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

Dec 8, 2013 Lorraine’s report

Hello from Thousand Trails RV Park in Palm Springs, CA. Has it ever been cold here, so I just can’t imagine how the rest of this country is fairing with the freezing rain, really cold temperatures, and everyone just hunkering down for this long winter’s nap. Sure hope the cold doesn’t last too long.

So this week has been pretty busy for us. Last week we came into TT on Monday. Joe & Alice were here, they were away from their rig, but came over as we were setting up. It was so nice to see them again. Alice was setting up what to fix for dinner when Chuck got a call from Glen.

Jan & Glen had left their home in Phoenix, AZ and wanted to meet up with us. Glen asked if there was a spot for them to hook up their rig, for only one night. There was one spot right behind us, so we put up a couple of chairs, and reserved a spot for them, even though we aren’t suppose to. They pulled into the spot within a few minutes after the call.

After setting up their rig, we all gathered in our rig and watched Monday Night Football, the Seahawks were playing. Alice went and got pizza with Joe, Thank you Alice and Joe. It was good pizza! The guys enjoyed a Seahawk win, New Orleans lost, yea Seahawks.

As I said before, Jan & Glen were only with us for one evening, but we all enjoyed our time together. Thank you Jan & Glen for stopping; we enjoyed our time together.

Tuesday found us going to look for my mammogram place here in PS; back in the SF Bay area, I was suppose to have the test, but they were all booked and I couldn’t get in to the testing place until Mid-January. So it took me a bit, but I was able to get the test here in Palm Springs. Not sure how it will go under Obama care, but at least it was not a problem. A stop to W-Mart was in order for us to stock up before the test.

Wednesday Joe and Alice came and got us, took us to the PO, then we went and found the Hunger Games: Catching Fire. What another good movie. That makes it three movies, a new record for me in such a short period of time.

After that, Joe & Alice had gotten something from Pawn Stars. It was a dining card to be used for various venues for up to $25. off a meal. It was nice of them to share the proceeds with us. We had Sloan's, an American Diner, then one night we went to one of the best Mexican place, I have even been too, it was really good and we would definitely go back for more food.

Thursday I did some laundry and then we went to one of our favorite casinos, Augustine’s. It was old farts day and we enjoyed our time there. Seems to me we certainly eat well here in the Coachella Valley.

Friday was the annual Pow Wow gathering here at 29 Palms Casino. I most certainly enjoyed this gathering. So many colors, so much regalia. Loved all the dancing, good times….

Saturday was another full day for us. Joe and Alice had friends they needed to touch base with, so I got ready & off we go to the College of the Desert; an outdoor swap meet. From there we went over to the Tamales festival. The festival was really crowded, but we enjoyed all the tamales we ate there. Some were nummy, some were just okay.

From there we went over to the annual Palm Springs, CA Festival of Lights Street parade at 5:45 pm, but first we had to go home, take Misty out and rest up a bit. Whew! What a full day for us. So much to see and do.

Today I went over to the church service here in the park.

Guess that’s it for me…Enjoy your weeks leading up until Christmas everyone…Hugs…

Lorraine

12/8/13 Chuck’s report

We are in Palm Springs but just like most of the country, we are colder than normal for this time of they year. I think the only section that’s warm is Florida. The forecasters haven’t done a good job of predicting the weather, they’ve warned us about high winds, rain and cold weather over the past week. So far, we’ve had some mild winds and just enough rain to make spots on the dust on windshields, yea. But it has been cool for us but every time I see the cold with the NE winds back in Washington, I can’t complain too much, I spent too many hours working in that to ever forget just how COLD that can be. Hope you guys back there keep safe and don’t have to spend too much time out in the units fighting problems.

Last Monday we left the Orange Grove RV park in Bakersfield with a bunch of oranges and tangerines from their trees. We got here to 1000 Trails and found a nice spot with 50 amp power, water, sewer and good TV reception, just what we wanted.

Joe and Alice had been here for almost a week and we were looking forward to seeing them, after all, it’s been about three weeks, ha. They were making a Wal-Mart run but came by to visit before we were finished setting up. It was less than an hour after we got here that we got a call from another ex-coworker, Glen. He and his wife Jan had just pulled into the parking area and wanted to know if there were any open sites around us. There happened to be a couple just behind us and that’s were they set up. We haven’t seen them since last winter and this was the first time we’ve met them while they were in their motor home instead of their home.

So Monday evening/night ended up being old home week for three guys who together had about 100 years experience at the refinery and guess what, I don’t think we talked about work for more than 5 minutes or so. Joe brought over pizza and we had snacks while we watched the Seattle Seahawks beat the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night football.

Glen and Jan were on their way back home to Washington so they only spent one night here. Next morning we gathered to wish them good travels and hoped they didn’t hit the high winds that were forecasted. Later than evening I got a message from Glen, they made through the high winds near Banning, we saw on the news they had winds in the 50 – 60 mph range, hope Glen and Jan made it through there before that happened. But they made it none-the-less and now they are back home in the freezing weather and high winds, bad timing Glen. Maybe you should have stayed here for a week, ha. Anyway, hope all is well with you two and have a good winter.

Tuesday we met up with a couple from Lewis and Clark, Keith and Mary, who were at this park also. They told us about a Taco Tuesday special at Del Taco and we made plans to go over there later for dinner. But first we had to make a Wal-Mart trip ourselves, need to stock up on a few things.

Lorraine had made an appointment at a radiation place in Palm Springs to get her annual mammogram so we headed out to try to find the place. After a couple of wrong turns, we found the place and she was able to get in/out in about 1/2 hour, not bad.

We came back and put stuff away and visited with Joe and Alice before heading out to Taco Tuesday. Boy what a deal that is, three tacos for $1.19 plus a free drink for seniors. We had a good meal and decided that we may just have to do this again next week, ha.

Wednesday morning Joe called and told us he and Alice were headed to the Post Office then wanted to go to the movie house to see “Hunger Games” and invited us to go along. Seeing as how that was one of the movies Lorraine wanted to see, we agreed to go along. So now I’ve been to two movies in the past month, that’s a normal year’s worth for me. I don’t remember seeing the first movie in this series so I was a bit lost but the action was heavy and the special effects were pretty good too. Can’t say it was that good because I’m not big on science fiction but it was ok.

When Joe and Alice were in Las Vegas they were given a certificate for $100 at select restaurants and offered to take us to dinner if we could figure out how to use the certificate. We figured out the participating restaurants had their own rules, for example you could print out a $25 form but had to spend at least $37.50. We finally found a place we agreed to try, Sloan's, printed out a form and headed out to find this place. It ended up being a nice place and we had a good meal. In fact, this is a place where we would probably go again, even without a discount, guess that’s the reason they are in this program. Another good day spent with good friends.

Thursday Lorraine did some laundry then we went with Joe and Alice to Augustine Casino for their senior day buffet. They have a pretty good buffet plus they give all seniors $5 free slot play. Even with the free head start I didn’t have any luck but did have a good late lunch/early dinner. I believe Joe and Lorraine both won some money so it wasn’t a complete loss for us.

Friday we had a quiet morning, then made a quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things.Later we used another $25 off Joe’s certificate when we had dinner at a Mexican place. Again we had a good meal and again this is a place we would return to even without the discount, two out of two were good. Thanks Joe and Alice for sharing with us.

That evening Lorraine and I headed to 29 Palms, a casino near Indio. They had the Winter Pow Wow there, we’ve been to it 4 or 5 times now and were looking forward to going again. We got there, found a good place to sit and waited for the activities to start. The Grand Opening started with the colors, American, Canadian, Mexican, California and the local Indian Tribe flags. The flags were followed by all the dancers and the 6 different drum groups took turns drumming and singing. Lorraine took some pictures so I’m sure I will find some to add later.

Saturday was a busy day for us. First we headed out to the College of the Desert where they have a swap meet every weekend. We’ve gone there at least one time every year we’ve been here and I think Lorraine has always found something. This time we fit everything she bought in a small bag but she was able to find a couple of items.

We then made a quick stop at our place to take Misty out for a walk then headed out to Indio to attend the Tamale Festival. Once again, we’ve been to this before and enjoyed it every time. This time the weather forecast was for winds and rain but once again the weatherman was wrong, yea. It was a bit cool when we first got there but warmed up nicely by the time we left. And yes, Lorraine found a strawberry as well as blueberry tamale. We also had two pork, one beef and tried coconut and pineapple tamales. I think there crowd may have been a bit less than in years past but still lots of folks there.

Afterwards, we came back to our place and rested for an hour before headed back to Palm Springs once again, this time for the Festival of Lights. This is a Christmas parade with all the floats and even the people lit up with lights. Once again, the forecast was for rain but we didn’t experience any. It was cool however, in fact, I was cold enough that it was my idea to leave early because I was cold. Lorraine was smarter than me, she was dressed in layers and wore a heavy coat and she would have stayed longer had I not wussed out.

Like I said, the temperature forecasts have been for much worse weather than we’ve experienced. The highs were in the 70s for the first three days here and only into the 60s since. The forecast, if we can believe it, is for the highs to be only into the 50s for most of the week. The lows have also been getting lower as the week goes on. We haven’t experienced any freezing temps and hope we don’t. But after the sun comes up, the temperatures start rising so it isn’t too bad.

Our travel plans have us staying here for another week, then we will head back to Susy area for Christmas. We aren’t sure how long we will be there, Stanford won the Pac 12 and will be going to the Rose Bowl on New Years day. We haven’t talked to Susy yet to see if she is planning on attending the game this year or not. Stanford also played in the Rose Bowl game last year and we attended both the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game. Lorraine has already been dropping HEAVY hints that she would like to do the same this year but I’m saying no at this time time. Anyone want to bet on how it ends up?

And now to go through the pictures Lorraine has taken this week and pick out which ones to add here.