Life In The Foothills

The Foothills area is located on the east side of Yuma and is a huge area divided up into private lots, most of which have at least two RV hookups. Thousands of RVers winter here, either on their own lots or on lots they rent by the week, month or season. Lots rent anywhere from $250 a month up, depending on how long you are staying and if utilities are included.

It’s a nice area, not nearly as busy as closer in to town, with lots of restaurants, laundromats, all kinds of nice little shops, and a great Fry’s grocery store. You have to get to most businesses here early, because by 4 p.m. many of the smaller businesses, including the laundromat, are closing so the old farts can have Happy Hour and then go out to dinner and get back home in time to get ready for bed by 9.

If you go to any store here during the winter, bring along an extra load of patience because it can be frustrating dealing with the famous Q-tip Crab Crawl. If you’re not familiar with that term, in this area Q-tips are not those cotton swabs you clean your ears with. No, they are the snowbirds with white hair and white shoes who scowl at the world as they move at a snail’s pace down store aisles pushing their walkers ahead of them and stopping in the very center to talk, try to remember where they are and why, or just to take a short nap.

Of course, not everybody here hit puberty during the Bronze Age. There are also a lot of very active Boomers who are always busy doing something. This year ATVs of every description seem to be as popular as golf carts and you’ll see them running all over the place. There are also quite a few classic cars running around, and somebody across from the lot we’re staying on has a gorgeous old late 1930s coupe that I’ve caught a glimpse of several times. Life is good in the Foothills and we’re enjoying our stay. Yesterday our hosts, Charles and Chris Yust, treated us to a delicious dinner of thick New York strip steaks grilled to perfection, sautéed mushrooms for the steaks, and baked potatoes. Today Miss Terry is going to cook up a bunch of baby back ribs in her Orion Smoker, and I’m drooling already. I may need to join a gym or take up jogging if we stay here too long.

All of the RVers who come here every winter are a huge boom to the local economy and there is a lot of competition for snowbird dollars, which means you can get some great deals. Yesterday a couple of guys from Benjamin’s RV Wash came over and washed and hand dried both of our motorhomes and SUVs. They charged $1 a foot for the RVs and $10 for the SUVs. So for $50 we got both the Winnebago and the Explorer washed. The water here in Yuma is notoriously hard, and the mobile wash units use spot free washing solutions and carry their own water.

Have you entered our latest Free Drawing yet? This week’s prize is an audiobook of Rift in the Races by my friend John Daulton. It’s the second book in John’s excellent Galactic Mage Series science fiction series. All you have to do is click on the Free Drawing link and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

My friend Sherrie Giddens’ newest recipe book, Sherrie’s Favorite Pantry Mixes 1: Breads and Desserts, is now on Amazon and she’s got some yummy things in it. My stomach growled just looking at some of them!

Thought For The Day – How to start an argument online – 1.) Express an opinion. 2.) Wait

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