Tuesday, December 27th, we left the coach after lunch to go do some geocaching. Since we started geocaching in the Spring of 2008 we have been in and out of the Coachella Valley many times. As a result, there are fewer caches for us to find if we want to look for those that we have never found. None the less, local cachers are always putting out a few new caches, so we were able to pull up a list of caches we haven’t yet found. In a few hours we were able to get nine new finds, along with one new DNF. We sort of made up for the DNF, however, by finding a cache that we had to DNF last week. We went back for another look and found it this trip. Yea! We like “fixing” our old DNFs.
When we got back to the RV park we found that our good friends, Peggy and Vernon Bullock, had arrived at the park and moved into the spot next to us. We last saw Peggy and Vernon back in Farmington, New Mexico in October at the Rocky Mountain Area Rally. After the rally they headed back to their home base near Redding, California. Peggy is still recovering from surgery on her knee, but they had planned to be here for the New Years and will be traveling with us off and on for the next couple months. We were glad to see them and we spent the rest of the evening catching up with each other. Although we stay in touch through email and phone, it is still nice to catch up face to face. We put a quick dinner of grilled steaks together and had a great time.
Wednesday, December 28th, we decided to have a stay at home day to get some chores done. I did a couple of minor repairs around the coach and spent some time cleaning out my closets. I have a tendency to collect too many clothes, which is not good in a motorhome with minimal storage capacity. I cleaned out a bunch of shirts and pants and bagged them up for donation to a local thrift store. While we were working in the coach we were visited by the activities director for the RV park asking if I would do the music for the park’s New Years Eve party. When we had checked in on Monday I had let the office know that I would be willing to be the DJ, provided it wasn’t a late night party. We will start the music at 7:30, do a New York City celebration, and close down by 10:00.
About 5:00 or so we left the coach and drove to a nearby neighborhood to a holiday party hosted by Pat and Monty Montez. Pat and Monty are old friends from the Indio Elks Lodge and the Elks RV club. Regular readers may recall that we crossed paths with them back in August when we were in Amarillo, Texas. We had dinner with them one night as they were passing through town on their way back east. It was not a large party and there were only two other couples there that we already knew, Tom and Joan Bolares, and Bob and Gloria Baron. Both of those couples were also in the Elks Lodge RV club when we were active with the group. There were a number of other folks at the party also that were friends of Pat and Monty from other activities. They had a lot a great food, including some wonderful paella and sauteed calamari that Monty had made. He is Basque Spanish and loves to cook Basque food. We had a great time and stayed until about 8:30 or so when we left and went back to the coach for the rest of the night.
Thursday, December 29th, we went out after lunch to do some more geocaching, this time with Peggy and Vernon. They have really become avid cachers since we introduced them to the hobby a year or so ago.
We went out in our Jeep and did a series of caches set along an off-road trail south of La Quinta, not too far from the RV park. We had done the first third or so of the caches on the trail a couple weeks ago, but we went back and finished the series with the Bullocks. Before we headed home at dusk we had 13 new finds with no DNFs and the Bullocks, who also did the one’s that we had already found on the trail, ended up with 20 new finds, a really good day for them. One of the caches we went to, that was not on the SUV trail, was at a very old cemetery in a farming area. It appears to be used by migrant farm workers
and some of the graves look like they go back to the turn of the century. Most of the graves looked like they were actually above ground and many had only worn wooden crosses for markers. Some of the other graves had all kinds of trinkets and decorations on them. Very spooky place, even in the daytime.After we got home the four of us had cocktails on the lawn as the sun set and were joined later by Jay and Donna Blumenthal, who are only a few sites down the road from us. We then had a very nice dinner in the Bullocks’ coach with the main dish being a tomato and basil pasta dish that Peggy makes and we love. She had made it for us once before and I had raved about how good it was, so she wanted to make it again. I am a true, blue “meat and potatoes” guy, but this dish has no meat in it and I still love it. After dinner we chatted for a bit and then went back to our coach for the rest of the evening.
Friday, December 30th, shows the potential to be an excellent desert winter day, blue skies and temperatures in the mid to high 70's. I actually put on shorts for the day, the first time in quite a while. After lunch we had to go out and do some shopping. After an afternoon in the stores we came back to the park in time for a 4:00 p.m. happy hour on the patio by the pool. There were probably a dozen or so people there having nibbles and cocktails. Jay Blumenthal brought his keyboard over and he was playing accompaniment for a guitar player, providing music for the group. I don’t recall the name of the guy on the guitar, but I remember that he was in Pahrump back in October when we were there and came to karaoke night. He has a good voice and sings mostly country music. I hung around with the musicians and tried to sing a few songs, although I am lyrically challenged if I don’t have the words in front of me. Never have had a good memory for musical lyrics, no matter how many times I have done a song.
The happy hour lasted until about 6:00 when we and the Bullocks adjourned the party to our coach. Jackie fixed her taquito-based enchilada casserole for dinner and we had a great time. The Bullocks left for their coach about 8:30 or so and we just relaxed and watched TV for the rest of the evening.
Saturday, December 31st, another New Year’s Eve at Indian Waters. We didn’t stray too far from home today, other than a quick trip to the store to pick up a couple things we forgot yesterday and that Jackie needed to make a particular recipe. I spent a little time in the afternoon gathering all of my music gear, speakers, amp, wires, etc., from their various hiding spots and getting them ready for transport to the clubhouse for tonight. About 5:00 the park sent a guy with a golf cart by the coach to tote the gear down and I went down and spent an hour or so getting everything set up for the party. It took a little longer than usual because I was having trouble with my mixer amp. I couldn’t get both speaker outputs to work. I finally got that fixed and went back to the coach to change clothes for the party.
The party started at 7:00, so I went down and started playing some music. Most of the people had drifted in by 7:30 or so and I was trying everything I could to get people interested
in the music. I did 50's, 60's, country music, big band, nothing was getting anyone to pay the least bit of attention. Finally at 8:00 I asked if anyone wanted to do karaoke and the party was off and running. We did nothing but karaoke the rest of the night and the party went on past 10:00. We did take a brief break at 9:00 to watch the New York City midnight celebration. We had told everyone we were going to do a “New York” New Year’s, which is what most everyone in the park did anyway.We had about seven people who sang, most of them pretty good singers. There were probably sixty people at the party and the vast majority hung in there until we shut the music down at 10:00. We
felt this was a really good turnout considering that the party was not even on the activity schedule for the park. As I mentioned earlier, the activity for the park didn’t even ask us to DJ the party until Wednesday. Jackie had her make up a bunch of flyers and we went around the park
this morning and either talked to people we found at home, or left flyers on coaches, for the party tonight. I think our great turnout was, at least in part, a result of our work this morning. We had a very good party, got a good buzz on, and were able to walk home. No DUI checkpoints for us! After we got home we stayed up until midnight just so we could listen to the guns going off all around Indio at midnight. Sounded like a war zone, just with smaller caliber guns. These idiots never learn that shooting in the air is not a good thing. Fortunately, we dodged the bullet, literally, again this year and nothing came down on the coach or car.
Sunday, January 1st, 2012, Happy New Year! I went over to the clubhouse after the morning church service to pack up my equipment from last night’s party. After lunch Jackie and Peggy went out to do a couple of geocaches, just so they could document that they cached on New Year’s Day. I stayed at the coach and put my stuff away. I was also waiting to hear from my buddy Barry Cohen, who had told me that they were going to come over today. Barry and Colleen finally came over around 3:30 or so, after Peggy and Jackie had finished caching. I think Jackie got two new finds and one DNF for her efforts.
The three girls played cards while Barry, Vernon and I sat and talked and watched some football. We later had a little pot luck dinner with the six of us. We had a very nice meal with a casserole that Jackie made, a nice salad, and a lemon meringue pie from Peggy. We all sat and talked, and had some cocktails, until about 8:00 when everyone left to go home. A very nice New Year’s Day with friends.
Monday, January 2nd, showed the promise of being a very nice, sunny day. After an early lunch we went out with the Bullocks to do some geocaching in nearby Palm Desert. Since today was the
“official” holiday for New Years, we anticipated that there wouldn’t be as many people on the roads and many businesses might be closed. This always makes caching easier, with less traffic and fewer muggles to worry about. One of the caches was a rubber rat under a tree with the cache container in it's belly. Vernon liked that one. In the course of a few hours we were able to get fifteen new finds on our tally, including fixing one previous DNF. We had no new DNF caches, which is always a good thing. After caching we came home and did some hamburgers on the BBQ with the Bullocks.Tuesday, January 3rd, we left again after lunch and went out caching, this time in Desert Hot Springs. We were with the Bullocks again, although they were in their own car this time. There were a lot of new caches put out in Desert Hot Springs since the last time we cached there, so we were able to get eleven new finds in a few hours of caching. We also got one new DNF. One of the last caches of the day was our 3,300th find!
Yea us! After the sun went down we all went to the Desert Hot Springs Elks Lodge for a cocktail. We have been there many times in the past, but Peggy and Vernon had never been in the lodge. There weren’t a lot of people in the bar because they were having bingo, but we had one cocktail. The Bullocks then left to go home and we drove over to the nearby Desert Pools RV Resort, which is one of our Western Horizons membership parks. We were originally supposed to be at Desert Pools, but we cancelled our reservation when Indian Waters became available. However, a number of our Canadian acquaintances were in Desert Pools and had been disappointed that we weren’t going to be there when they were there. We told them we would come up and visit one evening and play Texas Hold’em with them. We got in on the game and had a wonderful time visiting with our friends and catching up. Both of us lost in cards, Jackie about eleven dollars and me about four, but we still had a good time. The card game lasted until 9:00 and it was almost ten by the time we got back to the coach in Indio.
Wednesday, January 4th, I went out in the morning and did some errands, including getting the car washed. Later, Jackie and I left the coach after an early lunch and headed to Rancho Mirage and the Eisenhower Hospital there for Jackie’s annual mammogram. We got to the hospital early, so we did a few caches before her appointment time. We ended up with three new finds. Jackie then had her exam and we went back to Palm Desert and took her to the urgent care at our regular doctor’s office. She has been having bad sinus problems for the last couple weeks and finally decided to go to the doctor. We got a couple prescriptions, stopped by and filled those, and then headed for home for the rest of the evening.
While we had been busy for the day the Bullocks had driven down to Borrego Springs, a small town about fifty miles south of Indio, to explore and do some caching. They got back just before dark and joined us for happy hour before we all retired to our coaches for the rest of the night.
Thursday, January 5th, we once again were faced with a beautiful, sunny and warm day. Times are tough in SoCal. We went out after lunch with the Bullocks for some more caching, five straight days so far. We stuck around the Indio area this time, starting with the desert area to the north of town. Unfortunately, we were having trouble figuring out how to get to some of the caches on the trails, so we only found a couple before deciding to go down into town for some urban caches. We finally ended up with eleven new finds and no DNFs for the afternoon, a respectable number.
When we got back to the RV park we discovered that our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock had arrived and were parked only a couple spots down from us. Regular readers will know Ray and Suzie as friends we met five years ago during our travels and have stayed in contact with since. We frequently cross paths with them, especially around various rallies. They will be going into the Western Area FMCA rally on Sunday, along with the Bullocks and several other friends of ours. We will be going in on Monday. About 5:30 or so the we and the Bullocks drove over to Cactus Jack’s for dinner. Peggy was itching to get some prime rib, and Jack’s has some of the best in town. We picked today because on Thursday Jack’s has the beef ribs on the special board. Both Vernon and I really go for the ribs. Normally Jackie has lamb, but this time she got a seafood pasta dish that looked good too. We had a very nice dinner and finally finished about 8:00 when we headed back to the RV park for the night.
Friday, January 6th, we left the coach after lunch and did a Costco run. Among other things I wanted to look at the car GPS units they had on sale since Tabby, as we called our old unit, finally gave up the ghost. The touch screen stopped working and since it had no buttons, no touchy means no worky. We bought Tabby in Florida back in early 2006, so I think we got our money’s worth out of her. It turns out that the best deal for a new Garmin unit is at Costco Online, so we just did our regular Costco shopping and then headed home. We stayed in for the rest of the afternoon.
At about 5:00 we had happy hour for us, the Bullocks and the Babcocks on the grass behind our coach. Later we all cooked whatever we wanted on the BBQ and all gathered in our coach to eat dinner. It was a very nice dinner with good conversation with our friends. About 8:00 everyone split up and went back to the their coaches for the rest of the night.
Saturday, January 7th, we greeted another nice 72 degree desert day. The six of us all left the park about 11:00 and went to the Pac Inn, a Chinese restaurant here in Indio, for lunch. They have great food and you get huge portions for a very modest price. After lunch we ran the leftovers, we ALL had leftovers, back to the coaches and then we all went to Palm Desert for the COD street fair. We only had an hour or so to shop, they close up the fair at 2:00, but we and the Bullocks were there for specific items. Jackie wanted some lipstick from a vendor that she has purchased from for years, and Peggy wanted some synthetic ice packs.
After a little bit of shopping we and the Bullocks went off to do some geocaching. The Babcocks are not cachers, so they went off on their own. The four of us managed to get a dozen new finds before we finally lost daylight around 4:30 or so. We headed back to the RV park for happy hour with the group and then we all adjourned to our individual coaches for a dinner of leftovers.
Sunday, January 8th, the Bullocks and the Babcocks packed up and moved from Indian Waters to the Indio Fair Grounds, about a half mile east, for the FMCA Western Area Rally. We are also going to the rally, but we won’t go in until Monday. The other members of our group wanted to go in on the first day of parking because they get handicap parking and wanted to get decent spots. We are in general parking and know that we will be in the parking lot, so we can wait a day before going in.
After lunch we went to the grocery store to stock up on stuff we will need once we leave the valley after the rally. We will be going to Ehrenberg, Arizona, near Blythe, California, for a week and then to Quartzsite, Arizona for a week. Neither of these places has a Walmart or Costco anywhere near them. After shopping we just hung around the coach for the rest of the day. I got things outside cleaned up for our move tomorrow, but we didn’t have much out, so it only took a half hour or so.
Monday, January 9th, moving day. We packed up the coach, pulled in the slides, and I drove alone for the long half mile trip from the RV resort to the Indio Fairgrounds. We were in the parking area by 10:00 and got parked in the parking lot. It took us an hour or so to get setup and then we drove over to Cactus Jack’s to meet our friends for lunch. We met the Bullocks and the Babcocks, along with Curt and Sharon Minard. Curt and Sharon are the couple we met last year in Quartzsite and that we had dinner with a month ago in Carmichael. Our friends Gary and Ramona Wilson were there. The Wilsons were with us in Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta in October. There was also one other couple, friends of the Minards, that joined us. We had a great lunch and caught up with the travels of all our friends.
After lunch everyone went their own way. We went next door to the laundromat and did our two weeks worth of laundry. After laundry we went back to the coach and relaxed. The area we are parked in is supposed to have 30 amp electric, however, when we parked they had not yet set up the generators. When we got home from the laundry we found that they had turned on the 20 amp outlets for temporary power, so we got plugged in and were able to charge our batteries without having to run the generator. The electric we have will not work for A/C or the microwave, but it is enough to run lights, the TVs and other electronics. We chatted a little with our neighbors and just stayed around the coach for the rest of the day.
Our arrival here at the rally marks the end of our two weeks in Indian Waters, and is a perfect place to close this episode. We will be here at the rally for six days and then move on to Ehrenberg, Arizona. Sometime after Ehrenberg we will publish again. Until then, remember that it's always darkest before the dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it. Bye for now.
