Hello friends, welcome back to our
story. Our last chapter concluded on Sunday, December 21st,
while we were still at the Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio,
California. We are here in Indio for a total of nine weeks this year
and we are about two thirds through our stay.
Monday, December 22nd, we
left the coach about 11:15 and drove to Palm Springs to have lunch
with our friends Gary and Ramona Wilson. They live in Ontario and we
try to get together with them from time to time, the last time being
a couple weeks ago when we were all at the Babcock's house in
Menifee. We Gary and Ramona at a place called Greek Islands, right
in the middle of downtown Palm Springs. We like Greek restaurants
and we discovered this place back in May when we were here in the
Coachella valley. It is a really nice place with a great menu. We
especially like their pan fried calamari appetizer. I could go there
just for that. We had a great meal and sat and talked for about
ninety minutes. After lunch we left the restaurant and walked a
couple of blocks to a geocache. We got Gary and Ramona into
geocaching about four years ago. They don't do it as often as we do,
but they enjoy the sport. After finding that cache Gary and Ramona
headed back home and we did a couple more caches in Palm Springs
before heading home for the rest of the night.
Tuesday, December 23rd, we
decided to have a stay at home day. Both Jackie and I got a number
of small chores done. We also got our mail for the first time in a
month. We had ordered it a few weeks back, but UPS lost it and it
ended up going back to the UPS store in Pahrump. We had an enjoyable
and productive day.
Wednesday, December 24th, we
went out for an hour or so after lunch to try and scout some
additional sites for placing geocaches. We hid one cache and at
another location tried out a new type we had put together. The new
type had a few issues, so we couldn't put the cache in, but we went
back to the coach, redid the cache type and I think it will work now.
About 4:30 we went down to the
clubhouse for RV park's Christmas dinner. The place was jammed,
probably over 150 people, with LOTS of food. We sat with some
interesting people we didn't know, which is what we like about these
social events. We had a great dinner and some nice conversation. We
may have even gotten some new recruits for the Full Timers Chapter.
We also tied for a third place finish in the RV park's decorating
contest and won a $10 Subway gift card. Yea, free lunch! After
dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night,
waiting for Santa to fly over.
Thursday, December 25th,
Merry Christmas everyone! We just had a nice stay at home day today.
We had our Christmas dinner last night and decided this would be a
nice day to relax. We don't exchange gifts because our attitude is
if we want something and can afford it, we get it right away, we
don't need to wait for a certain day. We exchange cards only for all
holidays. We had a nice relaxing day at home and enjoyed our 16th,
Christmas together.
Friday, December 26th, we
went out to Subway for our free lunch. It actually cost us $6 for
the two of us to have a full meal, so it was still a bargain. After
lunch we went out and scouted some more geocache hiding spots. We
ended up hiding a total of six new geocaches in Indio, counting the
two we put out on Wednesday. We also found one geocache that
happened to appear not too far from where we were hiding one of ours.
After a quick stop at the store we headed home and spent the rest of
the night in the coach. I did the computer work to submit our six
new caches, which should be up and available tomorrow given what I
have learned about the reviewers for this area.
Saturday, December 27th, we
went out to do some after Christmas shopping. We first checked on a
couple of our geocaches that people were not able to find and
discovered that they were both gone. We just archived the caches,
basically deleted them, and we will hide something else in a
different place. We then stopped at Kohl's for a while and then
moved on the the big mall in Palm Desert. Jackie and I both got a
couple little things, nothing major, but the crowds were terrible.
After shopping we stopped at the Palm Desert Cactus Jack's for a
drink and to say hi to our friend Kevin, who is the bar manager
there. We then headed back to the coach and stayed in the rest of
the evening.
Sunday, December 28th, we
went out about noon to meet some friends of ours for lunch at Cactus
Jacks. George and Mary are also full time RVers and we generally
cross paths with them in the winter when they come down to the
desert. We don't know them real well, but they are nice people and
fun to talk to. We had a great lunch and talked for an hour and a
half. After lunch we headed out for some caching. We first checked
on a couple caches that some people couldn't find, but the caches
were right where we hid them. They are just well disguised. We then
went out and found a few caches, getting a total of four new finds
before heading back home for the evening.
Monday, December 29th, we
were supposed to go this afternoon for our annual physicals, however,
about 9:00 I got a phone call from the doctor's office that our
doctor called in sick. Hmmmm. They rescheduled our appointments for
next week and suddenly we had the day off. Our friends Ray and Suzie
Babcock are coming here to Indian Waters today from their home in
Menifee and will be traveling off and on with us for the next couple
months.
Today will forever be remembered as the
day the cat tried to kill me. I don't know which cat, and I haven't
had a lot of luck with the investigation. I was doing some chores
and walked to the front of the coach to go outside. I was looking at
the door, not down at the steps and when I stepped down there was a
horrible shrieking noise from a cat that had apparently been lying on
the step. The natural reaction is to pull up your feet, which made
me lose my balance. I managed to avoid falling forward, which would
have put me down three more steps, through the door and outside,
however, I did fall to the side and down and put the metal grab rail
on the dashboard of the coach into my side just under my rib cage.
It knocked the wind out of me and hurt like hell, so I sat there on
the step for a while until I caught my breath. I think I may have
broke a rib or two, but I will wait until the pain subsides a little
to diagnose that. It doesn't hurt to breath, so I didn't poke a lung
or anything.
I decided to check on the cats and
found that neither of them were talking. No surprise there. There
were no apparent injuries, no limps, no bent tails, and neither
seemed to be mad at me as both jumped up in my lap at later times
with no seeming hard feelings. I tried to interrogate them to figure
out which cat should take the blame for my fall, but neither
confessed or even ratted on the other one, though their eyes did
twinkle when I said rat. They also didn't ask for attorneys, so I am
really thinking that the offender may actually think he is the victim
in this case. I was an investigator on and off for half my career in
the Sheriff''s Office and I tried most of the interrogation
techniques I learned on the job, but nothing worked. I have no
physical evidence, so I fear the case will go cold. I know what
happened though, and will be on the lookout since, if they tried it
once there is no reason to believe they might not try it again.
Ray and Suzie arrived around 1:30 and
got parked in a space just one street over from us. We greeted them
and welcomed them to the park and then left them be to get setup. We
went over there around 5:00 for happy hour and dinner. Ray had a big
pot of bean and ham soup he had made from his leftover Christmas ham
and Jackie made some fresh sourdough bread. We talked for a while,
then had dinner, which was wonderful. We left their coach about 8:00
and went back to ours to watch TV until bedtime.
Tuesday, December 30
th, I
woke up and my side was feeling a little better, but it still really
hurt bad when I coughed or sneezed or took a deep breath. When I
bent over and reached I found it not only hurt but I could feel
something popping in my side. With all this I decided I would take a
trip to the urgent care to get an x-ray just to be sure there was no
serious damage.
Jackie and I drove down to the urgent
care at 11:
00 and it took forever. There were all kinds of people
with all kinds of symptoms sitting around. After about three and a
half hours I had been examined and x-rayed and the doctor told me I
didn't have a broken rib, just a lot of inflammation from being
bruised by the hand rail. The popping I feel and hear is the
cartilage, which is being pushed into the bone by the swelling,
causing it to pop. He prescribed some topical anti-inflammatory
cream and we were on our way. The doctor's office had a cute Christmas tree, all decorated with medical supplies.
We had to do laundry today and we had
put the stuff in the car before we left for the urgent care, so we
stopped and did our laundry. After laundry I went to the Walgreens
to pick up the medication, but learned that it wasn't covered by
insurance and cost nearly seventy dollars. I told them they could
keep it, I didn't need it that bad. I bought some hot patches and
between that and ibuprofen I can take care of the selling myself.
We went back home, put away our stuff,
made cocktails and went over to Ray and Suzie's again. There was
still bean soup, so that's what we had for dinner again. We stayed
and talked until almost eight and then went back to our coach for the
rest of the night. We did notice when we got home after the doctor's
visit that one of the cats had thrown up in a couple of places.
Wracked with guilt maybe? We shall see.
Wednesday, December 31st,
New Year's Eve. We went out after lunch and checked on a couple of
our caches to see if they were still there. They were, people are
just having trouble finding them because of the cammo. About 2:30
Ray came over and helped me get all the karaoke stuff loaded into the
car and then over to the clubhouse for the party tonight. Jackie and
I are the entertainment again for the party here at Indian Waters. I
got everything set up and working before 4:00 and was able to go home
and get a little rest.
About 5:30 we went down to the
clubhouse and started the music. The party wasn't supposed to start
until 6:00, but a lot of people got there early and it was a good
thing because the tables were pretty much filled up by 6:00. A lot
of people brought food, so the first 45 minutes or so I just played
music while people got their food, ate and visited with people at
their table. By 7:00 I had a couple of singers for karaoke and the
party was on. We had a half dozen or so people who sang and every
now and then I would take a break and play some dance music. We had
a lot of line and group dances which really got a lot of people on
the dance floor. My injuries were not bothering me much and I was
having a great time watching the rest of the group have fun.
We took a break just before 9:00 for so
we could watch the ball drop in Times Square. We always tell
everyone that we celebrate the New York new years so that everyone
can be back in their own place by midnight. After the brief
celebratory break we went back to dancing and singing. I finally
closed the party down about 10:00, although there were a few people
left that didn't want to leave. I packed up some of the stuff, the
more important pieces of equipment, and we went back to our coach and
then off to bed.
Thursday, January 1, 2015, Happy New
Year! Woke up with a bit of a hangover, but about 10:00 I went down
to the clubhouse to help clean up and get the rest of my stuff back
to the coach. We spent the rest of the day relaxing around the
coach. Friday I woke up and had relapsed a little and hurt really
bad. I spent the day in the coach nursing my injuries. Our friends
Peggy and Vernon Bullock arrived this afternoon and got settled into
a spot just across the street from us. They were supposed to have
been here for the new years eve party, but they had some repairs done
to their coach up in Redding, California, near where they live, and
the work took longer than expected. We let them get set up and then
had them over for dinner. Ray and Suzie wanted to go to one of the
casinos for the seafood buffet, so it was just the four of us for
dinner. Jackie made a nice chili relleno casserole and we had a
great visit. We last saw Peggy and Vernon back in August when we
were all up in Oregon at the rallies.
Saturday, January 3rd, I was
feeling better, so I spent a good part of the afternoon taking down
all the Christmas decorations and the other outside stuff that I had
put up. I just went slow so as not to aggravate my hurts, but by
late afternoon I had pretty much everything cleaned up and put away
and I was still feeling not too bad.
About 5:00 the Babcock's and Bullock's
came over and we had cocktails and talked. We later fired up the BBQ
and did some steaks for dinner. Everyone brought their own meat and
I cooked it all on our BBQ. It was a great meal and we had a good
time. This little group always enjoys the time we spend together.
After everyone left about 8:00 we just relaxed and watched TV the
rest of the night.
Sunday, January 4th, we were
up and out of the coach at 10:00 and headed for the Elks Lodge for
breakfast. The Babcocks and Bullocks went also and we picked up
Donna Blumenthal and took her with us because Jay was playing tennis
and was going to come by the lodge later. The Kings also met us at
the lodge, as did Mary and George, our other friends for Indian
Waters. We had a big group. It has been probably eight years since
we went to breakfast at the lodge here. Back when we had the house
we used to come down once a month and help cook the breakfasts. The
food was good and we had some great conversation.
After breakfast we stopped at Costco
for some supplies and then headed home to relax. Jackie was not
feeling well, so we just stayed in the rest of the day. I went over
to Peggy's for dinner, along with the Babcocks, but Jackie didn't
want to go over there sick, so she stayed home. Peggy made meatloaf
and I took a “care package” back to Jackie when I went home about
7:30.
Monday, January 5th, we
packed up the coach and left Indian Waters about 10:30 and drove the
five blocks to the fairgrounds for the FMCA Western Area Rally.
Although the parking was not busy, it still took them an hour to get
us parked. We are pretty much in the same place we have been the
last couple years, in the grass area not too far from the events. We
got everything set up and then went out and took Jackie to her
mammogram appointment. After her mammo we stopped at Walmart for
some supplies and a quick stop at Indian Waters to pick up our mail
that was delivered today. We then went back to the coach and rested
the rest of the day. The rally doesn't start until Wednesday,
hopefully Jackie will be feeling better by then.
Tuesday, January 6th, Jackie
woke up feeling a little better, as did I. I still hurt, just not
quite as much. Jackie is mostly now just having coughing fits. In
the morning I installed the new battery trickle charger I got in the
mail yesterday. My old went out a few weeks ago and I have had to
periodically put a battery charger on the coach starting batteries to
keep them charged.
After lunch Jackie and I went to the
doctor's office for our annual checkups and prescription renewals. I
got scolded for being overweight and for having a little too high a
blood sugar reading on my labs. All my other lab results were good.
Jackie was in trouble for having high cholesterol, but other than
that she was given a clean bill of health too. We got our new
prescriptions for the year and are good until the next time something
goes wrong. Old age is not for sissies.
After the doctor's appointments we went
back to the coach for a while and then at 5:00 we went over to Peggy
and Vernon's coach for cocktails. They had moved from Indian Waters
over to the fairgrounds today, but they are parked in the handicap
area and are right in the middle of all the activity areas. Peggy
had some beef enchiladas made up and offered dinner, so we stayed and
had a great dinner with the four of us. We left about 7:30 and went
back to our coach for the rest of the night.
Wednesday, January 7th, we
noticed that the water pump in the coach was not working as it was
supposed to. Jackie took her shower and barely had enough water
coming out to get the soap off of her. I had noticed that it seemed
to be running slower the last few days. When I went outside and
started checking the pump, one of the wires fell off and I noticed
that it was corroded, so it couldn't be repaired. Time for a new
pump. Rats! We rarely use the water pump since most of the time we
are connected to a city water supply, but, of course, out here at the
fairgrounds we have to rely on our tank water and now no pump.
After lunch we had to go over to the
events area so we could represent the Full Timers Chapter at the
Chapter Fair. We got our table set up and when the fair started at
1:30 we talked to folks as they passed by the table. We got a dozen
people or so who expressed enough of an interest to give us their
email for more information. We were also telling people who came by
about our seminar on Saturday here at this rally. The fair ended at
3:00 and we packed up our stuff and headed back to the coach. I went
to the store and got some water and wet wipes to get us by in the
coach until I could get the water pump working again.
At 6:00 we stopped by and picked up
Peggy and Vernon and then drove to Cactus Jacks for dinner. Ray and
Suzie, who are still in Indian Waters, were there and the six of us
had a very nice dinner. All the guys had beef ribs and we all took
some home with us. Jackie was feeling better, but still not a
hundred percent. I have healed to where I am about 80 percent now.
After dinner we dropped off the Bullocks at their coach and headed
back to ours where we watched TV the rest of the night.
Thursday, January 8th, at
9:30 the mobile service guy came by the coach to do a lube and oil
change. Normally I have these done in June, but this year I was
having trouble finding somewhere that was not outrageously priced,
trustworthy and had the filters we needed. Speedco used to be my “go
to” place, but they have changed the filters they keep in stock and
no longer have the ones I need. I have used Jim, the guy who came
over this morning, a few years back in Redmond for a transmission
service, so I knew he was good.
While Jim was under the coach doing the
lube and oil service I went down to the vendor area to see if I could
find a water pump. None of the vendors there carried any, so I left
the fairgrounds and went to the RV store here in Indio. They had
exactly what I was looking for. I knew the make and model of the old
pump and I had called the company to find our what the replacement
model was since they no longer make the one we had. Sunbird, the RV
store, had exactly the right model for just under a hundred dollars.
By the time I got back to the coach Jim was done with the service, so
I paid him and then started on the water pump repair.
Of course, as always, it didn't go
perfect. The new pump was built a little different from the old one
and the connections for the input and output no longer lined up. So,
I had to figure out a new location in the bay to mount the pump and
then go back to the store for a few more parts because I had to
extend the lines. After one more run to the store for parts I
finally got the pump installed and working and Jackie and I could
actually take a shower. Yea! We had everything wrapped up by about
3:00, so we went down to the events area to wander around the vendors
for a little while.
At 4:00 we went out and sat down to
watch the parade. The Western area rally always has a parade on
Thursday tied to whatever theme they happen to pick for the rally.
This year the theme was “Out of this World” so everything was
space related. Lots of alien masks, mylar flying saucers, and some
really great costumes and floats. This parade is always a lot of fun
because the people in it have great fun and go all out with the
theme. After the parade we stopped at Peggy
and Vernon's coach for a
cocktail. They are parked in the handicap area right near the events
area. Peggy has been down all day with a respiratory thing similar
to Jackie's, so we had a drink with Vernon before heading back to our
coach. We had dinner and then relaxed the rest of the night.
Friday, January 9th, we
finally had a day with no commitments. Peggy is still sick, so we
aren't hanging out with them. Ray and Suzie don't want to play with
us because they are afraid they will get sick. We relaxed until
after lunch and then went over to the vendor area and looked around
for a while. We only bought one thing, a mat for the inside of the
microwave. After touring the vendors we went out and looked at a
couple of coaches in the coach display area. We didn't find anything
we wanted to sell the farm for, if we had a farm to sell.
About 3:30 we left the fairgrounds and
went to Walmart for some supplies. We especially wanted to get a
humidifier because Jackie's allergies are acting up and the doctor
told her she needs to get some moisture in this dry air. After
shopping we went back to the coach for dinner and then watched TV
until bedtime.
Saturday, January 10th, we
left the coach about 12:15 and went down to the events area to get
ready to present our seminar on Full Timing in your RV. The Full
Timers Chapter has presented this seminar at the big FMCA rallies for
many years, using a panel of four or five members. In the fall of
2013 Jackie and I met with the seminar Captain for the Western Area
rally at a Beat the Odds Rally in Pahrump. It turns out that many of
the members of Beat the Odds are “movers and shakers” in the
Western area. Even though the Full Timers Chapter is an
International area chapter, not a Western area, they put us on the
schedule for an hour long seminar. Last January Jackie and I put on
an abbreviated version of the seminar we do at the big rallies, and
it was very well attended and received. This year we signed up again
and they even gave us a bigger room because last year we had an
overflow crowd.
We got into the room a little early and
got set up. Jim and Pat Goetzinger came in to help if need be.
Jackie is still fighting the allergies and if she got a coughing fit
Jim or Pat could step in. They are also members of the Chapter and
have been full timing for about eleven years. We had about 60 or 70
people in the room and we put on the seminar and Jackie had no
issues. We had a lot of questions from the audience and ended up
staying and talking to people for twenty minutes after.
Also attending the rally were Darlanne
and Eddie Buendia, some friends of ours that just started full timing
about a year and a half ago. We last saw them in Indio in December
of 2013 and they went east for most of last year. They had been
living in Point Roberts, Washington, but Eddie was actually from the
Coachella Valley and Jackie has known him for 25 years or more.
After the seminar we packed up our
stuff and went back to the coach for a while. I spent an hour or so
packing up the window sun shades, the flagpole and other decorations
since today is the last day of the rally. About 6:00 we went out for
dinner at the local La Casita restaurant. After dinner we were back
home in front of the TV.
Sunday, January 11th, moving
day. I actually heard some engines starting up as early as 6:30 a.m.
We and the Bullocks are leaving today and heading 100 miles east to
Ehrenberg, Arizona for a couple weeks. We told the Bullocks we were
planning for a 10:30 departure and we hit the mark perfectly. They
had left the fairgrounds about ten minutes before us and waited at a
rest stop on the freeway until we caught up.
We arrived together at the Arizona
Oasis RV Resort in Ehrenberg. We have stayed at this place many
times before because it used to be a Western Horizons park called
Colorado River Oasis. A little over a year ago it was sold and
became a public RV park. However, the new owners are still extending
a deep discount, almost 75 percent off, to Western Horizons members.
It makes this place still a very affordable place to stay. We got
parked in adjacent spaces very close to the clubhouse, so we got good
spots too. We got setup and did some cleaning and about 5:30 Peggy
and Vernon came over for cocktails. They left around 7:00 and we
relaxed the rest of the evening. We had a late lunch, so we didn't
even do a dinner.
We have now concluded our trip back to
our old stomping grounds in the Coachella Valley and it's time to put
this episode online. Check in a few weeks for the next chapter as we
have fun in Arizona. Until next time think about your path in life
and ponder this quote from Lewis Carroll's, Alice in Wonderland.
Alice is talking to the caterpillar.
Alice: “Would you tell me, please,
which way I ought to go from here?"
Caterpillar: "That
depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
Alice:
"I don't much care where ."
Caterpillar: "Then
it doesn't matter which way you go.”
Stay safe and enjoy life. Bye for now.
Friday, January 16th, Peggy
was still feeling down, so after lunch Jackie and I went into Blythe
for some shopping. We first did three geocaches, about the only ones
in town that we hadn't already found. We then went to a couple of
stores and then back to the coach. We had cocktails with Peggy and
Vernon and then a little before 7:00 we went over to the clubhouse
for karaoke.
Monday, January 19th, Happy
MLK Day. We decided to celebrate the holiday by staying home and
relaxing. We got together with the Bullocks for cocktails and then
dinner later. We BBQ some meat and ate at their coach. We had a
great dinner and talked until about 8:30 when we went home and
watched TV until bed. Tuesday morning we were up and in the car with
Peggy and Vernon by 10:00, headed to the “Big Tent” in
Quartzsite, the RV show and fair. We spent several hours walking
around the hundreds of RV related vendors, buying a few things, but
mostly just looking. The place was packed, so I guess business is
good. We had lunch at the tent, but were on our way back to the
coaches by about 2:00 or so. We had cocktails with the Bullocks at
5:00, but because we had a late lunch we didn't do a formal dinner.
Just relaxed in front of the TV for the evening.
Thursday, January 22nd,
another moving day. Peggy and Vernon left early, around 9:00,
because they were taking their coach into a shop in Quartzsite for
some repairs. We got packed up and left Ehrenberg a little before
11:00. We stopped for fuel on the way and drove the long 14 mile
trip to the spot in the desert where Clark and Judy are parked. We
pulled in behind them and got ourselves set up for a three night
stay. They have four other friends of theirs staying in the desert
with them. Not too long after we got there Peggy and Vernon arrived
and parked behind us. We spent the day relaxing in the nice cool day
and warm sunshine.
