Here we are, on the road: We’re in Palm Spring

Sunday, December 12, 2010 Lorraine’s report

Hello again from sunny Palm Springs, where the temperature is suppose to be 87 degrees out today, with the low of 57. It has been absolutely beautiful here this past week, and Chuck is even in shorts and sandals again. I’ve finally warmed up, and I’m hoping that virus I’ve had for almost a month is finally on its last legs.

Last Sunday found us headed to the annual Indio Tamale Festival. Indio is just 15 minutes up the road from us here at 1000 Trails RV Park. We have attended this festive three times now and enjoy everything about it. We hadn’t ever eaten very many tamales before the first time there, but find we now like eating pork tamales the best. So Chuck and I must have shared a bunch from 6 or 7 places, including a raspberry dessert one. By the time I remembered that I liked the strawberry dessert one, I was too full to want it anymore. The crowds were still out and the weather was perfect, we had a great time there.

From the tamale festival we headed over to our favorite casino in the area, Augustine. We hadn’t been there for a year the guy said when we went to get our cards, and he also said we could enter their free slot tournament. Chuck got the last spot for the 2:20 tournament, so he took it. I signed up for the 2:40 tournament. Well, Chuck got lucky and took first place in his time slot. He received $25 in free slot play. I came in third for my group and received $10; from that seed money, I took out $50 bucks, not bad for a free slot tournament.

Monday was a very busy and early day for us. Chuck had the coach and car washed, waxed and machine/hand buffed out, the guys shampooed the carpets/rug inside and we took Misty to get groomed. Plus, I was doing laundry through all of this, and knitting on Kaitlyn’s blanket for Christmas.

We also had to go to Best Buy to get a new cord that plugs into my laptop so that it will charge; the cord broke on my computer and it wasn’t charging my laptop.

Chuck wanted to go over to Agua Caliente for the Monday Night Football party they have there each and every Monday night during the football season. Last year this casino was giving away gifts, (like burgers, food gift certificates, t-shirts, etc.) during the commercials and at the end of each quarter; we went and had fun. It was great to get everything done in one fell swoop, but I’m glad we aren’t that busy every day.

Tuesday morning Chuck put our decorations for Christmas outside the coach. We then had more running to do; Costco, Walmart, Penny’s and See’s candy.

Finishing up by mid afternoon, Chuck plugged an RV Park into the GPS and it took us to it. We were checking out prices and places for our friends, Rob/Norma, and Rick/Joy who are coming down to Palm Springs after Christmas. This will be their first time here, and we thought we could get them into 1000 Trails with us, but 1000 Trails changed the rules and we have to wait until a week before they are due here and then try to get them in. The rangers here have said that time they would be here is really full and it looks like we wouldn’t be able to get them in.

Wednesday morning Chuck cleaned the vents in the coach from the roof, while I was busy inside. We headed out to check on more RV Parks around 1:15, but Chuck wanted to stop by Mark/Chris’s Phaeton Place to visit with them a minute. We ended up staying and visiting with them until after 4:30; and then we went to dinner with them to Mario’s just down the road in a little shopping mall. We had a great time getting to know them, and we all enjoyed a great spaghetti dinner. They came by after dinner to see our coach, heading home after 7 pm. Thanks Mark/Chris for another great day!

Chuck had more chores he worked on Thursday morning. We took off late morning to check out another RV Park, this time a county park. Friends, Joe and Alice stayed there before. Lake Cahuilla County RV Park is about 10 miles or so from us and sits on a nice lake that has fishing, open to the public. It was hot, sunny and a great day for a drive.

From there we headed over to Augustine Casino for “Old Farts Day”. I had a little luck, but not so for Chuck.

We had told Dorothy and Tom we would go with them to the Thursday Evening Street Fair, held every Thursday in Palm Springs, on the same street as the lighted street parade. We picked them up at their home in Desert Hot Springs and we all enjoyed a mild evening looking at all the stands full of everything from nuts, dates, fresh veggies, fresh baked goods to home made arts and crafts, to all the food stands. We ate our dinner of hot dogs/polish dogs with all the fixings. Thank you Dorothy/Tom, we had a great time.

Friday we stayed home until 3 in the afternoon. I made up a double-double batch of my See’s fudge to take to Happy Hour at Mark/Chris’s Phaeton Place at 3. We were invited to their rig to meet some of their friends they play pickle ball with. Chris wasn’t sure how many people would show up; there was 20 people that came and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon/evening visiting, eating and sitting around Mark’s new “Fire in a Can” fire. And the fire was great!

We got home and I was determined to finish the blanket I’ve been working on for granddaughter, Kaitlyn that night. I finished it about 11:30 pm. Yea for me!!!! I’m sure she will love it since it is filled with all my love for her.

Now I need to get going on a couple of neck scarves I want to make for daughter, Susy for Christmas.

Saturday we headed over to the fair grounds in Indio to check out an RV show put on by about 4-5 RV dealers from the area. Chuck went through most of the rigs, while I just went into the Tiffin coaches.

I wanted to stop by Spotlight 29 Casino for a bit; again I had luck, not so for Chuck.

We had told Tom/Dorothy we would go to dinner with them to the Elks lodge in Desert Hot Springs. We went by and picked up Tom and headed to the Elks. Dorothy came after work, a short time later. We all enjoyed a very nice dinner of steak/potato/ salad and a delicious dessert. What a great way to end the week, good food and good friends.

We head back to Santa Clara Elks to spend the holidays with our daughter, Susy and granddaughter, Kaitlyn on Thursday. Last Thursday, our son, Rick headed north to build the Ice Road, it always makes me sad when he goes so far north, I miss/worry about him, lots!

So that’s if for me. Until next time….Lorraine

12/12/10 Chuck’s report

Hello from Sunny Palm Springs once again. The weather is perfect, come on down Dave/Sandy!! Boy, it seems that the storms are severe and early this year up there, hope you are doing ok and staying warm. Believe me, we are glad to be here instead of up there during these storms.

We’ve had another good week. Last Sunday we went to the annual Tamale Festival in Indio, our third year in a row to go to it. Once again, we had perfect weather all day and spent a couple hours with 1000s of our closest friends. That’s the only negative about going there, too many people. They have expanded a bit this year with more booths, both with Tamales and some with street fair type stuff for sale. We managed to sample/eat too many tamales, in hindsight, maybe we should have bought a dozen to put in the freezer for later.

After spending some time in the hot sun, we decided to head to a casino just down the road from there. They had a free slot tournament going on with the top three scores from each time slot winning some free play money. I was lucky enough to get on a good machine and won first place in my time slot, luckily Lorraine was in the next time slot and she came in third, yea for both of us.

Monday I had one of the local RV wash/wax guys come by and do up our coach. I have paid to have it washed twice and waxed once since we’ve had it, every other time I’ve done it myself. I am too old and out of shape to finish in one day and I’m sore and taking aspirin for days later. This time, I finished in one day (actually about 4 hours) and didn’t need any aspirin later, ha. They did a great job on the wash, dry, wax, polished the wheels and washed the car too. Because we are on the main street in the park and get lots of traffic, they had lots of folks stop by and make appointments while they were doing ours.

We also took our dog, Misty, to the groomer, she was getting pretty shaggy. They did a good job on her and she pranced around later showing off her new ‘do and ribbon.

Later we went by a casino for their Monday Night Football party. Two years ago they gave out lots of good prizes during most of the commercial breaks, dinners, food certificates, trips up the mountain tram, even football tickets to the San Diego Chargers. They still have the party but this year the prizes were a lot smaller, little footballs, hats and a few Christmas ornaments. They do have a target set up at half time, throw the football through the hole and win a prize but neither Lorraine or I had any luck doing that either. But Lorraine did get to play the slots for a couple of hours while I watched football, something both of us like to do.

Tuesday was a quieter day, we put up the few outside decorations and Christmas lights we have, made a Costco/Wal-Mart run and checked out a couple of the RV parks in the area for our friends. Rob/Norma & Rick/Joy, who are coming down with us in early January. Or original plans were to have all of us stay here at 1000 Trails but it seems there are more people coming down this year than in the past three years so we can’t make reservations for them yet and it looks like the park will be full. So we’ve been looking around for another nice, close park for them. Boy, some of these parks are proud of what they have, wanting upwards of $60/day, too rich for my blood.

Wednesday morning I wanted to clean the three vents we have on the coach. It’s amazing how much dirt and grease get on those blades. I grabbed the Phillips screwdriver, spray bottle of Awesome and a box of paper towels and headed up on top of the coach. I took each one apart, cleaned the whole thing and put it back together and everything worked when I was done, yea. And it really looks good and clean from inside the coach too.

Later we took off to visit another RV park but we stopped off to see Mark/Chris before we left. This was about 1:00 and we visited with them, went to dinner, came back to our place and visited even more. We spent over 6 hours with these folks, so much for just stopping by and saying hi. They also were planning a Happy Hour at their coach (they own a Tiffin Phaeton and call their place “Phaeton Place) Friday afternoon.

Thursday we did make it out to check more RV parks. Our friends, Joe/Alice, have stayed at a county park just South of town and we headed down there to check it out. They have spaces available during the time our friends will be here but it may be too far. Later we drove over to meet with Tom/Dorothy and we went to the Street Fair in downtown Palm Springs. They block off a few blocks of the downtown roads every Thursday night, rain or shine, for the vendors to set up their tents. There was lots of art type stuff, some junk, lots of food and once again, lots of people. It started to get a bit cool before we left, maybe I should have worn something besides a tee shirt, shorts and sandals. But that has been the uniform of the day since we’ve been here, at least during the daytime warmer temperatures. It does cool off fast here in the desert once the sun goes down, however.

Friday we hung around the coach, Lorraine made some fudge for our contribution to the upcoming Happy Hour party. We sat outside for a couple of hours, I read a book, Lorraine worked on the blanket she has been knitting for our grand daughter. We are sure enjoying this weather!

Later we went over to Mark/Chris’s Phaeton Place. There ended up being 20 people there and plenty of food and snacks for all. We had a good time, met all the folks and promptly forgot their names, visited with a few and made new friends. A good time with good folks, once again.

This weekend there was an RV show at the fairgrounds in Indio. We headed over to check it out yesterday, don’t worry, we’re just looking and have no intention of buying. We don’t want/need anything different or newer than what we have now, we’ve done lots of modifications and changes to make it ours and don’t want anything else. But it is fun to see what’s new in the new coaches.

Later we went to the Elks Lodge in Desert Hot Springs for dinner. This is the Lodge where I joined the Elks two years ago but we don’t make it there very often. They have just completed a big remodel of their kitchen that looks really good. Tom is working with them to maybe set up a small RV park at the lodge but as of now it would only be dry camping if we wanted to stay there. Maybe once they get hookups we would thing about it but we would need to run our generator too much without hookups.

We are staying here until Thursday then we head back to the Bay area to be with our daughter and grand daughter over Christmas. They are making plans to go to the Stanford football bowl game in Florida on January 3rd. Once they get their plans made, we will modify our plans too, we won’t stay in the Bay area if they aren’t there, the sun is too nice here in the desert. We do know that we will be there over Christmas but the time after that is what is in flux at this time. Oh well, we’ll take what we can get.

We do know our Canadian friends are planning on meeting with us on Jan. 6th. We just don’t know where they will be staying yet. We have reservations for us here at 1000 Trails and will try to get them in here, it just doesn't look good at this time however. We got a call from Rob on Friday afternoon and discussed a couple of options that he is working on too. But even though we don’t know for sure where everyone will be, we are still looking forward to seeing them. It will be their first time heading South for the winter and I remember our first time, gosh this is our 4th year down here.

Lorraine has already finished her report, I’ll copy that here, add some pictures and get this posted. Lorraine always proofreads this before I post it too so once she’s done, it’s on it’s way.

Before sending this on I told Tom I would add some information for him. Due to some non-life threatening medical issues, they’ve decided to stop RVing and will be selling their rig and their camping memberships. They are selling their 2002 Cayman motorhome with a Saturn car rigged for towing. They also will be getting rid of their 1000 Trails, Pahrump Premiere campground, RPI, Western Horizon and others. They are willing to let these memberships go for just the transfer fees, a very good deal for someone. In fact, I’m researching the idea of taking over some of these too. If anyone is interested in more info about their rig or their memberships, let me know and I’ll pass on their contact information.

The roadrunner on our little table outside the coach, not afraid unless Misty is there.