Back in Indio, the Old Stomping Grounds - Part I

Welcome back. Our last chapter ended on Sunday, December 6th, when we arrived in Indio, California for a month long stay in our old stomping grounds. This year we are staying at a new park, at least to us. For the last six or seven years we have always stayed at Indian Waters. The last four years we have done the New Year's Eve Party entertainment and the last couple of years they gave us a really good deal. This year they were unresponsive, so we went with a coupon we got at the Madison FMCA rally that offered a month at Indian Wells for $199. This is an older park, but we got a nice site close to the front and right across the street from one of the pools.

Monday, December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day. We just had a stay at home day. I washed all the windows on the coach and put up the screens and a few outside decorations. I also got some administrative work done, including publishing the blog for the last couple weeks. Jackie did some cleaning and other chores. It was a productive, but relaxing day.

Tuesday, December 8th, we left the coach after lunch for a few hours of geocaching. There have been a lot of new caches hidden in the Coachella Valley by our caching friends over the last year, so we have a lot of caches to look for. We stuck around the Indio and La Quinta area today and were able to get nine new finds and one DNF in a few hours. We also checked on three of our own caches hidden in the area. One of them had three DNFs logged, but we found it right where it was supposed to be. It is a particularly hard cache to find. After caching Jackie got a haircut and then we did a Walmart run before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening. It was nice to have a “normal” day finally. No travel, no rental cars, just our life as we like it.

Wednesday, December 9th, we had a mostly stay at home day. After lunch I took the car for a badly needed car wash. After I got back I spent a couple of hours putting up our Christmas decorations. Not quite as elaborate as last year, but we have a smaller lot this year. About 3:00 our good friend Barry Cohen came by for a visit. Regular readers will know that Barry is my oldest and best friend from the Coachella Valley. He and his wife Colleen were very close with us. Colleen died three years ago, but Barry still lives in their motor home at the Motor Coach Country Club, which is just around the corner from where we are staying this year. We have not seen Barry since we were here in the Spring, before our trip back to the Midwest. We had some cocktails and chatted for a couple of hours, catching up. About 5:30 or so I drove him back to his place since he had walked over here and it was getting dark and cooler. We then relaxed the rest of the night with the TV.

Thursday, December 10th, we left the coach around noon and went to Cactus Jack's for lunch. Thursday has always been the day they have lamb shanks and beef ribs on special. Jackie loves the lamb, I love the ribs. We had made plans for Barry to meet us there, and he had thought his brother Norm might join us, but Norm was not feeling well. We had a great lunch and sat and talked for a couple of hours. After lunch we went out and got one geocache, a cache that we had to DNF a couple days ago. The owner, who is a friend of ours, gave us a little hint. This time we found it right away. We then went to Stater Brothers grocery to get a couple of things that Walmart didn't have yesterday. One of things is the type of coffee we drink. We have used Folger's Simply Smooth coffee for about ten years now. It has a lot of the acid removed. However, not a lot of stores carry the bigger containers. A lot carry the little ones, but it gets a little pricey. Stater Brothers had the larger containers, so we bought several to stock up. We then went back to the coach and did a few chores until evening.

Friday, December 11th, we went out after lunch for a Costco run. Have to keep the vodka cellar full you know. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the coach. Late in the afternoon there was a little haboob that came through the valley. When I was living in Phoenix 20 years ago these haboobs were called dust storms. For some reason weather forecasters started using the Arabic term about ten years ago or so. Before that they decided that the “rainy season” in Phoenix was now the monsoon. I guess they just have to keep things interesting.

About 4:00 Jackie's godson Shane and his girlfriend Sara came over for dinner. Shane just turned 21 and Jackie was at the hospital and held him when he was born. He has been dealing with Type 1 diabetes since he was 8, but seems to be doing well now. He had some rough teen years, but now he is in college studying psychology, hoping to be a therapist one day. Jackie made a chicken enchilada dish, and we had it, along with rice and beans. Everyone had a great dinner and we talked until about 7:30 when Shane and Sara decided to go. Shane was about 5 when I moved here to the Coachella Valley to be with Jackie, so I have watched him grow up. After the kids left we watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, December 12th, we left the coach about 11:00 and drove to Palm Desert to the College of the Desert Street Fair. We always try to go to this marketplace at least once or twice when we are in the valley. We bought a few little things, nothing major, but had a good time shopping and walking for a couple of hours. After the street fair we had a quick lunch at Jack in the Box and then did a little geocaching. We were able to get six new finds in a couple of hours, along with one DNF. After that we headed back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the evening. Sunday was a stay at home day. It was very cool and windy, so we just stayed in and did stuff in the coach.  We put up our Christmas decorations today.

Monday, December 14th, we left the coach after lunch and went out to do some geocaching. We first checked on three of our own caches. On one of them, one of our more difficult caches, the last four people logged DNFs, so we were worried it might be gone. However, we found it still there and still in good shape, although we did have to make one minor repair. After checking our own caches we went out and got 15 new finds. A pretty good afternoon of caching. We made a quick stop at the store and then headed back to the coach. We did some burgers on the grill and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, December 15th, we headed out after lunch to do some more geocaching. We were able to get ten new finds, and one DNF, in a few hours. After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. About 5:30 we left again and headed to the Mario's Italian restaurant a couple miles down the road to have dinner with friends. John and Suzanne Budavec are some friends that we knew casually back before we sold the house in Indio. They were members of the Palm Springs Elks RV group and we were with them on some of the weekend outings. They were also friends with Jimmy Hanson, who was a good friend and bartender at Cactus Jack's at the time. We lost track of the Budavec's until last year when we were in Yuma and visited some other motor homing friends, Bonnie and and Ken Weopke, and the Budavec's were at their house. Since that time they have been Facebook friends with Jackie, so we have stayed in contact. They are here in the Desert for a month also and had called to meet us for dinner one night. We had a great dinner and talked for a couple of hours before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, December 16th, we left the coach about noon and went to Cactus Jack's to meet some friends for lunch. Rex and his wife Vicki, and Kevin and his boyfriend Ron, are caching friends we met here in the Coachella Valley a couple of years ago. Rex and retired and he and Vicki have a house in the north part of Indio. They have a big motor home and travel most of the summer. This past summer they were on much the same route as we were, just at different times, so we never crossed paths. We did see their names on a number of geocaches back in the Midwest though. Kevin is a manager at Costco and Ron is retired. Between Rex and Kevin they have a couple hundred caches hidden around the area.

We had a great lunch and after we were done and just talking the owner of Cactus Jack's, George, came in and sat down with our group and talked for a while. George just got into four-wheeling and bought an old Jeep that he has fixed up into a real rock crawler. Rex also has a somewhat radical Jeep and they use the same shop for work on their Jeeps. George also just bought a gas motor home to use for his four wheeling trips, so we had a lot of stories to tell. We were in CJ's until after 3:00. After lunch we went out and checked on a couple of our caches, and also got a couple of new finds for our numbers. We then headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Thursday, December 17th was a stay at home day for the most part. We finally left the coach about 4:30 and drove over to the Indian Palms Country Club, about four miles east, for a Christmas Party at our friend's house, Bob and Gloria Baron. We have been friends with Bob and Gloria since our camping days with the Indio Elks camping group, the Desert Drifters, long before we sold the house and went on the road. We also used to live at Indian Palms, a mile or so from Bob and Gloria. We drove past our old house, just to check it out. Nothing much has changed. We cross paths on the road with Bob and Gloria frequently, we last saw them in Madison, Wisconsin at the FMCA rally this summer.

There were probably 30 people at the party at it's peak and we knew, at least casually, about half of them. Most were other people we knew from our days at the Indio Elks. We were very active in the lodge at the time, so we knew a lot of the members. The party was great. Gloria put out a big spread of snacks and hors d'oeuvre which was very impressive. I only had one small drink because I know how traffic enforcement gets around the holidays. Never had a DUI, never want a DUI. I put more than a few away though and I know how the process works. We left a little after 7:00, got home with no problems, and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Friday, December 18th, we left the coach after lunch and drove to Rancho Mirage for our dermatologist's appointment. Ever since I had my Melanoma issue in 2009 I have been going to a dermatologist every winter for a skin check. I have had a few minor skin cancers removed, but no more serious Melanomas. A few years ago Jackie started going every year too, and she has also had a few things burned and cut off, but no major issues. It is just good peace of mind. After the doctor's appointment, which found no major problems, just a few things froze with CO2, we stopped for fuel for the car and then a Walmart run. Along the way we got one geocache that happened to be close by.

After shopping we headed home for a few hours. About 5:30 we left again and went over to the Indio Elks Lodge for dinner. The Indio Elks was where both Jackie and I were initiated into the order. My great friend Barry Cohen was my sponsor when I joined in 1999. We were pretty active the last few years we lived in Indio, both with the RV group and in the Lodge. We cooked and served a couple nights a week and I was going through the officer positions. Once we changed our legal residence to Pahrump we transferred to that lodge so we would have everything “California” off of our records.

Friday night is a big dinner night for the Elks. They have a pretty comprehensive menu and draw a lot of people from the area, especially the Sun Cities folks. There were probably over a hundred people in the Lodge having dinner and drinks and we knew about a half dozen. Our friends from the Drifters days, Roy and Mary Tweedy were having dinner and Anita Pursell was hostessing. We had a great dinner, I had liver and onions and Jackie had the meatloaf. Among our table mates for tonight was the Mayor of Indio, Glenn Miller, and his wife. On the other side of me was a very nice couple, fairly new to the valley, and he was a former Marine. We had some nice conversation, a drink and a great meal. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night. On the way home we did stop at Neal's Lounge, another of our old hangout bars, to see if there was anyone in there we might know. The place is owned by some friends of ours, Jim and Jackie Babbington, but when we went in there was not a soul we recognized. We left without buying a drink and went home.

Saturday, December 19th, we had a stay at home day for most of the day. About 5:00 we left the park and drove to downtown La Quinta to meet some friends for dinner. We arrived at the Crab Pot, a fairly new restaurant which is in the building where a friend of Jackie's used to have a restaurant back when I first came here in 1998. We met Don and Norma Preston, some friends of ours from the Monaco International (MI) Chapter and from FMCA events. Norma is Vice President for Membership of MI and is sort of Jackie's “boss” for her position as an MI Regional Director. We have seen Norma and Don at a lot of rallies, but never really gotten to know them. They have a lot at an RV resort here in the Coachella Valley and when we realized that we were going to be here at the same time this year we decided we would make arrangements to have dinner.

The Crab Pot, as you would guess, was primarily a seafood place. There big claim to fame are their “Feasts” where they bring the food out of a steamer pot and dump it on your table on butcher paper. They give you a plate, and some tools, like a hammer and scissors, to then attack the food. It was pricey, about $40 a person, but they did bring out a lot of stuff. Three kinds of crab, King, Snow and Dungeness, mussels and clams, shrimp, corn, anduillee sausage and potatoes. It's messy, but pretty good. However, the service was a little on the iffy side, friendly but inattentive. A lot of the shellfish were just empty shells, and the shrimp was way overcooked, to the point of being mush. It was a fun place to eat, but we wouldn't go back.

Don and Norma were very fun to talk to and get to know. They are most time Rvers, but have a house in Nevada and one in California, as well as the lot here in Indio. He was an air traffic controller, a job I thought I might like back in my teenage years. The Marines had other ideas though. We had a nice dinner and talked for an hour or so afterward. We finally got back home about 8:00 and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday, December 20th, we left the coach after lunch to do some caching. In a few hours we were able to get eleven new finds and no new DNFs. We also found a cool new travel bug hotel in Indian Wells that had lots of travel bugs in it. We were able to trade out a lot of our older inventory. After caching we went back to the coach for the rest of the day. I was able to get into the hot tub for a little while this afternoon. It is finally warming back up in the upper 60's again.

Monday, December 21st, Happy Winter! We left the coach about 1:00 and headed out to see a movie at a theater for the first time in a while. We went to the new theater they just opened this summer, which is about two miles from the RV park. When we went up to buy tickets we found that the 1:40 show was almost sold out, the only remaining seats in the very front row. This is not a good place to watch a movie. We checked on the later show, same thing. This theater has reserved seating and the auditoriums are very small, only about 40 or so seats. We decided to go to the older theater in Indio that we normally go to. Same movie, there were maybe five couples in the auditorium.

We saw Sisters, a new comedy that stars Saturday Night Live alumni Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. They also managed to get four other current or former SNL comics in supporting roles. The movie is about two dysfunctional sisters who have to deal with their parents selling their childhood home. The core of the film is a gigantic “last party” they decide to throw in their nearly empty home. The party part is very reminiscent of Animal House and is very funny. This is not an award winning film by any stretch, but we like goofy comedies and this was very good. There are a few scenes that will leave you crying with laughter.

After the movie we went to Walmart for a couple things and checked on the last of our own geocaches that we have hidden here in the valley. It is in the Walmart parking area. After Walmart we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Tuesday, December 22nd, we were out of the coach by 7:30 off to get blood drawn at the lab for our annual physicals. Our exams are scheduled for after the first of the year, but we try to get the blood drawn a couple weeks earlier so the results are sure to be available. There were very few people in the lab, so we were done by 8:00 and headed back to the coach for our morning coffee. About noon our friends Jay and Donna Blumenthal came over so we could all go to lunch. Jay and Donna were movers and shakers with FMCA for many years. We became acquainted with them when Jay was President of the International Area (INTO) of FMCA and we helped with a couple of INTO rallies, one in Wisconsin and one in Arizona. We have remained friends with them, although they have pretty much retired from FMCA activity.

They are full timers too, but they now pretty much split there time between their old home of Long Island, New York and Indio. They used to go thousands of miles every year chasing FMCA events. No they come out and spend the whole winter at Indian Waters. Since we used to stay at Indian Waters every Christmas, we always got to spent time with them. This year we are not there because we got such a good deal at Indian Wells, so we made arrangements to have lunch with them. We sat and talked for a half hour or so and then drove down to La Quinta to a place we have been wanting to try, Stuft Pizza. They have a couple of stores around the valley and generally get good reviews. I had the French Dip, which also had cheese and green chilis on it, and it was wonderful. Jackie had a personal pizza that was curry and lamb with peppers. Like a little gyro on a pizza disc. She said her's was great too. We spent a couple of hours with Jay and Donna and had a great time. After lunch we went to Albertsons to get a few things that we have not been able to find at any Walmart, then we headed back to the coach for the rest of the day.

Wednesday, December 23rd, we left the coach about 11:00 and went to do laundry. While the laundry was in the washers we played some cards and when they went in the dryer we went to a tacquaria in the same shopping center for a quick, light lunch. After laundry we went back home and put everything away. On the way home we did stop at Neal's bar again because we saw our friend Jim “Cowboy” Babbington's truck parked out front. We had one quick drink and talked to Jim a little bit.

After we got home we spent the early afternoon doing some chores. Jackie baked some cookies. Now to some this might not seem like a big deal, but Jackie is not a baker. According to her the last cookies she made were forty years ago. It all started a week or so ago when her brother, Dennis, posted a picture of some cookies he had made from their mother's old recipe. I just posted a comment that said that when I was a kid my mother would make mincemeat cookies at Christmas and that I haven't had a mincemeat cookie in decades. Dennis then posted a couple recipes for mincemeat cookies, so I posted that now he had to get his sister to make them for me.

Well, Jackie took the challenge and bought all the stuff to make mincemeat cookies. Finding mincemeat was a little difficult, but we did find some at Albertson's. Jackie didn't even know what mincemeat was or what it tasted like. She started making cookies and we took some photos of the process, documenting her first cookie baking effort in many years. The funniest thing was that we have a small, rechargeable mixer that is really only good for eggs and cocktails. It didn't have the power to mix cookie dough. Jackie didn't know what she was going to do until I broke out the old Black and Decker quarter inch electric drill! It worked like a charm and we have pictures of us making cookies with an electric drill. The cookies actually came out very good and tasted just like I remember mom making.

While Jackie was making cookies I was making a corn beef and cabbage dinner. I had promised our old friend Barry corn beef and he came over about 3:30. We had a cocktail and then, while dinner was finishing up, went in the back of the coach and did karaoke like we used to do. I don't think we have done it since his wife Colleen passed away about three years ago. We used to get together often and Jackie and Colleen would play cards in the kitchen while we sang in the back for hours. It brought back a lot of memories and we had a great time. Dinner turned out wonderful and we had a great time. Barry left about 7:30 and we relaxed the rest of the night.

Thursday, December 24th, we left the coach after lunch and went out to do some geocaching. We were not going to go anywhere near a store with the Christmas Eve rush. We don't do presents, for us or for anyone else, on Christmas. We exchange cards and feel blessed that we are gifts to each other in life and that is all that matters. We made today mostly a day to fix DNFs that we have accumulated since getting here to the Coachella Valley. Some of our caching friends have been mean to us and put out very hard caches. We had four caches and were able to fix all four of them by finding them today. One of the we needed some strong hints from the owner, but we finally got it. We also got three new caches, for a total of seven finds for the afternoon. We then went home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Friday, December 25th, another Merry Christmas. As we normally do, we exchanged nice Christmas cards when we got up. We don't buy presents, for each other or for anyone else. We figure that we buy stuff we want, if we can afford it, when we want it. We don't wait for birthdays or holidays. We then had a relaxing day at home. On Saturday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We were surprised to find that a new cache, published on Christmas morning by one of our friends, had not yet been found. There are a number of cachers in the Coachella Valley who like to accumulate FTFs, or First to Find. This usually requires setting up a notification on your computer or phone that notifies you as soon as a new cache is published in your area. You then have to go out, whether at midnight or noon, and run to the cache to get the FTF. Since we are not early cachers and don't like night caching, we have never concerned ourselves with getting FTFs. We have almost 7,600 finds and only about six or eight FTFs.

Since this new one was published on a holiday we figured the usual FTF chasers were busy with family, so we decided we may as well drive out to it and see if we can capture the FTF. It was a very difficult find out in the desert north of town, and we even had to call for a bit of a hint. We finally did find it though and we were, in fact, the FTF! Yea us! We then did a few more caches in the area despite the forty mile an hour winds and ended up with seven for the day. We made a stop at the Walmart on the way home and then home for the rest of the evening.

We have now reached the three week mark on our stay here in Indio. We have a little more than a week left here at the Indian Wells RV park and then another week at the FMCA Western Area rally over on the Date Festival grounds. We will close out this chapter and get it published and be back after the rally with the next episode. Until next time remember, life is too short to be unhappy and to think about the past. Be happy with everything that you have and live like there's no tomorrow. See ya soon.

A Central Coast Thanksgiving With Family

Hello again. Our last chapter concluded on Monday, November 23^rd with our arrival in Santa Maria, California. We are staying at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge RV park and are here to enjoy Thanksgiving with family. Jackie's Aunt Donna and her grandson Corey live in Pismo Beach, a few miles north and she has a another cousin, Judy, in Arroyo Grande, also north of Santa Maria.

Tuesday, November 24^th, we had a shopping day. We left after lunch and went to Costco, then, after we dropped our stuff from there off at the coach we went to Walmart. Around 3:00 we left and drove to Donna's house in Pismo Beach to visit. Donna was released from the hospital this afternoon and was glad to be back home. While we were visiting with Donna and Corey Jackie's cousin Judy came over to visit as well. We all sat around and talked until about 6:30 when we left and drove back to the coach for dinner. After dinner we watched TV and relaxed until bedtime.

Wednesday, November 25^th, we stayed at home for most of the day. Corey had called and said that Donna was pretty tired and we had early reservations for dinner, so we didn't go over to Donna's house. We did leave the coach about 3:45 and drove to Nipomo for dinner at Jocko's Steak house. Regular readers of this travel blog will know that every time we go to the Central Coast we have to eat at least once at Jocko's. I maintain it is the best steakhouse in the country, at least in terms of food. It is not fancy, or especially expensive, and the service is only OK. You have to wait for a while because it is small. But, the food is fantastic. We got there early enough to have a couple of drinks in the bar before our 4:30 reservation. We normally don't eat that early, but it was either that or 8:45 when we called yesterday for reservations. That's how popular the place is.

We met Jackie's cousin Judy and a friend of hers, a musician and retired college professor, Jim. I had a huge rib eye steak, which they call a Spencer at Jocko's, and everyone else had lamb chops. Everything was cooked perfect and all the meals came with salad, veggie appetizer plate, and dessert. I took half my steak home for lunch this weekend and Jackie took half her lamb as well. We were done about 6:30, after which we headed back to the coach and relaxed with full tummies and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Thursday, November 26^th, Happy Thanks- giving! We left the coach about 1:30 or so and headed north to Pismo Beach to spend Thanksgiving with Jackie's family. When we arrived Donna was taking a nap as she was still feeling quite weak from her hospital stay and bout with pneumonia. We talked with Corey and watched some football on TV. After a bit Jackie's cousin John came in. He is up visiting from the Los Angeles area. John is the son of Jackie's cousin Mary, who is Judy's sister. Mary passed away about six or seven years ago, leaving her sons Mark and John quite a bit of money and real estate. Although Jackie and I have seen Mark a couple of times over the years, Jackie had not seen John for at least 40 years or more. John is a bit of an old hippie, but seems to be a pretty nice guy. After another little while Judy arrived and Donna was up from her nap, so the whole family was together talking and visiting.

Dinner was served about 3:30 or so. Corey had Turkey, stuffing and potatoes, and Jackie brought some sweet potatoes and broccoli. There

was also some salad and other stuff to go with the meal. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner and everyone had a good time. Donna went to bed early, about sundown, as she was still tired. We stayed until about 7:00, visiting with John and Corey, before heading back to the coach for the rest of the night. It was a great Thanksgiving with family, the way it's supposed to be.

Friday, November 27^th, we went out after lunch and did some geocaching for the first time in quite a while. We got nine new finds in a few hours, including another milestone, our number 7,500. We also got a DNF for our efforts. After caching we went up to Donna's house for the afternoon. Donna was looking a lot better today than she did yesterday. John was still there, but Judy called and said she wasn't going to come over today. Late in the afternoon we had leftovers for dinner. We talked with Corey and John until about 7:00 when we left and headed back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, November 28^th, we left the coach after lunch and did another Walmart run. When we leave here on Monday we are going to be at least two or three days without a car again, so we wanted to make sure we had everything we needed. We were running low and cat food and it wouldn't be good to end up the entree on the cat's menu when we ran out. After shopping we drove over to Donna's house for the evening. After we got there Jackie made turkey enchiladas out of the leftover turkey and we had a nice Mexican dinner. Donna was up and looking pretty good tonight, although she is still clearly weak. We stayed until about 7:00 before packing up and heading back to Santa Maria for the night.

Sunday, November 29^th, we left the coach after lunch and did about an hour and a half of caching. We were able to get six new finds. We then went to an Arby's so I could stock up on sandwiches. I like to freeze them and use them for lunches, a little trick I learned from a late friend, David Conner. We went to Costco and picked up one of their rotisserie chickens for a meal for us tomorrow night on the road, and then a pizza for tonight at Donna's. We then drove up to Donna's house for our last visit this trip. Donna was up and looking pretty good. Corey and John were there, but Judy decided she wasn't going to come over again. She thought she was getting a cold. We sat around and talked, watched football, and then ate some great pizza for dinner. We left about 7:00 after saying our goodbyes to everyone. We may be back up here this summer, depending on our routing. We drove back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the night.

Monday, November 30^th, another travel day. I took the rental car back about 8:30 and then started packing up after they brought me back to the coach. We were packed up and on the road about 10:30, heading 130 miles east to Bakersfield. We arrived in Bakersfield a little after 1:00 and checked into the same RV park we were in last Monday on our way over. Since we didn't have a car, we were in the coach the rest of the day.

Tuesday, December 1^st, where has the year gone? We left Bakersfield about 10:30 and continued east, heading 133 miles to Yermo, a small town just east of Barstow. We made a fuel stop in Mohave, after cresting the Tehachapi Pass, and arrived in Yermo about 2:00. Again, we settled in for the night as we could not go anywhere, not that there were too many interesting places to visit in Yermo. Wednesday morning I was awakened at 5:30 by the sound of reveille being played over the loudspeaker system at the Marine Corps base across the road. It's been a long time since I awoke to that sound. It was nice that I just went back to sleep rather than roll out of my bunk and get my uniform on.

We left Yermo about 10:30 and continued our journey to Pahrump. Of course, we stopped in Baker at the Mad Greek for lunch. We arrived in Pahrump at the Wine Ridge RV Resort just after 2:00. For most of the trip we would occasionally have a conversation about what we would do if the car wasn't ready, without coming up with any good choices. About an hour out of Pahrump, while we were on the road still, we got a call that the car was finished and we could come get it, so long as we had $4,500 to pay for the repairs. Yikes! Fortunately, (I guess) that was close to what the estimate was, so we had already figured out where to get the money.

After we got the basics set up at the RV park we called and had the dealership pick us up. It is kind of funny that once we got there Zach, the service writer for this fiasco, didn't have anything to say to us other than check with the cashier. The service manager didn't have anything to say either, other than to tell one of his staff to let us know he wasn't going to discount the bill any more than he had. He took $500 off of the bill for our delays and trouble. I didn't think that was enough, given all the circumstances, but it was clear that was all we were going to get for now. I still intend to write to the owner about this mess. We paid the bill, after having to call Wells Fargo to get our daily limit on our debit card raised temporarily, and drove the car back to the RV park, stopping for mail along the way. At least for that short trip, everything seemed to be working fine. We didn't even lose our satellite radio presets despite the fact the battery was disconnected for a month. After we got back to the coach we relaxed with the TV the rest of the night. Thursday we left the coach after lunch and went to do our laundry. After the laundry we did a Walmart run before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening. Still no issues with the Jeep. Yea!

Friday, December 4^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove to the China Wok buffet restaurant for a presentation by MASA, Medical Air Services Association. MASA is a company that provides coverage for the cost of ambulance services, including ground, helicopter and fixed wing, as well as emergency medical evacuation and return. We bought a lifetime membership about eight years ago. One trip on a medical helicopter would be ten times what we paid for the coverage for life. The company reps make the rounds of retirement communities, presenting the program and trying to sell contracts. They always provide a free lunch and encourage current members to attend as well. We are always up for a free lunch, so we went and listened to the presentation, for about the fifth time, and got our free Chinese Buffet. The food was much better than it was two years ago when we tried the place.

After lunch we ran a couple of errands and returned to the coach. About 5:30 we walked down to the clubhouse for karaoke. The rotation was a little shorter tonight, so I got to do four songs. Our friends Len and Debbie were there as well. We had a good time and were back in the coach about 9:30 for the rest of the evening.

Saturday, December 5^th, another travel day. We packed up the coach and left Pahrump about 10:00, heading for Indio, California. Our first leg was about 190 miles to Hesperia. On the way we made one more stop at the Mad Greek restaurant in Baker so Jackie could have one last gyro for the year. We arrived in Hesperia about 2:30 and got settled into a spot for the night. We didn't even unhook the car, so we stayed in for the rest of the day.

Sunday, December 6^th, we were up and out of the RV park in Hesperia early, about 8:15 in the morning. We have a little over 100 miles to go to Indio and we wanted to get there early because there is a party for the Coachella Valley Geocaching group that goes from 11:00 to 2:00 today. A lot of our geocaching friends will be there and we wanted to go. We made a quick stop for fuel and then headed down the hill, arriving in Indio at the Indian Wells Carefree RV Resort about 10:30. We got registered, parked in the site, leveled the coach, plugged in the electric, changed clothes and headed for the party in Palm Desert. We were only 45 minutes late and had a great time visiting with our caching friends. We even won some door prizes. After the party, about 1:30 or so, we left and stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch on the way back to the RV park. After we got back we continued our set up tasks, getting pretty well settled in for a month long stay here in Indio.

Our arrival here in Indio for a month marks a good spot to close this chapter and get it online. Until the next time, stay safe, enjoy the holiday season, and don't do anything that you wouldn't want to have to explain to the paramedics. Bye for now.

A Month in Pahrump

Welcome back friends and followers. Our last chapter concluded on Saturday, October 17^th when we arrived in Pahrump, Nevada, our official home of record. Peggy and Vernon Bullock, who had been at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta with us last week, came with us to Pahrump to spend a few days with us here at the Wine Ridge RV Resort. We are going to be here for a month.

Sunday, October 18^th, we had a leisurely day. Last night was a bit restless as we had a couple of good thunderstorms roll through. We had some hail, but fortunately it was very small. The power also went out for a couple of hours. After I got up I went out and got Sunday papers for both us and the Bullocks and we spent the morning reading and relaxing. We went out briefly in the afternoon to do a Walmart run. In the afternoon some good friends of Peggy and Vernon, Pat and Tammy Kight, came into the RV park after a stay out in Death Valley. We know Pat and Tammy through the Bullocks and have been to their house for dinner. The Bullock's and the Kight's came over about 5:30 for dinner. We chatted for a while and then did some nice steaks on the BBQ. We had a great time and about 8:00 everyone left for their own rigs and we watched a little TV until bedtime.

Monday, October 19^th, was, for the most part, a stay at home day. I got a few chores done around the coach, paid bills and did some other office work. After lunch Peggy and Jackie went out and got pedicures. We got together for happy hour and dinner at the Bullock’s. Peggy made a very nice dish of shrimp and grits. It was very much like a jambalaya with grits instead of rice and it was delicious. We talked for a while and about 8:00 we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Tuesday we were up early and out on the road about 9:30 with the Bullock's to do some geocaching. We checked on some of our caches we have hidden to do owner maintenance and also let Peggy and Vernon find them. We ended up with 13 new finds and Peggy and Vernon had about five of our caches in addition. After caching we had lunch at Mom's Cafe. We all had a great lunch before heading back to the RV park so Peggy and Vernon could let Belle the dog out. We got together at our coach for happy hour and dinner tonight. After drinks we did some carne on the BBQ and had a great Mexican feast. Again, about 8:00 they went back to their coach and we watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, October 21^st, Peggy and Vernon packed up and left about 10:00, starting to work their way back towards their home in Northern California. We went out and did a few errands, but had a quiet afternoon for the most part. Thursday morning I took the car to the Jeep dealer for service. We had a check engine light come on a week or so back and my fault checker indicated that it was a couple of bad glow plugs. I took the car into the dealer and waited most of the morning, but it became clear that they were not going to get it done today, so I had the shuttle take me back to the RV park. Since we had no car we spent the rest of the afternoon in the coach, relaxing and doing light chores.

Friday, October 23^rd, the Jeep dealer called me in the morning and told me that they had diagnosed the problem and would have the car fixed before the end of the day. It was the glow plugs, as I had already figured out. About noon some friends of ours, Warren and Marla James, came over and picked us up for lunch. We had planned lunch with them for today expecting to have our car back. We know Warren and Marla from several of our FMCA Chapters and cross paths with them at various rallies, including every year in Indio at the Western Area Rally.

We went to a place called Sugar's Shack, kind of out in the country north of downtown Pahrump. It is a very nice little steakhouse and cafe and the owner, Sugar, is the daughter of the woman that owns Mom's, where we ate the other day. Jackie and I both had hamburgers, which were great. They have a really nice dinner menu with some good looking steaks, so we are planning a dinner night there sometime before we leave Pahrump.

After lunch Warren and Marla dropped us off back at our coach. Not too long after the Jeep dealer called and said the car was ready. The shuttle came and picked me up and I retrieved the car. The check engine light was fixed and they also did two recalls that were out on our model. One was a new ignition switch because the old one was prone to shutting off, although we never had the problem. This was a good thing because it meant that we got two new electronic key fobs. Our old ones were becoming pretty worn and weren't working real well. They are very expensive if you buy new ones, but the new ignition switch, which was a no cost to us fix, came with two new ones. Yea! They also did a reprogramming of the transfer case, a recall I wouldn't of had done had they asked me before they did it. The first recall from two years ago was a reprogramming of the transfer case that caused all kinds of problems, including not being able to get it into neutral to tow the car. We finally got that problem fixed after six months of arguing with Jeep and hadn't had any problems. I really didn't want to start problems again.

Unfortunately, after I left the dealership and started to drive back to the RV park I felt the car
periodically shuddering, as if the power was cutting off. It wasn't doing this when I took it in on Thursday. I went back to the dealership and told the service writer about this new issue. He told me that the techs were gone for the day and to bring it in tomorrow for them to take a look at. I hope this is not the beginning of a new set of problems. After I got back to the coach we relaxed for a while before heading down to the clubhouse at the RV park for karaoke night. There was a packed house for karaoke and the rotation ended up being about 20 or so singers. This meant that most of us only got to do two songs. There were a lot of good singers, so it was a generally enjoyable evening even if I didn't get to sing as much as I would have liked. We finished about 9:30 and went back to the coach for a little TV before bed.

Saturday, October 24^th, I got up early to take the car to the shop, but when I got there I learned that the people I dealt with yesterday were not in today. Since the car was acting up, but seemed to be drivable, I decided to just wait until Monday to take it back. I went back home and after lunch we went out to check on some of our geocaches and then stop at one of the casinos to game a little. We also decided to cancel our trip to Las Vegas tomorrow because I didn't want to take the car that long distance until I had a chance to take it back to the service guys. We went to the Gold Town casino and gamed for about an hour, but didn't have any luck. After that we went home and relaxed the rest of the day. Sunday we had a nice relaxing morning with the paper, coffee and Sunday morning news shows. After lunch we took a trip to Walmart for some supplies, but then went back to the coach for the rest of the day.

Monday, October 26^th, I got up early again and took the car into the shop. It was clear that it was not going to get fixed quickly, so I took the shuttle back to the coach. About 12:30 my brother Russ and his wife Zen came up from Vegas to visit. We had planned to go down to see them and their new house, but not having a car that worked messed that plan up. We had a great afternoon just talking and catching up with Russ and Zen. It has been a year since we saw them, so we had a lot to talk about, including our visit with Russ's daughter, Raquel, back in Indiana this summer. I contacted the shop late in the afternoon and learned that the car was still broken and wouldn't be back today. About 5:30 we had a nice dinner, turkey breast, sweet potatoes and broccoli. About 7:00 they left to drive back over the hill and we watched TV the rest of the evening. Tuesday, still no word from the dealer regarding the car. Since we are car-less for the time being we stayed home and did some chores. Jackie seems to be coming down with a cold, I hope it doesn't get into her chest really bad like it usually does.

Wednesday, October 28^th, I talked to the service rep and got some really bad news on the car. It seems that whomever designed the vehicle put the engine computer on a shelf under the battery. Over the last seven years corrosion from the battery has built up and ruined the computer and wiring harness. The dealer has no idea how long the fix will take, or what it will cost, but it is going to be in the thousands. Crap! We spent another day at home feeling sorry for ourselves. Jackie really is sick now, a very bad cold that has gone into her chest. Thursday I decided to go ahead and rent a car for a week so we can get around. I had Enterprise, the only rental outfit in Pahrump, come and pick me up and I drove out in a new little Buick SUV. At least we can get around now. I took Jackie to the urgent care and they decided that she was on the verge of pneumonia, so they gave her some steroids and antibiotics. She is really feeling bad now. I spent the afternoon doing some chores, cleaning closets, that kind of thing.

Friday, October 30^th, we have a car, but Jackie doesn't feel like going anywhere. I spent another day doing cleaning around the coach and making some repairs and maintenance. I did stop by the dealership while out running some errands, but there is still no definitive time frame for our Jeep. Saturday, Happy Halloween. I had decorated the coach some a couple days ago for Halloween, but the wind came up and I ended up taking most of the decorations down. I did some more work around the coach during the day and after dinner I went down to the clubhouse for the Halloween karaoke party. I got to do three songs. Jackie didn't feel like going, so I was there by myself.

Sunday, November 1^st, another new month. We had our usual relaxing morning with the paper and TV. Jackie still wasn't feeling well, so we stayed at home for another day. I did a few things around the coach and spent a little time in the hot tub. Monday we went out briefly after lunch so Jackie could get a haircut and we picked up our mail.

Tuesday, November 3^rd, Jackie still didn't feel good, so we stayed at home. I went out and ran a couple of errands. Wednesday, we finally went out for a little while after lunch and did some geocaching. We were able to get eight new finds and no DNFs for the afternoon. Still no word on the car. We are sad.

Thursday, November 5^th, I went out in the morning and checked on the car. We are still not getting any definitive information, other than the car isn't done and won't be for a while. It is getting very frustrating. Since we were not going to get the Jeep back, I renewed the rental for another week. After lunch we went out and did some more geocaching, getting five new finds and one DNF. Jackie also went back to Supercuts for a “rework” on her haircut and then we did a Walmart run. After we got back to the coach we had some unexpected visitors knock on our door. Mike and Darlene Neighbours had arrived in the park today for a couple of days. They are on their way to Death Valley for the annual 49ers Gathering, but decided to stop in Pahrump. We last saw Mike and Darlene in Albuquerque when they came over to the Monaco Balloon Fiesta group for a visit. We had cocktails and talked for an hour or so before they left and headed back to their coach for the evening.

Friday, November 6^th, we met Mike and Darlene at Mom's Cafe for lunch. Today's meal was a little disappointing, the first time we have had that at Mom's. I had the special, fish and chips, and it was not much fish or chips and pretty pricey. This was the first time I didn't get a big plate of food for my money. Jackie said her chicken fried steak and eggs wasn't as good as in the past either. We hit a couple of stores so Jackie and Darlene could shop. After that we did a quick Walmart run and then headed back to the coach for the night. Mike and Darlene came over again for happy hour and we talked for an hour or so. They are headed out tomorrow, so we said our goodbyes and then watched TV the rest of the night. Saturday I helped Jackie in the morning with her hair color. We spent the rest of the day working around the coach.

Sunday, November 8th, we read the paper with coffee in the morning, then about 10:30 we left and drove over the hump to Las Vegas to visit with my brother Russ and his wife Zen. This past year Russ and Zen bought their first house together in North Las Vegas and moved out of the apartment they have lived in for a long time. We had not seen the house yet. It is in a nice tract development near the North Palm Springs airport. We arrived about 12:30 or so and spent

the afternoon with them. The house is very nice, seems to have been well maintained and has a nice yard. Zen fixed a great Asian themed lunch for us, a dish that was a little like beef stew, but with a peanut sauce that was wonderful. She also made spring rolls that were very good. After lunch we talked and watched the NASCAR race on TV. We left about 4:30 to head back to Pahrump. We made a quick stop at Costco for a couple of things before starting back over the hill. We got back home about 6:30 and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Monday, November 9^th, I went out in the morning and stopped at the dealership to talk about the car. I got in to talk to one of the managers and complained about the way they were dealing with the car, especially not seeming to car about keeping us advised of the progress. The manager listened to me and then went in with me to talk to the service writer. I hope that this spurs them into a little more action, although I don't have high hopes. After talking to the dealership I went to the motor vehicle office to get my drivers license renewed. It doesn't expire until February, but we will be in Yuma then and in Nevada you can renew up to six months early. There was a four hour wait, but they have a phone texting system where they send you texts to keep you apprised of where you are in line. After that I went back home for lunch and waited for a text.

About 2:30 we went back down to DMV because I was like now number 5 in line. It still took almost an hour, but I finally got to see the gal and got my renewed license taken care of. We then went down and picked up a ring that Jackie had dropped off with a jeweler a couple weeks ago to have a small diamond replaced and to re-size the ring. After we got the ring we went to the Elks Lodge for a cocktail. This is our home lodge, although we are here so rarely no one really knows us. We had a couple drinks and played the slots at the bar for an hour or so. After that we headed home and stayed in with the TV the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, November 10, Happy 240^th Birthday to the United States Marine Corps! After lunch we took Jackie to the chiropractor for an adjustment. We are hoping that this will help the chronic headaches she has been getting. After that we did a quick Walmart run and then headed back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, November 11, Veterans Day. Thanks to all who served. We went out after lunch to the mail store and picked up our mail. One of the things in the mail was my new Android tablet. Back in May 2012 we bought our first tablet computer and after three and a half years it was no longer working correctly. The on/off button was going wonky and it was constantly resetting itself. As regular readers will know we replaced our RV refrigerator with a residential fridge this summer when we were back in Indiana. After we bought the fridge the company, HHGregg, sent us $150 in rebates, but they were on company Rewards cards. HHGregg only has stores in the Midwest and by the time we had the cards we were out of their area. I thought we could use the cards to help towards a new tablet from their online stores, but when I made contact with them I was told that they didn't accept the cards for online purchases. This led to a long series of Facebook posts, emails and phone calls which, after a couple of months, led to a change of policy. Last week I ordered a new Samsung Galaxy Tab-A tablet and was able to use the cards. So the new tablet only cost me a little over a hundred bucks. Great deal. After our mail run we headed home and I spent the rest of the night setting up the new toy. Yea!

Thursday, November 12^th, we left the coach a little before noon and headed out to do some errands. Our first stop was the Enterprise Rental office to renew the little Buick we have been driving for another week. We hadn't heard from the dealer and it was clear we were still going to need a car over the weekend. After that little chore we went to a fairly new restaurant in town called Chadthai, a Thai restaurant that had great reviews on Yelp. It is in the same strip mall as the rental car place and is a very nice, if small, cafe. The food was every bit as good as the reviews would lead you to believe. We had a great meal at a reasonable price and the service was excellent too. It is all family operated and we would recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Pahrump hungry for Thai.

We went over to the dealership to check on the car and talk to a manager about getting some of our rental car costs reimbursed. We believe that they piddled around with the car for almost two weeks before actually doing anything and we were out the money for the rental. We had to wait a while, but we finally got to talk to the Service Manager. He listened to our story and apologized for the fact that things took so long. He explained some, but still said it should not have been as long as it had to get parts ordered. He offered to give us a free loaner car for the rest of the time we are in Pahrump without our Jeep, so we took the Buick back to Enterprise. He also said that he couldn't reimburse us or Enterprise for the rental costs, but that he would work on the final bill for the repair of the Jeep to reflect some consideration for our out of pocket expense. We also learned that it was possible the vehicle would actually be ready next week, so we told them we would extend our stay here until next Friday to give them the full week to fix the Jeep. We left in a nice, candy apple red Chrysler sedan. Not new, a 2012 with 50K on the odometer, but it runs and it's free, sort of.

We then headed back to the RV park where I extended our stay by four days. I also changed our reservations in Santa Maria, our next long stop after Pahrump. We then drove to the chiropractor's office so Jackie could get another adjustment. That took and hour and she took advantage of our extended stay to make two more appointments for next week. We then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Friday, November 13^th, eek, Friday the Thirteenth! We went out after lunch and did some geocaching since the wind wasn't blowing and it wasn't too cold. We had a good couple of hours, getting eleven new finds and no DNFs before heading back to the coach. We had an early dinner and then went down to the clubhouse for karaoke. The rotation was a little shorter tonight because some of the regular singers were over in Death Valley at the annual Forty-Niners gathering, so I got to do four songs tonight. After karaoke we went back to the coach and watched a little TV until bedtime.

Saturday I was up and out about 8:30 to go and do my qualification shoot for my Federal concealed carry permit. I have to requalifey every year to keep my permit valid. I went out with the same instructor I used last year and was done by 10:30 or so. We had lunch at the coach and we realized that we were getting bored with Pahrump. We have gotten all the caches that we can get without having a high clearance vehicle, which our new Chrysler loaner is definitely not. There is no mall and no movie theater. We finally went to the Nugget casino and gambled for a few hours. Didn't win anything, but didn't lose much either. We then went back to the coach and I went into the hot tub for a while. We had dinner and relaxed the rest of the night.

Sunday, November 15^th, we left the coach about 12:30 and drove over the mountain to Las Vegas to have lunch with my brother Russ and his wife. We arranged to meet at a place called Steiners on the south side of town, so we wouldn't have to drive all the way up to the northeast where Russ and Zen live. Zen wasn't feeling well, so she didn't come, but we and Russ had a nice lunch and talked for quite a while. Steiners is a sports bar and, although the food was quite good, it was really noisy on a Sunday football afternoon. After lunch we went out for an hour or so and did a few geocaches. Russ and Zen are some of our caching “children” that we got interested in the hobby. We got five caches before the weather started getting iffy and it was getting dark and cold. We dropped Russ off at his car and we drove back over the hill to Pahrump. We were in light rain most of the way and got back to the coach a little after 5:00. We watched TV the rest of the evening.

Monday, November 16^th, we left the coach after lunch to run some errands. I took my paperwork to the sheriff's office and got my new concealed carry permit, good until November of next year. Now I am legal again in all states. Yea! Given what has been going on in the world lately, I may start carrying my weapon more often. I have always considered a gun a tool, not a status symbol, but the way things are going we made need to keep our tools closer at hand. After the sheriff's office we picked up our mail and went shopping at Walmart. The wind was blowing 40 miles an hour and it was cold, in the 40's, and apparently everyone else decided this was a good day for shopping too. The store was packed. After groceries we headed back to the coach and stayed in listening to the wind rattling the coach for the rest of the day and evening.

Tuesday, November 17^th, we went out after lunch so Jackie could go to her chiropractic appointment. After she was finished we drove around town a little, stopping at a couple of antique and thrift stores. We also stopped at the new Terrible's Casino. When we first came to Pahrump one of the three big casinos was a Terribles, and they also had a smaller casino with an RV park called Lakeside. A couple years ago the company had hard times and went bankrupt. Their gaming assets were bought by the Pahrump Nugget company, although Terribles kept the gas station and convenience store properties. This past year they have now opened this smaller, but very nice place in Pahrump. It was really nice because Jackie walked out with a hundred bucks! Yea, we finally left with more than we came in with. After our gaming we headed back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the evening. I did get a call from the dealership late in the afternoon that they had all the parts in and were working on the car. Yea! Wednesday we had a stay at home day. Got a few chores done, but mostly relaxed. We did get a call from the dealership telling us they thought the car would be done on Thursday. Yea!

Thursday, November 19^th, we went out after lunch and did our laundry. We are going to Santa Maria next and we didn't want to have to do laundry while we were there visiting with family. After our laundry we went back to the coach. Later in the afternoon I participated in an informal jam session with several other people from the park. There were three other guitar players, a mandolin and a percussionist. We played a couple of hours, until the sun went down and it got chilly. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the dealership called and said the car wasn't ready, but should be tomorrow – again. We then had dinner and watched TV the rest of the night.

Friday, November 20^th. We ran a few errands after lunch, picking up our mail one last time and getting a few things from Walmart. About 4:30 I took the loaner car back to the dealership and turned it in. The service writer told me that they were still working on the Jeep and that it was still putting out bad codes from the computer. Finally, about 5:30, Zach came to me and said they just couldn't figure out the problems and the car was not going to be done. I explained to him that we were leaving town and would be back the week after Thanksgiving, hopefully to pick up the Jeep. I then had the dealership provide a ride back to the coach. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV.

Saturday, November 21^st, we left the RV park about 10:30 without a tow car. We made a lunch stop in Baker, California, as we always do when we go out the back way from Pahrump, at the Mad Greek Restaurant. Jackie says they have the best Greek Pita anywhere. I had pastrami, but that's just me. The food was good and we were back on the road after lunch. We made our first stop in Yermo, California, just north of Barstow. There is an RV park there that we go to whenever we pass through the area. The RV park is right across the road from the huge Marine Corps Logistics Base, where the Marine Corps maintain and process all their equipment. Since we didn't have a car we just got setup and stayed in the coach for the rest of the day and evening. On Sunday we left about 10:00 and headed across the Tehachapi Pass towards Bakersfield. This route goes north of Mojave and Edwards Air Force Base and is the shortest route between Southern Nevada and Bakersfield. We stopped at another of our usual stops, although the place has been sold and instead of Bakersfield Palms it is now Desert Palms RV Park. It is a Passport park so the site was only $15. Again, no car, so we relaxed in the coach the rest of the evening.

Monday, November 23^rd, we left Bakersfield about 9:30 and headed west towards Santa Maria. The shortest route is Highway 166, which is a designated truck route, but still a challenging road. The last half of the trip is up and down and curvy two lane road. Fortunately, there was little traffic, so I just took my time and we arrived in Santa Maria at the Elks Lodge about 12:30. We got settled into our spot at the Elks RV park, a full hookup, 50 amp site, and got ourselves completely set up for the first time in three days. About 3:00 I called Enterprise Rental Cars and they came and picked me up so I could get a car to use for the week we are here. I had reserved an economy car, but I was nice to the manager that was helping me and got an upgrade to a premium car, a nice Toyota Avalon, their high end, full size car.

As soon as I got back to the coach we got in the car and headed to Arroyo Grande, about 16 miles north of Santa Maria, to the hospital where Jackie's Aunt Donna is undergoing treatment for pneumonia. She has been in the place for a week, but seems to be getting better and they are talking about releasing her tomorrow. Corey, Donna's grandson who lives with her as her caretaker, met us in the room and we spent a little while catching up. He left to go home and we stayed with Donna until about 6:30 or so. They are still talking about releasing her tomorrow, so hopefully the next time we see her it will be at her home. Donna is the widow of Jackie's Uncle Barky, her mother's brother. We had visited with them many times over the years that Jackie and I have been together. We stopped on the way back to the coach to pick up some In and Out burgers, which we have missed the last six months. We went back to the coach, ate dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

It has been over a month since we published the blog. Since we weren't doing much during our stay in Pahrump, I just kept putting off publishing until the chapter got a little longer. Our leaving Pahrump and coming here to Santa Maria to be with family over Thanksgiving marks a good place to finally get this episode published. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and remember the words of Teddy Roosevelt. “Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.” Bye for now.

Balloons, The Grand Canyon and Heading Home

Hello again. Our last chapter concluded on Saturday, October 3rd when we arrived at the American RV Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We are here in Albuquerque to attend another Monaco International Balloon Fiesta Rally. We are part of the advance crew for the rally and will be moving over to the Balloon Fiesta field area on Tuesday. On Sunday we met our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock and Vernon and Peggy Bullock, for lunch in Albuquerque. They are both camping at Kirtland Air Force Base, which is on the southeast side of Albuquerque, adjacent to the airport. Ray is a disabled vet has access to the base and the “fam camp” RV facilities. They are also coming to the Fiesta. The Bullocks, are also on the base as guests of Ray and Suzie. We have not seen the Bullocks since February or the Babcocks since March.

We intended to go to a Cajun restaurant for lunch, but it was closed, so we ended up going to the Standard Diner closer to downtown. We had been to the Standard diner a few years back and enjoyed the food. It is a featured Diners, Drive-ins and Dives place. I had the same thing I had before, the meat loaf, which was outstanding then and just as good now. Jackie had the chicken and waffles and didn't care for the chicken. She said it was dry. Several of the group also ordered Bloody Marys and they all sent them back because they had a weird taste. Peggy had fish tacos and they were served in a nice stainless steel taco rack. When the manager came by and cleared some of the table Jackie made a comment that she would like to have the rack. She was just joking, but a few minutes later the manager came by with a box that had the rack in it. He said, “At the Standard Diner, if you ask for it, we give it to you.” After lunch we headed back to the RV park for cocktails with the rest of the advance crew for the rally.

Monday, October 5th, we left after lunch and drove over to the Air Force Base for dinner. Peggy made a big ham and we had sweet potatoes and other goodies to go with it. The six of us had a great time talking and catching up. We are in pretty frequent contact with each over by phone and social media, but it is much better to be together in person. We had a great time and left the base about 8:00 and headed back to our RV park for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, October 6th, we were up about 7:00 getting the coach ready for travel. Today is the day the five couples who are the advance crew for the rally drive over to the Balloon Fiesta grounds. It is only about a 17 mile drive, but the work to get ready is the same as if we were going 200. About 10:00 we all met in the dining room of the RV park and helped put together the goodie bags for the rally. Once we were done with that we just went back to the coach and hung around until noon when it was time to drive over to the rally.

We arrived at the rally grounds and got parked by 1:00. We spent the rest of the afternoon helping the rest of the crew set up the social area for the rally as well as getting our own coach settled in for the six night stay. This is total dry camping and will be our first dry camping experience with the new refrigerator. At 4:00 the group got together for cocktails and then we had some burgers and brats grilled by our wagon masters, the Pitts and the Henschels. We sat and talked until dark and then went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Wednesday morning we were up at 6:30 for the first mass ascension of the rally for us. The rest of our group won't be coming in until about 10:00 or so to park, so we had time in the morning to watch balloons. A little background on the Fiesta. This year is the 44th Annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The Fiesta actually goes for ten days, over two weekends. They have the same basic schedule for the first Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and the following Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Tuesday is a transition day and there is not much going on. The Monaco group always goes in on the second half of the Fiesta. We have been here twice before, in 2010 and 2011.

The Monaco group has prime parking in the first parking area south of the fiesta grounds. It is an easy walk to the balloon field and all the vendors and excitement down there, and the venue is perfect for just sitting in, or in front of, your coach and watching the balloons go up. In our past visits the wind usually blew the balloons south, right over our coaches, however, today the wind was blowing to the north so we watched the balloons go up and head north. It was still a great sight to see. They probably launched 250 balloons today, less than half the total here for the event. The first balloons, the Dawn Patrol, go up about 6:30 to check the winds. If everything is OK, they give the green flag for the launch and all the other balloons on the field start to inflate and go up. By 8:00 or a little after they have all launched for the day.

About 9:30 the first of our group started arriving and I had to start my parking duties. There were four of us out there parking all the coaches. We are expecting a total of 69 RVs for our rally. Jackie was helping with running water around to the parking crew, getting lunch, and other chores. 

We finally got the last people parked at 4:00, just in time for happy hour with the group. Harry Henschel, the rally wagonmaster, and his wife Sandy, are big balloon enthusiasts and crew for several balloons all over the country all year long. They were here for the first half of this year's event crewing for a friend of theirs. They know a lot of pilots and were able to get one of them to come over to the happy hour with his gear and give a talk on ballooning. He didn't set up the balloon, but he did pull out the basket so people could look inside. He spent an hour or so talking and answering questions about ballooning.

After the presentation we had dinner. The wagonmasters had brought in a catering service, called Rudy's, to provide a nice BBQ dinner for us. We had beef brisket, turkey, beans, cole slaw and some other goodies for dinner and it was very good. About dark everyone started heading back to their own coaches for the evening. We went to bed early because we had a long, busy day. There were no night time activities scheduled for tonight, so it was quiet.

Thursday, October 8th, we were again up at dawn to watch the balloons. This morning we walked down onto the balloon field with Ray and Suzie to watch the mass ascension. It is much more dramatic when you are up close and personal with the balloons, so we always try to go down at least once during each visit to the Fiesta. We got a lot of pictures and watched a lot of balloons take off. After most of the balloons lifted we walked a few of the vendors. Most of them are food vendors, but there are a couple of stores selling overpriced balloon souvenirs.

After we walked back up to the coach we relaxed for a while before heading out to the first luncheon of the rally. The first luncheon was at the Taoan Country Club, up in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. This was the same place we came for lunch on our two previous balloon rallies. The clubhouse is very nice and the views are killer. The food was also quite good, although the drinks were outrageous. You couldn't afford to get drunk here. They gave away a bunch of door prizes, one to each couple, and we got a cute pouch made of cloth with a balloon print.

After lunch we went back to the balloon fiesta grounds and rested for a little while. At 4:30 the group happy hour started. Jackie had to make a sausage and cream cheese dip as here contribution. Before we started happy hour I did a little veteran's tribute for the group. Happy hour was fun and right after we had the evening snacks, mostly chips and dips and some sandwiches and wraps made from the leftovers of the BBQ guys. We all sat around and talked, waiting for the evening balloon glow. The balloons will not fly at night because they can't see where they are going and where they are going to land. However, they do inflate the balloons in the evenings for a very pretty glow. However, there was no glow tonight because the winds were too high. About 8:00 they started the fireworks show, which was fantastic. It lasted about ten minutes and was really pretty. Again, a lot of pictures were taken. After the fireworks everyone went back to their coaches for the rest of the night.

Friday, October 9th, again up at dawn. I really didn't feel well today. I had chills and was pretty sure I was running a fever. I still went outside in the morning to watch the balloons fly. Today's winds took them north at low altitudes and then back south at higher altitudes. So the balloons were over the coaches, but pretty high up, so you couldn't really get great pictures. Still a great sight though. After the morning flight we relaxed until lunch time. Today we went to El Pinto, a really great Mexican restaurant not too far from the balloon grounds. This was also a place we had been before with previous rallies. They had a really good buffet with great food. Unfortunately, I couldn't really enjoy it because I was still not feeling good. Everyone else in our group had a great time and really enjoyed the lunch.

We went back to the balloon grounds after lunch and waited for happy hour at 4:30. I was feeling a little better, having beaten down most of the fever with ibuprofen all day. We all sat and chatted, then had the evening snacks, much the same as last night. Tonight the balloon glow went off as planned and we all sat and watched from the group area. You can't see a lot of the balloons on the field from where we are, but those that you could see were very pretty. Peggy and Vernon walked down on the field to watch the glow and said it was even better down there. Again at 8:00 there was another great fireworks show that scared the crap out of the dogs in the park, but was very enjoyable for the people.

Saturday, October 10th, I woke up feeling better and was up at dawn to watch the flights this morning. This was by far the best flying day yet. The skies were perfectly clear and the wind was blowing the balloons straight south over us as they took off. Because of the clear skies the balloons were sunlit and the pictures were super. I think all 600 plus balloons flew today. Today there was no organized lunch for the group, so we and the Babcocks and Bullocks left the grounds and drove to the same Cajun restaurant that we had tried to go to Sunday and found closed. It was called N'awlins Mardi Gras and was a small but friendly place. The owner and chef came out and greeted us and he had a Louisiana accent. I had s

hrimp creole and it was wonderful. Jackie had gumbo and said it was great too. Vernon had the jambalaya and he said it was hot but good. Even Suzie, who doesn't like spicy food, found something great, a crab cake that she said was really tasty. We all left very happy and full and would give this place high marks.

After lunch we drove to Costco for a few things. We also drove back down to the El Pinto restaurant to get some freshly roasted green chillies for Jackie and Peggy. They cook them every day but they were out of them when we were there on Friday. We bought 20 pounds for $20 and split them between us and the Bullocks. Both of us have a really big bag of peppers to be cleaned, packaged and frozen. We then went back to the balloon grounds and relaxed a bit.

The last happy hour started at 4:30 and we had all the stuff from previous evenings to finish up. About 7:00 the six of us walked down on the field for the balloon glow. Peggy was right, it is much more fun when you are on the field. In our previous two visits we never went down on the field for a glow. We also found a geocache that was hidden on the balloon grounds, our first cache in a few days. After the glow we went back up to the group area for the evenings fireworks show. Tonight was the best because it was the last and they used up everything they had left. We then went back to our coaches for the night.

Sunday, October 11th, our day of departure. There was still a mass ascension in the morning, although the number of balloons was down quite a bit. None of the big, fancy shape balloons flew. The winds were strange, blowing the balloons all over the place depending on altitude. After the morning flight we all started packing up our coaches for travel and breaking down the stuff in the common area. We were all done and hooked up on our way out by about 11:00. We and the Bullocks and Babcocks are all headed west to Gallup, New Mexico for a two night layover. We pulled into the USA RV Park about 2:30 and got the basic utilities hooked up before heading out the emergency room to have me looked at. We first stopped at Wendy's for a quick lunch, since we hadn't eaten yet today.

I had noticed blood in my urine this morning, and put together with the fever on Friday I figured I might have a bladder infection. I was guilty of not getting a lot of fluids in me early in the week and dehydration is a prime cause for Urinary Tract Infections, or UTI. We went to the emergency room at the local hospital in Gallup and I was pleasantly surprised to be checked in right away, taken to an exam room and seen by a PA, all in the first 15 minutes. Not the usual ER visit. The PA did a quick exam, asked a few questions and sent my urine off to the lab. A half hour later it was confirmed as a UTI and I was given a prescription for an antibiotic. We stopped at Walmart and got it filled and went back to the coach. The Babcock's and Bullock's were outside having cocktails and we stayed out there for a while chatting. They were doing a BBQ, but we had already eaten so we went in, watched a little TV and went to bed early.

Monday, October 12th, the six of us left the RV park and went to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant called El Matate. It was a small, very authentic place in the barrio. The food was outstanding, although, as is typical with New Mexican cooking, a little on the hot side. We all had a great meal. I had machaca and it was some of the best I have had. After lunch we all stopped to get one geocache before heading back to the coach for the rest of the afternoon. We got together for cocktails at 5:00 but didn't have any dinner.

Tuesday, October 13th, another travel day. The Babcocks left about an hour before us. They are heading to Laughlin, Nevada for a day or two before going home. The Bullocks are going to continue traveling with us for a while, at least as far as Pahrump. Our initial plan was to stop in Flagstaff, Arizona for a couple of days. My brother Dennis works in Sedona, only an hour or so south, and we thought we might go down and have lunch with him. However, when I got a hold of him, I learned that he was busy and couldn't get away. We then decided that we would go on to Williams, Arizona, about 30 miles farther west. We all like Williams better than Flagstaff. The total trip was about 220 miles, but we gained an hour back when we traveled into Arizona.

We got to the Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park just before 3:00 and got settled into some nice spots right next to each other. We both made grocery runs and had cocktails at 5:00 or so. Jackie made her chili rellano casserole for the four of us and we had a great dinner. We all also watched the first part of the Democratic presidential debate before Peggy and Vernon headed off to their coach.

Wednesday, October 14th, we were up and out of the coach about 9:00, driving north to the Grand Canyon National Park. It is only an hour's drive or so from Williams and it was a nice day, so we decided to drive up there for lunch. We lucked out and found a parking place right away in the visitor's center parking lot, a good feat considering how crowded the park was. We took the shuttle to the canyon rim and went to the El Tovar Lodge for lunch. The El Tovar was built in

1912 and was the first big hotel to be built in the park. We had a very nice lunch and the cost was not much more than we would have paid down in any city. After lunch we viewed the canyon, took a few pictures, and then went back to the car to head back down to Williams. We stopped along the way for a couple of caches and got back to the coach about 4:00. We had cocktails with the Bullocks, but skipped dinner as we were still full from lunch. We watched some TV before heading off to bed.

Thursday, October 15th, another travel day. We left the RV park about 10:00 and continued west and north, this time heading for Boulder City, Nevada. Since they opened the new bridge over the canyon near Hoover Dam the drive to southern Nevada has gotten a lot easier. We arrived at the Elks Lodge in Boulder City about 3:00 and settled into our spots. We had called yesterday and reserved two spots. They have very nice, full hookup 50 amp spots for only $25 a night. Peggy went out to do some shopping. Jackie and I went into the lodge for a cocktail about 5:00. We had a nice chat with one of the members and learned that the building the lodge is in was actually the terminal building for one of the first southern Nevada airports, ironically called Bullock Field. The building was built in 1938 and the outside still looks pretty much the same. It is a nice lodge with about 800 members. We had a couple of cocktails and got a lodge pin for our banner. We then went over to Peggy and Vernon's coach and Peggy cooked dinner for the four of us. We had chicken and sweet potatoes, a great meal. About 8:30 we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Friday, October 16th, we and the Bullocks went out for lunch at a place that was recommended to us by one of the people in the Elks Lodge last night. It was in old downtown Boulder City and was called Evan's Downtown Grill. It wasn't a big place, but it was pretty full. Peggy and Jackie both had the gyro and Vernon and I both had the Reuben. Everyone really liked their food, although Jackie said part of her gyro was overcooked and a little dry. After lunch we went to do a little geocaching in the downtown area of Boulder City. We were able to get five new finds, and one new DNF before Peggy and Vernon stopped and went off on their own to do some shopping.

A little history now on Boulder City since this is our first visit here. Boulder City was designed and built by the Federal government in 1931 as a headquarters and housing for workers building Boulder Dam, now Hoover Dam. The town was under strict government control during the building of the dam and both alcohol and gambling were prohibited. Alcohol was only legalized in 1969 and gambling is still prohibited in the city, one of only two cities in Nevada with such laws. The town remained under Federal government control until 1959 when it was incorporated as a Nevada charter city. The city's population is currently about 15,000.

After Peggy and Vernon left to do their shopping we drove into nearby Henderson to visit the Henderson Elks Lodge. We got there about 2:30 or so and were the only ones in the bar. We had a nice chat with the volunteer bartender, who was also one of the officers of the Lodge. According to him they only have about 160 members with an average age of over 70. Based on our experience over ten years of visiting lodges around the country, I don't think this lodge has too many more years before it is forced to fold. The building it is in is very dreary, no windows and the bar looks like somebody's basement. We had one drink and got a pin for our banner before leaving. There was a Camping World on the way back to the Boulder City lodge, so we stopped to pick up a few supplies we needed. We then headed back to the coach. We had cocktails with the Bullocks about 5:30 and I made up a batch of chili for the four of us for dinner. We had dinner and talked until about 8:00 when the Bullocks left and we watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, October 17th, another travel day. We and the Bullocks were packed up and headed out of the Boulder City Elks about 10:00, headed through Las Vegas and on to Pahrump, our “home” town. I have been experiencing a bit of overheating on the coach when climbing steep hills, so we unhooked the car before heading over the mountains from Vegas to Pahrump. Without the heavy car the coach did fine on the climb and we arrived at the Wine Ridge RV Resort about 11:30. We are going to be here for a month, so we got a spot close to the pool so I could use the spa when I wanted.

We spent the rest of the afternoon getting set up for our month long stay. The Bullocks got a spot down the same street. They are going to stay here about four or five days before heading to their home in California.

About 5:30 we walked over to Peggy and Vernon's for cocktails and dinner. Peggy made a big batch of tortellini soup which was fantastic. We sat and talked until about 8:30 when we went home, watched a little TV and then went to bed. Our arrival here in Pahrump marks a good place to close this chapter of the blog and get it published. Until next time, remember that advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. See ya soon.