Where are Cheryl and Dennis?: Yuma and Covid 19

2/11/2020 – 4/22/2020

Holy cow! Its been over two months since I wrote in my blog. One reason is we have stayed in one place for a while and since we have been here several years in a row have not seen anything new to write about. And if I am honest I was getting lazy as well. So what has happened since the middle of February? We had been enjoying the park amenities and activities. I attended the pool exercise classes a few days a week and went on a couple of the park led hikes. We enjoyed playing Bingo, happy hour music as well as the weekly jam sessions. Also visiting with friends in the park. For my birthday we smoked some ribs and had a few friends over for happy hour. Dennis and I also took lessons to learn the Texas Two Step! Of course most of these things came to a halt by the end of March. More on that later.

Through a Yuma Equestrian Facebook page I was put in touch with a gal in Wellton to go horseback riding. She has several horses and including some adopted mustangs and a burro. She is working on getting certified as a Mustang Trainer where she would get the mustangs and do the initial gentling before they are put up for adoption. She also happens to be the reigning Yuma Silver Spur Rodeo Queen as well as a student at Arizona Western College. Despite her busy schedule she found a couple of days for me to come out and ride. She has access to quite a bit of open desert land. I loved riding with her and plan on contacting her next year when we return to Yuma.

One day a group of us ladies went to a nearby park for a fashion show. It had a Hawaiian theme and a group of ladies from the local Ukulele club played and sang Hawaiian themed songs. We had a nice lunch and enjoyed the fashion show and the music. Watching the ladies play the Ukes was particularly interesting as Dennis had just purchased one and started to learn to play.

All of this fun stuff came to an end the middle of March. We had heard about the corona virus on the news and the increasing amount of travel restrictions being put in place to try and stop or at least slow down the spread. Apparently the virus started in Wuhan China and was the result of a virus transferring from animal to human which meant that humans did not have any antibodies to fight it. On January 30 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a global public health emergency as more than 9,000 cases were reported worldwide, including 18 countries beyond China. Over the month of February more and more cases were reported in more countries which resulted in more travel restrictions. On March 11 the WHO declared the outbreak as a pandemic. Two days later on March 13 president Trump declared a national state of emergency which addition to freeing up $50 billion to fight the pandemic also started a landslide of closures and shut downs. Most states shut down schools, restaurant and any public gathering place as well as all public events. This included all sports. Most states issued a shelter in place, safe at home and social distancing orders which encouraged you to only leave your home for essential goods or services.

At Fortuna De Oro they started suspending events and shutting public places in the park. A lot of the Canadians that winter here were told by their travel insurance providers to return to Canada as their coverage did not include pandemics. So we saw a lot of people leave the end of March. The pool was open for a few weeks but eventually they closed that too.

The virus changed our plans as well. We were planning a visit to San Diego in March but decided to call that off. We were also planning on leaving Yuma the end of March and slowly make our way home through Utah. However since things were shutting down all over the place we decided to spend the month of April in Yuma. This would at least allow us to enjoy some warm weather for another month since it is still pretty cold in Wisconsin in April. Also they discouraged you from even visiting with family. We would not be able to visit our kids, Henry or any of our family anyway.

So since we had a lot more time I our hands it was a good time to work on crafts. I continued to crochet some things as well as dug out my glass enamel paint and decorated plates. Before the stay at home order went into place I attended a scratch art class with my friend Li.

The weather here has been pretty nice. In February we had some cool days where we had to wear jackets. March was a little warmer with temps in the 70's. Still a bit cool in the desert as the humidity is really low. There was a couple of significant rain events in the area. We were able to observe water running the the washes. Otherwise they are bone dry. April has been really nice with temps in the 80's. The weather man is forecasting highs around 100 for a few days this week. Not sure how that is going to go as we only have one air conditioner on our camper. Lots of sitting in the shade drinking lemonade I guess! We are planning on leaving here May 1^st.

Where we are parked: Fortuna De Oro RV Park – Site 954 and site 618 – This is a very large RV resort with all the amenities: Golf, boccie ball, shuffle board, pickle ball and tennis courts, two swimming pools, a restaurant and bar. Also lots of activities in one of several clubhouses. RV site rates: Daily $48, Weekly $280, Monthly $750 plus utilities. There are other rates for extended and fall only stays.