a reckless driver).

Otherwise there has been a mass exodus from the park. Only a handful of pool players left and very few scheduled activities. People will continue to leave throughout the month until only the ones that stay all year remain. Actually that's good news for us since now we can get to work on all the projects we brought with us but haven't had time to work on.


Even the desert blooms in the spring, including the cactus on our lot.

POPP p p p f f f f f f f f f f t t.

I haven't posted for a few weeks so I thought I had better let anyone interested get caught up. We have been busy participating in park activities, playing pool, and the usual stuff we do here. The Oak Ridge Boys performed two shows in our park's ballroom a week ago. We didn't go because we had seen them a few years ago in Branson, Mo but they sold out both shows (840 seats each). Jim and Donna Skolek from Ottawa, IL had a grandson graduate from Marine Corps basic training in San Diego, so on their way to the ceremonies they stayed in Yuma for several days to visit with us. We had been to their place last summer (see one of the posts in July). It's great having more company come by to help us enjoy the sunshine. Actually, it has been raining here much more than normal. It's amazing how fast the brown desert turns green with just a little rain. In a couple of months it will all be dead and become a fire hazard. We are on our way home from a pool tournament in Phoenix, it's raining on us right now and we're only about 10 miles outside of Yuma.

The Desert Classic Tour holds a tournament every month somewhere in Arizona, usually Phoenix or Tucson, and I have decided to play in them while I'm here. Since these tournaments draw the top players in the state it is my chance to make sure my head doesn't get overinflated just because I'm one of the best players in our park and the Billiard Club President and all. Nothing like having a player named Susan beat you by one game in a race to 8 games of bar table 8-ball to let the air out of your balloon. Actually she is an excellent player and I didn't mind losing to her as much as the next match I lost to a less skilled guy. Last month I at least won two matches before getting knocked out even though I have only played one of the top players that participate. Anyway my ego has been reset to the appropriate level and we are headed home, Tonya's driving and I'm typing.

We are only a couple of weeks away from the weather getting warmer to what I consider really nice and the Canadians here consider too hot. By the end of this month they will almost all be gone and things will slow down here dramatically. We plan on staying on into April like we did a couple of years ago. All the activities are nice bet we also like being here when things slow down. I'll be reporting back in before then.

Tonya strikes Gold and Silver, Terry digs for Bronze.

We entered the pool events of the Yuma city wide Senior Games last week. I guess we found out who the real pool shooter is. Tonya won a silver medal in the singles event and a gold medal in the doubles event while I settled for a bronze in both singles and doubles (that means I lost to the first loser and will be uttering the loser's mantra "There's always next year"). The singles event is held at our park's pool room since it is the biggest and nicest in town.

Tonya and the Gold Medalist.


Gold Medal presentation. Tonya's partner Marcia is on her right.





My Bronze medal pictures from singles and doubles. My partner Al is on my right, in his 80's but still plays pretty sporty.

Other than the tournament we have been to a western dinner show, a park produced play, chicken dinner, fish dinner, and USA/Canada day (an excuse to drink and dance at 1:00 in the afternoon), all in the park's ballroom. All of these events are BYOB and most involve music and dancing.

So it goes this time of year here, hard to keep up, but we do the best we can. Will have a couple more months at this pace before things slow down in April.

Hail to the Chief!

I have officially became President of the park's 96 member Billiard Club. I became a member board of directors for the club this year and was elected to the office by the board at yesterday's meeting. A brilliant campaign promising free health care for all Billiard Club members, which I said I would get the Tennis Club to pay for, and the fact that I was unopposed, led to a unanimous vote. When I was approached last week about seeking the office I asked the present president what the duties entailed. She said she would only tell me after I was elected. Either she was afraid I wouldn't accept or I will be finding out what goes on in "Area 51" and get the nuke codes pretty soon. It also means we will be coming back for the next few years since the board membership is a three year term and I suspect officers keep their position unless they absolutely refuse to continue.

The pool room during the Wednesday night mixed doubles tournament.


Tonya shooting during the Wednesday night tournment.

Otherwise, since the last post, we have been busy with park activities and taking care of some home projects. We have also made several trips to Mexico getting our annual dental work done, we should be done with that. Tonya has enrolled in the local community college, taking the pool class that is taught by one of guys I compete against (and usually get beat by)at the local weekly tournaments. Have yet to get going on dance lessons and poker playing.

We have heard about all the cold weather occurring across the country in the last couple of weeks. In case you were worrying about us, our high's have been hovering around 70 degrees, and of course the sun shines every day here.

Happy New Year!

Time for the holiday and end of year report. It's been a little cool here (highs in the 60's) but Grannie and Becky thought it was great compared to where they came from. They have been to several dances, Bingo, and pinochle games. Grannie won $100 at the Tuesday night Bingo game. We met a couple from northern Illinois and ended up going to their house for a Christmas Eve party. I think the guy, Gale, an antique car buff, is after Grannie's Model A, he also mentioned he knew about the Bingo winnings. We had the catered Christmas dinner in the Ballroom and met lots of new interesting people at both events. Carrie and Zack came to visit for 4 days right after Christmas and we had a great time with them. Everyone but Grannie and Zack went to see the movie "It's Complicated". I'm pretty sure it was funny since I was afraid Becky was going to get arrested for uncontrolled laughter in a public place. They have all gone back home now and we were left to go the New Year's Eve party by ourselves. The park Ballroom, where the party was, is only about 100 steps from our door so we were able to negotiate the trip ok.


Grannie and Becky in front of their holiday home.


Zack was his usual little monstrous self.


Carrie and Zack stayed at Grannie's house.


Grannie and Becky (on the right) getting ready to board the plane. They said they would be back same time next year. Notice the jacket on the left of the picture, those Zumba people are everywhere.