The Ouseys in Victoria Page

Welcome back Dennis, thought that may have been the problem. Thanks for forwarding some pictures to Lewis. I hope the rest of the clan does so too, I don't have all mine with me and it takes forever to upload pics on dialup.

Hello Kirkwoods. If you prepare a blog offline in a program like word. Just cut and paste the text from the Word document to the Blog text page. That's how I do it anyway.

Not much else to report at this time.

Keep blogging.

Hello Dennis, where are you? You blogger you.

Noni blogged, Noni blogged, Noni blogged.

I’ll have to get her some Noni Juice. They sell it here in the Health food stores. A product of Tahiti, supposed to build your immune system. It comes from the Noni Tree; how about that.

I saw a T-shirt I could have sent her except they were out of them and it was to late to send for her birthday anyway. It said:

Over what Hill?
Where,? When?
I didn’t see any hill.

Spent a day talking to an old military friend, Rudy Preuse. We go back a whole bunch. They live in Comox and lo and behold they are staying here right at Cocopah. Unfortunately we only found this out and they are leaving for San Diego tomorrow. Anyhow, we had a beer and chatted about old times and common friends. They are taking a group Caravan tour into the Baja of Mexico. We exchanged email addresses so that he can tell us how it went. It is a possibility we may try that in the future.

Andy and Kathie are home. We got email and Carolyn talked to her. They were actually in the Yuma area at the same time we were, but they thought we were still in Washington at that time and we didn’t know where they were, so we didn’t connect. She recommended dry camping at the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) area around Imperial Dam. We checked it out today and looks great. Local sewer dump, water, and showers, but you are dry camping and the cost is $30.00 for 2 weeks. We just may do that after we leave Cocopah.

So keep on blogging guys. Good blog Noni, thanks.

We called Lyn’s and got to talk again to Noni to wish her a happy birthday and also got to talk to Lyn and David too. Nothing much new there as there is nothing much new here. Shoulder still bothersome, so doing a lot of reading. We did go to "The Texas Roadhouse" to celebrate Noni’s birthday. We figured if we couldn’t be in Victoria for her 40th we could still celebrate it. We had drinkypoos and I had the Ribs yet again. They have the bestest ribs I have ever had, yummy even. Carolyn had a steak kabob a thoroughly enjoyable dinner. We were even seated at "Willy Nelson’s Corner". They have one table with Willy Nelson memorabilia and pictures embedded in the table top as well as photos on the wall with a neon sign stating that it was "Willy Nelson’s Corner". I would have taken a picture had I had my camera. It was the only table in the restaurant so decorated. It’s his table when he is in town.
The Kirkwoods are on the road, however, they are only visiting friends in Oregon at this time. They have to be back home for Feb 8th for family reasons and then they will hopefully head South. We just may see them down here yet, and we are looking forward to it.
Today (Monday) we took the Rig into the RV dealer (RV Peddler) to get the cupboard doors and step switch installed. The parts finally came in and that hopefully should be that for warranty work.
Blog, blog blog.

Sunset at Cocopah

We have been watching the Canadian News, via SAT/TV. We sure are missing a messy one. First the cold and snow, now the warm and far too wet; nasty mudslide in North Vancouver. Well its been relentlessly sunny and its made it to 80’s and mid 60’s at night. However, still a persistent North wind, although it is not a cold wind obviously. Wind is lighter this afternoon, so must try that pool and soak up some sun.

Still no golf, shoulder still sore, worse if anything and to top it off, I haven’t been able to walk much with a tender left heel. That comes and goes. It comes when I walk and goes when I don’t, hmmm. Still chipping and putting though, so my short game will be ready if I ever get on the course.

Friends of Helen and Ken dropped in yesterday. Darryl and Jan are staying in Yuma for a couple of days on their way to "the Resort" at Mesa. We met them last year at the same RV resort. We had a enjoyable visit and heard all about their trials and tribulations of traveling through that West Coast weather, that we fortunately missed. They took their time and stayed put for extra days until the local situation improved. Smart move. Good to see them.

Dennis and Catherine will be flying to Victoria May 31st, so will be visiting Victoria for a few days prior to us all leaving on our Alaska Cruise. Apparently he is excited as he is already packing and counting sleeps. Lol.

Some pictures I took at Cocopah are below.

Heard some bad news today, a respected member of my Lions Club, Lion Frank Peecock, died yesterday. I am sorry I’ll be missing his service, but will send on a card soonest. Any Lions reading this; please ensure our condolences are passed to Sylvia.

I see from Helen’s blog that they are back home from yet another run to Spokane, and are now able to consider the possibility of traveling South. We do hope they can, we are looking forward to seeing them when they do. We haven’t heard from Kathie and Andy, or Al and Rita or John and Sue. Some or all of them were to be down in the Yuma area at some point, though it wasn’t a sure thing in all cases. Bad weather along I-5 in California would certainly have had a big impact on any travels down this way. Hope to see them some time though, even if it when we get back.

We are in for a nice weekend. Sunny with temperatures ranging from 74 to 77; pool-time, got to get out the sun tan lotion. WhooHooo.

Dennis are you packed for the Cruise yet??? Only 143 more sleeps you know.

Water Tower

Main Office

View through the windshield, note golf ball fence.

We never did get the rain, that hit California, that we were supposed to; but we did get a good wind storm yesterday. Gusts to about 60 kph. Other than that we have sun and reasonably good temperatures.

Though my cold is gone, Carolyn has either had a relapse or has a lingering cough and she still feels listless, so we have been keeping generally quiet, reading, walking. I did get to the gym today and will be trying to get regular about that.

I was going to post some pictures of Cocopah, but you can see most of what this resort is about including pictures at www.cocopahrv.com. I might still post some of my own.

It looks like a warming trend, that should allow us to do some sunning and use of the pool, we are looking forward to that.

Helen and Ken are progressing with her brother, hope all is well and they can make their way down here. We are looking forward to that. Take care all.

Just came back from the Flea market. My they like flea markets around here, they are all over the place and busy too. Just got some veggies this trip. BBQ steak and Veggies tonight. Colds are all but gone but kinda left us feeling Blahh! Waiting for the energy to return.

Tomorrow is a craft sale right in the campground, Carolyn is thrilled, I’ll be looking for something else to do. I got the satellite dish up and running yesterday and finally got some news from home. Geez, talking about your cold snowy weather, like all over Canada. We left Victoria before the snow and cold, and the prairies have been in a deep freeze. We thought it must be cold up there since the cold was reaching this far down, cold by local standards that is. California is drowning, and the latest weather has just been missing us here, so we had another sunny day reaching 70 fairy heights degrees. We just might get some showers tonight.

Well I must go fire up the coals (err gas) bbq.

Sorry to hear of Alvina Hillman passing away. I have fond memories of her from a way back when. Mom had known her for 65 + years and were close friends. I just called Mom and she is handling it well, so we reminisced for awhile. She will be going to Dennis' place for a few days. Dennis, she will be giving you an address for me to send my condolences. Please either blog it or email it to me. Thanks Bro.

Weather is slowly improving, although they expect more rain, it won't be as bad as what is happening in California or northern Arizona, where flood watches are still in effect. Today is sunny and warm, at least for us. 17C. The locals still think that is cold.

So Charlene, Mike. Whats happening with the coffeshop. Things picking up now that the holidays are over? Are the workers coming in for their daily dose of caffeine? Noni? Lyn? Tena? David? Hows things kids?

Our colds are almost gone, thanks goodness, now to work on my shoulder so I can get some golfing in. Today I'll play with the satellite dish and see if we can get some Canadian news. Apparently it has been cold and snowing in Victoria, that information came to me via Mother in Winnipeg. Blog or email you guys.

We washed the motorhome and car yesterday, boy were they both grungy from all the road sand, salt, and any other crap that was kicked up on the way down. Nice a sparkly now.
Looky who is blogging. Uncle Lewis at this location http://lewheuchert.blogspot.com/ . He calls it "Retired but no Expired". And he has blogged several times already. Check it out. Keeps complaining about a cold he got from us in Victoria, little does he know we are not over it yet. Hope he gets rid of it sooner. I am pretty much over it, but Carolyn is still coughing up junk.

Guess it is all us retired folks doing the blogging. Dennis, Lewis, Sue, Helen, etc. The working folk don’t have the time at least that is what I hear. Got to get Tena blogging, got to get her computer fixed David!

Well must go make some phone calls to Monaco Warranty dept. I have an appointment, tomorrow, with the a local RV dealer to get some more warranty work done. Cupboard doors, coming apart and electric step not working; it is always something. That is why I usually buy used, someone else gets all the wrinkles out and pays the initial depreciation to boot.

The world response to the tsunami victims seems to gaining much strength. Saw on the news down here that Norway had the biggest per capita donation of $180 million dollars. Good to see all the help, they really need it.

We are at Cocopah, Yuma. We were able to get a site for four days to tide us over to our reserved date of Jan 7th. So we are set until Feb 7th.
Trip down to Yuma was pretty straight forward. We got through the Syskiyous Pass between weather systems. Sure was a lot of snow up there, however, the roads were good. The next day more snow was expected there, so we were happy to get through when we did. Southern California and Yuma are getting yet more rain. In fact it is raining right now. I don’t think we got any rain here last year at all. More expected over the next couple of days too.
Catching up with the news. Totally amazed at how bad that Tsunami in Indonesia was and is. Heartening to see the world responding to the disaster.
We have a mailing address in case it is needed:
Gary & Carolyn Ousey, site 121
6800 Strand Ave.
Yuma, AZ. 85364
Today is the 4th and man did it rain last night. Flood watches all around Arizona and Southern California. The Grapevine (a section of the I5 through the mountains) was closed for 40 miles and several hours due to heavy snow. We got through that just in time. Sunny and breezy today though. Good day to wash the car (filthy) as is the motorhome, but it will have to wait for another day.
The view out our windshield is excellent. One of the golf course holes (which one I don’t know yet) passes in front with some palm trees, regular trees, and hills in the distant. We are feeling quite comfy now. We are both fine except for this lingering cold, just won’t go away. Must go find a connection to blog this, they don’t have wireless internet here this year, the company that provided it went bankrupt; so back to the wired connection; gotta be flexible.

Hi all.

Have you been wondering where we were????

We talked to Ken Kirkwood on the day we left, he tried to contact us on our cell and when we were at the US border we called him. He wondered when we would be in. The situation with her brother was getting worse. So we decided to bypass our visit to them. Helen was stressed out enough as it was, and by extension Ken also, without having to worry about guests too. If we were able to be of assistance that would have been different, however, we would just have been an additional burden. So we cancelled our stay at Fort Lewis and WalMarted our way to Yuma. We spent New Years in a Walmart at Willows California WaHoo. Damn store closed at 6 pm.

We are at Pilot Knob resort near Yuma, where we will spend a couple of days getting caught up and organized. Our reservations at Cocopah are for Jan 7th.

So must go blog this and get our email.

Hope things are improving for Helen’s brother and for Helen too, and our thoughts are still with them.