Joei Carlton

Last 2 weeks

My last 2 weeks on the road have not been what I expected.  The Western Horizons Membership park was anything BUT luxury.  No cable, no internet that worked and members weren’t the least bit friendly.  They might have been happier if they had cable and internet.  Needless to say - I didn’t join.

I drove around to about 10 different parks in Quartzlsite.  The one park that had a few spots I didn’t want to stay in - everything was old - no people around - and the campers looked like they were there since the last flood - as Noah would say “The Great Flood.”  I left and drove to Yuma. I arrived late, thanks to a camper just pulling into the Sam’s Club parking lot I knew that I couldn’t stay in their lot. Apparently the police come around at midnight and tell you to leave.  That would have scared the heck out of me, to say the least.

I found a campground, paid for the week and then discovered that they didn’t have cable either.  The people were super friendly and made my week a little more pleasant than normal.  The neighbor parked behind me invited me to dinner the night I arrived. The next day we went to the Home Show in Yuma - which took about an hour to go through and at noon we left for Quartzsite - so I got to pick up about $20.00 worth of beads - stuff I would have paid 3 or 4 times that in a regular bead store.  I was happy. 

For the weekend my new/old friend Don drove down to Yuma to spend some time with me.  Thoroughly enjoyed our visit and on Sunday drove down to Algodonis, Mexico - not sure of the spelling but we left his truck behind gates on U.S. side and walked over.  It seems only the pharmacies, doctors and dentists do any business there….and it is a flourishing business.

The rest of the week went slowly in the campground. Played bingo, cribbage, did some beadwork with a neighbor and left in a violet storm yesterday.  Lots of rain, heavy gusts of wind that threatened to blow me off course but I saw nothing of the flooding that I watched on television last night.  I was very grateful to be off the road. 

I’m currently at Don’s place in Morongo Valley, north of Palm Springs.  This afternoon I’m unloading my stuff into his 5th wheel, off-loading my camper from the back of my truck which will stay in his gated yard and he’ll be delivering his trailer back to the campground in Hemet where I’ll stay for the next month.  I’ll find a new campground next year but for this year heading back to friends, Golden Village Palm with it’s a–hole manager and Don will have a 45 minute drive to come visit me.  I think that’ll work all the way around.  Tonight - skinny dipping in his pool and hot tub.  (Just seeing if you’re paying attention)

By the way…..woke up to snow on the ground in Morongo Valley this morning. With this weather I couldn’t have stayed in Canada - but look at the fun I would have missed.    Joei