December 25th, Merry Christmas Everyone! We got up at our normal time and followed our normal routine. Jackie and I decided fifteen years ago, at the very beginning of our relationship
We decided that we were going to have a nice, quiet Christmas day at home, and we did. We didn’t go out anywhere at all. Late in the afternoon our friends, the Blumenthals, came over for a visit. Because they had been hosting the party we didn’t really have a chance to talk to them too much last night. We visited for about an hour before they left to go back to their coach for dinner. We had a sort of traditional Mexican Christmas dinner of tamales. We had bought a dozen tamales when we went to Costco a couple weeks ago and saved them for Christmas. They were great. After dinner we just relaxed and watched TV the rest of the night.
Wednesday, December 26th, we had another nice desert day on tap. A little cool and breezy, but comfortable. We left the coach about 2:00 to go for some routine doctor visits at our primary provider. We both needed to do an office visit to get our prescriptions renewed for the coming year. I was really happy with the results of the tests and exam. My blood pressure is normal, my cholesterol is l7 9, and everything else is doing good too. I was only in with the doctor about ten minutes, a quick chat, some new prescriptions and I was good to go. Jackie got a consult to a couple of specialists, one for her increasing difficulty with shortness of breath, the other for some back pain that has recently started. Nothing serious, but things that need to be attended to.
After our doctor’s appointment we stopped at an X-ray lab for some X-rays that Jackie needed. Since we were close after the X-rays, we went to Nei1’s Lounge, a bar on Highway 111 in Indio that we used to hang out at and is now owned by some friends of ours, Jim Babington and his wife Jackie. Jim was there behind the bar and we had a nice chat. We haven’t seen him in person in over a year. Jackie wasn’t there as she had family in town. We had a couple of drinks and I tried one song on karaoke. I am having a bout of allergies, so I didn’t sound so good, so I kept it at just one. After cocktails we headed home and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Thursday, December 27th, we decided that we needed to get out and get at least a little exercisetoday, so after lunch we went out for some geocaching. We cached for about three hours or so and managed to get a dozen new finds, along with a couple of DNFs. One of our finds for the day was a cache that we had DNF’d back in April when we were in the Coachella Valley, so at least we fixed an old one. After caching we stopped at Walmart for some supplies before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening.
Friday, December 28th, we decided to have a stay at home and do light chores day. Since the beginning of the week I have been arguing with either a head cold or allergies. I don’t sleep well because of the coughing and decided I needed a day of mostly rest. Both Jackie and I got a few administrative chores done, but nothing major.
Saturday, December 29th, we left the coach about 2:00 and drove over to the nearby Motorcoach Country Club where our friends Barry and Colleen Cohen have a place. Regular readers will remember that Barry and Colleen have been very good friends with us since I moved here in 1998. They actually became full time motor homers in 2002 when they sold their house and bought their lot at the Country Club, which at that time was called Outdoor Resorts. It is a very upscale RV development. They were very atypical full timers, however, because Barry still owned and worked at his transmission repair shop, so they very rarely traveled.
For the past couple years they have been trying to change things up so they could start to travel and actually enjoy the RV lifestyle, but it has taken time. Barry was finally able to sell his business about a year ago, but he is still working there because they were not able to sell their lot in the bad economy. Now it appears there may be light on the horizon. They finally got an offer on their lot and are waiting for everything to be completed. We are very happy for them.
We spent all of the afternoon and evening with Barry and Colleen, catching up on all the things going on in our lives since we last saw them in the Spring of the year. Colleen BBQed some lamb for her and Jackie, and Barry made some of his special meatballs and pasta for he and I. We don’t care for lamb. We had a great time with good friends, and it was very special this time because we were able to share the excitement of the good news that they may be able to get on the road now. Yea Cohens!
Sunday, December 30th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove over to Palm Desert to walk through the College of the Desert Street Fair again. We had gone there a couple weeks ago when we were staying in Desert Hot Springs, but it is fun to walk around and look at stuff. I bought a tee shirt and a few little things to use as geocache containers, but we didn’t buy much. We finished the street fair about 1:00 or so and then went over to the Palm Desert Cactus Jacks restaurant for a late lunch. Jackie had been contacted earlier in the day by a close friend, Vicki Heinrich, who was going to come and join us. Vicki is the mother of Shane Cooper, Jackie’s Godson. Shane just turned 18 last month and the little baby that Jackie saw born is now six-four and all grown up. Vicki is also the daughter of Nancy Heinrich, one of Jackie’s closest friends. Nancy died a little over a year ago and Jackie and I miss her dearly. We always looked forward to getting together with her when we got back to the Coachella Valley. It’s just not the same without her.
We had a nice lunch with Vicki, catching up on what’s been going on the last year. We also made arrangements to pick up Shane at the restaurant in Palm Desert where he works. Vicki works at the same place, but she was just going into work and Shane was getting off the day shift at 4:30 and needed a ride home. Vicki left to go to work and we decided to do some geocaching to fill the time before we needed to pick up Shane. We were able to pick up six new caches in a little over an hour.
At 4:30 we went over to Palm Desert, picked up Shane, and drove him home. We
stayed and visited with him for a while. It was exciting to listen to his plans now that he is an adult and through with school. He seems to have a pretty good head on his shoulders for a kid with a rough childhood. He has battled with juvenile diabetes for ten years, been in two auto accident with severe injuries, and still seems to moving forward. He thinks of himself as a survivor with some mission in life that is yet unfulfilled. He says he just needs to find that mission. After visiting with Shane we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.
Monday, December 31st, New Years Eve, the last day of 2012. After lunch Jackie took a drive over to her doctor’s office to pick up some meds. She had been prescribed a COPD medicine last week and she found that it was pretty expensive and her insurance didn’t cover it. The doctor’s office said they had some samples they could give her, so she drove over to pick them up. Turns out she ended up with about a year’s supply of samples. While she was gone I started getting all the karaoke gear out of it’s hiding places in preparation for the party at the clubhouse tonight.
We had done the music, mostly karaoke, at this resort last New Years and, since we were going to be again anyway, we agreed to do it again this year. After Jackie got back I packed it all up and took it over to the clubhouse. I spent the next couple of hours getting everything set up for the evenings merriment. Jackie came over also and helped some of the other people at the park decorate the room and get everything set up for the party. Last year we had about 25 people for the party, this year they were expecting close to 100. After I got everything up and working properly we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while before changing clothes for the party.
Sometime in the early afternoon our good friends Ray and Suzie Babcock pulled into the park and got a spot right behind ours. They had been planning to come her on Wednesday, but we talked to them and told them about the party, so they packed up their house and left a couple days early so they could come to the party.
We went over to the clubhouse again at 6:00 and waited for people to come in. Most of thecrowd came around 7:00 and we gave them some time to eat before starting the music. About 7:30 we started with some karaoke, and then for the rest of the evening alternated between dance music and karaoke. We only had about six people singing, but most of them were pretty good and wanted to do a lot of songs. We did some line dancing and even had a twist contest. We probably did have close to 100 people and they all seemed to have a good time. Ray and Suzie, and Donna and Jay were at the table with Jackie most of the night. I didn’t have a chance to spend much time with them because being the DJ kept me pretty busy.
We celebrated the East coast New Years at 9:00 and by 10:00 most of the crowd had left so we closed down the show. By the time I got everything disassembled and packed up to take back to the coach it was 11:00. We were in bed by 11:30 and I slept through the actual California New Years. Around Indio it always sounds like a war zone, with guns and firecrackers going off. I didn’t hear anything. We had a great night, stayed in the park where we were safe, and enjoyed our New Years Eve.Tuesday, January 1, 2013, Happy New Years! We had a pretty good 2012 despite the problems the country is going through. We had a few minor rough spots, but overall it was a good year and we hope the 2013 will be as much fun, as interesting, and as good or better than last year.
We decided that we were going to spend most of the day around the coach. I got a few things done and Ray cleaned the outside of his coach. He is a retired fireman and they seem to have a thing about cleaning when they have nothing else to do. I sit and read a book, he cleans his coach. It’s a fireman thing.
About 5:00 Ray and Suzie came over to our coach for happy hour and we talked. We didn’t have a chance to visit much at the party last night. It has been since just after Thanksgiving since we saw the Babcocks, so we spent some time trading stories. About 6:15 we left and drove to Cactus Jacks for dinner. We had a good dinner and talked some more. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Wednesday, January 2nd, we left the coach with the Babcocks about 1:00 or so and went out to do some caching. We introduced the Babcocks to geocaching about nine months ago and they got hooked. They don’t cache as often as we do, unless they are with us or one of our other mutual friends that cache, but they are still up over 300 finds already. We were out for a couple of hours and managed to get a dozen new finds, and one DNF for us. One of our finds was a DNF from the other day, so that evened things out a bit. The Babcocks scored 14 because we stopped at a couple of caches that we had gotten the other day, but we wanted to let them find them since we were driving right past them anyway.
After our caching adventures we stopped at the Winco grocery store before heading back to the coaches. We got our groceries put away and by 5:30 we were at the Babcock’s coach for happy hour. We talked and had a good time until dinner was ready. Ray had cooked some pork loins and we had those for dinner. Great food and great company. After dinner we talked for a little while and about 8:30 we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.
Thursday, January 3rd, Jackie went to Walmart with Ray and Suzie right after lunch while I stayed at home and did a couple little chores. After they got back Ray and Suzie came over and we played cards for about three hours. We played tournament style Skipbo and team Ray/Roy won both games. Yea! After happy hour cocktails we had dinner at our coach. We had been cooking a bunch of pork ribs in the crock pot all day and we had those with rice for the four of us. We had a great dinner, a great day, as a matter of fact, and after the Babcocks left we just relaxed the rest of the night.
Friday, January 4th, we awoke to a clear, but very cool morning. Nothing like back east of course, but still in the high 30's, which is cold for out here. We elected for a relaxing day for the most part. We left the coach about 2:15 or so and drove to Rancho Mirage so Jackie could get a mammogram, which only took about 15 minutes. We were back home before 4:00 when we fixed a drink and walked over to the clubhouse at the RV park for the Friday evening happy hour.
There were probably 30 people at the happy hour and lots of nice snacks. Our friend Jay Blumenthal was playing the keyboard for entertainment. We stayed until a little alter 5:00, chatting with folks and enjoying the camaraderie. We left the happy hour and went back to our coaches to feed the animals and clean up a little before going out to eat.
About 5:30 we left with the Babcocks and drove down to the Augustine Casino, about five miles south of the park. This is an Indian Casino, but it is kind of off the beaten track and a little smaller than the ones up by the freeway. It considers itself more of a locals casino destination.
We played for a half hour or so and then went in for the weekend seafood buffet. Augustine has a reputation for good food, so we thought we would try the big weekend buffet. Ray really wanted to go because they had lobster tails. It is all you can eat, but they only give you one at a time. You can go back as many times as you want. I think Ray ended up having close to a dozen. Two was enough for me, along with lots of shrimp and other goodies. After a great dinner we stayed and gamed for another hour or so before finally leaving the casino at about 9:00. We went back to our coaches and relaxed the remainder of the evening.
Saturday, January 5th, another nice day in the desert. We were having friends over for the afternoon, so we spent some time in the morning cleaning house and straightening things up a little. About 3:00 our friends Barry and Colleen Cohen came over and we started happy hour. About a half hour later Ray and Suzie Babcock walked over from their coach and the six of us sat around and talked.About 6:00 I served up dinner. I had been cooking corn beef and cabbage all day and it was wonderful. Everyone had their fill and we had a great dinner. Ray and Suzie left shortly after dinner while the Cohen’s stayed for a little longer. Jackie and Colleen played a game of Skipbo
while Barry and I talked. Normally we would have gone in the back of the coach and sang some karaoke, but my allergies haven’t let up and I still don’t have a voice and I have a very annoying dry cough that flares up when I try to talk (or sing) too much. About 9:00 everyone was gone and Jackie and I just relaxed the rest of the night.
Sunday, January 6th, we left the coach after lunch and went out to do our laundry. On the way to the laundromat we stopped and picked up some geocaches. We needed a cache on this date for our days of the year challenge and there were a few close by the RV park. We ended with three caches in about 20 minutes. We finished our laundry and went back to the RV park where, after we put our clothes away, we just relaxed the rest of the day and evening. Neither of us are feeling a hundred percent yet, probably allergies, but we just wanted a quiet evening.
Monday, January 7th, another moving day. Today is a monumental journey of about ten blocks. We are only moving from the RV park to the Country Fairgrounds just down the street for the FMCA Western Area Rally. We got out
With our departure from Indian Waters we have a good spot to close this chapter and get it published. We will be about a week in the rally and then another week in Ehrenberg, Arizona, so the next chapter will be in a couple weeks. Until next time, stay safe and be happy. See ya soon.
