We arrived on Nov 1st and caught back up with our friends Kate and Frank. We got settled in and started enjoying the park activities. On my birthday, I played poker, and bingo, and went to a luai party. John won over $80 at bingo and I won $3 at Texas hold’em.
We golfed at Mesa Del Sol and the first 9 were much better than the back nine. After golf, we came back to the park and enjoyed the band at the saloon. In addition, we met some other people from Grand Haven, MI.
The four of us drove to Parker, AZ to play at the Emerald Canyon Golf Course, spend the night at the casino, and then play at Blythe Golf Course on the way home. It turns out they were overseeding and only 9 holes open and backup play so we continued back to Yuma and played Los Barrancos.
We attended the full moon party at the park, rested up for a few days, and played Coyote Wash in Wellton, AZ. This was one of my better rounds.
Attended the Welcome Back party with an 80’s theme. We are recycling costumes, so need to come up with new ones for next Halloween. We went on a nice walk along the Colorado River in downtown Yuma.
I am attending the Spanish class at the park, hoping it will help with my Duolingo studies. I am getting pretty good at reading it, but can’t understand or speak it very well. John came with me to bingo this week and he won again. We golfed at Mesa Del Sol and we were paired up with a wonderful couple from Canada. I did some googling (Al Hackner) after and he was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame for curling and was a coach for the women’s curling in the 2018 Olympics in Russia. It is so fun to meet new and interesting people and hear their stories.
The Christmas tree is up.
We had to make an unexpected trip to Michigan to attend a funeral for our closest friend Edson Borges. We decided to drive the 4600 miles and 73 hours of driving. OMG, that was a long, long trip. 6 days on the road and 6 days in Michigan and Ohio.
We did see many of our friends who attended the service, my brother and SIL, our kids and grandkids, and John’s siblings.
We left on Friday the 13th arrived on Monday the 16th, and drove straight to Nancy’s to give her a big hug. After we headed over to Mason to watch our grandson in a play and dinner with the kids and grandkids. We stayed at our friends Maggie and Jerry. On Tuesday, we visited my brother, Tom, and SIL, Linda, and had a wonderful lunch and visit. After we went to Stobers with Jerry and Maggie to visit Frank and Kate who also were in town from Yuma.
Wednesday we had a birthday celebration for our friend Karen who also flew in from Florida. My stepdaughter Suzanne was able to join us for a short time and it was wonderful to see her.
Thursday was the celebration of life. Over 200 attended and it was a lovely ceremony and tears and laughter were shed by many.
Friday we headed to Bowling Green, Ohio to see John’s siblings, Mark, Karen, Ken, Sandy, (Roger is in the hospital getting treatment for blood cancer – please say some extra prayers), Q, and Gus. We left on snow-covered roads, which I do not miss.
We stayed at the Wenig Hotel, also known as the Wenig RV Park in the fall and spring. As always had a lovely visit. On Sunday we drove to Pataskala, OH to see the Covey family, Alyssa, Austin, Emma, and Maggie. That night we began our long drive back to Yuma.
We arrived safely in Yuma on Christmas day after a suspension issue (that still needs to be resolved). We hit a bump and the car rattled and shook, called a death wobble, so driving home was a bit nerve-wracking. Also, our navigation locked up yesterday but eventually resolved itself.
Although it was a horrible reason to head back home, we were blessed to see tons of friends and family.
