Cabin Fever Breaks

Finally, the wind died down and the sunshine has returned.  Yesterday I decided that I’d had enough of the inside of this coach and announced that I was going to Parker.  I knew Janna wanted to get some quilting accomplished, Jim had some puttering around the place he wanted to do, so off I went on a solo day trip.

First stop was the hair salon that Janna had visited the previous day to see if I could get a little clean-up job on my top mop.  Yes, they could work me in, but I had an hour’s wait first.  Walmart was next, where I sailed through the list and got checked out and back to get my hair trimmed.  Then I stopped for a quick sandwich before tackling the Safeway store.

Coming out of Safeway after my groceries were purchased, I saw that a police car was parked right behind my car in the parking lot, with several people standing around arguing.  Evidently, a vehicle had been hit and the involved parties were discussing the incident.  In true “Texas” form, I asked the officer, “Could y’all move this discussion down the row so I can get out of here?” He glanced up at me and indicated it would be a few minutes.  “Sure thing”, I replied, got in my car, started the engine, put it in reverse and leaned over the seat to watch them disperse.  Sheesh.  What in the heck is going to become of me when I actually have to go to a “real” city again!  Spoiled by the desert, that’s what I am!

Remember way back in “the olden days” when we used a stove and a pan to pop REAL popcorn?  Well, Mike has been popping corn that way forever.  He and Janna have been sharing their popcorn with us for snacks, and with us boondocking and not running the generator very much, I haven’t been indulging in my favorite microwave popcorn.  I thought maybe I’d try actually popping corn in one of my pans on my stove.  Wow, what a concept.  Mike brought over his corn and olive oil a few days ago and we tried it with one of my pans.  Yep, it worked.  So, when I did the shopping yesterday, I got a bottle of the extra light olive oil and a jar of popping corn and made a batch when I got back.  Oh, that was good!  Even with the olive oil, I figure for half a batch of REAL pop corn, it’s only about 1 WW “point”.  And, we’re supposed to have a little oil each day anyway, so this is a great thing for me.

Janna fixed us a fabulous dinner of garlic-basil shrimp, salad and ice cream with raspberry sauce for dinner at their house last night.  We played Mexican Train again, with Mike running away with a win.

This morning we were all up at dark-thirty, getting ready to go to Lake Havasu City.  Janna and I were attending WW meeting, and the guys went to Lowes while we were there.  After the meeting, we stopped to see London Bridge, then went to breakfast.  After that, we took a drive up towards Oatman, checking out possible boondocking spots along the way.  Nothing struck us as being as perfect as the place we are now.

London Bridge:

Oatman is basically just a cute little street filled with what Mike calls “rubber tomahawk” stores and wild burros in the streets begging for carrots. We took a scenic drive back through Needles, California and back to Parker where we had “linner” at the same Mexican restaurant we ate at last week.

The Burros are the main attraction in Oatman.  Janna remembered to bring carrots, and these guys knew it!

We were glad to get back to our desert home this afternoon, even more so after we noticed that the neighbors who arrived last week had moved on, returning our area to it’s serene beauty and quiet.