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

December 14, 2014 Lorraine’s report

Hello and thanks for stopping by. Hope your day is going well. It has been a pretty quiet week for us. While talking with my sister this morning, found out they had a terrific storm back home. I really do not miss those “big, windy, wet” days they have from time to time. Everyone complained about how high the winds were and how frightened they were while it was going on. It must have been pretty scary for them.

It was wonderful to see Dorothy/Tom and her sister, Mary and her friends. We were invited to go with them on Friday night. She was going to a show in Palm Springs to see a show what she had seen with her woman’s group. She met us outside our gate hear at the park and we went with her to pick up more friends. I think there were 9 of us that went out to eat and to see the show. It was a lot of fun, the music was good and the company was great and we really enjoyed our time together. It was also a birthday party for Dorothy and Luba, since their birthday’s are later this month.

The show was 3 impersonators, each representing several famous people. One was there representing Bobby Darin, another Sami Davis, Jr. and of course the wonderful Marilyn Monroe. They put on a nice show. All to soon our time was ending, but the memories are still there.

One day I had to go up to Palm Springs to get my mammogram. I ended up going there because the San Francisco Bay area was too full last year, it would take into the new year (this year) before I had my yearly mammogram. Well, this year, they sent me a renewal notice so I called and made my appointment. Talk about things not going very well. I got the address wrong, the phone number was wrong, and the machine broke and wouldn’t be fixed until later on in the day. But, when you figure out that I’m not here everyday, it could happen even if you did live here. Oh well…

So this weekend I wanted to go to the Pow Wow and go and visit the College of the Desert to see the out door swap meet. We did both, and I was pretty tired by the end of the day. But it was a great day, weather was nice, and I was able to get the things I needed at the swap meet. All in all a good day.

The Pow Wow was also good, They had a pretty stiff competition going on for the men’s group. They played the “Northern Tradition”, and then the “Southern Tradition” songs for them. The competition went on for over an hour and a half. It started out with 25 to 30 single dancers. It got down to a final three, and they chose from that group. The winner was one man who put his heart and soul into dancing. Over 40 songs, all at least 3 to 4 minutes each and the men danced the whole time. His legs must have been pretty sore today. I have not seen anything like that at the various Pow-wow’s we have been too. It was amazing!

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

Hugs,

Lorraine

12/14/14 Chuck’s report

Last Sunday we sort of stayed around the coach. Joe and Alice left in the morning, we were able to see them just as they ready to leave. Hope to see them next month when we come back here, they aren’t too far away. Bill and Susan left too but not before we got to see them off too.

Later we watched the Seattle Seahawks win a game in Philadelphia, I was a bit worried about that one. Later today they play San Francisco in Seattle, hoping for another win there too. I sort of penciled them to play New England in the Super Bowl, both are still in the running and it could still happen.

Monday we drove over to the imagining center for Lorraine’s appointment but there machine was down for repairs so she made an appointment for later that afternoon. While we were waiting, we drove over and had a short visit with Tom and Dorothy at their house. Lorraine made her second appointment with no problems, they had just finished with the repairs on the X-ray machine.

Tuesday we had a local company stop by and they washed our coach, did a good job too. After driving in the rain to get here the coach was sure showing signs of needing a good wash.

Later we headed over to Wal-Mart to order Lorraine’s prescriptions, of course, they don’t have all of them in stock and they won’t be ready for pick-up for a couple of days. We made it to Del Taco for their Taco Tuesday deal once again, a good deal.

Wednesday we headed over to Fantasy Springs Casino for some slot machine play. While there we also had their buffet for a late lunch/early dinner and it was good too.

Thursday we stopped by to pick up Lorraine’s prescriptions, at least the ones they had filled. Two of them probably won’t be filled until we return in two weeks, bummer. We then headed over to another casino, Augustine, for more slot play and to have their buffet for lunch. But their buffet was closed for remodeling so we just played the machines before having Del Taco for dinner, they also have a Thursday Taco deal.

Friday we got just a bit of rain, nothing like what they experienced in North or South California, they got hammered. And they really got hit back home in Washington too, lots of rain and heavy winds. We had enough rain here to get everything good and wet, that was about all, of course we are in the desert. We sort of hung around the coach all day, Lorraine got caught up on our laundry. We’re glad to have washer/dryer in the coach so we don’t have to go to a laundry mat.

We had dinner plans with Tom and Dorothy and some of their friends in the evening. Dorothy drove over to our place and we followed them to the restaurant in Palm Springs. They had made reservations at Alibi Azul for nine and asked to be near the stage so we could see the show later.

We had a very good dinner and the show actually started before we were finished. The lead singer has been a fixture in the local area for a long time, the black guy has only been in the area for a couple years, not sure about the gal in the show. They each were on stage for awhile, I think the show lasted about two hours total. We had a good visit, good dinner and enjoyed the show, a nice evening out with friends.

Saturday we made a trip to the College of the Desert in Palm Springs, they have a street fair there every weekend and Lorraine wanted to check it out. We found a couple of items, heck I even found a Christmas present for Lorraine that she picked out. We walked the area, checked out all the shops then made a couple of runs to pick up the things we wanted to buy.

After the street fair, we came back to our place to take Misty outside and rested for a short while. We had plans to go to a local casino, 29 Palms, to attend a Pow Wow. We have gone to this Pow Wow for the last six years and Lorraine was really looking forward to seeing it once again. This time they had 7 drumming groups and over 100 dancers but we didn’t see any from Washington or Alaska like in years past. But there were dancers from tribes as far away as Canada and Minnesota.

The highlight of this Pow Wow, at least for me, was when they had the men’s “fancy” dancers out for a marathon dance. They started with about 30 dancers and they danced non stop for 80 minutes, of course not all the dancers lasted until the end. But they did dance hard and without a break for a long time, they have to be in very good shape for this one. I saw at least two dancers who were probably 60 years of age but most looked to be in their 20 – 30s. I took lots of pictures as I was sitting at an aisle seat and was able to get up/down easier, I’m sure I’ll find some to add to the blog.

Dorothy, her sister Mary and friend Luba came by to see the Pow Wow with us. I can’t say as we had a great visit as most of the time we couldn’t hold a conversation due to the drumming/singing but we did our best, ha.

Let’s see, the weather has been pretty typical here for the past week with the temperatures getting into the low 80s a couple of days and down into the 50s at night. We did get a good shower here one day and the temperature that day only got into the low 70s, almost long pants weather!! But the weather yesterday and today has been back to normal again, this is what we like during the winter down here.

Our travel plans are to head back to the Bay area on Tuesday, back to the Elks near Susy and Kaitlyn. We will be there two weeks, we will spend Christmas with them before we actually head out for the places unknown for the rest of the winter. We are trying to make our plans but so far don’t have anything firm beyond January.

I’ll go through the pictures on our camera and maybe even download/add some from Lorraine’s phone too. She seems to take lots of pictures with her phone and I forget to download them every week.

At Alibi Azul restaurant and night club in Palm Springs. The lead singer sang Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin songs.