Yuma Flowers

There are blooms everywhere and even some of the cactus are starting to bloom.  Jim planted a lot of the cactus you see.  People grow them in their little yards and the cactus get too big so the maintenance guys -Jim- get to dig them up and move them.  Some are too big to move so they just get cut up and wrapped in a tarp and thrown away.  The thorns on these things are either so tiny you can't see them but they hurt like heck in your skin or they are huge and have to be pulled out with a pliers and hurt like heck.

One lady watched Jim wrestle a cactus she wanted to get rid of and then turned pale when the cactus attacked him and he had to pull the thorny spikes out of his leg.  She gave him a case of beer for his trouble.  Needless to say Jim is not very fond of cactus.

The flu is still going around here -- so many people have had it or are still coming down with it.  It will be a miracle if we escape here without getting it.  We only need to survive one more week and then it will be time to hit the road.  

Shiny Rocks

Yeah, I won the battle -- getting a new computer and learning to use Windows 10.  Still working the bugs out especially getting pictures and downloading them.  It seems like every time they do these upgrades everything gets more complicated instead of easier. 
The gold in the goldpan is our take for the season down here.  Hey, at least its some of the shiny stuff.  I went on the last Rock Club outing of the season to an old Mica dig.  Lots of shiny papery thin sheets of mica -- very pretty.  I also found garnets - the picture didn't really show them well they are up in the far right corner.  They aren't as pretty or gem quality like the ones we found in Ely, NV but still they are garnets. 

We are starting to get packed up -- we will be leaving in two weeks.  We will take at least three weeks to get up to Minnesota.  Can't wait to do some walleye fishing again. 

A Small Bit of Refurbishing the Rig

The decals on the front of our rig were cracking and fading and starting to peel off.  Jim started to scrap them off but could only get so far.  They seemed to be baked into the finish of the RV.  We called a company out to look over the work and give us a quote to get the decals off and put a new clear coating on the front.  They came and washed the whole rig, got the rest of the decals off, got the oxidation off and then put on several coats of Poliglow (a clear coat product kind of like varnish).  Now the front end looks like it came that way from the factory.  You would never know a decal had been on the front.    It actually didn't cost that much to have it done by someone.  That is the great thing about being in Yuma.  Labor is very cheap and they really cater to the RV crowd.  So if you need things done to your rig this is the place to get it done.

It is interesting working at an RV parts store.  People are coming in now to get RV antifreeze.  They are using it to summarize their RV's that they store down here.  Or they need it because they are going back up to cold country and going back to below freezing temps, especially in parts of Canada.  Antifreeze can be used for both heat or cold, the main thing is that it doesn't evaporate so it will stay in the toilet and p-traps and keep any water leftover in low spots from freezing (where its too cold) or seals from drying out ( where its too hot).