It is a rainy and cold New Year’s Eve in the parking lot of the Desert Diamond Casino in Tucson, Arizona and we feel like celebrating because all of our shopping, appointments, and chores are done. Mexico here we come!

The good news is that Molly is healthy but our wallets are over $700 lighter to find that out.  Before leaving for Hawaii we had taken her to a veterinarian because she had been ill for a week and the doctor discovered her blood protein levels were low.  We took her back for another blood test and this time everything was fine.  But the doctor didn’t like the look of her eyes and did a number of tests and said she needed to be on some eye ointment for life or else she could develop corneal abrasions. A tiny tube cost $48 and the first time I used it half of it squirted out. We will take her to our much more reasonably priced veterinarian in Colorado later for another opinion and maybe I can find some of the ointment in Mexico for much less.

It is so good to have Molly back and we will never leave her again for so long. For the two weeks that we were in Yuma between the New Zealand and Hawaii trips, she continued to stay in Joy’s house so that she wouldn’t have to constantly figure out who she belonged to.  Actually, Molly didn’t want to have much to do with us those two weeks and wouldn’t even visit in the motor home. But when we returned this time she switched her loyalty back to us immediately.  Molly is 10 and has never liked toys….ever.  But when we leave her with someone because of a big trip, she adopts one and carries it everywhere.  The minute we return, she refuses to touch those toys and we end up throwing them away. Strange huh?

In August, when we drove to Arizona from Colorado, halfway through the drive the motor home suddenly lost almost all power going up hills.  That worried us and so we made an appointment with the Sprinter mechanics at the Dodge dealership in Tucson. They let us stay the night in their lot overnight as our appointment was at 7 this morning.  They checked everything that could have caused the problem and could not find anything wrong and as a courtesy also performed a 15 point inspection at no charge. Everything is fine. It was just another fluke that corrected itself like Molly’s blood work.

Then the lock froze on the coach door and we could not get in or out of Tulip that way. An RV supply place in Yuma said they would have to order a lock and it wouldn’t arrive before we wanted to leave.  To our big relief, Steve managed to fix it himself.  And Steve bravely completed his dental work in Algodones while I made and cancelled two appointments.

I don’t know if we will cross the border tomorrow or the following day. Neither of us has slept much the past three nights and so it depends on how we do tonight.  I like parking here at the Desert Diamond Casino. There is a parking area in a far corner of the huge property set aside for motor homes and so far there are about 30 here for the night. It is quiet and free and also on the southern side of Tucson very close to the highway to Mexico.

Desert Diamond Casino