A WINDY PAJAMA SCRAMBLE IN THE LATE NIGHT DESERT

STARTING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

The California Express hit us last night about 11:15. We had been asleep about 2 hours when the big southwest wind gusts started slamming into the back of the motorhome. Once again we had been caught totally off guard as we heard things flying around outside. The sounds inside an RV in heavy wind gusts is absolutely frightening. I immediately thought our solar panels were being ripped off as well as the slide awnings. We scrambled to get shoes on & head outside in our pajamas to do battle with the great wind monster bent on blowing us clear over into the next State. Kelly was the first out the door as the wind ripped the door out of her hand & slammed it against the side of the motorhome. Lawn chairs were nowhere in site as sand & bits of branches went tumbling by. Kelly quickly rescued a camera tri-pod as I became entangled in a long dog leash tied to the hand rail near the steps. Didn't seem funny to me at the time but Kelly said it was pretty hilarious seeing me in my pajamas, dog leash entangled around my legs, jumping up & down, hair standing straight up on end & hollering nasty things at the "stupid dog leash!!!!" I had locked the bicycles to-gether earlier so they were ok as they huddled against the motorhome underneath the bedroom slide. Remembered I had folded the lounge chairs up earlier so they were still in their place storage place. The car was still there too as we struggled to get back into the rig & get the door closed. The winds continued to rock the rig for another hour or so & then it was gone just as quickly as it had come. It was only then that I was able to go back to bed & eventually drift off to some completely windless & peacefully quiet valley somewhere. Sort of like inside a stuffy library late on a Sunday night.

An email came in first thing this morning from an RV couple who had been following our blog. They were in Yuma & wondered if we would like to get to-gether for a chin wag. We had planned on going into Yuma this morning for some groceries so Kelly called them on our Skype phone & made arrangements to meet at McDonald's in the Wal-Mart store near Yuma's airport at 11:30. It was a good thing we left early because when I drove into Yuma to where the Wal-Mart store was a few days ago........it wasn't there. How could that happen!! Drove around & around in the heavy pre-Christmas traffic until we had to finally stop & ask a fellow where they had moved the Wal-Mart store to. Well, turns out, they didn't move it afterall. It was still in the same place but our car just didn't seem remember where it had been...... or something like that.

HEY, MY HAT'S BIGGER THAN YOUR HAT!!

It was lucky that we met Doug & JoAnn at all because they were on Arizona time & we were on California time, meaning 11:30 was really 10:30 for them & 11:30 was really still 11:30 for us or was it 12:30......or something like that. We grabbed ourselves a bite to eat, some coffee, & sat ourselves down for a good old RV 40 minute chin wag. Truly nice folks & we felt at ease with them. http://www.mytripjournal.com/ourdream
Kelly's better at meeting new people than I am but I was able to overcome a few of my insecurities & flop myself into the conversation here & there. Most guys are mechanically inclined, love sports, follow politics, & know everything there is to know about absolutely everything so I often get left in a trail of dust when it comes to manly conversations. Therefore I am a little hesitant about meeting new people so am content to sit out here in the desert pondering over simple little things like the mysteries of the Universe on windy days!!

,HAD WE STAYED ANY LONGER, McDONALD'S WOULD HAVE CHARGED US A SITTING FEE

We were back to the rig by 1:30 & spent the rest of the windy afternoon recovering from our lack of sleep from last night's wily wind monster episode. It seems the older one gets, the longer it takes for a person to recover from anything out of the ordinary. Especially lack of sleep...............................

No photos for the web album to-night.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

P.S. Noticed when we got home to-day with all our Wal-Mart stuff that 5 of the items were actually......."Made in the U.S.A." Been a long while since we've seen anything that wasn't Made In China at Wal-Mart!! Do you suppose this could be a positive sign of....................the long road back:))