so if you have satellite, as we do, you have to be a little careful where you park. Fortunately, there are not a lot of rigs up here this time of year, so we had a lot of choices. We picked a nice spot on the dry creek, a spot we have used before, so we know the satellite will work. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting set up. Since we will be here for a month I put out more outside decorations, mats and so forth to dress the place up a little.
Tuesday, November 13th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove down the mountain to Banning. It is only 11 miles from Banning to the resort, but it goes up over 1,500 feet in elevation and it is a fairly narrow, winding road. We stopped at the La Casita restaurant in Beaumont, the next town over, for lunch. La Casita has restaurants all over the Coachella Valley and Banning/Beaumont, and they have the best taco salad anywhere. We really miss La Casita when we travel out of the area.
We saw one very nice two year old female at Petsmart that seemed nice, but the adoption agency that places the cats there didn’t have anyone on site to let us hold and play with her. We may come back and take another look at her on Saturday when they have adoption day.
After looking at cats for a while we went to Costco and did our shopping. While we were in the Midwest, and even in Albuquerque, we had found a Kirkland brand vodka in Costco stores that was excellent, every bit as good as Absolute. Kirkland is Costco’s in-house brand and this was called American Vodka and it was made by a company in California. It sold for at least a third less than the Absolute. Kirkland also has a French made vodka, but it is as much, or sometimes more, than the Absolute. This store didn’t carry it! They had the French stuff, but no American Vodka. Fortunately, the Absolute was on sale, so we still got a bargain. We are going to contact the store manager to see if they can stock the American Vodka. After Costco we headed back to Beaumont and stopped at Walmart for some supplies also. Once we had our chores done we went back up the mountain, getting back to the coach just as dark approached at 5:00. We relaxed and watched TV the rest of the evening.
Wednesday, November 14th, we had a stay at home day. After lunch we packed up our dirty clothes and went down to the laundry at the park and did our washing. They have a very nice, big, laundry facility here at Silent Valley, which makes it convenient. Other than laundry we didn’t do anything other than some chores around the coach. A nice relaxing day. We did BBQ some really nice, big T-bones on the grill for dinner. Because we have been moving around we haven’t had the BBQ out much lately, it was nice to cook something for a change. Thursday was also a leisure day. We like coming up to Silent Valley because it gives us a chance to really relax. We try to keep “busy” days down to two or three a week and find time to just relax, play and enjoy the quiet. Did a few administrative chores in the afternoon, but not much more than that.
Friday, November 16th, we awoke to a few clouds and very light sprinkles. The weather gave a slim chance for rain today, so we decided to go down the hill into Banning/Beaumont to do some caching and some errands. We left the coach after lunch and went down the mountain, noticing that the skies were beginning to clear and it no longer looked like rain. Our first stop was a house in Beaumont where the residents had three young cats that they were trying to give away. We have been sort of looking for another cat companion, and Jackie had checked Craig’s List and found a lady here in Beaumont who had to move and couldn’t take her three cats. They were all from the same litter and all about five months old or so.
It was two gray, or mostly gray males and one white and gray female. They were all pretty tame and friendly, but they just didn’t quite click with us. One problem with getting a cat like this is that you don’t know if they are really healthy, and we would have to make arrangement to get whatever cat we picked neutered. The people who had the cat were nice enough, but the house and their appearance were pretty trashy, so we were a little concerned about the health of the cats. We left without a kitty.
After checking out the cats we did some geocaching in the Beaumont area, finding a total of seven new caches, but also getting two DNFs. The sad part is the two we didn’t find were repeat DNFs, caches we had looked for last year and couldn’t find. We still couldn’t find them. Rats. After caching we did some quick shopping before heading back up the hill before dark. We then watched TV the rest of the evening.
Saturday, November 17th, we left the coach a little before 10:00 and went down to the village center area of Silent Valley for a meeting of the Board of Directors. The Village center is near the entrance to the park and is where the store, restaurant, bar, laundry, administrative offices, amphitheater and several other buildings are located. We expected that there would be a big turnout for this meeting, and we weren’t disappointed. There were several hundred people in attendance, a big change from meetings in past years where you might get a couple dozen.
The issue is, what else, money. Over the past couple of years the club has been having financial difficulties, some of it apparent mismanagement by the Board, a lot of it owner/members who are not paying their annual dues. This is a very large park in a fairly remote location and it takes a lot of money to run. The bulk of the revenue for the club comes from the annual dues paid by the member/owners. This is a somewhat unique type of membership RV park in that the land on which the facility is located is leased by the club from Forest Service on a 99 year lease that started in 1974. When you become a member/owner here you actually purchase a deeded interest in that lease, and are obligated by the contract for the entire term of the lease, basically forever. There are 6,800 “shares” of this leasehold and you actually get a recorded deed for an undivided 1/6800 of the leasehold. We were told about this place by a number of our friends at the Indio Elks Lodge who had RVs and were owner/members up here. When we bought our membership 2004 we paid about $750, which included the transfer fee, title fee, and the first year’s dues, which were around $300 a year at that time. About four years ago they went up to $625.
The problem with finances has come because over the years more and more owner/members have defaulted on their obligation to pay dues. Right now there are 970 owner/members who are in default and they expect another 189 to default in the coming year. In addition, the Club itself holds 813 “shares” that were buy-backs, foreclosures, or are otherwise unsold interests in the leasehold. This means that of the 6,800 individual shares, almost 1,800 of them are producing no revenue, this is 26 percent of the total shares that are not paying, and if their predictions hold true, that will go up to 29 percent by the end of next year.
A lot of this problem stems from the fact that the share you buy is an obligation forever, unless you can sell or give it away to someone else who then takes title to the deed. The people that bought into here 20 or 30 years ago are aging to the point where they no longer RV and they haven’t been able to dump the obligation, so they just default. In addition, even if you die, the obligation remains to your estate and heirs, and unless they are RVers, they will likely just let it go into default too.
A couple of years ago the club had a $200 special assessment, which caused a spike in defaults, and this year they assessed another $400 on top of the normal $600 assessment. They have gone through a couple million in reserves over the past several years and basically bleeding money. That was the reason for the huge turnout at the Board meeting, the owners want the Board recalled and the park turned around. Of course, it’s all a lot more complicated than most of the members understand, but they don’t really care - they just want to not have to keep paying special assessments.
My background and experience in homeowner association management gives me a little better insight into the problems the Board is facing, but I too have to criticize them for trying to maintain the country club lifestyle in these poor economic times. The last few years the restaurant, bar and other activities, which are supposed be self supporting, have been hemorrhaging money. In my opinion, instead of focusing on the primary goal of operating an RV park, they have spent too much time and money trying to keep activities and amenities going. Until the economy gets better they need to just run this place as an RV park, not a country club.
Anyway, we went to the meeting and listened to everyone yell and scream at the Board, and heard the Board promise to do better. Other than that, there is not much we can do about it right now. Being retired and full timers, we at least get to use the place a couple months a year, which is about the break even point for the normal $600 assessment. The extra $400 hurts that equation, but we want to continue to use Silent Valley for the foreseeable future, we like it here, so we will pay it. If you don’t pay, you don’t get to come up here.
After the Board meeting we drove down the mountain and over to Moreno Valley, about 20 miles west of Banning. We stopped for lunch at a place called Jason’s Deli. The reason I picked this place is that I had found it on the internet while doing a search for places in Southern California that had muffelletas on the menu. Up until our visit to New Orleans this summer I had never heard of a muffuletta, but I sure learned to like them while we were in the South. I talked about it in a blog episode from summer, but it is a very large sandwich with ham, salami and Provolone cheese, served on a big, round special bun that is called Muffuletta bread, with a special olive spread. They are usually about 12 inches across, so they are big. Normally you buy a half or a quarter Muffuletta. Only two people can finish a full one.
I had a hankering for a Muffuletta and found Jason’s Deli featuring them at one of their restaurants in Moreno Valley, I knew we had to go. Jason’s are all over the country, but I didn’t know about them until I found them online during the Muffuletta search. I had a bowl of French onion soup and a half Muffuletta, Jackie had a chicken Panini and a cup of seafood gumbo. The food was excellent. Jackie complained that her sandwich was dry and she had to go hunt down some mayo for it, and it didn’t have as much chicken as she would have liked. The gumbo was outstanding and would have made a great meal by itself. The Muffuletta was as good as I remembered, as just as big. I ended up taking half of mine, a quarter Muffuletta, home for lunch tomorrow.
I can recommend Jason’s Deli as a great place to eat. Typical deli, where you stand in line to order your food and then they bring it to your table. The menu is mostly sandwiches, but a great variety of regular deli fare, lots of soups, a big salad bar, and, of course, great Muffelletas. There are Jason’s in Indiana, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, California and several other states. Look them up and go there if it’s close by. I think we will be regular customers when we get close to one.
After lunch we drove over to the Petsmart store, which was right down the street from Jason’s. I mentioned earlier that we had stopped at Petsmart on Tuesday checking out the cats up for adoption. We had liked one of the cats, a little yellow female about a year old. We had talked to the lady who runs the adoption company, called TLC of IE (Tender Loving Care of the Inland Empire), and she told us that they only come down to Petsmart on Saturdays and when she did come down they would have a lot more cats than the few they had “stored” at Petsmart.
After we got the papers completed and paid the $85 adoption fee we a new cat, whose name at this point was Chargraytoo, given to him by his foster mom. We decided that name had to go, but we haven’t settled on a new one yet. We had brought our cat carrier, so we bundled up the new cat and headed back to Silent Valley. The cat, who is very used to cages, didn’t mind the drive at all. Never meowed and just laid down and took a nap during the drive. Again, very mellow.
Once we got home things kind of changed. We left the new cat in the carrier and put it on the floor and Smokey, our other cat, was NOT happy. He walked over, looked in and started hissing and growling, and scared the crap out of the new little guy. Smokey went back into the bedroom and sulked the rest of the day, and the new cat found a hiding place under the dashboard of the coach and refused to come out. At one point I didn’t know where he went, and even though I was sure he couldn’t get out of the coach from anywhere under the dash, I still wanted to know where he was. After searching for about 30 minutes I finally found his hiding hole. Smokey, being a big 17 pound cat, could never get up where the new cat was hiding, which I think was his idea. I took him out once and Jackie held him for a few minutes, but as soon as she let go he ran back into his hiding place. We decided to just let him be and we never saw him again.
Unfortunately, even after we got him mellowed a little with play, he still wouldn’t come to us or jump up on our lap. He walked around the house, but was VERY easily spooked. Any hand motion or sharp noise would startle him and he would run to a hidey hole. He came over near us, but just couldn’t bring himself to actually come to us. This is unfortunate, and I hope it works out after a few days. We can’t have a cat that just hides and never wants to interact. That is not why we got another cat. He is really cute and nice, but he needs to settle down.
We went to bed about 10:30 and woke up early in the morning, around 4:00 or so, and heard Benji meowing. This was the first time he was really crying out. He was walking around the coach just meowing his head off. I got the impression he was lonely and wanted to be with us, but he was still too afraid to come up on the bed. Even though Smokey was on the bed, and would hiss and growl from time to time, Benji would still walk in the bedrooms and walk around the bed. He doesn’t seem to be hiding from Smokey anymore, so I guess that’s progress.
Monday, November 19th, we woke up not knowing where Benji was hiding. Although I know I had heard him moving around the house, even meowing, as late as 5:00 a.m., he was no where to be found when we got up. All of the defenses I put around the dashboard area seemed to be intact, so I didn’t think he had gotten up there. I did find one spot of vulnerability where two pillows were not as tight as I would have liked, so I check a few spots that I could see without tearing the whole blockade down, and didn’t see him. Checked everywhere else we could think of and could not find the cat.
We decided that we know for a fact that there is no route out of the coach except by door or window, so he was within 40 feet somewhere, and we were just going to let him be. We had to get a cache today for our days of the year challenge, so we decided to go down to Banning and do some caching. Benji and Smokey have shown no signs of wanting to kill each other, so we were pretty confident there would be no bloodshed while we were gone.
We left after lunch, about 1:00, and went down the hill into Banning. We were able to find nine caches within a couple of hours. The caches were all in rural settings, rough dirt roads, and several miles apart, so that’s why it took so long to get nine. We also got one new DNF. After caching we stopped at Walmart for a few things and then went back up to the RV park.
When we got back to the coach there were still no signs that Benji had gotten out of his hiding place, so we just went about our normal routines. Shortly after 5:00 I was sitting on the couch, having a cocktail and watching the news when I heard some noises from under the dash and saw slight movement on the face of the radio in the dashboard. The damn cat was under the dash after all. I guess the vulnerability I had found was, in fact, an entrance. I took down a couple pieces of the blockade and went back to the couch and within a couple minutes Benji’s head popped up and he came out. While he wandered around the coach I fixed the blockade, hopefully for good this time.
After dinner, while we were on our couches watching TV I spent some time playing with Benji with the laser, the feather toy and his mouse. Smokey had come into the living room and was sitting on the floor just watching the cat race back and forth, watching carefully, but not hissing or growling. Smokey finally got up on Jackie’s couch and curled up by her feet and ignored the new cat. After a couple hours Benji had gotten comfortable enough to come over to the side of the couch, both mine and Jackie, to let us pet him. Then I could pick him up and have him on my lap for a while, and then he started where he would jump up on my lap on his own. Didn’t stay long, but I think that has more to do with the fact that he is a six month old kitten with boundless energy rather than that he is afraid. At one point he was even up on Jackie’s chest getting cuddles while Smokey was still down by her feet. All in all, real progress was made today. Yea!
Tuesday, November 20th, we elected for another stay at home day up here in the cool autumn of Silent Valley. We did a couple of little chores, but mostly just relaxed, I played on the computer and Jackie watched TV and played on her computer. Benji spent most of the day out in the open, running around the coach and exploring. Doesn’t seem to be trying to find a way under the dash anymore, but still goes under chairs when he wants to hide. That’s not a big problem, because if we get worried about him, he’s easy to find now. Last night he was in and out of the bedroom all night and even made a couple of quick jumps onto the bed, although he didn’t stay long. That’s where Smokey sleeps at night, so Benji backs off pretty fast.
During the evening we got him to play more and spend more time on our laps. He does not seem to be intimidated by Smokey much anymore. He walks and runs right past him, and even jumps up on the couch when Smokey is on the other end. Smokey will hiss and show his teeth and Benji just looks at him like he can’t figure out why he doesn’t want to play. It is clear that they are both using the same litter box, which is a big deal that we were worried about, and they are sharing the food and water. Not at the same time, but they are both stopping off when possible. Benji is being a little less spooked by movement and sound, but is still pretty on edge. Smokey is pissed, but not aggressive. He has never lifted a paw or made a move towards Benji. He just stands, or lays, his ground, hisses and hopes for the best. As I said, Benji doesn’t seem to be much impressed by Smokey’s hissing anymore. Progress continues. Yea!
Wednesday, November 21st, another great morning in Silent Valley. Last night was a little restless in that Benji came up on the bed several times during the night, but not to sleep, to play. Smokey would hiss at him, but he ignored that for the most part. He wanted to bat my feet under the covers every time I moved them. I have to keep telling myself that he is just a kitten and that is what kittens do, play. Haven’t had a kitten in a long time, forgot how much patience you have to show, but it is fun to watch sometimes.
For the first time Benji made breakfast. The routine for Smokey, since he was a kitten, is that he always has dry food and water out, but in the morning I give him a quarter can of squishy food. The small, tuna can size. He also gets a quarter can of squishy at night, about the time we have dinner. Of course, Smokey knows this routine and when I get up he is walking around meowing and raising hell that he wants his food. This morning, when we walked into the kitchen, Smokey at my heels, there was Benji, standing by the sink meowing and rubbing my ankles too. They both got some squishy food, in separate bowls of course, and both had a good breakfast. It was funny to watch that after they were both done, they walked away briefly, then went back and each checked the other’s dish to be sure he didn’t leave anything.
The morning was calm in that Smokey went to his daytime resting place, under the comforter on the bed. He normally goes in there in the morning and doesn’t reappear until late afternoon. Benji continues to be more outgoing, spending a lot less time hiding and more time walking around checking things out. He is still a little skittish if you get up and look like you are moving towards him, or make a sudden movement or sound.
After lunch we decided the cats would be OK on their own and we drove down the mountain to do some geocaching in Banning. We got ten new finds in two hours, with no new DNFs. After caching we made a trip to the Dollar Tree to find some trinkets for leaving in caches. Some caches are big enough to leave little things. We have, for the last couple years, been leaving little blue policemen. They are like the old fashioned Army men, except they depict police. I have always been able to get a bag of 20 or so for a dollar at Dollar Tree, however, both the one in Banning and the one in Beaumont no longer had them in stock. To tide us over I bought some little dinosaurs, but I would rather have policemen. We also bought a couple of cat toys for Benji, some balls and a little mouse.
We then made a stop at Walmart and picked up a couple of things, mostly for the cat again. After Walmart we stopped at the Banning/Beaumont Elks Lodge. We almost didn’t get in, they didn’t answer the door bell and Jackie had to call them on the phone to get the bartender to answer the door. She had been back in the kitchen and didn’t hear the bell. We were the only ones there for a while, but the bartender was very nice. We had a cocktail and picked up a copy of the bulletin and schedule for the lodge so we would know when they had meals if we wanted to come back.
After the Elks we drove back up the mountain and settled into the coach for the night. Benji and Smokey spent the night ignoring each other mostly. A few hisses from Smokey when Benji gets too close, but Benji is clearly showing signs that he wants to be friends and is not really fearful of the much bigger cat. Benji continues to show more affection for us, jumping up on our laps for pets and hugs. He loves his belly rubbed, which is something Smokey will not tolerate. Yet another day of progress in Raising Benji. Yea.
Thursday, November 22nd, Happy Thanksgiving Day! A little breezy up here on the mountain, but the skies are blue and the temps cool, but comfortable. Since it was Thanksgiving and we were planning a big traditional dinner for the two of us, we decided to stay around the park today. There were a lot of RVs coming in over the last couple of days and it was clear that a lot of families were planning Thanksgiving get-togethers up here in Silent Valley. It certainly looks more traditional Fall-like than around most of Southern California, with a lot of deciduous trees that are dressed in their fall colors and the piles of colorful leaves on the ground.
Benji the kitten has quickly learned the breakfast routine and was waiting patiently by the sink when I left the bedroom. Jackie and I spent most of the day watching TV and working on the computers. Both cats decided to take long daytime naps, so we didn’t see much of them until mid afternoon. Jackie put our turkey, actually just a breast, in the oven timed for an early dinner. That way we could skip lunch and be ready for a big meal around 5:00 or so. We did leave the coach for an hour or so and walked over to some friends who were parked nearby. Larry and Renate Mitchell are friends that we met through Ray and Suzie Babcock. They also have a diesel motor home and Larry is a retired fireman that used to work with Ray in Los Angeles. We have not spent a lot of time with them, a few visits up here in Silent Valley and they were also at the Good Sam Rally in Phoenix this Spring. They are very nice and we sat and chatted with them for about an hour. They had invited us to eat dinner with them, but they had their two sons, both of whom are firemen also, and their families up, so we told them we were doing our own dinner. Ray and Suzie had also asked us over, but again we didn’t want to interfere in other families gatherings. We are perfectly happy celebrating how thankful we are to have each other, our love, our lifestyle, our kitties and all the other things that make life great.
Dinner was on at 5:00 and we had the turkey, stuffing, two kinds of potatoes, cranberries and rolls. It was all great and we stuffed ourselves. Didn’t have any desert though, have to watch our waistlines. It’s easy for me because my waist sticks right out there where I can see it all the time. We spent the evening watching TV and watching the two cats become more at ease with each other. Smokey only hissed a couple of times today and on a couple of occasions actually appeared to be interested in playing a little with Benji. Of course, Benji wanted to push the envelope and came up to lay next to Smokey on the couch, cuddle a little if you will, and Smokey didn’t care for that idea, so he yelled at him and Benji left to go cuddle with Jackie.
As Benji gets more comfortable with the house and the routines he is more and more affectionate. He is a real cuddle kitty, which is just what Jackie wanted. He lay curled up with Jackie for over an hour in the evening while she watched TV. I finally feel fairly confident that things are going to work out OK with Benji.
Friday, November 23rd, Holy Black Friday Batman! Of course, Black Friday has now morphed into Gray Thursday as some stores are opening on Thanksgiving evening, not even wanting to wait until midnight. We are 15 miles from the nearest shopping and happy as hell about it. It was enough to watch all the TV coverage of the crazy crowds at the sales. We woke up to a pretty windy day, although it was supposed to be warm, so we decided to just stay at home for the day again. The cats had breakfast together and are actually starting to interact a little. Smokey actually goes looking for Benji at times and they are growing more tolerant of each other.
We had leftovers for lunch, yum! The cats spent the afternoon sleeping, but by evening they were actually playing with each other in a limited fashion. They would both lay on their backs, looking out at the other upside down and lightly moving paws in each other’s direction. I read that as the first submissive behavior, or play behavior on Smokey’s part and a really good sign. We didn’t do too much during the day, a couple chores, Jackie got her hair colored, but mostly just relaxation and enjoying the quiet.
As far as a new cat update, the two cats are now playing together for brief periods and chasing each other back and forth through the coach. Benji is still easily startled, but I hope that will pass with time.
Sunday, November 25th, we were awakened by the two cats playing chase on the bed. Clearly the animosity is gone and they are now friends, or whatever passes for friends in catdom. We left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching in Banning. We had to find a cache today for our days of the year challenge. Our first find was actually just up the road from Silent Valley. There are not too many caches on the winding road between Banning and Idyllwild, but there was one that had just been placed earlier this year. We found it after a bit of searching and had a cache for the day. We continued down into Banning where we found four more in an hour or so for a total of five for the day.
After caching we went to Beaumont, where all the shopping is, so Jackie could go to Supercuts for a haircut. I browsed Best Buy next door while she got her hair cut. I ended up with a new video board for my computer, the old one was acting up, but wasn’t tempted by any of the Holiday buys. After Jackie got her hair cut we did a little shopping at Ross and then Walmart before heading back up the hill. Once we got back to Silent Valley we relaxed for the rest of the evening.
The cats are now getting along just fine and Benji is doing a lot less hiding. Benji spent some time tonight cuddling with both Jackie and I and appears to really like being a lap cat, at least when he doesn’t have anything else to do, which is typical cat thinking.
Monday, November 26th, we decided to have another day around the coach. I got some chores done, including trying to fix the bed. The top of the bed, where the mattress sets, is hinged so you can lift it up and access the storage area under the bed. The construction of the bed is very flimsy, wood framing with light paneling tacked onto it. The top is cracking, the sides are coming loose and it really needs some work. There are two struts built into the bottom of the bed that are supposed to hold the bed in the raised position while you access the storage area. One side of the board the struts are fastened to came loose and I tried to screw it back together. Unfortunately, the wood is so thin, and so full of holes, that all the screws came loose as soon as I put the bed back down. I need to get some bolts the next time we go into town to make a proper fix.
Today marks the end of the first two weeks of our month long stay here in Silent Valley, so it is a good place to stop and get the episode published. I will post another chapter at the end of our stay here. Until the next time, enjoy life and work on your happy. See ya.
