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.
