Cactus Flower at Rio Bend RV Resort, El Centro, CA

When I took my walk Monday morning, before we pulled out, I was suprised by the largest cactus flower I have ever seen. It was in the garden in front of the Rio Bend office, not in the wild desert. 

There was one just budding.

And one fully open and perfect.

It was eight inches in diameter. The plant was growing several additional buds on the top.







I am using it as my header for now, but since that goes away when I change headers, I am including the same image in this post. 

It was amazing!

Oh, and for anyone who wants to know more about the brand of the ladder in my last post, check the comments. Craig wrote up the details there.

Good News, We Hope

The good news is that the buyers of the commercial property that must close before our house can sell, have finally removed all contingencies that might prevent the closing.  So unless something else causes an unexpected problem, the three transactions should close in a timely procession.  We are pretty sure it will not be by the original target date of March 25.  Our realtor is estimating April 4. Fingers are crossed!

We spent two nights parked on the street in front of our daughter's house, and were able to visit with her and with some of our San Diego friends.

We park in front of the neighbors because the space in front of her house is not level. This was taken early in the morning on the day we left. Being only two blocks from the ocean, it is usually cloudy at that time of day.

On Monday we enjoyed a walk along Sunset Cliffs Drive. The big homes have some very nice landscape plants.

We probably won't be seeing this ocean again for a while, so we savored the sun and salt air on our walk.

We both have dental appointments in Los Algodones, Mexico on Wednesday, so on Tuesday we drove to a nice little Passport America park near El Centro, about 60 miles west of Yuma. The Rio Bend RV and Golf Resort is quite clean and comfortable. After getting parked and hooked up, we went to the sun-warmed pool and relaxed for a while. 

I'm writing this as we are sitting outside in the shade and are listening to many doves and other birds. There is a patio party of a bunch of noisy old-timers going on just up the road, but it doesn't bother us at all.  Sounds like people having fun.  There must be a dozen golf carts parked there. If we had the energy we would wander over. I'm sure we would be welcome, but we are both just happy to sit here drinking our wine and doing our own things. 

Later:  After dinner we took an evening walk around the park and discovered this beautiful pond and the golf course. 

We will stay here for just two nights and then go north to Anza Borrego State Park. We have a week-long reservation in the campground with hookups.  We are not yet ready to boondock in an area that might get quite hot. I do hope it will be cool enough to take some hikes.  

I really feel very mellow and content right now.  Is it the wine? Or is it knowing that we have everything we need. Running water, a sewer connection, air conditioning, cable TV, and a wonderful warm swimming pool to float around in when we return from our dental trip tomorrow.

One day at a time!
  
As Judy would say: "Carpe Diem!"