Hello everybody, wow, I need to keep up with my posts in a more timely fashion. So much has been going on since we left El Paso, that for awhile, I just didn't want to write anything.
We did go to our Boomer friends, Paul & Stephanie Bernhagen's house in Las Cruces. They have built themselves a beautiful home in a nice location. Even though they live in a housing subdivision, we & another Boomer couple, David & Diane Sears, fit quite nicely in their side yard. I only got a few pics of the outside, never thought to take some of the inside or the backyard. We had a nice four day stay with our friends, with happy hours, dinner out for Mexican food and ice cream for dessert. We went on a couple of walks around the neighborhood and Diane & I got lost coming back, had to call for directions as it was getting dark and there were no street signs. But, we made it back okay.
We had been monitoring our friend, Dan's, progress with his cancer, that we had just found out about a month before. (he and his wife, Margie, have a bus like ours) On Sunday, we learned the
sad news that he had passed away earlier that morning. We were very sad, because we had hoped we'd be able to see him again when we got back west, at least to say goodbye, but, that was not to be. Since we were leaving that next morning, Monday, we had planned on stopping in Benson for a few days to visit friends in the area. We didn't know when the funeral was going to be, but, figured it wouldn't be for about a week, so figured we had plenty of time to get back to Yuma.
Well, as it happened, everything pretty much happened at once. We would miss the viewing on Tuesday night, but the Mass was Wed morning, early and the burial would be that afternoon. That meant we HAD to get back to Yuma pronto. We ended up just staying one night at the SKP park in Benson and did see a few friends, we'll have to go back to see the rest another time. We left Benson Tuesday morning and drove to Yuma, getting there around 4. We dropped the rig off at a fellow Boomer's house, (Gene & Kathy Thaden), took quick showers, got a few things together and drove over to another bus friend's house and we all drove to Long Beach, CA. We got there around 10:30 at night and stayed with a family friend who graciously opened her house to us. All told, we were on the road for about 12 hours and we were exhausted!
But, the important thing to all of us was that we were there for Dan, Marge & his whole family, to honor a good and dear friend and say one last goodbye. We were glad to see that Marge was holding up fairly well, and it was so good to see her. We are going to miss Dan very much, and as an extension, Margie, too. They were part of our bus club, so we saw them at every rally, as well, as personally getting together with them on a regular basis. Ron was in phone contact with him several times a week, just checking to see how they both were doing and what we were doing. As I mentioned to our other bus friends, it was Dan who died, but, we're also going to lose Margie too, as she won't be coming to any more functions. We'll be seeing her occasionally, but, in a different way, us going up to Long Beach to visit.
So, we're finally back in Yuma, our bus is still parked at our friends and Ron is in the act of changing out the composting toilet to a regular RV toilet. We got back right before my birthday, so invited a few friends to join us at a local eatery in downtown Yuma to celebrate our 30 year anniversary and my birthday. We celebrated being married 30 years back in March, when we went a two week cruise to Hawaii. We had a wonderful evening being with friends.
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