Yesterday we drove over to the Barnes & Noble store in Yuma. I have a Nook Color e-reader and it has finally died. I've dropped the darned thing a few times, cracking the case in a couple of places and now the battery won't hold a charge for more than a few hours. So, I got me a new Nook Glowlight to replace it.
After that, we drove over the hills to Wellton, AZ to check out the RV parks there. We're looking at places to spend part of next winter and at first glance on the map, this place looked like it might work for us. Not! The town is about 30 miles from Yuma, very small with not much to do in the area. The park's there are cheap enough but we didn't see much in the area that attracts us. We'll look closer to Yuma, possibly in the foothills just east of Yuma.
I had a followup with Dr. Goodman, the doctor that referred me to Dr. Ansari today. He did a doppler test on my legs and everything is good to go. He wants to do another sonogram just to establish a baseline. Believe me, I was happy to hear that news.
02/02/2014
The following is for all of our RV'ing friends who have their vehicles registered in Texas (from the Escapee's Forums):
For those of us who are fulltimers registered in Texas, plan on being in Texas at some point in a 90 day window before your registration needs to be renewed. There is a new law that goes into effect on 3/1/15. This law eliminates the two stickers on your windshield and replaces them with a single sticker. Within 90 days of your registration expiration, you'll need to get your vehicles inspected, but will only receive a report if you pass it. The inspection station will collect their cut of the inspection fee and update a database that your vehicle has pass. When you submit a registration renewal, the DMV/county will check the database. If there is a record of the vehicle passing an inspection in the previous 3 months, your registration will be renewed. If there is no record, you don't get registered.
This development seemed pretty alarming to me. It could potentially remove Texas from my list of fulltime RV-friendly states. I was also rather surprised there wasn’t more discussion about this on the forum.
Because of my concern, I contacted the elected members of the state legislature that represent Livingston, TX, the home of the Escapees. I received a call from a member of Senator Nichols staff. I explained the issue to her. I then called her back the following day to more fully explain the issue. She got in touch the Texas DPS, who called me back yesterday.
He was familiar with the law and confirmed my description above. He said that the DPS only deals with inspections, not registrations so I would really need to speak with the DMV. He said that, based on his reading of the law, there wasn’t a lot of ‘wiggle room’ for the DMV to grant any sort of exemption.
This is a problem for full timers and military who may not be able to return to the state before their registrations expire. If you have two vehicles, you would have to do it twice a year. If you have 3, you get another trip. The staffer said that this is an unintended consequence of the new law. The legislature in Texas only meets every two years. They will be in session in January 2015 so they’ll only have 3 months to fix this. I am not going to hold my breath.
When I learn more, I’ll report back. For any of you full timers reading this, contacting your elected representatives would be a good idea. The more people they hear from, the bigger sense of urgency they’ll get. Here are links to Rep. James White and Senator Robert Nichols.
http://www.senate.st...dist3/dist3.htm
http://www.house.sta...ge/?district=19
This could potentially cause some serious problems for folks who are registered in Texas.
Joyce scored us tickets to see Dwight Yoakum at the Quechan Casino & Resort in Winterhaven, AZ on 28 March. That should be a great show!
We're planning on leaving El Centro and head north on March 30th. We need to be at Tumalo State Park in Bend, OR on 1 May so we have the whole month of April for traveling. We'll be making stops at Edwards AFB, Fresno, Travis AFB, Calistoga, Redding, Oakridge, OR. and LaPine, OR. Joyce and I both are looking forward to getting back on the road.
02/06/2014
Had my last doctor appointment yesterday and another sonogram done to use as a baseline, just in case the problem with my legs returns. I am sure glad all of this is behind us!
I have had new phone fever (worse than new truck fever) for a while now so I got me a new iPhone 5S at Best Buy. They didn't have a 16 gig model in stock so they let me have a 32 gig'er for the same price as the 16g and $50 off. I also got a Mophie Juice Pack which extends the battery life.
So far I really like the phone. It's much faster than my old Samsung and the interface is a lot like my iPad, making the learning curve not quite as steep.
02/09/2014
On Friday we did the Farm Smart tour at the University of California's Desert Research & Extension Center. According to one of the handouts we received the DREC is a large and complex research center that provides professional management, land, labor and facilities for agricultural and environmental studies and educational outreach activities.
After being welcomed by our host we were presented a talk about the DREC and the agriculture here in the Imperial Valley. We learned about the vegetables grown here in the "Nation's Salad Bowl", the cattle industry and the grasses that are grown. Here are come of the interesting facts:
-Ninety-five percent of the cattle raised here is Holstein and not used just in dairies. We didn't know that a lot of the meat you see in the local grocery stores is Holstein.
-Due to the high cost of water a agriculture in mid Arizona will cease to exist by 2050.
-Every acre-foot of water arriving here in the Imperial Valley from the Colorado River brings one ton of salt. All of that salt must be leached through the root zones into subsurface tile drainage systems.
-Farmers and ranchers receive only 19 cents of every retail dollar spent on food that is eaten at home and away from home. In 1980, the received 31 cents.
After that we were taken out into the fields to see the work being done there and we given the opportunity to pick some veggies. We brought home a huge bag of cabbage, beets, radishes and other stuff.
Goin' A Pickin'!
Learning to start a siphon. Nuff said!
Young olive trees.
On Friday we drove up to Palm Springs to visit Del & Lee Ann Dolph who we met a few years ago when we were volunteering at Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, CA. They own a time-share and invited us to spend some time with them.
After meeting them at their condo, we went out looking for somewhere to eat and discovered El Gallito Mexican Restaurant in Cathedral City. Although the place lacks in atmosphere, the food was outstanding.
On Saturday morning we drove over to the College of the Desert Street Fair in Palm Desert. This "flea market" is huge but as we found out, not your daddy's market. There are none of the vendors selling stuff that get your hands dirty when routing around for "treasures". Most of the vendors were selling high dollar stuff and there wasn't a lot of haggling going on. Lee Ann did score a great pair of shoes for a decent price.
Thanks Del & Lee Ann for showing us a great time!
Have a good one!
Barry & Joyce
