JANUARY 2003

Earl did more golfing and we did more eating out. Mom took her friend, O'Neil, and me out to lunch at Mimi's for our birthdays (O'Neil and I have birthdays just a few days apart). Earl took me out to dinner at the Olive Garden on my birthday. Mom and I also had lunch at various places during the month.

In preparation of selling our fifth wheel, we decided to start cleaning out stuff that we didn't really need right away. We bought some storage boxes and started packing...it's amazing just how much stuff we'd packed into our fifth wheel! And there's still more stuff in there! We also took the map off the side of the rig with a heat gun and then used Goof Off to take all the sticky off. We had United Aero Shine of Arizona come out and wash and wax the fifth wheel, too.

A friend and fellow New Horizons owner, George Bruzenak, stopped by Cotton Lane RV Park for a few days on his way to Quartzsite for the annual Boomerang (a gathering a Boomers, a Bird of a Feather group within the Escapees RV Club). We took him to Murphy's of Glendale, an absolutely yummy German food restaurant. The next night, George cooked dinner for us and on the third evening, we returned the favor. Bill and Gisela also stopped by for one night on their way to co-host at the Boomerang and the four of us went to Macaroni Grill for dinner.

The highlight of the month was the Boomerang in Quartzsite. We spent the first week of the Boomerang (which coincided with the big RV show) camped out in the desert with other Boomers. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the Boomers, going to Happy Hours and sitting by the bonfire each night. We also spent time touring all the goings on in Quartzsite and visited our friends, Don and Patti Hellman, who live there during the winter.

On Tuesday, we were treated to a dinner prepared by "Handlebar Jim" (one of the Boomers) and was it ever good! We also had dinner at Bill and Gisela's rig one night and on Friday night, the four of us drove to Brenda where we had dinner at the Black Rock Cafe. One night, we had George B and another fellow New Horizons owner, Lloyd Treichel, over to our rig for dinner.

While in Quartzsite, we bought a lot in the Q Mountain RV Subdivision.

After the Boomerang was over, George B came back to Cotton Lane RV Park to do laundry and stuff before heading off for the Elk-a-rang in Gila Bend. The Elk-a-rang is a Boomers event held at the Gila Bend Elks Club where they initiate new Elks members and do work for the lodge...cleaning, repairing, building stuff, etc. We took George to eat at Macaroni Grill.