Return to the 'mother ship'

6:36 am - Thursday - April 5th - SoCal - 54º F, 89% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the west by northwest....heavy overcast once again (marine layer) with a forecast high of 75º F.

Our Jello plan was to be on the road back to the 'mother ship' before 9 am.  Neither of us slept very well Tuesday night and were both up a little after 6 am.  We walked next door to the Yuma Landing Bar & Grill around 7:15 am for breakfast.....the Coronado Motor Hotel provides a free breakfast there for their customers.  We have eaten breakfast there before and enjoyed it.......

 Yuma Landing Bar & Grill

.....and this time was no different.  We were in the car and on I-8 by 8:20 am headed first west, then north of CA-111 to I-10 and home.....take that Mr. Jello!  The drive was completely uneventful, although we did stop for about 20 minutes in Mecca, CA (near Salton Sea) a the local Starbucks for a break before driving the final 90+ miles to Fontana.

We were unloading our overnight bags just after noon time and then relaxing and napping the rest of the afternoon......I turned on the TV to find that they were replaying the Par 3 competition from this year's Masters on ESPN.  Many current players compete in this tournament as a prelude to the actual Masters Golf Tournament, as well as many of the older players.  This year Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson played as a threesome, and what do you know?  Tom Watson at 68 years old won the 9 hole contest over everyone with a 6 under par score, including only 8 total putts.  Nicklaus finished at 4 under par in 3rd place at age 78, and Gary Player finished at 3 under par in 4th place at age 82.....what the....

Left to right: Tom Watson, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.....ageless

.....just amazing....I am speechless....you are never too old, right?  Shortly after the end of the 3 Par contest I lit the Sea-B-Que and grilled up some carne asada in preparation for the 'street tacos' TLE promised on the drive home.

We we quite happy being back in our familiar environs knowing we would get a good night's sleep Wednesday night.  Looking forward to watching endless hours of the Masters over the next four days beginning Thursday morning......life is good.

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La Dentista......

6:18 am - Wednesday - April 4th - Yuma, AZ - 61º F, 65% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east......partly cloudy with a forecast high (which we won't experience....we roll our wheels back to SoCal in an hour) of 92º F.

I was up just before 5 am Tuesday in anticipation of our 3.5 hour drive south to Los Algodones, Mexico  for our annual dental checkups.  This year, for a change, we had no major issues with which to deal......just a cleaning for both TLE and I, and a report on our dental health.

We were in the VW and exiting the Elks Lodge parking lot at precisely 6:30 am.   Usually I drive the first 100+ mile leg of the 218 mile trek to Salton City, CA where there is a large ARCO truck stop.  We go to the bathroom, and sometimes fuel up there (which we did) before continuing the drive to Los Algodones with TLE at the helm.  We arrived in Salton City (on the shores of the Salton Sea) a little after 8 am, and were back on the road by 8:20.....

Imperial Sand Dunes.....

.....once we hit Interstate 8 it is only another 48 miles to Los Algodones Road.  About 10 miles before we exit the Interstate we pass through the Imperial Sand Dunes.  The state (California) has been gradually, over the past 3 years, repaving this stretch of the Interstate from the Arizona border to the CA-111 exit.  We were hoping they would be done by now, and they almost are, but we still had to drive through about 20 miles of construction zones once again.

We arrived in the Quechan Casino border parking lot around 9:50 am, and were across the border into Baja California by 10 am on our way to Dr. Eva Urena's offices on the corner of Avenida B and Calle Cuarta.

We made a quick stop at 'Best Optical' where TLE ordered new eye glasses.....trifocals, computer glasses and reading glasses to be picked up later in the day after our dental appointments.

We arrived at Dr. Urena's offices by 10:40, and I was sitting in the 'chair' a few minutes later having my teeth cleaned.  During my dental health examination by Dr. Urena it was determined that the screw which attaches one of my crowns to a dental implant had come a little loose, so Dr. Urena removed the crown (you just unscrew it), cleaned the crown, installed a better screw, and then reinstalled the crown.  The whole process took less than 20 minutes and I was back in the waiting room whilst TLE had her cleaning.  Total cost for our cleanings and examinations was $35/person.  Sweet!

The line to get back into the USA was the longest we have ever seen (we were told it was even longer Monday), and when we finally got to the end of the line we were about 2 blocks from the border station.  Usually it takes about a hour from there, but we were handing our U.S. Passports over for scanning a little less than 45 minutes later and walking back to our car.

End of the line

We had made reservations at the historic Coronado Motor Hotel on 4th street in Yuma so we first headed there, checked in and then over to Old Town Yuma, and Prison Hill Brewing.....our favorite local micro brewery.....

 First time I've been here when I wasn't having major dental surgery the next day.....😋

.....we quickly ordered a couple of pints of their nitro oatmeal stout, an order of deep fried avocados, and one order of their fish 'n chips to split......

......we sat talking, drinking and eating for over an hour......I was very grateful that, for a change, we had no major dental issues requiring surgery, implants, root canals, etc.  Just a normal checkup.  We were back at our hotel room by 6:30 relaxing after a long, UNEVENTFUL day.

Thanks for stopping by!

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