Sunday, January 09, 2011 Lorraine’s report
Hello from sunny Palm Desert, 1000 Trails RV Park, where the temperatures have been in the high 60’s. Thank God, we finally are in a park where I feel like we are home, again.
Last Sunday found us at Catalina Hot Springs RV Park. We had to move Sunday evening at 8 pm, our spot there lost power, they said it was a transformer and we would be without power for a while. We moved the rig in the dark, no small feat, since it was so black out, what with no lights in the entire park.
We were there until Thursday morning when we came here and that whole time there we did not have power. We had to run the generator to run the heater, charge the batteries and everything else electrical. When we came here, Chuck said he was glad he didn’t have to mess around watching the power and all. Chuck looked into going to another park, but everything around here is full. The parks all say an unprecedented number of snow birds are headed here.
The only good thing about being at Catalina was the spa/pool. It is fed by the underground hot springs there. I went swimming everyday we were there. The water in the spa was 102 degrees and the big pool was 96 degrees. The water felt so soft; it made my achy joints feel wonderful.
Monday we had to run to Costco to stock up on stuff for the coach. We came home and went immediately back out to go to Augustine Casino’s prime rib buffet lunch for $7.00 per person. After the great lunch, we played a bit and Chuck won a jackpot. I’m sure glad he did well as he has had not much in the way of luck recently. He went home one happy guy.
Tuesday we went to Wal-Mart for the rest of restocking of the coach. We spent a quiet evening home.
Wednesday Joe and Alice, who are staying in Hemet, CA for the winter, came over from there for a visit. It was our first really nice day here in the valley. Joe and Alice are now on a cruise, heading to the Mexican Rivera. We sat out for a while, visiting and enjoying the wonderful sunny day. We told them about Augustine Casino’s luncheon buffet and the decision was made to go over for a late lunch/early dinner. Again we all enjoyed a wonderful meal. And, again Chuck won some more $$$.
Thursday was moving day, so we came here. It took us a while to find this spot, since the park is sold out. We had a heck of a time maneuvering back and forth, trying to get the satellite to come in through all the palm trees. It took us four tries before we got it to come in clear enough to get a good picture.
Thursday was the day our friends, Rob/Norma, and Rick/Joy were supposed to arrive from BC into Caliente Hot Springs RV Park in Desert Hot Springs. We called to see how they were doing and the word was not well. Rick and Joy had been having trouble with their truck. They had engine trouble and were pulled off along side the highway up by Victorville, CA.
A repairman was called, then a tow truck to take them into the nearest Ford dealership. The tow truck took them all the way into Desert Hot Springs with them arriving there around 11:30 pm, a very long, hard trip for all of them. Rick was able to maneuver the 5th wheel into their spot and they all went to bed, totally exhausted.
They called us the next morning and we went over around 10:30 AM. We were so happy they arrived safely, even though they had to be towed into Caliente. Norma and Joy fixed us all a late brunch and we all enjoyed the fellowship of each other’s company.
We all came back to our rig around 3 pm. Chuck had to take Misty out for a walk. I had put on a welcoming dinner for everyone on Thursday, but had to put it on hold, since we didn’t know when they would arrive. I cooked pork chops in mushroom sauce, rice and I made up a pistachio Jell-O salad with sourdough bread for everyone. We had it Friday night instead of Thursday evening.
Joy’s sister, Angela and her male friend, Gordon and his brother, Ray would also be joining us, so there were nine of us for dinner. I hastily added more pork chops to the pot and cooked the heck out of it then added the others to reheat it all. Anyhow, we had a wonderful dinner, with Angela bringing a wonderful chicken salad to add.
Following dinner we had a great visit, with Norma telling stories that kept all of us holding our ribs from laughing so hard.
Saturday found us headed off to the College of the Desert’s Street Fair held every Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm. While the guys made it through the entire fair, the gals only made it through two isles.
Angela, Joy’s sister teaches Bridge on various cruise ships and found some wonderful outfits for her job on the ships. We all had a grand time together, with all of us gals getting “Red Hats” for the red hat luncheon next week at the FMCA rally.
We had to stop at Costco so Joy and Norma could get some food for their rigs. When they leave BC, they leave with not much food in the refrigerator, since Customs is so hard. Everyone split up, Joy, Norma, Angela and I met up by 4 pm and headed for home.
Back at the rig, the guys were watching the Seahawks playoff game. We got back just in time to see the Hawks win. Go Seahawks!!! I would love to see them go all the way….
Since we had brought home the gals groceries, they had to leave right away to head back to Desert Hot Springs to put the food away, and to walk Rick/Joy’s dog, Keesha. But before they left, we all decided we would go to Augustine Casino for the Lobster/Prime Rib buffet after they put the food away.
I must say we all enjoyed a wonderful meal together; with no one leaving hungry. The lobster was wonderful as was everything else. We played again for an hour, with Norma being the big winner for the evening.
So we are happy to have company for several weeks, should be fun! Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy are going with us to the FMCA rally, then on to Quartzsite and Yuma. I look forward to more fun with everyone.
Kaitlyn has had a first while on vacation at Disney World; Chuck had a call on Friday night from Susy and Mark; Kaitlyn’s first tooth had just come out. She saw a little blood when it came out and was crying but then told her mommy she wanted to keep it and that the tooth fairy couldn’t have it. We haven’t heard what happened to it.
Until next time……Lorraine
1-9-11 Chuck’s report
Well, the first full week of the year is behind us now, we sure had a good week, hope yours was great too.
Last week we moved into a RV resort in Desert Hot Springs, Catalina Hot Springs and Spa, a place we’ve stayed before. We had our problems when we first checked in, bad power, battery dead on the car, TV wouldn’t come on and such. But we got set up and were doing just fine - - - until we were watching the Seattle Seahawks play the Saint Louis Rams last Sunday night. All of the sudden we lost all power to the coach, of course during the game. I grabbed the flashlight and went out to reset the breaker and saw lots of other guys with their flashlights heading towards their breakers too, not a good sign. It only took a few moments to realize the whole row we were in was without power. So off to the main gate I go, just like a little tattletale in school, “guess what I found”.
The park got a couple of electricians out to see what the problem was. They soon found the transformer feeding our section was blown, not sure of the problem but it wasn’t a breaker or a fuse for sure. We made a quick decision to move a different section of the park, in the dark of course. Plus we missed watching part of the game.
But we got set up and watched the rest of the game, which by the way, Seattle won, giving them a ticket to the playoffs, yea. First time ever a team has made it into the playoffs with a losing record but they made it.
Next morning I ask at the guard shack what the power situation was and they told us that section where we had been would be without power for a week or more, sure glad we moved. Others started moving in the morning but we had gone through that hassle the night before and we had a good spot once again.
We had a busy morning, Lorraine went to the pool and afterwards we made a Costco run. When we got everything put away, we decided to go to Augustine Casino for their lunch buffet. On Monday we get the old folks price and it’s a very good buffet. Of course, after eating we had to hit the slots for a while. Well, wonder of wonders, I actually left a big winner, for me that is. It’s been awhile since I’ve won more than a $100 because I only play the penny slots and minimum bet at that. This time I won a $268 jackpot plus had some luck on some other machines. Lorraine also left a winner, both of us full and with some of their money for a change.
We returned to the coach in time to watch another football game, the Orange Bowl with Stanford playing Virginia Tech. It was a blowout with Stanford winning in a runaway, a good game if you are a Stanford fan like we are. What a week for football for us, all our favorite teams won, Washington Huskies and Stanford both won their bowl games and Seahawks won their division and made the playoffs. It’s been a long time since the NW teams have had good seasons.
We had a normal night, a bit cool so I had an electric space heater in the front so the heat pumps wouldn’t run as much. About 2:00 am, yes that’s early, Lorraine woke me up to say our power and heat was out, even the night lights in the inverter plugins weren’t working. So once again, I grab a flashlight to see what the problem was with this loss of power. As soon as I get outside, I see all the street lights are out, usually not a good sign. We have no power at the utility post and our batteries are really dead, remember the space heater? So I walk back up to where the bad transformer that had given us problems in a different section and there were three guys working on it. I asked what the problem was in our area and they said they had to turn off all the power in the park as that transformer wasn’t the only problem.
So back to the coach I go and I decided the hell with being a good neighbor, I’m starting my generator to charge up the batteries and get some heat in the coach. Within 10 minutes there were about 30 generators running around us so I didn’t feel as bad about being a bad neighbor. I ran the generator off/on for the rest of the night until we got the batteries charged and got into boon docking mode, you know, conserving electric usage and such. I ran our diesel burner for heat the rest of the night due to lack of power, another unusual thing for us to do.
Once I got up the next morning I went to the guard shack and asked what they knew about the power outage. Seems they had blown some big transformer fuse that night and finally found a bad section of underground cable. They changed out the bad fuses and restored power to our section once again but said they may have to turn the power on/off while working on the transformer. They bad cable was due to the heavy rains they had the previous week, they figured some moisture had gotten into the insulation and went bang.
By the time the day was over, we had run the generator as needed and had a full battery bank of power because they had blown a couple more fuses and didn’t have spares so once again we were in boon docking mode for the night. No problem for us if we knew about it so once again I ran the diesel burner as needed for heat throughout the night.
Next morning I decide to go to the office as we paid $7/day extra for 50 amp power which we hadn’t been able to use for the last two days. The manager said they didn’t have any money on hand but gave me his personal guarantee he would send us our refund. They also said they were getting all the parts needed to restore power to the park the next day and we would have power once again the next day.
Our friends from Washington who were with us in Bakersfield, Joe/Alice, are staying in Hemet, California, about an hour’s drive away. They wanted to come by for a visit so they called Wednesday morning and asked about our plans. We didn’t have any plans so they drove over and we visited with them in the morning, still without power to the park. We decided to head out to lunch, once again we went to the buffet at Augustine casino. And once again, we had to hit the slots after lunch. And once again, I had good luck on the slots, I won another jackpot of $130. Boy, I don’t know what’s changed in the new year, lots of problems with the campground power but I’m liking this winning stuff at the casino.
So we finish up at the casino and decide to return to our campground, still no power except in one section and it’s full, people moved into it while we were out. Joe/Alice leave us, they are going on a Mexican Cruise out of San Diego on Saturday so they will be out of contact with us for a week or so.
And we have one more night without power, getting to be like a broken record. But this will be our last night without power here because we are leaving the next morning.
Once we get up, we start putting things away and get ready to move over to 1000 Trails. I walk down to the office once more to insure they know we paid extra for power for the four nights we were without. Boy what an attitude the gal behind the desk had, like it was a great imposition to change two days refund to 4 days refund, which they of course hadn’t done anything about yet. Not sure if we will get our refund or not but after her attitude, I’ll probably fight harder to make sure we get.
So off we go for our move, only about 15 miles away. We knew the place would be pretty full and wanted to get there as folks were leaving and hopefully before all the new folks showed up. Well that didn’t work out real well as there were three rigs lined up to check in when we got here. But the check in went well and they said, find our spot and let us know where you settle. This campground is sort of divided into two sections, one has pull though sites but only has 30 amp electricity available while the other section is all back in sites but they have full hookups with 50 amps. We decided to go for a 50 amp service and a back in site.
The interior roads here are not too wide and each site has at least 4 palm trees so once we found a spot, I asked the folks across the road to move their cars so we could swing the front end around easier. They all did so then showed up to help us back into our site. It took about four moves to get just right so our dish could lock onto the satellite through the trees and get us television reception, the only problem we had getting set up here.
And seeing as how we are planning on being here two weeks, we decided to set up and make it home. We put out our large patio mat and rugs, hung our wind turners on the mirrors, put out the lights under the rig and such. Once we got set up, Lorraine started fixing dinner as our friends from Canada, Rick/Joy & Rob/Norma were due in at Desert Hot Springs and she wanted to have dinner for them after their long travel days. But it wasn’t too long after that when our phone rang and it was them, telling us they had engine problems and wouldn’t be making it in today after all. They were having to call a tow truck and would probably get towed to Victorville and see the about repairs the next day.
Dinner was at a spot where Lorraine could stop and save it for the next night instead so we just had a quiet night at home. And for the first time in five days, we didn’t have any power problems, yea. Yes we’ve had power issues when we were still in our stick home and we are set up with batteries and a generator in our rig but it’s still nice to have good power and not have to worry about it. Boy the things we all take for granted, huh.
Friday morning we get a call from Norma, seems they had Rick/Joy’s truck and fifth wheel towed all the way to Desert Hot Springs to the park they were staying at, getting there around midnight or so. They called just as we were getting ready to head out and asked if we wanted to stop by for a visit, well of course we did. We visited for awhile, even had brunch with them. We finally left them and came back to our place, not having gone to the store or anything else. Lorraine wanted to finish up the dinner she had started the night before and they were coming over later.
So Rob/Norma, Rick/Joy, plus Joy’s sister Angela and friends Gordon and Ray who were in town for a couple of weeks, all came by for dinner. Lorraine fixed pork steak, rice, salad and such and they brought over a chicken salad too. A good time visiting with friends both old and new. Before they left we had made plans for the next day, Gordon and his brother Ray would golf in the morning while the rest of us went to the street fair at the College of the Desert.
Our daughter, son-in-law and grand daughter flew out to Florida for the Stanford football game, to visit with Susy’s good friend, Yami and go to Disney World. We got a call Friday evening that our grand daughter had just lost her first baby tooth. It was loose and she was wriggling it while were were with them last week and I asked her to let us know when it came out. She was a bit upset from the blood but otherwise it was ok. She said she wants to keep it, the tooth fairy can’t have her first one, ha.
Next morning we all made the rounds at the street fair but Rob, Rick and I returned back to our coach earlier than the gals as we wanted to watch the Seattle Seahawks play against the New Orleans Saints, last year’s NFL champions. Once again our favorite team came through and won a game we were watching. And I don’t care which team you were rooting for, you had to like the last touchdown run that Seattle had, amazing. He must have broken 6 tackles, even the quarterback was 30 thirty yards down field making blocks, what a play.
Once the gals got back, they had stopped at Costco too, we made plans to meet later and go to Augustine casino for another buffet, third time in a week for us. They had a seafood buffet with lobster and all on Friday night. Everyone liked the buffet except I don’t eat seafood so I just ordered off the menu, prime rib. I might have ate some off of Lorraine’s plate too as I was pretty full when we left. And, broken record here, we played the slots a for over an hour before and about an hour after dinner. And can you believe it, I once again came away a winner, only $10 this time but still I won. Norma was the big winner of the night and everyone said they had a very good dinner and a good time.
We are planning on going over to Rob/Norma’s this afternoon for a Bar-B-Q and more visiting plus we will probably will watch the football playoff game too. I am boycotting the Philadelphia football team after they signed Michael Vick, he of the dog fighting scandal. I know he “paid his dues” and spent time in prison but I don’t have to support the team that signed him by watching them on TV. So if he plays, I will not watch the second game of the day. Sure hope they don’t make it to the Super Bowl as I won’t watch it if he plays there either. Stupid maybe but that’s my only way of boycotting him and his prior actions.
Anyway, the weather has been really nice this week, just sort of perfect. The temperature during the days have been climbing, getting close to 70 and only dropping to the 50s or so at night. And of course here in the desert the humidity is low, only thing we’ve had to deal with some winds, not too bad, just enough to make it feel cool. But I’ll take this over what some of the rest of the country is going through, Lorraine just told me it’s snowing back in Bellingham once again today.
We plan on staying here for a couple of weeks, leaving on the 20th. This week there is a FMCA rally in Indio, starting on Wednesday, which we will probably attend. Once we leave here, we will head for Quartzsite, Arizona where we will boon dock in the desert with some friends for a few days.
So now for a few pictures and get this posted.
Sunset from our site at Catalina, the place with no power.
Lorraine, Alice and Joe outside the casino.
Rob’s new truck and fifth wheel, Rick’s truck and fifth wheel at their sites.
Angela and Joy. Norma and Rick.
Rob in his fifth wheel. Gordon.
Gordon’s brother, Ray.
Another great week comes to a close for us. We may have had some problems with the power but visiting with our friends sure made up for it. Hope you had a great week too.
Thanks Chuck
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