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

January 13, 2013 Lorraine’s report

Hello once again from Palm Springs, CA. It is nice; sunny days, cool nights, not the 20F back home. I bet the northeaster is blowing.

I would like to thank Susy and Kaitlyn for the wonderful time we had with you. It was a great time, we enjoyed all your help and love over the Christmas Holiday. It is so hard to leave you both; miss you to the moon and stars and back again. Love on Kaitlyn for me, I really miss that little girl. She does love her ponies and we had fun playing with them.

I hope Rick is back home for two weeks, hopefully enjoying the Seahawks. Go Hawks…

That’s it for me, take care and have a great week…

Hugs and Love,

Lorraine

1/13/13 Chuck’s report

Yea, we’re back in the warmer, drier weather once again. Although we really enjoy the Bay area and being with Susy and Kaitlyn, it’s nice to be over the hills and in the drier, less humid air.

Let’s see, last Sunday it was football for me while Susy and Lorraine went to the movie house to see a movie. I have never been a big fan of going to the movie house, much prefer to wait and see them on TV. Lorraine, however, just loves to sit in the movies and would go twice a week if it would fit into our schedule.

Monday afternoon we went to see Lorraine’s doctor down here. He had asked for some blood work and went over the results and looked over her blood pressure record we keep daily. Her upper number is still a big high so he wanted her to add a new medicine and called it into Wal-Mart for us.

Other than that, he said she has made very good progress from her mini-stroke and wanted to see her again in a month or two. We aren’t planning on being back in the area then so agreed we would come back in April. Seeing as how Kaitlyn’s birthday is on April 15th, that works out very good.

We drove down to the Wal-Mart to pick up her new prescription but they were out of that medication and wouldn’t have any until later in the week, after we were planning on leaving. So we checked with a different WM and they could fill it, only have to wait about 45 minutes. After waiting, we went back to the counter and they said it would cost $285.00 for three months, I don’t think so. We called her doctor and asked for a different medication and they agreed to do just that.

Tuesday morning I had my last scheduled appointment at the VA. It was at 10 and we were about 30 miles away, a 40 minute trip in the afternoon but I wasn’t sure how long in the morning rush hours. So I left the coach at 8 and got there about 9:30, boy would I hate to drive in that everyday. But anyway, the tech ran me through more breathing tests, said they doctor would be getting a hold of me with the results later and let me go.

After returning to the coach, Lorraine and I headed out to pick up her new prescription. This one was more reasonable and they had it in stock. Afterwards, we stopped by to pick Kaitlyn up from school one more time. Nana and Kaitlyn really had fun, knowing it was their last afternoon together made them a bit more rambunctious than usual but they sure had fun. Later we met Susy for dinner, after she got off work. We had a good time then transferred all of Kaitlyn’s stuff we had over to Susy’s car. We had hugs all around and they headed home while we headed back to the coach. Over the past three months we have managed to inject ourselves into their lives more than normal and want to say once again, Thanks Susy and Kaitlyn, we really had fun.

After we got back back to the coach, Mark stopped by with his annual Christmas present to us, a handmade calendar with Kaitlyn’s pictures on each page. He has made these for the past 5 or 6 years and we were beginning to think he might not have it ready before we left but he came through with flying colors once again. Thanks Mark.

Next morning we got an early start because we heard the weather was supposed to get cold with snow in the hills East of Bakersfield, over the Tehachapi pass. Once we got to to Bakersfield, it was still early enough that we decided to push on over the pass and find a spot on the East side to overnight. The campground host at the Santa Clara Elks told us there was a small RV park just down the road from the Mohave Elks lodge that he has stayed at. He warned us it wasn’t too much but said it was good enough for an overnighter.

So once we got over the pass and down the hill, we took the turnoff to Mohave. Not much to do there but we did find the RV park and it was as he told us. They have shared utilities for two rigs and we got a spot by ourselves and was able to use the 30 amp power from both sites to give us the ability to run both our heat pumps at night. We didn’t even unhook the car, just stayed in and watched TV and ate popcorn.

Next morning we got up and I checked road conditions. Sure enough, they had closed the Tehachapi pass due to snow and wind. We were getting strong wind gusts at the park, high enough I was a bit worried about what we may encounter on the road. I tried checking road conditions but couldn’t find any info about winds so we decided to take off and chance it.

Once we got back on the road we did get some heavy wind gusts. But after about 15 minutes it turned into a good tail wind for most of the way, at least until the winds died down some so it ended up being a good thing. We decided to keep to the back roads rather than head down to I-10 at San Bernardino and the traffic that would go with that area. So we kept to the back roads and continued through the high desert and went through Victorville, Apple Valley and Yucca Valley.

Notice I said we continued through the HIGH desert? Once again we ran into snow during our travels, this time the temperature started dropping, it wasn’t but low 40s to begin with, until we were at 35F. There was no accumulation on the road, in fact, the road was mostly dry but I was checking for any ice. I know our rig is heavy but would think that would just make it slide faster if we were on ice. But we were glad once we dropped about 100’ and got out of the snow line, soon we were back in the sun shine.

The rest of the trip to Palm Springs was uneventful and we got here about 2:30. As we were getting set up, two friends of our from Lewis and Clark Chapter happened to be riding their bikes and saw us. They stopped and told us about a dinner that evening and invited us to stop by at 4 if we could.

We continued setting up, had to move the coach around three times to get the satellite to lock on. Once we turned on the TV, we didn’t get any signal on either TV. It was too late to mess with it then so we went on over to dinner with the group. We happened to be the first ones there and the folks there didn’t know we were coming. Soon, Mary Joe and Ken came in and worked everything out and they set up for us in the back room.

Folks kept coming in, they added more tables and chairs, and soon there was about 30 folks in the back room. The noise kept getting louder and louder which caused folks to talk louder and louder. Soon it was up to a dull roar, you could only talk to the folks closest to you and even then it was hard to hold a conversation. But everyone was in a good mood, had fun and left with smiles on their faces so I guess I have to say it was a good time.

They group was going to continue the party at one of their sites but we returned to our rig so I could work on the TV reception. I never was able to get a signal even though the satellite said it was locked on the normal satellites; I even called Direct TV and sent a note out to the help desk of the satellite folks but got nowhere with them. So we just plugged a movie into the DVD player and decided to try again in the morning.

We got a call from our friends Joe/Alice who are staying in Hemet, about an hour away from here. We were planning on seeing them on Saturday when they drove over and we were to go to the FMCA rally in Indio together. They said their plans had changed and wanted to know if we could meet with them on Friday instead. Well of course we would, said come on over in the morning and we would make a day of it.

So that’s what we did, we went to the Rally, visited some of the vendors, spent some money at some of them, toured the new and used coaches and just had a good day. Later we headed out to the local casino for their buffet but the lunch buffet was over at 3 and we got there at 3:08. They were going to open for dinner buffet at 4 but it was a lobster buffet and they wanted $27 each. Only one of us wanted to stay (Lorraine loves lobster) but none of us wanted to pay the price. Instead we left and headed out for a diner where we all ordered off the menu instead of having a buffet.

After a good day and afternoon, Joe and Alice had to head back to their place. We are going to try to get over and see them once again before we leave here and head out later this week but still need to work the details out. Last time we were in that area, they drove us around and gave us a good tour of the area and then took us to a casino that had probably the best casino buffet we’ve ever been too. We are looking forward to that as well as seeing Joe and Alice.

Yesterday I took our tow bar over to the FMCA rally where they would check it over, clean it up and lube it for free. If it needed any work, they only charge for the parts, no labor. I got there just after 8:00 and they were pretty busy so I had to wait for a few minutes before they could check it out. Oh, oh, they found it had a bent “stinger” and recommended that we replace it. This is the main swivel joint and it was loose too so I told them to fix it and we would be back to pick it up later in the afternoon.

Once back at the coach, I continued working on the TV, never did get a signal from the satellite but did get the antenna up for local channels. So we will just watch local channels until we leave here and get to Quartzsite later this week. I’m not sure that we aren’t trying to shoot through one of the palm trees and in Quartzsite, there are no trees to worry about. If that isn’t the case, there will be plenty of vendors in the area that work on systems so I’ll get one of them to check it out. At least we are able to get TV, I’m setting here watching the Seahawks play the Falcons right now. Shoot, Atlanta just scored three points on their opening drive, come on Seattle!

We drove over to get our tow bar and Lorraine wanted to go to the casino for some slot action and I knew they would have the playoff games on TV. I watched the Ravens/ Broncos play a very good game, it was tied five times and went into two overtimes before Manning threw an interception and the Ravens were able to turn that into a sudden death field goal for the win.

After the game, we went into their buffet for a good dinner, they had lobster available for a slight extra charge so Lorraine got her lobster after all. Later we returned to our coach and watched the rest of the 49s/Packer’s game. Here’s hoping Seattle meets the 49s next week, all they have to do is beat the Falcons today. Seattle just intercepted a Ryan pass, yea.

The weather has been cooler than normal although we have had a few very nice days. We had one more rainy day in the Bay area before we left with the nighttime temperatures getting down to the mid 30s. As I said, we had some cold weather during our drive over here, even going through some snow showers. But once we got here, the temperature has been in the high 60s during the day, even hit 70 yesterday. But we did get just at freezing last night, in fact one guy showed me where he kept his water dripping threw his hose last night and this morning it was frozen into an ice sculpture, not something I expected to see here in Palm Springs area. But it is clear with bright sunshine and the temperature will be in the high 60s again today so I’m not complaining.

We plan on being here for a few more days, have to visit with Tom and Dorothy too. We have a couple more errands to get accomplished but hope to leave here on Thursday. We will be heading out to meet with a bunch of Tiffin owners who are getting together in the desert. We were with them two years ago, met quite a few of them and had a good time so we are expecting more of the same this year. Two of our close friends will be with them so we will see them there too. Richard/Patsy and Mark/Sue, we plan on being there on Thursday the 17th, save us a spot.

We will stay with that group for a few days and then plan to move over and join our normal Quartzsite group, RV America forum members. This is the group we met the first time we went to Quartzsite and have been with them for 5 of the last 6 years. They are a good group of folks and we count some of them as our very good friends. We know we will have a good time there as well plus our friends from Canada are coming down and hope to be there with this group too. We also have a good time with these fine folks and are looking forward to seeing them once again. We may even do some traveling with them after we leave Quartzsite, have to work on that when we see them.

Shoot, Falcons just scored a TD, 10 to nothing but still in the first quarter.

Lorraine took some pictures on our drive over but we didn’t get any pictures of Joe/Alice’s visit or our trip to the Rally. But guess I’ll go through them and see what I can add here then get this posted.

That’s LA in the distance, not too far away. We liked the flag on a RV we passed on the freeway.