Sunday, February 06, 2011 Lorraine’s report
Sorry this is late, but we traveled today. We left Yuma, AZ and came to 1000 Trails Wilderness Lake outside Hemet, CA. We’ve had to say our “see you down the road” to a bunch of friends these past couple of weeks. It makes me kind of sad to leave them.
This morning Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy were up early and left to head back to the Sunshine Coast and Squamish, BC. We have been with them since January 7 when they traveled to Desert Hot Springs and we were in 1000 Trails there in Palm Desert.
This past week found us visiting friends that were in the area, shopping, eating and enjoying the area. We were happy to see Sharon and TJ again. They let us stay on their lot in the foot hills area of Yuma the second year we were out. We spent a very quiet afternoon with them on Sunday, where we caught up with each others lives. Thank you both, we enjoyed our time with you.
Chuck and the guys had arranged to have their rigs and cars washed and waxed on Monday and they showed up at 8 am. The washing took about 2 hours, but they didn’t start on the waxing until later on in the afternoon.
Monday was Sue D’s birthday. She had called on Sunday evening and wanted to do something for her birthday. So Monday morning I baked a cake and arranged for all of us to get together for a late lunch at Quechan Casino and Resort for their buffet, with Chuck & I treating Sue and Mark to a nice luncheon buffet.
Rob/Joy, Rick/Norma, Mark/Sue and Chuck and I enjoyed a fun filled, action packed afternoon of gaming. The late afternoon found us headed home to walk the dogs, then over to where Mark and Sue have their rig parked on Ed and LaVaughn’s lot.
Ed and LA Vaughn were back from Mexico, along with Pat and Henry and joined us in wishing Sue a “Happy Birthday”. Again we all enjoyed visiting and meeting new friends.
Wednesday was the day I made my appointment to go to my dentist in Los Algondones, Mexico. It turned out to be the coldest, windiest day of the week to be heading into Mexico. The high temp was only 51 degrees, with winds blowing up to 23-30 mph. While I was seeing my dentist, Rob/Norma and Rick/Joy enjoyed looking and shopping around the small town. They had been frightened by all the reports of all the scary things being reported on the news of happenings (murders, robberies, etc.) in border towns. Thankfully nothing bad to any of us and I didn’t need any work, so all in all a good day.
Thursday Rob needed to get his oil changed in his truck, so we went to eat and have his oil changed. We ate at Applebee’s, and then Rob took his truck to Jiffy Lube. While he was waiting, Norma and I went to Fry’s grocery store to pick up a few things. Chuck went to the RV Store and a hardware store. Norma and I stopped by the shoe store where we both found a pair. Rick and Joy had Rick’s friend, Glen from his younger years over for lunch and a visit. We were able to meet and visit with him when we went home.
Friday found us headed to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast with the gang and Brenda and Carl, a couple we met at Quartzsite. From there we headed to the indoor swap meet at the old Mervyns building down in old Yuma by Sears. We were home around 4-5 and spent a quiet evening home.
Saturday morning found us waiting for Joy to do her laundry for their trip back home. While she was doing that, Chuck helped Rob/Norma and Rick with planning their route home and showing them more on how to use their new GPS. By the time Joy was done, the route and stops were programmed into the GPS.
From there we wanted to go get an In N Out burger and Rob/Norma had some free cash to spend at the market we’d been to the day before. We got ready to leave and Joy decided to stay home with Rick; she still had stuff to do. So off the four of us went.
While we were out, Chuck and I decided we should head out Sunday to start to make our way back to the bay area for our daughter, Susy’s Birthday on the 16th and to see our granddaughter, Kaitlyn. We wanted to stop in Hemet, CA to see Joe and Alice, friends from back in Bellingham.
When we made that decision, we called Mark/Sue to let them know we would be leaving Sunday. They wanted to see us before we left the area. We finished up running and then we headed back to the rig to get Rick/Joy as we were going back to the Q Casino for the Seafood buffet, to spend our last evening together.
We then headed over for a brief visit with Mark/Sue, who also had Janey/Pete and Ed there. LA Vaughn was not feeling well and was resting. It was sad to leave our Louisiana Cajon friends, since we don’t know when we will see them again. Thank you Sue for painting such a great new name sign for us, I love it.
Again the six of us, Rob/Norma, Rick/Joy and Chuck & I had a great dinner at Quechan Casino and enjoyed each others company, and a bit of gaming.
Sunday, the drive here into Hemet was a pleasant surprise to both of us. We came around the corner and before us was this beautiful, green valley, set off by the brilliant blue skies. Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley. I missed seeing green in the desert.
We set up & called Joe and Alice, who came over to watch the Super Bowl game with us. Joe and Alice brought a wonderful dinner for all of us to eat while watching the game. They brought St. Louis style ribs, a delicious, tender roasted chicken, a great green salad and chips. I made up guacamole dip, a meat/cheese tray and I still had a tiny bit of fudge from Quartzsite left. Thank you Joe and Alice for such a great dinner and for being such good friends; I can’t thank you enough for letting us rent your lot back home-that means we won’t have to move every other week while Chuck is working!
That was our week. So I’ll say bye for now………….Lorraine
I’2/6/11 Chuck’s report
I’m working on this report Sunday night, probably won’t get it finished and sent until Monday morning but better late than never, maybe.
We made our move from Yuma to Hemet today, probably the hottest day we’ve had in weeks here, got up to 83F, at least that’s the highest I saw on the rear view mirror display while we were driving.
Lets see, this past week we visited with TJ/Sharon and saw their new house. They were getting it built when we were here last winter, it's all finished now of course and looks very nice. They have it all set up with their furniture and have a patio on the front and the back. We were supposed to get together with then before we left town but it just didn’t work out, hope to see you two back in Washington this spring.
Sue had her birthday on Monday so Rob/Norma, Rick/Joy, Lorraine/I went to a buffet with her and Mark. We must have had a good time as the conversation got loud and the laughter louder. After leaving the casino we headed over to Ed/LaVaughn’s lot where they are staying and had cake and ice cream with the gang plus friends of theirs, Henry/Pat. Once again we had a good time and a good visit with all these good folks.
On Wednesday we headed to Mexico for Lorraine’s dentist appointment. We told Rick/Joy and Rob/Norma that even though Algondones is a border town, it would probably be safe so they decided to go along with us. Lucky for all of us, it is still a safe place to go. Lorraine saw her dentist while the rest went shopping. Her dentist suggest she see a specialist for a sore tooth she has been putting up with so we stopped for lunch early in case she had the tooth pulled. While we were eating we discussed not going to the specialist so we met the group and returned to the restaurant so everyone else could have lunch too.
So after lunch we got into the line to exit Mexico, about a 25 minute wait. A couple of years ago we waited for over 2 hours but they have since changed the border crossing and have 4 border patrol folks inside to help speed things up. Because Lorraine had finished her dental checkup, this was to be our only trip across the border this year.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday we tried to spend some time with our friends before they headed to home on Sunday. We did some shopping, went to the swap meet, out to dinner a couple of times and of course, hit a couple of casinos too. We had a good time with them for the past month, tried to show them some of the things we’ve learned over the past three winters down here. We may see them back in Washington later this month but for sure will see them in March when they come down for a curling trip. Thanks for sharing part of your winter with us.
And that brings us up to today, Sunday. Rick/Joy and Rob/Norma were on their way home, left the park around 8:30 after a round of good byes. We checked the weather forecast along their route and it looks like they will be dry until they hit the Washington border. But at least there is not snow in the forecast for them.
We were on the road a bit later, had to stop for fuel and I checked the air in all our tires while at the truck stop. It was around 2:30 or so when we pulled into Wilderness Lakes here in Hemet.
We were both surprised to see a dairy farm just outside the gate here and the smell doesn’t stay on their side of fence either, darn. This place is pretty full but we were able to find a spot, got set up in time to watch the Super Bowl. Joe/Alice are spending the winter here in Hemet, the main reason we came by for a couple of days. They came over to watch the game with us, bringing food too. They brought Bar-B-Q ribs, chicken, salad and Lorraine made up a meat/cheese tray, chips and dips and such.
Everyone was sort of rooting for whoever was playing against the Pittsburg Steelers, in the case, the Green Bay Packers. Everyone that is, except for Lorraine, she was the lone voice in the dark rooting for the Steelers. It was a good game, made better by the fact the Steelers lost. This was the 8th time the Steelers have played in the big game and only the second time they’ve lost.
The weather this past week has been just great. We had a couple of cool days and heavy winds on two of those days. But it started warming up starting on Thursday and no rain in sight. We managed to spend quite a bit of time outside in our chairs enjoying this great weather. It does cool off enough to require the use of a light coat in the mornings and evenings however.
We plan on leaving here on Wednesday and heading back to Santa Clara, getting there in time for our daughter’s birthday next week. And of course we are looking forward to spending lots of time with our grand daughter too, Lorraine is so anxious she is talking about leaving here a day early, ha. We will keep an eye on the forecast for our trip up North, here’s hoping we will have good weather for our trip too.
So now I’ll add some pictures and get this posted, a day later than our normal Sunday posting but here none the less.
Sue’s birthday, see, you can dress Mark up and take him somewhere.
The gang celebrating Sue’s birthday. Cake at Ed/LaVaughn’s place.
More sun set pictures.
With a little water here, the fields grow green.
This place is described as the Center Of the Earth, we went there two years ago.
Sand dunes West of Palm Springs, they remind us of the dunes on the Oregon Coast except there is no water here.
More stuff growing, that’s a load of carrots on the truck.
Palm tree nursery.
That’s the Salton Sea to the East of us.
If you look closely you can see the large dust devil alongside the road on the right. It was better in person.
There’s snow in them there hills.
Coming down into Hemet, we haven’t seen this much green in a long time.
And here’s the dairy herd just outside our park, thanks 1000 Trails.
The flag pole and wind socks Joy bought.
And that one is ours.
We were with lots of friends for the past month or so, said lots of see ya laters. Guess that’s one of the best things about being on the road, we’ve made so many new friends and it amazes me how often we get to see some of them. This week was mostly spent with some of these new friends and we hope to see you soon, somewhere down the road.
Thanks Chuck
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