Here we are, on the road: Still here in Palm Springs, California

Sunday, January 16, 2011 Lorraine’s report

Once again this post finds us in sunny Palm Desert at 1000 Trails RV Park. These past several days has found the temperature during the day time in the low to mid 80’s, a much welcomed break.

As usual for us we have had busy times this past week. Last Sunday found me preparing a bunch of food to take over for a Barbeque at Rob and Norma’s. I brought a meat/cheese tray with crackers and chips and dips and the steaks, and for me, hot dogs.. We stopped at the grocery store and I picked up three pies for dessert for all us from me and Dorothy. Tom/Dorothy/Melissa, Rick/Joy, Rob/Norma and Chuck and I were there. Rob and Rick did the cooking for all of us, thanks everyone for a laughter/fun filled evening with too much food.

The following Monday found Chuck and me returning the last of the Christmas gifts and getting my new sunglasses fixed. Chuck and I found the mall in Palm Springs for these errands, and enjoyed a nice walk through the big mall.

We headed over to visit our Canadian friends for a bit at their RV Park in Caliente Hot Springs. They sure have a beautiful spot; their rigs are backed up to the lake on the golf course and they are able to see all kinds of birds and wild life, as well as all the golfers.

We came back home, freshened up and headed back out to meet Gilbert North, Chuck’s brother, who came out to Palm Springs from Wright City, MO. Gil was here on union business with 3 other union reps. They came out three days early to play golf.

The day we met up with them, Gil and Dale had been up since before 6 am, on the golf course by 6:30 and we met them at 7 pm and they had just finished golfing. We were suppose to go to a Mexican Restaurant, but went to the Village Pub so the guys could watch the play off game. We enjoyed a pleasant dinner, eating outside with one of those propane heated tables, with a big television right over us. Thanks Gil and Dale for an enjoyable evening, it was fun catching up.

Tuesday, I worked on finishing up the laundry, you know how that goes. We waited for Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy to come over so we could take them to the San Andreas Fault Line and the Oasis that is there. Everyone showed up and off we went.

We had a nice time at the oasis, checking out the Visitor’s center, walking through all the palm trees in their natural state. Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy walked on up another mile or so to the lake at the oasis. All said it was beautiful and well worth the walk. We drove the car to pick them up along side the road so they wouldn’t have to walk all the way back.

From there we took them to 5 Guys hamburger place. Everyone really enjoyed the burgers and fries, especially the amount they give for a single order. Only complaint was they had no shakes for sale, several people wanted them.

Since we had an early dinner, we decided to head over to the Spotlight 29 Casino. We played for a bit with Norma the winner of the evening.

Wednesday found us waiting at home while Rick/Joy and Rob/Norma went to a presentation on their RV Park. This gave them a discount for their second week at the park.

The came over by 1:45 and again we headed out, this time Norma wanted to go to the basket show being held at Agua Caliente Museum., being held in down town Palm Springs. We found the place and went in. Well, the museum is small and there were maybe 30 baskets on display, with none by the tribe for sale. Norma was a bit disappointed I think.

Finishing up we decided to walk several blocks of downtown Palm Springs. It was nice and sunny and very pleasant outside. The gals went into several shops looking. On the way back to the car, we found a place to get date shakes. Of course our friends had to try one. I think everyone enjoyed their date shake. Barb, remember how far we had to go to get you one?

From downtown we all headed to the In N Out to let our friends try these burgers, since we had been to 5 Guys the day before. From what I gathered, In N Out burgers were second to the 5 Guys, with everyone liking the fries, meat and everything better at 5 Guys.

We went on over to Agua Caliente Casino following dinner. Everyone signed up for their players cards and they all received $25.00 in casino play. All of us all were up for the time we were there, with Norma again being the big winner of the evening.

Thursday found Chuck and I headed over to the FMCA Rally being held in Indio. Usually we are there everyday of the rally, because I belong to the Frustrated Maestros, but this year I decided not to go and sing with them, since they sing from 7 am to 9 am. I’m still tired from the busy holiday season.

We both found seminars to attend and enjoyed our day at the rally. Dorothy called and wanted to meet me for the parade, so I stayed with her, Tom and Melissa, while Chuck went on home to take Misty out.

Dorothy drove me home and we were suppose to head back out to go with everyone to the street fair held every Thursday evening in downtown Palm Springs. Chuck and I decided to stay home, since I was tired, and I think Rob and Rick stayed in also.

Friday morning Chuck had found several more seminars he wanted to go to, so back we went to the FMCA Rally. We both were busy until Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy came into the rally. The gals planned to go to the Red Hat Tea and fashion show that day at the rally; it was a lot of fun. The guys did their guy thing. A fun time was had by all.

From there we went home and got Misty and headed back out to go to Norma’s sister, Angela’s place for dinner. Angela, Gordon and Ray made us all a wonderful dinner of BBQ tenderloin steaks with mushrooms and grilled onions, salad, corn on the cob, wonderful crusty french bread and dessert of strawberry cake with cream. Thank you all for such a great dinner, good company and grand fellowship.

Chuck was checking blogs and found that Mike D and Linda O were here in our RV Park. They had gotten in Thursday. We called them and found out where they were and stopped in for a second to say “Hi” and we would see them in Quartzsite for sure.

Then we were off to the College of the Desert for their street fair. Chuck and I separated and did our own thing. We both made it through the fair in just over an hour and forty five minutes and headed home. Good thing too, since the temperature was 82 degrees when we got back to the car.

We got home and sat outside watching the playoff games on TV. I went inside and laid my head down, and before I knew it, I was asleep. Chuck went off to some kind of presentation here at the park, and I didn’t hear him leave.

He returned and was still watching the game, when there came a knock on the door. It was Linda; she came over for a short visit. We visited-still have more catching up to do, but it sure was good to see her. They are busy today and are scheduled to leave here on Monday to head over to Catalina, but we told her what we went through, so she will try and extend her stay here.

After that we headed out to Tom and Dorothy’s home in Desert Hot Spring to go to the Elks Lodge for salmon dinner with everyone. Again, we had another evening of lively fellowship with lots of laughter. Thanks Tom and Dorothy for setting this up.

We want to wish Craig, Chuck’s brother a very Happy Birthday today.

Until next time…..Lorraine

1/16/11 Chuck’s report

Ok, another week gone by and time to write our blog. We’ve managed to keep busy once again, visiting with friends, exploring the area, shopping, going to casinos and of course, eating. Seems most of what we do starts or ends with a meal.

Last Sunday we were invited over to Rob/Norma’s place for a Bar-B-Q, we had a very good time and even though the guys ended up cooking the steaks in the dark, the meal was good too. Lorraine also saw on her facebook account that one of my brothers, Gilbert, was flying from St. Louis to California for a union meeting and some golfing. We found out he was coming to Palm Springs, got his phone number and gave him a call. We found him on the golf course, they hadn’t even checked into their hotel yet. He said it was 8 degrees F when they left St. Louis and it was in the 70s on the golf course. We made arrangements to go to dinner with them the next evening, after their day of golfing, of course.

Monday we ran some errands around town and ended up on the West side of the valley so we stopped by to see Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy. Rick had his truck back into the shop, still working on his turbo. They were to keep it overnight until they got all the parts shipped to them. After leaving there, we made a quick run back to our place to walk the dog and put away the few purchases and headed out to meet with my brother at his hotel.

We got there and met with him and one of his co-workers, Dale. We all piled into their rental car and headed downtown for dinner. We were going to a Mexican place but they didn’t have any televisions and the College football championship game was on and we wanted to see it, if possible. Auburn was playing Oregon, Lorraine and I were rooting for Oregon, Gil and Dale were in the Auburn camp. We found a place that had one table open and had TVs all around the place. We had a very good time, a good dinner but unfortunately, Oregon didn’t win but it was a good game.

After dinner, we went back to their hotel and went our separate ways, they were tired and had meetings or golf games planned until they left on Thursday. We agreed to meet once again before they left if our schedules would allow but we were unable to work it out. I can’t believe that we didn’t take any pictures either, oh well, we still were happy to see Gil, even if only for a little while. Thanks for taking time out with us while you were here and glad you had good weather too.

Tuesday we made plans to do some exploring around the area with Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy. They came by our place and we loaded everyone up in our car, reminded us of our trip to Alaska with 6 adults in our car. We headed out to find an Oasis a few miles North of here, we were there with our friends, Joe/Alice, a couple of years ago. After a few missed turns, we finally got on the right road and were soon pulling into the parking lot.

I guess I didn’t remember that this Oasis was located directly on the San Andreas fault line, in fact, that’s was causes the water to come to the surface. So here we found the fault line responsible for the hot springs in Desert Hot Springs and for this Oasis. I guess when the “big one” hits, it will cross this valley just about in the middle.

We walked around the Oasis for awhile then Lorraine and I decided to sit and wait for the rest while they waked another mile or so to a lake. After they got there, they walked to the road and we picked them up so they didn’t have to walk all the way back to the parking lot. We then decided to stop for a hamburger at 5 Guys for lunch. Later we went by 29 Palms Casino for a couple of hours.

Wednesday we once again were scheduled for some exploring, this time to a museum in downtown Palm Springs. They were having an exhibit on baskets made by the local Indian tribe. The museum is pretty small and they only had a few baskets on display, none for sale. Seems the tribal members don’t make these baskets anymore, they’ve moved on to bigger and better things. The tribe is fairly small in numbers but own a large portion of the valley and many businesses, including a big casino. One of the folks told us that each tribal member “earns” an average of $10,000 per day, guess I wouldn’t spend my time weaving baskets if I had that kind of income either.

Thursday and Friday we decided to go to the FMCA rally in Indio. Lorraine is a member of the Maestros, a group that sings and plays their instruments every morning at 7:00 for two hours during the coffee and donut greeting. If we got there in time to be with them, we would have had to get up before 5:00. Now we don’t get up that early very often, after all, we are retired so we elected to bypass this opportunity and just play visitors at the rally.

Thursday we finished walking through the vendors and both of us went to a couple of seminars too. I walked through some of the new motorhomes that were on display while Lorraine went to another seminar where she made and painted a very nice “Welcome” sign, good job Hon.

Some of the groups that stay at the fairgrounds decorate their golf carts or whatever into floats and have a small parade. Lorraine wanted to stay and see that with Tom/Dorothy/Melissa while I drove back to take care of our dog. They gave Lorraine a ride back to our coach where we spent a quiet, restful evening.

Friday found us heading back to the rally for a couple more seminars. Later Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy joined us, the first time any of then had been to a rally like this. We all walked through the vendor area, bought a few things we couldn’t live without and got some information and suggestions for possible purchases later. The gals were all going to the Red Hat luncheon and tea so they were wearing their red hats and purple shirts. There were certainly lots of other ladies wearing their red hats as they were heading towards the meeting place and the gals all said they had a good time.

While they were at the Tea, we guys toured the motorhomes but none of us found one we just had to have. I believe Rick found one he really liked but it never even got to the point of asking “how much?”. Once the gals we finished at the Tea, they joined us and we showed them the ones we liked. We all walked through a very expensive, nice Prevost. The asking price was only $1,400,000 but it only had two slide outs so we all declined. Actually, although they had done a very good job on the finishing inside and of course the outside was shiny and eye catching, we all agreed it wouldn’t fit our needs, the way we use our rigs.

So like I’ve said before, even if we were to win a large lottery or whatever, I still haven’t found a rig that I “need” more than the one we have. I’m glad we did our research before we bought and got the right one the first time and didn’t have to go through “foot-ittus” or wishing we had got one a bit bigger and having to go through the hassle and costs of upgrading. That isn’t to say there aren’t some items on the new ones we wouldn’t like to have but nothing we want enough to change right now.

After our time at the rally, we once again got together, this time at Joy’s sisters place for dinner. Once again we had a very good time and a very good dinner with very good people. What a tough life we lead.

Saturday Lorraine and I went back to the street fair they have in Palm Springs each weekend. We managed to at least walk each isle but we didn’t make too many purchases. A lot of the stuff here will also be at Quartzsite and/Yuma swap meet so we can get it there if we find we really want it. But we’ve been to enough of these swap meets and Rally vendors that we’ve pretty much gone beyond the Newbie wide eye buying spree, thank God.

Later we drove over to Tom/Dorothy’s house where we met up with Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy. We all then headed over to the Palm Springs Elks Lodge for a special salmon dinner. Tom and I both elected to have a hamburger steak instead of salmon. We had a good time once again with much laughter and telling of tall tales. We were the last to leave, I think they were sort of helping us out the door so they could close up, ha.

We also found out that our friends Mike/Linda of Quartzsite fame were staying at here at 1000 Trails. We called them and stopped by their place just to say hi before we went out to the street fair. And Linda stopped by for a visit just before we left to meet with our other friends for dinner. As they say, it is a small world, it’s amazing how many of our friends we manage to meet up with, even with no advance scheduling or planning.

We are leaving here on Thursday, heading a bit farther East. At this time, we still aren’t sure where we will stay and for how long. We may stop by a membership park and go through their spiel just for a couple of free days camping. But stop there or not, our next place to stop will be in Quartzsite. This will be our fourth trip to Quartzsite, guess we like it. There are two groups we would like to camp with, we are thinking about staying with the Tiffin owner’s group for a few days then moving over to the group we’ve met and stayed with the previous three years, RV America.

Just got a call from our friend, Dave/Sandy, from Minnesota. They have played the snowbird routine for the past three years but this year they decided to stay home and finish remolding and furnishing their home. He wanted to let me know the Seattle Seahawks would be “cooked geese” after their game with the Chicago Bears this morning. Guess one of us will owe the other a beer depending on the outcome of the game, GO HAWKS!.

He also said they wanted to be home this week as the weather forecast was for only one day to get up to - - - - minus 2F, only one day will it get that “warm’, the other days won’t even get about zero. Makes me appreciate this weather even that much more. It got up to 84F yesterday, almost too hot but I’m not complaining. The forecast for today is only 80F, might have to put on a heavier coat while we are watching the game outside. Thanks for putting in a better light for me Dave, good talking with you too. Wish you would be with the whole gang in Q but you know if you aren’t there you give us someone to talk about.

And now to add some pictures and get this finished up, I want to watch the Seahawks win me a beer from Dave.

At the Oasis.