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

December 7, 2014 Lorraine’s report

Hello and thanks for stopping by. We are in Palm Springs at the 1000 Trails RV Park. What a nice time we have had here with friends, Joe & Alice and Susan & Bill. What a trip over getting here though. We left the bay area and headed over. That first morning we had a nice travel day, but the next, we were told that the winds were blowing though the Tehachapi Pass. One man came over and said the winds were up to 70 mph and maybe we shouldn’t go. But we decided to press on. It was windy, but not the predicted 70 mph. But since there had not been any rain for a long time, the roads were slick and we passed 3 places where there had been accidents. One place the car was upside down, on it’s top and it looked like the people had a bad time with 3/4 other cars involved with it. I was happy to come into this valley without anything like that.

So Susan and Bill were right behind us. They went to Taco Tuesday, and we went on over with Joe/Alice. So for $4.00, we had a bunch of tacos and the soft drinks were free for the special. What a good deal!

It was nice to get to see Susan & Bill’s new rig. They bought it over a year ago; this was the first time since then that we saw them so it was all new to us. What a nice rig. So happy they are happy with it, it really is nice.

So we have been busy with Joe & Alice. Christmas cards went out a bit late this year. I usually get them at WM, but there was no one there to help. We ended up going over to another WM a second day, ordering them for pick-up. Again no help, we had to start all over a 3rd time before they printed them, and she told me when we picked them up, that they were smaller than what I wanted. So if you get one, remember, it took a long time to get them, and I really did try.

So the parade and the Tamale Festival were what I wanted to see here. And what a glorious day it turned out to be. We went with Joe & Alice over to the area and walked through the stands. It turned out to be warm, into the mid 80’s and very nice. Joe & Alice had nachos and we ate tamales. All were good!

We came back and rested for the lighted Christmas Parade. We had gone 2 years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. I wanted to see it again. It was just as nice as it was as the first time. It starts at 5:45 pm and goes for about an hour and a half or so. And the anticipation, the waiting, etc. kept us all excited for it to start. I think Joe & Alice enjoyed it as much as we did.

So now we have one more week here, then back to have Christmas with Susy & Kaitlyn. It will be fun to see Christmas though Kaitlyn’s eyes again.

I guess that is it for me for now. Have a great week everyone….

Hugs,

Lorraine

12/7/14 Chuck’s report

I wasn’t around when Pearl Harbor was bombed 0n 12/7/41 but it’s in my thoughts every year, this year being no exception. Sure changed our country and the entire world for sure. And thanks to the greatest generation who made sure we won the war. My thoughts also go to 9/11/2001 when we were attacked without warning again, too bad we haven’t won the war following that attack!

Ok, back to normal programing again before I really get into a rant.

We finished up our two weeks in the Bay area and left there Monday morning. We followed our normal travel time and route, stopping for the night in Bakersfield Orange Grove RV park for the night. There are two or three orange trees at each site plus plenty more on the perimeter but they asked us not to pick any as they we not quite ripe yet even though they looked and smelled like oranges to me. The next morning I was in the office before we left and the gal at the desk said the owner checked and gave the ok to pick them starting that day. So that’s what I did, I picked a sack full of oranges for us and Lorraine said they are sure good. I also went to a different grove and picked some tangerines and they are really good, sweet and easy to peel too. So we have enough oranges for awhile for sure.

After picking the oranges, we got ready to travel and we on the road a bit after 9. We were seeing some winds at the park and the gal at the desk said if we had winds there, it is usually much worse through Tehachapi. We checked the weather and it looked like the winds were only in the low 20 mph, not bad so we decided to head out. Just as I made my last walk around and was ready to get into the coach, our neighbor stopped by and asked if we were heading West through the pass. I told him that was our plan and he said he had talked to someone (who talked to someone who’s uncle said) who told him the winds were gusting to the 70 mph up there. That gave us pause so we stopped and checked the weather on the computer and it still said winds in the 20s. I also called the highway toll free line and they didn’t have any wind advisories along that route so we decided to continue with our original plan.

And that turned out to be a good plan, we had some winds but nothing to worry us for sure. I would guess the worse gusts we experienced were only in the 30 mph range, enough to keep me aware but no problem driving.

California is in a three year drought but were getting two storms, one in Northern California and one in the South. It rained a bit overnight but stopped in the morning. Shortly after we started our trip, it started raining on us. almost all day. We were getting the Northern storm in the morning and through the pass but it changed to on/off showers by around 11 or so. But then we got hit by the Southern storm, much more rain. By now we were really in the high desert where it doesn’t rain often/much so they don’t seem to know how to drive in it. And sure enough, we had traffic back ups three times for bad accidents ahead of us, one appeared to be really bad.

I mentioned to Lorraine that was the first time I could remember having the windshield wipers on through that area and they weren’t on intermittent either. Boy was the coach and car dirty by the time we made it here to 1000 Trails. But at least it quit raining about 20 miles before we got here. And we didn’t get high winds for either storm either, yea.

After we checked in, we drove over to the lodge to unhook the car so we could drive it to pick out our site. We called our friends Joe/Alice who were already here to let them know our arrival time and he walked up just as I started unhooking. They also travel in a motorhome with a tow car and Joe knows everyone has a routine and didn’t want to interrupt ours so he basically said “Hi” and to let him know when we got settled in our site.

There are lots of sites available, probably just over half full and even less in the seasonal sites. We had our choice, pull thru sites with 30 amp or back-in with 50 amp. We chose the back-in/50 amp and started setting up. We’ve had issues here before getting our TV satellite to lock on due to all the palm trees and this time was no exception. We tried backing all the way back in our site and it locked on but didn’t get all the channels so we tried in the middle and it wouldn’t lock on. I seemed to remember one time we had to pull as far forward as possible to get TV reception so we tried that and it worked, it’s hard to get a clear sight line to the South through all these trees.

As we were setting up, I noticed our friends Bill and Susan were right behind us. She reminded us about Taco Tuesday just up the street, three tacos and a small soda for $1.19. We’ve been there before but I had forgotten about it. As we were messing around trying to get TV reception, Joe and Alice came by so we decided to take a break and head over for Taco Tuesday. Of course, we met more of our friends there too, Keith and Mary are here along with at least two other couples from our Lewis and Clark Chapter. We said hi to all but it was too noisy to hold a good conversation in the place so we mostly just talked among ourselves.

After dinner we came back to our place and continued setting up. Later that evening Bill set up his outdoor propane fire pit so we walked over and finally had a nice visit with them and Keith/Mary. Bill and Susan had just returned from a 16 month trip back East and even bought a new coach while back there so we had lots to talk about. Bill installed some LED lights outside his coach, look good and are nice at night too. We had sort of kept up with their travels via Susan’s blog but still had lots to discuss. They, of course, had been to lots of places we were on our trip a couple years ago and it was nice to discuss the things they had seen but we missed. Once thing all of us agreed on, we didn’t see it all by any stretch and will probably make another trip back there some year.

Wednesday morning I started troubleshooting our steps, they seemed very “spongy”, especially the bottom one. I crawled under them and found one of the swivel joints had come apart. I actually found the bolt for it laying under the steps but it was pressed in so I headed over to the hardware store and got a regular bolt and nut to replace it. I checked and we have two more that are loose but I didn’t change them out yet. But at least the steps are solid once.

Later we headed out to Costco and Wal-Mart for some stuff. One of the items we wanted to get was personal Christmas cards at Wal-Mart, using their one hour service. We were unable to get anyone to help us but finally figured out the machine we were using didn’t work right so changed machines and got our order in, it should be ready in one hour. Lorraine came back about 45 minutes later and got someone to come over but he said they weren’t ready yet. I came by 25 minutes later and finally got someone to help me and she told me the printer was out of service and we couldn’t get out card until the next day, frustrating for sure.

Thursday we stopped by to see Joe and Alice before we headed out to get our Christmas cards. They also needed to do some shopping so they road along with us. We decided to try a different Wal-Mart this time. Once again, they didn’t have anyone in the print area to help but we knew how to operate the machine by now so got them ordered. One hour later, we picked them up, their printer was working.

We also stopped by Harbor Freight, I had some coupons for stuff I wanted to check out. Both Joe and I got one free item and bought one item each. The gals had gone to a Dollar store while we were at Harbor and we all met at the car, good timing.

We decided to go to a local Casino for Thursday senior day, they give everyone $5 off the buffet and $2 free slot play. We had a good lunch and good visit before heading out to the floor to try the slots. I know Lorraine won but don’t think anyone else had good luck on them but everyone said they had a good time.

Friday we stopped by Joe and Alice’s before heading to the post office so Lorraine could mail out her Christmas cards. We had plans to go to the Lighted Parade in downtown Palm Springs later that evening but happened to hear on the radio that the parade was actually on Saturday. So we decided to go to a Mexican restaurant we’ve went to last year instead. Once again we had a good meal there and the laughter/conversation was non-stop too.

Saturday we planned a busy day, go to the Tamale festival in Indio in the morning then the Lighted Parade in Palm Springs that evening. So that’s what we did. Joe drove us to Indio where we spent a couple hours walking around, sampling the different type tamales before settling on which ones we wanted for lunch. Joe/Alice bought this HUGH plate of nachos while Lorraine and I settled for tamales, Lorraine had a date and a strawberry while I settled for two pork tamales. After all the samples plus the food we bought, no one left hungry.

We returned to our rigs for a rest before we headed over to pick up Joe and Alice for our trip to the Parade. We went to this last year and Lorraine like it enough to want to go again this year. The parade starts at 5:45 and we knew it would be crowded so we got there shortly after 4, picked out our spot and set up our chairs and waited for the show to begin. And it did start right at 5:45, we were sitting very near the starting point so we got to see the celebrities and politicians milling around aimlessly before the parade started. I don’t know the actress who was the Grand Marshall but she was on Beverly Hill Housewives or some show like that. They had the “red carpet” set up right in front of us and up close we could see she had a ton of makeup on. But her full length mink coat sure looked nice.

The parade lasted for over an hour and a half, like I said, we were at the beginning so there wasn’t and gaps or time between floats. All of them, including the marchers and band were lit up with Christmas lights. I know Lorraine took a bunch of pictures, I’ll add some of them here later.

After the parade we headed out of town as quick as we could, trying to beat the traffic. Even so, we had heavy traffic for a few blocks as some folks must have left before the parade was finished. We stopped at In n Out for dinner and boy was it crowded, even at 8:00. Took us almost an hour to order, wait for it and eat.

This morning Joe and Alice had to leave, so did Bill and Susan. So we drove over to see Joe/Alice, got there just as they were getting ready to head out. They will be going to their normal park in Hemet for a couple months. We will probably drive over to see them next time we are here at Palm Springs next month.

Bill and Susan took a bit more time getting ready to leave, Bill washed their car and rig. We will see them when we come back here next month too, along with more folks who belong to Lewis and Clark.

The weather this past week has been different that we have become used to. It rained on us last Sunday but Monday was mostly cloudy with little rain. Tuesday was HEAVY rain as we traveled until it stopped a few miles West of here. Wednesday and Thursday was cloudy with a few sprinkles. Friday it started clearing up, mostly sunny but a bit windy. Yesterday was sunny and warm, it got into the low 80s. Being in the desert, it does cool off at night, I even wore long pants to the parade as I knew it would be cool. But the forecast is for clear, sunny days for the next week, AHH.

Our travel plans are to stay here for another week before returning back to the Bay area to be with Susy and Katie for Christmas. We will be at the Elks there for two weeks, leaving on Jan. 1st.

Ok, now to add some pictures and get this posted.

That’s a water reservoir, really low.