So we arrived here at Pilot Knob on the 8th of December and its been some time time since I posted, so I let you know what we’ve been up to. The first couple days were spent doing a little grocery shopping and some relaxing and some more shopping….
Pilot Knob is a nice little resort. The park is clean and has the usual amenities. It has a clubhouse with a nice size hall for various functions. There’s also a Big Screen TV, a billiards room and a card room. There’s a heated pool next to the clubhouse and a shuffleboard court. There’s another small building that houses the laundromat and a puzzle room/library. There’s a small park-like area that has a Bocce ball court and horseshoe pits. The park is surrounded by desert on 3 sides. There are some regular activities every week that you can take part in if you’re so inclined. Monday and Friday evenings is Poker night in the clubhouse. Monday mornings is Bocce Ball. Friday is burger night at suppertime and $5 gets you your choice of one of a hamburger/ hotdog/ chicken burger, and brown beans, a bag of snacks (potato chips etc.) and pudding. Not a bad deal for $5. Sunday afternoon there is an Ice Cream Social. $1 per scoop of chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry. There’s usually Karaoke on Saturday nights in the clubhouse. I usually play poker and bocce ball. We’ve been to a couple of the ice cream socials and one of the burger nights
On Thursday the 12th we went to the Arizona Market in the morning. This an open air market with quite a few vendors. The Market runs from Thursday to Sunday each week. The vendors are quite diverse. You can buy clothing, food, RV supplies and accessories, artwork, crafts, flags…quite a wide variety of things. There is one store that I particularly like that has a little of everything. We like to come here a few times during the season. While at the market we met up with Bill and Patsy who were there with Bob and Jo-Anne. Bill gave us directions to Yuma Lakes RV Resort where they were staying, so after we finished up at the market with drove out to their park. This is a nice park also, a little larger than Pilot Knob. It is also a Membership park, but we would have access to it through our Adventure Outdoors membership. We may try this park at some point but we do like Pilot Knob. We stayed only a short time at Bill and Patsy’s before the six of us (Bob and Jo-Anne included) headed back into Yuma to go to Lin’s Buffet for a birthday lunch for Bob. I like Lin’s, quite a good variety of foods and of course all you can eat. This price is right also… $8.95 for seniors for lunch. Nice…. After lunch, back out to Yuma Lakes for happy hour and birthday cake. After lunch at Lin’s, not a lot of room for cake I’m afraid.
On sunday the 15th Bill and Patsy and Bob and Jo-Anne arrived after their stay at Yuma Lakes.
On Thursday the 19th the 6 of us (Bill and Patsy and Bob and Jo-Anne) travelled to Los Algodones in Mexico to have a look around and have a late breakfast at one of the restaurants there. Bob and Jo-Anne were looking for presciption glasses so we stopped at one of the optical places to have a look around. If you read my blog posts from last year I talked about Los Algodones. They are known for their inexpensive Dental and Vision care and Prescriptions. There is a small shopping area in Los Algodones called Snowbirds Alley and there are 3 different artist painters who paint signs with spray paint. Many people buys signs for their RV’s with some kind of landscape scene on it (usually desert) and with their names on it. Bob and Jo-Anne were having a sign made and they would pick it up later. We went and had some breakfast. Omelets for Kim and I. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant but I do remember where it is. We were there a couple of times last year too.
Tom and Deb Duchaine arrived at Pilot Knob on Thursday as well. When we got back from Mexico they were parked across from us. We got back in time to join them for Happy Hour.
I brought some of my LED Christmas lights with us in the motorhome. I packed up my light controller and lights and wires and various other equipment in a small case so that I could have a nice Christmas light display at our site. I got it all set up and got the bugs ironed out fairly quickly. Looks pretty good but I should have brought more lights. I have had quite a few people stop by to say how much they enjoy the lights. Kim decorated inside the Motorhome with a couple small Christmas trees with lights and ornaments. Tom and Deb have a nice display at their site and Bill and Patsy do too. There are quite a few people in the park who decorate outside for the Christmas season.
Sunday morning Tom and Deb and Kim and I drove into Los Algodones to do a little browsing and to have lunch. Not too many people on a Sunday Morning. Many of the vendors were open and a few of the vision and dental places were open. Our restaurant of choice was closed so we went to the Paraiso restaurant. This time it was Mexican food. Kim and I had a combination plate with a Tostada, an Enchilada and Burrito. I liked the burrito and enchilada but not big on the tostada. Kim liked all of hers. Margaritas and Cervezos were also enjoyed.
On Monday the 23rd we did a group facetime with George and Sue back in Tavistock. Bill had set it up with Sue a couple days before and George only knew that Bill and Patsy and Kim and I were going to be in it. George was very surprised and pleased to see so many more people there. There were actually 12 of us gathered around the computer to say hi and chat a bit. You could tell that George was very happy and touched by this time that we all had with him, even though from a distance. We’re all missing George and Sue this year.
Christmas Eve in the afternoon, Kim and I hosted a small happy hour buffet. A scaled down version of our traditional Christmas eve celebration. Each couple brought a little something for us all to enjoy. Patsy’s sister Gayle and her husband John were boondocking in the BLM area behind Pilot Knob and came and joined us for Happy Hour. They’re moving into the park tomorrow morning to stay for a couple days and to join us for Christmas dinner.
Christmas day I woke at about 6:45 and got up and had some coffee and turned on the heat to warm up the coach. Kim wasn’t far behind me and we turned on some Christmas music and opened our gifts. Not too many under the tree this year with it just being the 2 of us. We did a facetime chat with Josh and Tammy and the Boys at about 9:00 am our time, 11:00 am back in Ontario. The boys showed us some of their Christmas presents but it was really nice just to see them as they bobbed in and out of the screen a few minutes at a time. I’m not sure how long we chatted together but it was very nice. Later in the morning we had some traditional Christmas Mimosas and some snacks to tie us over until our Christmas dinner at the clubhouse at 3:00. We did facetime with Sarah and Jacob just before noon to catch up with them. They were getting ready to head to Jacob’s parents place for Christmas dinner. Christmas dinner was very good. Mashed potatoes, Turkey, Ham, Dressing, Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Buns and Pumpkin Pie for desert. And even seconds. So much food…. I know ate way too much. I think there were well over a hundred people there for dinner together. There were 12 of us in our group.
Bob and I have played pool a couple of evenings while we’ve been here and Tom and I played some pool a few days ago. I’ve played bocce ball a couple Monday mornings and Bob and Tom and I are regulars for the poker nights. I’ve had some good nights at poker and some bad ones ones but I’m fairly close to even, averaged out.
On Friday we drove west on I-8 to Holtville. We wanted to check out the BLM there to see what it was like. Our plan is to leave Pilot Knob on Jan 5th and travel to Holtville and stay for a week or so. That will give us a jumping off point to travel to Borrego Springs and the Salton Sea area in California. We haven’t been to that area before so this will give us that opportunity. Across from the BLM campground is a hotsprings. There’s a nice pond area surrounded but thick tall palms. Really looks like an Oasis. The actual hotsprings looks a little rundown but I may try it out when we back there in January. We drove on from Holtville to another small city called El Centro. We just made a quick pass through the downtown area. Lots of Art Deco influence in the architecture of the downtown area.
On Saturday we had a Happy Hour Fish Fry at Bob and Jo-Anne’s. Bob brought some Walleye from back home on Lake Erie. Bob fried up the fish and I made some home made French Fries in the deep fryers. It was a feast and happy hour continued on into the evening. Lots of good eating and storytelling. We all stayed until about 8:30 in the evening. As Patsy said…. The longest happy hour ever.
The weather here over the past weeks has been mixed. We’ve had some really nice warm, almost hot days, and some rather cool days. We had some rain a few days ago. The wind most days has been brisk so we tend to try to find a place out of the wind when we’re sitting outside. Today is prabably the coldest yet, 11ºC or 52ºF and a cold wind. Bocce ball was cancelled this morning cause it was too cold.
Bill has had his RC plane out a few times over the last few days. Yesterday and Saturday, there were times when the wind was fairly light. He flew it for a bit at sunset last night. He has LED light strips on the wings, so it looks rather cool flying, all lit up, when the sun is setting.
Dave and Cheryl from Alberta are friends with Bill and Patsy and Tom and Deb. They’ve been coming to Arizona in the winter for a few winters. They pulled into Pilot Knob a few days after Bill and Patsy. We’ve gotten to know them over the past couple of weeks. A very nice couple. Spent many happy hours with them. It’s a great way way to get to know people. They pulled out yesterday on their way to San Diego to spend some time with family. We hope to meet up with them when we’re in Quartzsite in a few weeks.
Yesterday Kim and I went into Yuma for some groceries and shooped at Fry’s. Kim has a Fry’s card that gave us some really good deals. We’ve shopped at Walmart, Albertson’s and Fry’s now for groceries and it would seem that Fry’s has the best prices and selection.
Well that brings you up to date with us here on Dec 30th. I just gave you a brief rundown on what we’ve been up to. We certainly enjoying our time in the southwest. Its really nice catching up with all our Rv friends and meeting new ones on the way. We hope you have all had a wonderful Christmastime, and we wish you a great new year in 2020.
I’ll leave you with a few sunsets to end your year and a sunrise to begin a new one.
Sunrise
Journey with Ken and Kim 