Barbilou's Blog: February 2012

Second in a series on mi amigas in beautiful Kino Bay.

Joan

Joan and Maurice (Canadians) live next door to me winters in a motorhome with a big screened patio. No pets CURRENTLY. Daughter Andrea (Canada) with son-in-law Willie and granddaughter Victoria just visited last month. Joan runs the Western Horizons RV Resort. (Eddie thinks HE does, but anyone will tell you otherwise.) It's an unpaid, thankless task, but she has help: Pat, Suzanne, and Jill in the office and Maggy in the kitchen. And Joan's beloved spouse Maurice (pronounced Morris because he thinks Maurice sounds like a hairdresser) is the neighborhood computer and satellite Go-To man. He also plays Santa Claus.

Joan is long-suffering (if you know Eddie and Maurice...), patient, diplomatic, VERY dry sense of humor, hard-working, energetic, and extremely giving of her time. She likes wine.

Joan

Jill

Jill and Kim are fulltime RVers, Texans, that live in the WHR park winters in their fifth wheel. ("Volunteers", formerly called workampers) They have two GORGEOUS spoiled Shelties, Sugar and Shadow. Jill is my other Mom. (Jan and I are her twin daughters but Jan's older...). Jill is loving, generous, affectionate, giving, and VERY funny! Plays poker like a pro. Also likes wine. She's a breast cancer survivor: her bravery, strength and refusal to submit humble me. She carries dog biscuits in her pockets in case she encounters one. I made Jill a fairly tacky necklace that says "Life is good" and she wears it every day.

Jill

Sally

Sal and Al live one street below me in a trailer with a bright yellow bodega: stocked to the rafters, we call it The Store. Need a can of mushroom soup? Sal has it. These are the most Still-In-Love-After-Umpteen-Years-Of-Marriage people I've ever encountered. Sal is warm, vibrant, alive with curiosity and has a bizarre zest for adventure. And I've read this, but rarely see it: her eyes actually twinkle! Sal makes this drink called a Caesar: Vodka, Clamato, Hotness, etc. (Also called a Seizure...) They've been hit quite badly several times by the banditos that plague our neighborhood. Of all people! They probably would have GIVEN the banditos anything if they'd just asked. Incredibly, they are Glass-Half-Full people and remain cheerful and optimistic. And they wear matching outfits. Really! Sal has more energy and youth than all the rest of us put together.

Sally

Here's a shot of all three of them, all in one place, drinking to my health at my birthday lunch at Jorge's.

As an afterthought, I'm adding photos of their spouses, taken from the Men's Calendar...

Maurice (Santa)

Kim

Might as well add the first four amigas' spouses' photos, huh?

Jose

Jan's John

Jim

Bette's John

Adding the first four amigas (Bette, Delfie, Jan, and Karen) to these three makes for a very full and fun life in my little neighborhood. And yes, our spouses' photos are definitely Photoshopped...

Lots has happened. My husband and I want to expand our little Mexican estate to include another casita atop the garage, buy the two lots in front of us so nobody can build a two-story there, and get a boat. Coincidentally, the dialysis clinic in Show Low made me an offer I can't refuse, so I'm un-retired. Again.

I'll be here 3 years, until I can get Social Security. And I'll be here alone in our fifth wheel, with occasional trips home to Kino where Ron will be working to perfect our little slice of paradise. Plus I get a month's vacation every year.

It was REALLY heart-wrenching saying goodbye to my friends. I did NOT want to do this anyway (the work is physically demanding on this abused old body), and there didn't seem to be any BUTS to append to the usual "I'll miss you so much but it's not for long" because it's for THREE FRICKING YEARS!

So the plan includes Ron driving us and the fifth wheel to Show Low, staying a few weeks until we aquire a second vehicle, then returning to Kino.

I spent a few weeks stocking the RV with what I thought I'd want or need. We left at 0630 Monday morning, and hit the Nogales border crossing at 1230. Short line, no issues with the inspection because I admitted right up front that I had a tad more liquor than allowed (so he let me keep it), and they DID ask for the cat's vaccination record, which I just barely remembered was overdue and took care of last Friday!

The cat yowled a bit on the bumpier or curvier parts of the road, but not as bad as before. Helps that our road is partly paved now. Changed our remaining pesos in Nogales (they gave us 12.6!) and proceeded to Tucson. I don't know why we were so exhausted, but we decided to stop there at the Desert Diamond Casino for the night. I didn't even go inside. Read my book and went to bed. At 2 AM, I woke up cold: the RV battery had drained and the electric-start furnace wouldn't start, nor would it start when Ron went out to start the truck. So we left for Show Low at 3 AM.

If you've never driven the road from Tucson that goes through Globe and the Salt River Canyon, towing a 34 foot fifth wheel with an under-maintained and under-powered elderly diesel pickup, you're in for a treat. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. At one point, coming up a grade, we were down to about 15 mph. (The speedometer doesn't work sometimes...) My heart was in my throat, I had nausea and chest tightness, the cat was unhappy (lots of S-curves), plus it was dark. Stopped for breakfast in Globe, and debated having a garage look at the truck to make sure the transmission or rear end wasn't compromised, but Ron thought it was OK, so we continued. By then, it was light out, so I kept my sight trained out the side window and played brain games. And we made it. 8:30 AM.

I had pre-arranged an RV site at the Ponderosa RV Resort in Lakeside. Never saw it, just found one on the internet that had cable, wifi, and low annual rates. Really cute website. Turns out it's an older mobile home park mostly. Nobody in the office, so I called the owner Eva and was told "the handyman" would be there shortly to show us some sites. And here comes Dave, middle-aged, ponytail, few teeth, Border Patrol cap (no, he wasn't: "I'm a Minute Man, though. If they need me, I'll go in a minute! Hahaha!" )

Dave wasn't informed what spaces were reserved, just which ones were empty. We probably could have found those ourselves. We were supposed to pick a few we liked and call Eva back. We didn't like ANY of them: narrow, sloped, short, or right on the road. The first one I agreed to turned out to be available, after a lengthy phone call with Eva trying to navigate her files. We couldn't find the sewer under the snow, but were assured it was there somewhere. Dave left us then to back in there ourselves. But using every leveling block we possessed, we could NOT get it even close to level. So we pulled out and called Eva back. Now she's got me walking up and down the convoluted rows of mobile homes and decrepit trailers, looking for one that was less sloped, had all three hookups within reach of our rig, and had room to park the truck. Found one. The water was off, but Eva assured us Dave would turn it on for us. We backed it in, blocks under each wheel because the ground was soft and covered with loose gravel. The electric cord JUST reaches.

Now the slides won't move because the battery's dead. After an hour with the slide motor jumped to the truck battery, we got the slides out. And here comes Dave back to turn on our water, but there's a problem. He insists he cannot LEAVE it turned on unless we wrap our entire water hose with electric heat tape (20 feet, at least $100) The overnight temps here have been in the lower 20s, and currently the upper 20s. Daytime temps into the 50s. Ron and Dave had words, with Ron trying to convince Dave that we have some experience with cold weather RVing, and that he knows how to disconnect and drain at night blahblah. Dave wasn't having it, he was programmed with that one rule and couldn't adapt. Ron had to become quite stern and authoritative to get Dave to turn on the water, which seems to be what works with Dave. We then went to WalMart and Home Depot, and have insulated the water pipe.

The wifi is weak, may need an antenna. The "cable" is 7 grainy channels, and no Fox or CNN. There's a snowdrift outside my door. But there's a big apple tree out my back window! And lots of birds. And it's pretty quiet, only 11 winter people here as yet.

Ron's not happy, but he's not staying long. We'll be in a hotel suite in Tempe for training for a couple of weeks (this job now includes Acute Dialysis at the little hospital here). I may get the local cable company to give me real cable and internet. The truck needs to be looked at. We'll be going through propane like water. And I found out I'm JUST outside Domino's delivery radius: had to go pick up my pizza at the gas station up the road.

The movie theater is 3 blocks away, the Safeway and liquor store not much farther. It'll do for now. Ron will teach me how to change propane tanks, troubleshoot tank-dumping issues, and generally help me feel more confident at RVing alone, and I'll be too busy to be homesick, hopefully.

Here's some photos. Click on them to see the dreary details...