A Quiet Month in the Mountains

Hello again. Our last chapter concluded on Friday, November 18^th, when we arrived at the Silent Valley Club, our time share RV resort in the mountains south of Banning, California. We are going to be here for a month. Saturday was a stay at home day. I spent several hours getting things set up outside and then did some admin work inside. Jackie got a few chores done as well, but it was mostly a chill day.

Sunday, November 20^th, we left the RV park about noon and drove down the hill to the Banning-Beaumont area. We stopped and picked up the Sunday paper to read later. Unfortunately, there is no where up on the hill to get a paper. We then went to La Casita, one of our favorite places to eat, and had a nice lunch of taco salads. After lunch we sought out a couple of geocaches, finding one and having to DNF the other. We then went to Walmart for supplies before heading back up the hill. We stayed in and watched TV the rest of the evening. Monday was a stay at home day. After lunch we went down and spent the afternoon in the laundry. There are not a lot of people up here this time of year, so we had the place to ourselves. After laundry we went back tot he coach and stayed in the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, November 22^nd, the 53^rd anniversary of JFK's assassination. As with most American's of “a certain age,” (i.e. baby boomers) I remember with perfect clarity where I was that afternoon. In the hallway of Maryvale High School in Phoenix as a Junior waiting for English class to start. We had another stay at home day today. I got several chores done, actually had a pretty productive day. Jackie also got a few things done that she wanted to do. Wednesday we also stayed up on the mountain. In the early afternoon our old friends from Indio, Bob and Gloria Baron, brought their motorhome up and parked in a spot very near us. I did a couple of chores in the afternoon and at 5:00 we went over to the Baron's for cocktails. About 6:30 we went back to our coach and we stayed in the rest of the night. Dinner was a new beef stew recipe that Jackie did in the crock pot.

Thursday, November 24^th, Happy Thanks-giving. We are staying up on the hill for the holiday and have planned to have an early dinner with our friends Bob and Gloria. Jackie put in a big turkey breast and spent a good part of the early afternoon making sweet potatoes, stuffing and the other things that make up a good Thanksgiving feast. About 2:00 Bob and Gloria came over with more food and we sat down and had a great Thanksgiving meal. We sat and talked for a while and about 4:30 they headed back to their coach. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing after cleaning up from dinner. Friday we left the coach and went down the hill around noon. We had lunch at Patsy's Country Cafe, another of our favorite local places. Great food, good service, huge portions and reasonable prices. Can't beat it. After lunch we went to Kohl's and fought the Black Friday crowd to get some new sheets on sale. We then did a Walmart run before heading back up the hill for the night.

Saturday, November 26^th, we stayed up on the hill again. Before lunch, about 11:00, we went down to the Village Center for the craft and swap meet. It was cold and windy and there were only a half dozen booths set up, so not much of a turnout. I did get a couple of nice, new Old Guys Rule hats for $5 each, which was a bargain. After lunch we stayed in because it started to rain. We had some really hard rain for a couple of hours. About 5:30 we went down to the restaurant and bar in the park with Bob and Gloria. We had a cocktail at the bar and then went into the restaurant for dinner. The restaurant up here has a bit of history. From the time we joined in 2001 until a couple years ago the restaurant had a great cook/manager and a really good menu. The food was excellent and we ate there quite a bit when we were up here. A couple of years ago the park was having financial problems and the manager left, so they changed the operation to weekends only with a volunteer staff and only “fast food” type fried items. Not very good, although we did try it a couple of times. Just this year a new guy has come up who has started to turn the place around. He put a few more good items on the menu and also has a special on Friday and Saturday nights which is a restaurant quality item. Tonight it was Chicken Florentine. It was good, not outstanding, but good. The soup, a beef vegetable was really good too. We all had the same thing and enjoyed it, not bad for $10 a head. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime. Sunday started cold, windy and rainy and didn't get any better. We just stayed home, played some cards, watched some TV and stayed dry and warm. Yea!

Monday, November 28^th, was still cold and overcast, but at least the rain stopped. We went down the hill after lunch to do some shopping. We hit Kohl's, Ross, and Walmart getting a few items that we needed. We then went back up the hill, had dinner and watched TV until bedtime. Tuesday was another stay at home day. It was cold and windy still, but at least the clouds are gone and we have a little sunshine. I got several projects done today, including making a small end table for next to our couch. This is a project I have had the materials on hand for several months, just never got around to it. I also made a big batch of pulled pork in the crock pot, some of which we had for dinner, most of which went into the freezer. All in all, a nice and productive day.

Wednesday, November 30^th, we left the park about noon and drove down the hill and on to Menifee, about 45 miles southwest. We were headed for a lunch at Ray and Suzie Babcock's house. We haven't seen Ray and Suzie since June, the last time we were up at Silent Valley. We were meeting some other friends, Gary and Ramona Wilson, whom we also had not seen since the beginning of summer, and Bev King, another old motorhoming friend. We last saw Bev back in June also, and since that time her husband Jerry passed away. He died while back east at a Navy unit reunion several months ago. Ray cooked a nice ham and we had that with sweet potatoes, beans, salad and Jackie made some key lime pies. We had a great time talking and catching up. At one time we all traveled together often, going to Monaco rallies in particular since we all had Monacos. The King's sold their coach shortly before Jerry died, and the Wilson's have stopped full timing due to health considerations, although they still have their coach and go out from time to time. It was great visiting with old friends. About 4:30 we left the Babcock's and headed home where we stayed in the rest of the night.

Thursday, December 1^st, the beginning of the end of 2016, wow! We left the coach and went down the hill about noon to meet an old friend, Marianne Conner, for lunch. We first met Marianne and her husband David in the Indio Elks RV club and we became good friends. They sold their house in Bermuda Dunes and went full time within a few months of when we did it in 2005. We traveled on and off with them for almost two years, after which they decided that the full time life style was not for them and they bought a house in Highland Springs, a community north of Banning. David had some health problems and he passed away about five or six years ago. Marianne still lives in Highland Springs and we try to at least get lunch with her when we are in Silent Valley, since it is so close to her house.

We had lunch at a Japanese place called City Sushi and Grill in Beaumont. The food and service was very good. I am not too fond of most sushi, but they had some really good terryaki dishes too, along with some great tempura shrimp and calamari. We spent almost two hours talking and catching up. After lunch we did a Walmart run and then went back up the hill. We spent the rest of the evening in the coach. Friday was a stay at home day. We had a real windstorm going on, gusts in the 50 mph range, and it was cold. It only got up to 53 today, so we spent the entire day inside relaxing. About 5:30 we did go down to the Village Center and had a cocktail at the bar and then dinner in the dining room. Today's special was spaghetti and meatballs with clam chowder as the soup. Everything was pretty good and the whole meal was less than $20 for the both of us. We went back to the coach after dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, December 3^rd, was another stay at home day. The biggest chore we got done was getting some Christmas decorations put up. Jackie put up our little tree and did some other inside decorations. I put up a few lights and decorations outside. I didn't do the full complement of lights and decorations that I have in the past because there is hardly anyone up here to appreciate it. Since Thanksgiving people have been leaving every day with no one new coming up. We are the only rig in about a hundred yard circle in our area. About 6:00 we went back down to the restaurant in the Village Center for dinner. Tonight's special was meatloaf with potato and veggie. The soup was tomato and everything was excellent. We had plenty to eat and it was $20 for both of us. We then went back to the coach and watched TV for the rest of the evening. Sunday was a stay at home day. Spent the day relaxing and enjoying the quiet.

Monday, December 5^th, we left the RV park about 10:00 and drove into the Coachella Valley to Rancho Mirage to take Jackie to the doctor. She took a hard fall on her knee back in September and it has not gotten any better, so she decided to go to an orthopedic specialist to get it checked. This is the same ortho center that I went to a few years back when I tweaked my knee. She got to see the doctor, but didn't really learn anything new because they need to have an MRI done before they can see any soft tissue damage. She was unhappy because of the delay, but also because she didn't think the doctor was very nice. He was abrupt, uncaring and seemed to be in a hurry. We drove back to Beaumont and went to Walmart, then drove back up the hill and spent the rest of the night in the coach.

Tuesday, December 6^th, our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock came up about 11:30 to spend the day with us. They are also owner/members in Silent Valley, but they just drove the car up today. They have been up with the motorhome many times while we were here in the past. We had a great visit with just the four of us. About 1:30 I served lunch, the pulled pork I made last week, along with fries and cole slaw. They brought some lemon cake with them for dessert. We had a great visit and they left about 3:30 so they could get home before it got dark. We watched TV for the rest of the night. Wednesday was a stay at home and relax day. Jackie worked on some stuff for her craft classes at the Indio Rally next month. Thursday we also stayed in all day.

Friday, December 9^th, we went down the hill about noon and had lunch at Wings Garden Chinese restaurant. The place had good reviews and is located in downtown Banning, right next to the Fox theater where we like to go to movies. We have wanted to try the place for a while. The food was good, not outstanding, but good. I had the orange chicken, which was overly sweet, and Jackie had the almond chicken, which had a lot of fresh ingredients, but didn't have a flavor that popped, a little on the bland side. After lunch we did some geocaching. We went after a few caches we had DNFed several years ago. We were able to find three, but struck out again on the fourth. These were all high difficulty caches, one of them being a four and a half out of five difficulty rating. We found that one. After caching we stopped at Walmart and then went up the hill and spent the rest of the night in the coach.

Saturday, December 10^th, was a stay at home day. We got a few things done, but mostly relaxed. About 6:00 we went down to the restaurant in the Village Center for dinner. Today's Chef's special was beef stroganoff, with Italian Wedding soup. The soup was outstanding, one of the best I have had. The stroganoff was good, although it could have had a little more sauce and been a little more sour, the taste I expect from stroganoff, sour cream. It was still very good though and a very filling meal. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, December 11^th, we went down to the restaurant at about 11:00 to try their Sunday breakfast. It was a buffet with scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, pancakes, French toast and biscuits and gravy. It is only $7.99 a person, so quite affordable. The biscuits and gravy were weak, with little sausage flavor. The rest of the stuff was pretty good, although they had let the fires go out on the pans, so it wasn't very hot. It was still a decent breakfast for the price. After breakfast we drove down the hill to do some geocaching. We cached in the Calimesa/Yucaipa area a little northwest of Beaumont. We have to go out further and further from the Beaumont/Banning area because we have already gotten most of the caches in the area. We had a fun afternoon, getting seven new finds and three DNFs for our troubles. After caching we went back up the hill to the park and stayed in the rest of the night. Monday was a stay at home day. We did out laundry at the park and relaxed the rest of the day.

Tuesday, December 13^th, we left the coach early, about 8:30, and drove to Palm Springs so Jackie could get an MRI on her knee. She has another appointment on Friday with the orthopedic doctor and they need an MRI in order to properly diagnose the problem. The test took a half hour or so and by 10:30 we were back on the road headed west. We stopped in Beaumont for lunch at La Casita, one of our favorites, and then stopped at Bed, Bath and Beyond so Jackie could get a power scrubber she wanted. We then went back up the hill and stayed around the coach the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, December 14^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and headed west to the city of Eastvale, just south of Ontario, to have lunch with our friends the Babcock's, Wilson's, and Bev King. This was the first time we have seen Bev's new house. They moved to this house a couple years before Jerry King died, but we had not had the chance to get there yet. It is a very nice house in a newer gated community. We had a great lunch, Mexican food, and spent the entire time talking with the group. We left about 3:30 and managed to miss most of the traffic heading back east, arriving back at the coach just before 5:00. We spent the rest of the night relaxing. Thursday was another relaxing day around the coach.

Friday, December 16^th, we left the coach about 9:15 and drove to Rancho Mirage for Jackie's doctor's appointment. It had rained most of the night, often quite hard, and was still raining when we left Silent Valley. Not only was it cold and raining, it was foggy until we got down into Banning. The rain and the wind was really bad on the freeway until we got to Palm Springs, when it cleared up. The temp went up to the low 70's. Jackie saw the PA at the orthopedic center and he looked at the file and the MRI and explained to Jackie that there was nothing seriously wrong, no torn tendons, no bad ligaments. She had a very small tear in the meniscus, mostly an aggravation of age related degeneration. He gave her a cortisone shot to help the inflammation and pain. This is the same treatment they gave me when I tore a little hole in my meniscus a few years back. It worked for me, I hope it works for her.

After the doctor's appointment we stopped at Denny's for a light lunch, then drove back to Silent Valley. As soon as we left the Coachella Valley it started raining very hard and got very windy. We still had fog on top of the mountain too, but we made it back tot he coach safely about 1:30. It rained on and off all afternoon, so we just stayed in and relaxed. About 6:00 we went down to the restaurant at the Village center for dinner. Tonight's special was shrimp scampi. It was wonderful, lot's of big shrimp on a bed of angel hair pasta, with garlic bread. I had the tomato bisc soup and it was as good as Cactus Jack's tomato bisc. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched TV. It rained until just before we went to bed.

Saturday, December 17^th, the rain had stopped but it was COLD. I waited until after lunch to go outside and start putting stuff away prior to departure tomorrow, but even then I still found pockets of ice where ever there was standing water. I was bundled up and even had to wear gloves to get everything put away. It took a few hours, but I finally got everything done. We relaxed for the afternoon and about 6:00 went down to the club's restaurant for one last dinner. Tonight's special was salmon Provencal, which Jackie had and said was outstanding. I am not a huge salmon fan, so I had the fish and chips. It was also outstanding. A very nice presentation, a lot of fish and chips, and very tasty. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed until bedtime. Sunday was a travel day. We got out about 10:30 and started down the hill. The skies were clear, but it was very cold and VERY windy, probably the highest I have felt on the road going down the hill. Fortunately, it is a slow drive in the coach, so there was little danger of losing control, but the coach was rocking a couple of times. We stopped for propane at the Morongo truck stop, then arrived in Indio at the Indian Waters RV Resort about 12:30. We got in, set up the minimum stuff and then went to In and Out for lunch. After that we went back and finished setting up for our two week stay here. We stayed in the rest of the day.

Our arrival here in Indio, after a month on the mountain at Silent Valley Club, marks a good place to close this chapter. We will be here in Indio through the Holidays and the FMCA Western Area Rally, about four weeks total. Until next time, remember, if you hadn't done anything stupid when you were young, you wouldn't be able to remember something funny when you're old. See ya soon.

At "Home" in Pahrump

Hi readers, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Wednesday, October 26^th, in Pahrump, Nevada, our official home of record. We are about half way through our month long stay here. On Thursday we went out to lunch with the tag along group from the RV park to Mom's, one of our favorite diners here in town. I won the drawing, which was a certificate for a free lunch or dinner at Moms the next time we come. Yea! After a very nice lunch with four other couples we ran a bunch of errands. The first thing we did was go back to the courthouse to vote. Today the line was fairly short and we only had to wait about ten minutes before we got into a machine to vote. For us the election race is now just noise. We dropped some stuff off at the Elks Lodge for their rummage sale, stopped to get our mail, and did a Walmart run. After Walmart we headed home and relaxed in the coach for the rest of the evening.

Friday, October 28^th, we woke up to rain. We are catching the tail end of a storm moving through Central California. It rained on and off for the better part of the day, so we didn't go anywhere off property. By late afternoon it cleared up, just in time for us to go to the clubhouse at 5:00 for the Halloween party and karaoke. Jackie and I wore our orange Halloween tee shirts, about as much costume as we care to muster. There were a lot of people at the party, many in some pretty neat costumes. There was a big group from an FMCA Chapter rally that was being held at the park this weekend. The park provided pizza and other people brought pot luck items, so we were able to have a dinner at the party. Because of the number of people, I only got to do three songs, but we still had a great time. I won another drawing prize, ironically, another certificate from Moms for a free meal! The party broke up a little after 9:00 and we went home and watched a little TV before bedtime.

Saturday we went out after lunch and got a couple of geocaches. We then ran a few errands before returning to the coach. About 5:00 we went to the group happy hour at one of the coaches across the road. We had a small group, only six couples, but a nice pot luck dinner. Jackie made a couple of key lime pies for dessert. We all sat around and talked until it got too cool, about 8:30 or so, when we went back home and watched TV for the rest of the night. Sunday I got up early and was out of the house by 8:30 to go do my qualification shoot for my retired peace officer's concealed carry permit. I was done by about 10:00 and after I got home we decided that we would do a stay at home day. Got a few things done, but mostly had a relaxing day.

Monday, October 31^st, Happy Halloween! Boo! About noon my brother Russ, who lives in Las Vegas, came up for a visit. His wife Zen was not with him as she is visiting with relatives in Riverside, California. We went out to lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside talking. We had a great visit. He left about 5:30 to drive back home and we went down to play Texas Hold'em. We both struggled to win tonight. I ended up down a couple bucks, Jackie was down about $10. Oh well, it was fun and cheap entertainment. Tuesday we went out after lunch to run a bunch of errands. I went to the Sheriff's Office and picked up my renewed concealed weapons permit, we dropped some more stuff off at the Elks, stopped and got mail and then went to Walmart for supplies. After we got home I did some office work and Jackie made up a big pot of clam chowder. We had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, November 2^nd, we went out after lunch to do a couple of errands. Jackie got her nails done and then we stopped for an hour or so at the Saddle West casino. We both lost about $30, but we had fun. Later in the evening we went down to the clubhouse for one of their Wednesday night wine dinners. The winery that is on the same property as the RV park, Pahrump Valley Winery, has a restaurant called Symphony that is very well known as a high end restaurant. The RV park has an arrangement with them to have a Wednesday night dinner that it prepared by Symphony, but served in the clubhouse to those who sign up. You get a full meal, with three or four glasses of wine, for $15. Tonight they had sliced sirloin, so we decided to give it a try. There were probably 12 or 14 people there and we had a great time meeting new people. The food was excellent and the wine, which is from the winery, was very good too. After dinner we stayed down at the clubhouse for Texas Hold'em. I lost a couple dollars and Jackie won a couple, so we were basically even for the night. We then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Friday, November 4^th, we mostly had a stay at home day. We did go out after lunch for about an hour running a couple of errands. After dinner we went down to the clubhouse for the karaoke. There were a lot of people, including a lot of people not in the park, and the rotation was very long. I still got to sing about four songs, but we went until 10:00. After karaoke we went back to the coach, watched a half hour of TV and went to bed. Saturday we left the coach about noon and drove 35 miles west to Shoshone, California for their annual Shoshone Days festival. We went to this a few years back as well. It has a fairly large craft fair and some entertainment and gave us something different to do for the day. We had lunch at the only cafe in town, the Crowbar Bar and Grill. Shoshone only has a population of about 35, with a store, post office and gas station rounding out the town businesses. Lunch took a while as the staff was somewhat overwhelmed by the hundreds of people milling around the little community. The food was OK, if a little cool when we finally got it. We spent a couple of hours in Shoshone before going for a little Saturday drive. We continued north to Death Valley Junction and then back east towards Pahrump on the northern route into town. After we got back to the coach we relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, November 6^th, I went out for the paper in the morning and we had a relaxing morning. We stayed in for the day, both of us getting a number of small chores completed. At 5:00 it was dark! Going off daylight savings time sucks. Monday we didn't too much either. We went out after lunch and picked up mail and did a Walmart run. We had an early dinner and went down to the clubhouse for Texas Hold'em. I had a good night for a change. I cashed out seven dollars up from my $5 buy in, plus I had the high hand for the night. When we start playing it costs $5 for the buy in, but then an additional dollar which goes into a pool for the high hand of the night. Tonight I had a straight flush and won the additional $12 for that. Yea! After cards we went back to the coach, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Tuesday, November 8^th, Election Day. We decided that we had consumed enough political garbage and were not going to concern ourselves with 18 hours of discussion on how the vote was going. We had voted a week ago and had done our part. It was now out of our hands. We went out for lunch at Red Sky, a great BBQ place here in Pahrump. A half rack of VERY meaty and tender ribs, with all the extras, for $11. A great value and a great meal. We then went to the casino and gamed for a couple of hours. We both ended up about $40 down, but we had fun. We then went home and spent the rest of the night watching some of the shows we have recorded on the DVR over the last few weeks. No election coverage. I have to admit that I did not have confidence that Trump could pull out the election and I didn't want to have Hillary in my face all night. We didn't watch news or any of the election coverage shows. We didn't know what was happening until we got a call from Jackie's brother Dennis telling us that Trump was winning and was likely to pull it out of the fire. At that point we switched and watched until just after midnight when the networks finally called it for Trump. We listened to his brief speech and went to sleep. Wednesday we awoke to the dawn of a new age for the United States. We had a stay at home day, got a few chores done and watched a lot people on TV eating crow. After dinner we went down to the clubhouse for poker. I ended up down $3 and Jackie was even, and we had a good time.

Thursday, November 10^th, Happy 241^st Birthday to the United States Marine Corps! After lunch we went out ran some errands and did some shopping. After we got back to the coach we had dinner and watched TV for the rest of the night. Friday was Veterans Day. We went out to a late lunch at Mom's Cafe to use the second of our two free meal coupons. After lunch we did a Walmart run, getting some stuff we needed before we leave on Tuesday. About 6:00 we went down to the clubhouse for karaoke. I got a couple songs in before we left and went back to the coach for the rest of the night. Saturday we did some chores at home and went out and ran a few last errands before settling in for the night. Mostly a relaxing day.

Sunday, November 13^th was a stay at home day. We spent the morning with the paper and in the afternoon did some chores. I took down the outside stuff in preparation for travel on Tuesday and Jackie did some cleaning. Monday we left the coach about 10:00 and headed south to Las Vegas. We don't normally like going to Vegas, but we are going down to see my brother Russ and his wife Zen. Zen was out of town visiting relatives earlier this month when Russ drove up to see us. She is now home and we wanted to see her and Russ before we left. However, our first stop was the Bass Pro Shop in Las Vegas. I have been wanting to get a smaller, lighter concealed carry pistol for a while now. I have a small Glock 9mm, which is a great gun, but a little heavy and big for comfortable continued carry. I had done some research and knew that I wanted a small .380 auto and had narrowed the field down to three. I ended up with the Beretta Pico, a very nice weapon. I bought that and some hollow point ammunition and then we headed over to Russ's place in North Las Vegas.

We got to Russ's about 1:30 and Zen already had lunch ready. Zen is Filipino and had made some great Filipino food for lunch. We had a great time and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting and talking. We left about 4:30 and then started back over the hump to Pahrump. We arrived back home about 6:00 and then just stayed in and relaxed the rest of the day.

Tuesday, November 15^th, a travel day. We pulled out of the RV park about 10:00, heading south to Hesperia, California. Hesperia is a stop over with Silent Valley, our “time share” RV park in Banning, as the final destination on Friday. Along the way we stopped to fill the propane tank and also at the Mad Greek in Baker, California, for lunch. We arrived at the Hesperia Elks Lodge about 3:30 and got settled in for our three night stay here. Once we got set up and registered we stayed in the rest of the night. Wednesday we went out after lunch to run some errands. Jackie got a haircut, we did a little Walmart run and then went to Costco for the first time in several months. After Costco we stopped at the Victorville Elks Lodge, a lodge we had never visited before. We wanted to check out their RV parking, which is not much. Only one very tight spot with water and electric. The Lodge was open, so we went in and had a couple of cocktails and got a lodge pin. The few people that were in the lodge were very friendly. Not a big lodge, just over 300 members, but a very nice building. After the lodge visit we went back to the coach and settled in for the night.

Thursday, November 17^th, we left the coach after lunch and went to the movies for the first time in several months. We saw the movie Arrival, which was a very beautiful movie with great cinematography, and interesting characters. Ultimately, without giving away too much of the movie, the story deals with theories about the space-time continuum. It can be a little hard to understand in parts, but it does have you leaving the theater thinking about what the movie was about. In that way it was similar to the 2014 movie Interstellar, another one that left you thinking about multiple dimensions and time travel.

Friday, November 18^th, another travel day. Today we left the Hesperia Elks to travel 75 miles to Silent Valley, our time share RV park south of Banning, California. The day got off to a terrible start when I did something that I have not done in 11 years of RV travel. I moved the coach without disconnecting the power cord. We had not hooked up the car yet, I was only moving from the parking space to the sewer dump, so I had not done the checklist that we use before hitting the road. The only damage to the coach was I pulled the plug off of the power cord, an easy fix. I did, however, pull down the power pedestal and crack the water pipe. Fortunately, there was someone in the lodge and they got the water turned off. I left them the information on how to contact me with any costs, and we hit the road. It only took a couple of hours and we arrived at Silent Valley. We got settled into a space fairly quickly and set up the basic stuff. It took me a half hour to fix the power cord, but it worked fine. After we got the basics set up we relaxed the rest of the day and evening.

Well, it has been a little over three weeks since we published, so our arrival here at Silent Valley marks a good place to close this chapter. Until next time, remember the words of Aristotle. “The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.” I will try to meet that standard. See ya soon.

At the Beach with Friends, and then Home

Hello again, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Monday, October 3^rd, as we arrived in Pismo Beach to spend 10 days with a group of RVing friends. Monday was mostly an arrival day, with people coming in and getting set up. Tuesday we went out after lunch to go visit Jackie's Aunt Donna and her grandson and caretaker, Corey. Regular readers will remember that Donna has lived in Pismo Beach for over 40 years and has a nice house, with a great view, on the side of a hill. You can actually see her neighborhood from our RV park, although the actual house is hidden by trees. We spent the afternoon with Donna, Corey, and Jackie's cousin Pia, who came over to see us.

About 3:00 we went back to the RV park so Jackie could start to cook her taquito casserole for the happy hour tonight. About 5:00 we joined the group, which is about 20 RV's, for cocktails and heavy hors d'oeuvres. This is a group of friends and relatives, most from the Sacramento, California area, who call themselves The Gold Panners, and do a lot of RV outings together. This Pismo Beach trip has been an October event for the group for decades. We know five or so couples from the group from previous RV trips, having met them through our friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock. We met Peggy and Vernon on our 2009 Alaska trip, and then have met a lot of their RVing friends in the ensuing years.

Curt Minard and his wife Sharon, one of the couples we do know, are the organizers for this outing and Curt had everyone do introductions and talked a bit about what was going to be going on for the next ten days of the gathering. The food was wonderful and there was a lot of it. No one would need to have dinner tonight. We stayed out with the group until about 7:00 and then went back inside to watch TV, including tonight's Vice Presidential candidate debate.

Wednesday, October 5^th, we went out after lunch to run some errands and do some geocaching. We were able to get eight new finds, and one new DNF, before we stopped so we could go to the grocery store and get back home. We needed to get back to the coach because tonight we are going out with a bunch of the people from the group to the melodrama theater in Oceano, just down the road from Pismo Beach. We left the coach a little after 5:00 and drove to Juan's Cantina, a great Mexican restaurant in Oceano. We had dinner with two other couples from the group. After a great dinner we headed to the melodrama in downtown Oceano.

We had gone to this theater with Jackie's aunt and cousin back in 2013 and enjoyed the show. Probably two thirds of our group went to the show tonight and we were all seated in the same general area. Tonight's show was not the traditional melodrama, which is usually set in frontier days and has a villain and a hero and a maiden, and the audience is encouraged to boo and hiss the villain and cheer the hero and maiden. This was more a musical comedy, a parody of Beauty and the Beast, called Trudy and the Beast. The music was all familiar songs with new lyrics and the actors were pretty good. Although we missed the melodrama touches of audience participation a little, it was still very funny and very entertaining. After the two act play concluded the actors came out in regular clothes and did a third act that was a Sinatra tribute. That was very good too. We finally left the theater about 9:30 and went back to the coach for the remainder of the evening.

Thursday, October 6^th, we left the coach about 11:15 and went into downtown Pismo Beach to have lunch with Peggy and Vernon at Splash Cafe. Splash is one of our favorite spots in the area, with THE best clam chowder anywhere. I had an ahi sandwich and a bowl of chowder and it was a great meal. Jackie had calamari and also had chowder. After lunch Peggy and Vernon went off to do some errands and we walked around downtown for a little while. We did pick up one geocache on the beach under the approach to the Pismo Pier. We ran into some other cachers also looking for the cache and it took about fifteen minutes to finally spot it. Yea! We then drove up the hill to Aunt Donna's house and spent a couple of hours with her and Corey. Jackie's nephew John, who had been in Oregon most of the summer, was also there, staying for a few days. We had a great couple of hours of conversation and left to go back to the coach about 3:30.

We relaxed for a while and then about 5:00 we and the Bullock's got in our car and drove north about 12 miles to San Luis Obispo for the Thursday night street fair. It was kind of late in the season and there were a lot of vendors that didn't come out tonight. It was mostly food vendors, produce and community service kiosks. We walked around for a while and then the four of us went into the SLO Brew restaurant for dinner. SLO, of course, means San Luis Obispo, and this was a brew pub. The food was excellent and not overly expensive. We had a great meal on the patio right on the sidewalk, so we were able to people watch. Although a bunch of them were going to go, we never did see any of our group on the street. We left a little before 9:00 and drove back to the RV park. We watched a little TV and then went to bed.

Friday was a stay at home day. About 3:30 I set up the karaoke and music equipment in our gathering area so we could have music tonight. About 5:00 everyone in the group started gathering and we had a hot dog roast over a roaring wood fire, along with all kinds of side dishes. About 6:30 we started doing karaoke and, as is often the case with these kinds of groups, there were no singers other than me and Sharon Minard, the same woman who sang with me a couple months ago at our friend's wedding in Mineral, California. Nonetheless, we had a good time and kept the songs going until a little after 8:00 when we packed it in and went back in the coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, October 8^th, we left the RV park with the Bullock's about 11:00 and drove to nearby Avila Beach for lunch. Avila Beach is a community on the north side of San Luis Bay. Pismo Beach is in the center of the bay and Oceano near the south end. At the turn of the century the area around Avila Beach was Port San Luis and was where the piers were on which the ocean going freighters moored to off load their cargo. We had lunch at a place called Custom House, from back in the day when there was a Federal Customs House located here. The food was good, although a little expensive. You did get big portions, however, so you didn't feel cheated. The service was spotty, but it was a busy Sunday lunch. After lunch we visited a couple local shops, explored the waterfront a little and got one geocache. We then went into Grover Beach to do some quick shopping. The Bullock's needed some food for their dog and we needed some sweet potatoes. After that we went back to the RV park and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon, and the two Minard brothers, Ray and Curt, and their wives Del and Sharon. We sat outside of Ray Minard's coach until about 7:00 when we went back in our coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday I was able to get the Sunday paper at the little store in the park, so we enjoyed our Sunday morning with the newspaper and the morning talk shows. After lunch we drove up to Donna's house and spent a couple of hours visiting with family. Today was the day we lost our nice clear days. As we were at Donna's, which is way up on a hill, we watched a fog bank move in to Pismo Beach. It was very neat to watch. After we got back to the park we had cocktails at 5:00 with the the Bullock's and Curt and Sharon Minard. About 6:00 we did some steaks on the BBQ and then had a dinner in Peggy and Vernon's coach with us, the Bullock's and the Minard's. We had a great evening with some great conversation. About 8:00 we were back in our coach and watched TV the rest of the night. We watched the presidential debate, which we had recorded earlier this evening, before heading to bed.

Monday we drove to Avila Beach after lunch to get a photo of a geocache that we needed for a virtual souvenir, then drove to Grover Beach to the grocery store for a couple of things. We went back to the coach and relaxed before leaving again about 5:30 with the Bullock's, headed to our favorite local steakhouse, Jocko's. The Bullock's had tried Jocko's once before and didn't like it. We convinced them to go back and try it again. I had the large rib eye, or Spencer as they call it, and Jackie, of course, had lamb. Both Peggy and Vernon had the small Spencer and this time they enjoyed it. The first half of our visit was marred by a very large party of very loud guys right across from us. Once they left it quieted down and we had a good time. After dinner we drove back to the coach and watched TV the rest of the night.

Tuesday, October 11^th, Jackie left about 11:00 with Peggy and they picked up Donna to take her to lunch. They went to a nice place on the water in Pismo Beach. I stayed home and did some computer stuff. Jackie got back about 1:30 and we went out so she could get a haircut. After that we went back to the coach until about 4:30 when we left to go have dinner with the group at a pizza parlor. The restaurant is called Klondike Pizza and is an Alaska themed restaurant. Lots of wood and timbers, dirt floor covered with peanut shells, Alaska posters and other stuff. Having been to Alaska, it was not too far off from some of the places we saw there.

Tuesday is Chowdown Night, which is an all you can eat meal. For $9.99 you get salad and all the pizza you can eat. They have servers coming around with various pizzas as they come out of the oven. You can try any or all of the various varieties, although you never know what's coming out. The bakers don't tell the servers what is in the oven. The pizza was good, not the best I have ever had, but good. Some of the varieties were really good, including one they called “Road Kill” which included reindeer sausage, pork sausage, pepperoni, and a bunch of other stuff. It had the red, tomato sauce I like. Jackie tried a couple of slices that used white, garlic sauce. I prefer the red. After dinner we went home and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, October 12^th, we left the coach after lunch and drove to the Costco in San Luis so we could stock up the freezer and get some vodka. We will be in Pahrump for a month and the closest Costco is 60 miles away in Las Vegas. On the way we picked up Corey because he had told us he needed a few things too. We did our shopping and drove back to Donna's house. We spent a couple of hours there visiting, our last visit on this trip as we are leaving tomorrow morning. After that we went back to the RV park. About 5:00 everyone got together for a final, farewell happy hour. They had a lot of snacks, so we wouldn't need any dinner. Once the get together was over we went in the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, October 13^th, we had the coach packed up and were on the road by 10:30. Today we are driving about 150 miles to Bakersfield. Along the way we stopped at the Jack Ranch restaurant, which is located only a few hundred yards from the intersection where James Dean was killed in 1955. It is a favorite stopping spot for a lot of the other members of the group and we ended up with a dozen of us there for lunch. The food was good and inexpensive, a good stop for next time. We arrived in Bakersfield about 3:00 and got settled in for a one night stay. We didn't even unhook the

car. The next morning we were on the road about 10:00 and continued east to Dagget, a small community just outside of Barstow. The RV park is right across the street from the huge Marine Corps Logistics Base. Again we were in for a one night stay and never left the park. Saturday morning we were on the road at 10:30 on our last leg, headed to Pahrump, about 150 miles. We made a stop at the Mad Greek in Baker, California, a stop we make every time we come or go from Pahrump. We arrived at the Wine Ridge RV park in Pahrump about 2:15 and got the rig parked for a one month stay. Yea, one place for a while. We got the basics set up and then relaxed and tried to cool down. It is still in the very high 80's here, so it was quite sweaty getting set up. Because of the big lunch we didn't have any dinner, just relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday, October 16^th, we woke up to a beautiful desert morning. I went down and bought the Sunday Las Vegas paper and we spent the morning reading the paper, drinking coffee and watching the Sunday morning shows. Today was a stay at home day and I took advantage of the time to catch up on some chores and office work. I also finished decorating the outside of the coach, getting my flagpole up for the first time in several months. After lunch we did make a Walmart run, our first Walmart in a month or so too. They are not as popular in Washington, Oregon and Northern California as they are in the Southwest. It can sometimes be hard to find a super Walmart in those areas.

Monday, we went out after lunch and did a whole bunch of errands. I picked up the paperwork at the Sheriff's Office for my concealed carry permit renewal, we picked up our mail, a LOT of mail, and then went to the laundromat and washed clothes. After we got home we put everything away and did a few chores. After dinner we went down to the clubhouse and played Texas Hold'em for the first time in a couple of years. We knew some of the people at the game from other visits, including Len and Debbie Forrest, who we run across a couple of times every year. They are also full timers, but spend a lot of time work camping here in Pahrump. Between the two of us we lost about five dollars, but I made a big comeback from being five dollars down at the halfway point and having to make another buy in. After cards we went back to the coach, watched a little TV and then went to bed.

Tuesday, October 18^th, we went out after lunch and took Jackie to a chiropractor’s appointment. Usually when we get to Pahrump in the Fall her neck and back are in need of adjustments and she likes the doctor here. She was in there for a half hour or so, after which we went to Albertson's for some meat that they had on sale. We then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day. I went into the hot tub for the first time this trip, it was nice.

Wednesday we went out after lunch to check on the ten geocaches that we have hidden in the Pahrump Valley. We found all ten caches in pretty good shape. We replaced a few logs and one container, but at least all the caches were where they were supposed to be and had not been stolen. We also found one new geocache, a cache we DNFed last year. After checking on our caches we stopped at the Golden Nugget Casino for a bit of gaming. We each lost about $20, but spent over an hour there, so we had fun. We then went back to the coach. We BBQed a couple of burgers for dinner and watched the Presidential debate instead of going to Texas Hold'em at the clubhouse. Not the best performance by either candidate. The best description of this election cycle I have yet heard was a news commentator who referred to “this dumpster fire of an election.” Very apropos in my mind.

Thursday, October 20^th, we left the coach about 12:30 and went with several other couples from the RV park on a “tag a long” lunch. We went to a local place called Johnny's, which was mostly Mexican food, but did have some American stuff too. I had a combo and it was quite good. Jackie had machaca con heuvos, which she said was OK, but not very spicy. We had a great time visiting with the other people, some of whom we knew, others we did not. After lunch we picked up our mail and did a couple of other errands before heading back to the coach. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at home.

Friday we went out after lunch for Jackie's second chiropractor’s appointment. After her session we did some geocaching. Although we have done most of the caches in the urban area of Pahrump, there are always new caches being put out in areas further out. We did part of a fairl

y new series along a gravel road south of town. We got 14 new finds before we decided that it was a little too warm to continue. Yesterday we had temps in the mid 70's, today it went back to the high 80's. Go figure. After caching we went back to the coach and had an early dinner. We walked down to the clubhouse about 6:30 for karaoke. Since the high season hasn't started yet, there were only a half dozen singers in the rotation, so I got to do about seven or eight songs. We had a good time and around 9:00 we were back at home and relaxed until bedtime.

Saturday, October 22^nd, my brother David's birthday. Happy birthday Bro! We left the coach about 1:00 to go to a late lunch at a really good Thai restaurant here in town, Chatt Thai. It is a family run operation and the food is great. We had a wonderful lunch, after which we went to Walmart for a few supplies. We then went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. At 5:00 we joined a group of other folks from the RV park for a Saturday evening get-together. There were six other couples there and we had some heavy snacks, as well as a key lime pie that Jackie made this morning. This was a really good group, very friendly and easy to talk with. We played some games intended to ease conversation and ended up staying out until about 9:30. We then went back to the coach, watched a little TV and then went to bed.

Sunday, October 23^rd, I got the Sunday paper first thing and we had a relaxing morning with the paper and coffee. Today was forecast to be rainy, and it was sprinkling on and off most of the day. We did go out after lunch to one of the casinos and spent about 90 minutes playing video poker. I lost $40, but Jackie left a hundred up, so we were in good shape for a change. We then went to Smith's for some groceries and things we couldn't find at Walmart the other day. We then went home and spent the rest of the day in the coach, watching the rain. We did BBQ some nice steaks for dinner, then watched TV until bedtime.

Monday was a stay at home day. It rained all night, even some periods of thunderstorms. The rain kept up, on and off, for most of the day. By late afternoon it finally started to clear. We did a few chores, but mostly had a relaxing at home day. About 6:30 we went down to the clubhouse for Texas Hold'em again. Jackie broke even and I lost another $10, not seeming to be able to get any decent cards. We went back to the coach after cards and watched a little TV before heading off to bed.

Tuesday we left the coach after lunch and drove to the courthouse to vote. Nevada early voting started on Saturday and we like to vote early. However, the line was very long, so we decided to come back later in the week. After that we stopped at a clothing store where Jackie knows the owner and just wanted to say hi. We then picked up mail and then went out and did two geocaches, one of which was a Travel Bug hotel where we were able to trade out all our travel bugs. We also met the owner of the cache, who happened to come by while we were there. After caching we stopped at one of the casino's to do some gaming. I lost $20, Jackie lost $40. No big wins today. We stopped at Carl's Jr. for a quick dinner and then went to the Elks Lodge for meeting night. We try to go to at least one Lodge meeting every year. We transferred our membership from the Indio Lodge to the Pahrump Lodge when we became residents here nine years ago. Tonight was an initiation night, which meant a nice meeting, but it also went on for over two hours. We were grateful we waited until the end however, because I won the 50/50 drawing and got $27. Yea! We didn't get home until 9:30 and the cats were not happy. We watched a couple of sit coms on TV and then went to bed after a full day.

Wednesday, October 26^th, we had another stay at home day. Jackie got a bunch of chores done and I did a few as well. After dinner we went down to the clubhouse for poker. I finally had a winning night, leaving eight dollars up. Jackie only lost a dollar, so all in all, it was a good night.   I wanted to include this last picture as a sort of, "Only in Nevada" thing.  There is a guy named Dennis Hof who is running as an independent for one of the Nevada State Assembly seats out of Nye Country.  Only thing is, Dennis owns three of the four legal brothels in Nye County.  This is one of the many similar billboards posted by his opponent. Only in Nevada!

We are at the point where it has been a little over three weeks since we published the blog, so I am going to close it here and get it online. We are here in Pahrump for another two and a half weeks before we move on to Silent Valley, near Banning, California. As the election approaches in just a few weeks, I leave you with this quote from one of my favorite books, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. “Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” Good luck and see you soon.

Summer's Over, Time to Head South Again

Hi there friends and followers. Our last chapter ended on Thursday, September 15th, when we arrived in Keizer, Oregon following a couple weeks of rallies. Friday was a chores day. We went out after lunch and did our laundry. We then did a Walmart run before heading back to the Keizer Elks Lodge, where we are parked in their RV park. Keizer is nice because it has full hookup 50 amp sites, $20 a night. About 5:30 we walked over to the lodge and had a cocktail before going into the dining room for their Friday night dinner. Tonight's special was sauteed scallops with rice, which is what I had. I love scallops and these were very good. Jackie had a calamari steak, which was also quite good. We tried our hand with the video poker machines, but didn't win much. Oregon allows slot machines in most bars and fraternal organizations. We then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Saturday, September 17th, we left the coach after lunch just to go drive around and get out of the house for a while. It was raining lightly, so we knew we wouldn't be caching or anything. After about 45 minutes, and about 10 miles from the Elks Lodge, the windshield wipers stopped working. They got erratic first, then just quit. Nothing I did would make them work again, including shutting off the automatic feature. There was a Jeep dealer very close by and we stopped there, but they were closing and provided no help. We didn't have any choice but to slowly work our way back to the Elks. Fortunately, it was a Sunday and the traffic was light, and the rain stayed light too. We made it back safely and then spent the rest of the day in the coach. If it stops raining I will go out and check the obvious stuff, like fuses and the connection to the sensor on the new windshield. Just prior to the wipers stopping on us we did spot a group of deer wandering around a residential neighborhood. We were in the city suburbs, not out in the country, but they seemed pretty comfortable.

Sunday, another travel day. The rain pretty much quit overnight, although we woke up to damp and cloudy weather. We got packed up and out on the road about 10:45 and headed south on I-5 again. We are only going about 65 miles to Coberg, Oregon, just north of Eugene. Not too long after getting on the freeway the rain started again and kept up on and off until we got to Coberg. It stopped long enough for us to get parked and set up, then started it's on and off stuff again. With no wipers, we aren't going anywhere today. We did get a Sunday paper to read, so we will relax for the rest of the day.

Monday, September 20th, no rain predicted for today, so we went out after lunch to do some exploring and geocaching. We toured around Eugene for a while and did some geocaching. We were able to get six new finds in an hour and a half of caching. We then visited Northwest RV Supply, which is the RV surplus parts store here in Eugene. Among other things, they bought up a lot of the left over parts when the various RV manufacturers around the Eugene area went out of business back in the mid-2000's. This included Monaco and Country Coach, so there are a lot of Monaco parts there. We bought a couple of things, but only spent $22. Yea! After that we did two more caches then headed back to the coach for the rest of the night.  The yellow bus and camp trailer were parked in our RV park, not too far from our space.  Eugene is the home of the University of Oregon, and their mascot is the Oregon Ducks.  Their colors are, you guessed it, yellow and green.  You see big green and yellow "D's" all over southern Oregon.  This was the ultimate fan-mobile for tailgating. Tuesday was another travel day. We had a nice day to travel, cool but no rain. We were on the road by 10:30, headed south 155 miles to the Valley of the Rogue State Park, halfway between Medford and Grants Pass, Oregon. We arrived at the park about 2:00 and got moved into our site. By 4:00 we were set up and ready for a six night stay. We didn't go anywhere, just relaxed around the coach the rest of the day.

Wednesday, September 21st, I was up, showered and in the car headed to Grants Pass by 8:30. I had made an appointment on Monday to take the Jeep into the local dealer to check the problems with the wipers. The service department was very busy, but the service writer actually listened to me when I told him we were full time travelers and didn't have another vehicle. He got the car into the shop very quickly and just after 10:00 came into the waiting room and told me all was well, the wipers were working fine. It turns out that the power plug had come loose from the wiper motor. I now feel that it was the glass installer because they had to remove the wipers and the cowling to install the windshield. He either unplugged it for some reason, or bumped it and loosened it. Either way, it didn't get put back into place right and worked it's way out after a half hour of driving. It is too coincidental that after almost nine years the plug would come loose a half hour after the motor housing was exposed by the installer taking the cowling off.

I went back to the coach and then after lunch we went out to do some geocaching. We had a good afternoon, getting nine new finds with no DNF's in a couple of hours. We also stopped to see some old caching friends who live in Grants Pass. We met Russ and Nellie about six years ago while geocaching in Quartzsite. Just met them at a cache and struck up a conversation. Since then we have stayed in contact and visited their house a couple years ago when we were in the area. We visited about a half hour before letting them get back to loading their motorhome. They are going away to a hot air balloon festival in Northern California for the weekend. Russ used to own a hot air balloon and flew for many years. He recently sold the balloon and is no longer certified, but they are still balloon fanatics. After visiting with Russ and Nellie we went into Grants Pass and we both got haircuts. We then went to Winco for some groceries. After our errands we headed back to the park and relaxed for the rest of the evening. A productive day, yea!

Thursday, September 22nd, the first day of Fall. We left after lunch and drove into Grants Pass again, stopping first at Walmart to get a couple of things we couldn't get at Winco yesterday. We then went to the movies and saw Sully, the movie about U.S. Airways Flight 1749 that had to land in the Hudson River in New York after a flock of geese knocked out both engines right after takeoff. The movie was pretty good, well written and acted. The drama of the NTSB hearings was especially gripping, even though I have since read that they were not quite as adversarial as presented in the movie. We enjoyed the film. After the movie we went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the day. By the way, we got rained on a couple of times today and the wipers worked as they were supposed to. Yea!

Friday we again went out after lunch, this time driving to Medford, to the east of the park. Just before we left we were visited by some other goecachers who were staying in the park, actually only a couple of sites away from us. We had met them once before, several years ago in Arizona. They were leaving today, so we just chatted for a while. We did some geocaching, getting eight new finds and two DNFs in a couple of hours of caching. After caching we drove to downtown Medford, intending to stop at the Medford Elks for a cocktail. To our surprise, we found the building closed up and signs on the doors saying that the lodge had been closed down. We did a little quick internet research and found that the lodge had been closed for almost two years.

The Medford Lodge was chartered at the turn of the century and in 1915 built the 30,000 square foot lodge building which it had occupied until being closed. At the time the building was built the lodge had nearly 2,500 members and was the center of society in Medford. By 2013 they had less than 300 and were unable to meet expenses, including the annual fees for the Grand Lodge. The Grand Lodge told Medford that they needed to consider merging with the Ashland Elks, which still had a viable membership. However, the vote failed in the Medford Lodge with them wanting to stay independent. In December 2014 the Grand Lodge revoked Medford's charter and the lodge went out of business. Any remaining assets, such as any proceeds from the sale of the building, will now revert to Grand Lodge. We have been to this lodge a number of times over the years and it is a shame to see another Elks Lodge go under. After going by the Elks we stopped and did some shopping before heading back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Saturday, September 24th, we went out after lunch and went back towards Medford for some more geocaching. As is usually the case, summer was not ready to give up. Yesterday we didn't break 65, today it's supposed to be in the high seventies, tomorrow in the low nineties. We had a good afternoon, getting a dozen new finds, along with one DNF, for the afternoon. After a quick stop for some fuel we went back to the park and stayed in the rest of the day.

Sunday was mostly a stay at home day. We got a few chores done, including modifying our travel plans slightly. Since summer has decided to hang on for a few days, we decided to extend our stay here in Southern Oregon by a couple of days. It will be warm here, but not as hot as it is in north-central California. Our next “must be” is Pismo Beach in a week, so we had seven days to play with. About 3:15 we left the coach and drove to Grants Pass to meet our caching friends Russ and Nellie for an early dinner. We again went to Taprock, the very nice restaurant and brew pub on the river. We had a great dinner and spent a couple hours talking with them. They are a very nice couple and we were glad we were able to spend a little time with them. After dinner we headed back to the park and relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening.

Monday, September 26th, we left the coach a little before 10:00 and drove into Grants Pass to take Jackie to the doctor. A couple of weeks ago, when we were in Astoria at the Overland Trail Blazers rally Jackie took a fall. She caught her toe trying to get up from a picnic table and fell on her right knee. She got a nasty scrape, but that is pretty much healed. What is still bothering her is the point just below the knee which still hurts to the touch. We went to the urgent care that is a part of the local Hospital, Asante Health Care. They have both an ER and an urgent care. It was a very nice facility right next door to the hospital and Jackie was in to be seen within a half hour, way less than our last couple of urgent care visits. She got an xray and saw a doctor who told her that it was a bad bone bruise and soft tissue swelling that was not serious, but would take a while to heal completely. He gave her a prescription for an anti-inflammatory and we were on our way in less than two hours.

We went to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant called El Charro Viejo. It is right downtown, only a block or so from Taprock. It is in an old building that has been nicely fixed up and the food was quite good. We both had the machaca and eggs and it was a meal, more than enough for the average person. We would probably go back again. After lunch we went to Walmart to get Jackie's prescription filled. Since the pharmacy said it would be an hour, Jackie got a pedicure while I wandered around the store window shopping. Once her pedi was done we picked up the script and headed back to the coach. When we got back I went outside to fix a water leak in our wet bay.

For those who are not Rvers, the wet bay is where you hook up a city water connection, fill your on-board water tank, and control the valves for the gray and black waste tanks. I had a leak in the connection for the city water and wanted to get it fixed before it got too bad. It is a major process to take the access panel for the bay out, since you have to disconnect all the different inputs and valves before you can take the panel off. You can't get at the works without taking off the panel. I got the panel off and the leak fixed, so we would have water, but it was getting too late to put the panel back in. I would lose my light before I got done. Since we weren't traveling tomorrow, and I had water hooked up for tonight, I just closed the bay door and left the finish for morning. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV, especially the first Presidential debate. I try to keep the blog apolitical, so I won't comment on the debate except to say, it was interesting.

Tuesday, September 27th, was a stay at home day. I went outside before lunch and finished the job in the wet bay. We then just relaxed for the rest of the day. Jackie was a little sick to her stomach, so it was a good thing we had no plans for today. Wednesday was another travel day. We were packed up and on the road a little after 10:00. We headed south on I-5, our destination Redding, California, about 166 miles away. Just before we crossed into California we rolled over 90,000 miles on the coach odometer. After one lunch stop we arrived in Redding, at the Elks Lodge, at about 2:15. It was pretty warm still, very high 90's, but we got hooked up and set up pretty quickly. We are going to stay here for two nights. After I registered in the lodge we just relaxed in the coach and stayed cool for the rest of the day.

Thursday was a chores day. We left the coach after lunch and went out to do our laundry. Once laundry was done we stopped at Walmart for a few supplies. We also picked up two geocaches for the day. We went back to the coach and put stuff away, then relaxed for a while. About 6:00 we walked over to the lodge for it's monthly all you can eat spaghetti night. The spaghetti was quite good and we sat at a table with a couple of long time members of the lodge. We had some nice conversations, including RVing, as they had a motorhome and were members of the Redding Lodge's RV club. After we ate we went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.  The picture is the bronze Elk in the front of the Redding Lodge.

Friday, September 30th, we left Redding a little after 10:00 and continued south on I-5. Today's destination was nearly 200 miles away, near Lodi, California. The trip was long, with a fuel stop and a lunch stop. We also had a lot of wind the last half of the trip, which makes me tired. Since we are on a timed mission to be in Pismo Beach for our gathering of friends on Monday, we only stayed in Lodi for one night at the Flag City RV park, just off the freeway. We had a pull through spot and didn't even unhook the car. We got setup and just stayed in the rest of the evening.

Saturday, October 1st, was another travel day. We left Lodi about 10:15 and continued south on I-5, today headed to an RV park near Coalinga, California, about 160 miles away. We had a lunch stop, but other than some heavy traffic through the Sacramento metro area it was an uneventful trip. We arrived at the Almond Tree RV park about 2:00. The park is just off the freeway and about ten miles east of Coalinga. We are going to be here for two nights, and we have never been here before, so we are looking forward to exploring tomorrow. We spent a couple of hours cleaning, doing windows and other chores, before relaxing for the rest of the day in the coach.

Sunday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching and exploring. We did most of our caching in and around two small towns in the area, Avenal and Coalinga. Avenal came into being in the 1920's when oil was discovered in the area. It now touts itself as the pistachio capital of the U.S. There are acres and acres of pistachio trees around the town. It has a little over 10,000 population, but about 1,000 of them work at the local State Prison, and about 4,000 of them are inmates at the prison. In California prisoners are counted in population totals for towns and counties. Coalinga, about ten miles north, is a town of about 13,000 and is also mainly a support town for local farms, ranches and oil fields. The railroad did run through town at the turn of the century, and the town started out as a coaling station on the rail line. There were coal mines in the hills to the west of town. At that time it was just known as Coaling Station A. The railroad signs, wanting shorter words, just said Coaling A, which became Coalinga when the town was incorporated. We had a good afternoon, getting a dozen new finds, and no DNFs, for the afternoon. After caching we went back to the coach, had dinner and watched TV the rest of the night.

Monday, October 3rd, we were packed up and on the road about 10:30 on the last leg of our trip to Pismo Beach. We stopped along the way to pick up a geocache at the James Dean Memorial on Highway 46 at a wide spot in the road called Cholame. Dean was killed in 1955 while driving his Porsche Speedster down what is now Highway 46 when another car turned in front of him off of Highway 41. The memorial was built by a Japanese businessman who was fond of Dean. The memorial was built in the 1980's and is about a thousand yards southwest of the intersection where Dean died.

We arrived in Pismo Beach, at the Pismo Coast Village RV park, about 1:00. We are here for a gathering of RV folks, mostly from the Sacramento metro area. We know several of the people in the group, having met them through Peggy and Vernon Bullock, who were members of the group. They get together for an informal “rally” every October and this year they invited us. We know four of five of the couples in the group already and are looking forward to making new friends. We will be here for ten days. We got set up in a couple hours in a site directly behind Peggy and Vernon, and then relaxed for a while. About 5:30 we went to Peggy and Vernon's for cocktails and dinner. Peggy made her penne pasta dinner, which is one of my favorites. We had a great meal and talked until almost 9:00, after which we went back to our place and watched TV until bedtime.

This marks a good place to put this chapter to bed and get it online. We will be here for 10 days, then head to Pahrump, our technical “home,” for a month. We will publish the next episode of the blog in a few weeks. Until next time, remember that life's like Las Vegas. You're up, you're down, but in the end the house always wins. Doesn't mean you didn't have fun. See ya soon.

Some Rallies With a New Group

Welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Tuesday, August 30th, when we traveled from Bothell, Washington, near Seattle, east to Moses Lake, Washington. Wednesday was a chores day. We left the coach after lunch and did laundry first, then did a Walmart run, our first Walmart in several weeks. We then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Thursday, September 1st, another of our several anniversaries, this one perhaps the most memorable. Eighteen years ago on this date is when I moved from Phoenix, where I lived most of my life, and moved to Indio, California to be with Jackie. We have been together since and I think have only spent five or six nights apart. We went out to do some geocaching and had a great afternoon, getting 20 new finds. We went back to the coach and relaxed a bit before going back out about 6:00 to a nice place called Michael's on the Lake for an anniversary dinner. We had a great table at the window overlooking the lake and watched a light rain fall while we enjoyed a great dinner. After dinner we headed back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Friday was another travel day. We left Moses Lake early, about 9:15, and continued east, heading to a little town called St. Maries, Idaho, about 186 miles away. The trip took a little longer than normal because we had to make several stops to get fuel, then propane and then to have lunch. We arrived in St. Maries about 3:00. We are here to participate in a rally with the Overland Trailblazers Chapter of FMCA. We joined OTB, as they are known, in January when we were at the Western Area FMCA rally in Indio. A number of friends and acquaintances are members of the group and we thought it would be fun to join. We are going to spend four days here, over the Labor Day weekend and then travel back to Astoria, Oregon to spend another five days at a different rally with the same group. The accommodations here are primitive, we are parked in a grass field with only 20 amp electric, but we are with the group and ready to party. We got parked and set up and then rested for an hour or so.

St. Maries is a small town of about 2,500 in north-central Idaho, along the St. Joe River right at the southern end of Coeur d'Alene Lake. It started as a lumber town, the high school teams call themselves the Lumberjacks. Now it is more a water activities place with the lake and the river so close by. The group is having a rally here because this weekend is the town's Paul Bunyan Days celebration. They have a carnival and lots of activities, including fireworks. We left the coach about 5:00 and went with the group to the Eagles lodge for their Friday night hamburger bash. There is also an Elks here, right across the street from the Eagles. We will visit them another night. We had a great dinner, but didn't stay too long because we were both pretty tired from the long day. We went back to the coach and crashed for the rest of the night.

Saturday, September 3rd, we had an opportunity to sleep in and we did. We left the coach after lunch and headed to the fairgrounds on the edge of town for the demolition derby. Apparently this is one of the traditions for Paul Bunyan days. We watched four heats and they didn't hold back. It was lot of fun watching them bash each other. Looked like the LA freeway at rush hour. I bet it has been twenty years since I saw one of these, and I always enjoy them. After the demo derby we stopped on Main Street and walked a couple of blocks of the local shops, which were having sidewalk sales in conjunction with the weekend celebration.

After walking around the shops we stopped at the Elks Lodge. We first found a geocache in the parking lot and then went in for a drink. It appears to be a nice lodge with almost 500 members. We had a couple of drinks and got our first new lodge pin in quite a while. We then went back to the camp site and had happy hour with the group. We had a campfire and all sat around enjoying the afternoon and talking. After happy hour I went and got a pizza for dinner at one of the local places. It was very good and inexpensive as compared to some we have had. They had fireworks at 9:00, but it wasn't the “big” show, so we just stayed in and listened to it while we watched TV. The big show is tomorrow night, and we will go out for that.

Sunday we went out after lunch and walked around the fair for a bit. There were not a lot of booths, so we were only there about a half hour. After the fair we did some geocaching, getting five new finds and one new DNF. We went back to the park and at 5:00 went out for cocktails with the group. We sat around the campfire for an hour or so and then had a quick dinner before going back out to the campfire. Around 8:00 we walked over to the area of the fair, which was only a couple of blocks, and got our seats set up for the big fireworks show. Because one of the people running the fireworks display was a member of our group, we got front row seats, literally 50

yards from where the fireworks were set up. The show started around 9:00 and I have to give credit, it was one of the best fireworks shows I have seen. However, since we were so close we were looking straight up for most of the show. I wish we had a blanket to lay on rather than chairs to sit in. The fireworks went for an hour, after which we went back to the park and sat around the campfire with the group until about 11:00 when we went in and went to bed.

Monday, September 5th, Happy Labor Day. We left the coach a little before 10:00 and drove down the Elks Lodge. The Elks is right on Main Street and a perfect location for watching the town's parade. The Elks had biscuits and

gravy for $5, so we had some breakfast biscuits and cocktails before the parade. We went out and watched the parade when it started and it went for about an hour. Normal small town parade, lots of homemade floats, lots of cars with people we didn't know, and lots of firetrucks. After the parade we stopped at the grocery for a few things, then went back to the park for the rest of the afternoon. We did stop and get one geocache that was close by. About 5:00 we were back out around the campfire with the group having cocktails. Around 6:00 we had a pot luck appetizer meal. I made up some small pulled pork sliders that were a big hit with the group. We sat out until about 8:00 when when we went inside and watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday was a travel day. We were on the road about 10:00 or so and, for the most part we backtracked 180 miles west into Washington. We stopped at an RV park in a little town called Connell and spent the night. We are doing a series of one night stops on our way to another Overland Trailblazers rally in Astoria, Oregon, which starts on Friday. We didn't even unhook the car tonight, just watched TV and went to bed. Wednesday we drove another 140 miles southwest, this time stopping at the Lepage Park Corps of Engineers RV park on the confluence of the John Day and Columbia rivers. We had a nice spot right on the river and spent an hour or so outside with our cocktails looking at the river. This too was a one night stay and we never left the RV park. We only unhooked the car because we needed to in order to get into our spot. We watched TV and went to bed about 10:30.

Thursday, September 8th, another travel day and another one night stand. We left Lepage Park about 10:30 and traveled about 100 miles west to Fairview, Oregon, a suburb of Portland located along the Columbia River. This is a very nice park in which we stayed in September of 2005, or first year on the road. We did unhook the car tonight after we got set up and went out for some Mexican food. We had a great meal at a place called La Costita in Troutdale, another Portland suburb. We then stopped at Albertsons for a few supplies before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Friday, another travel day. We left Fairview about 10:00 and started the final leg of our trip back to Astoria. Today's trip was about 106 miles and took us briefly across the Columbia River back into Washington on I-5 before we headed west, crossed the Columbia again and headed to Astoria. We arrived at the Lewis and Clark RV Resort about 12:00 and quickly got settled in. We have a very nice site overlooking the golf course, very relaxing. We had to make a quick run to the store after we got the basics hooked up on the coach. Jackie needed some groceries and I needed a part to fix a leaky water hose. After we got back I made my repairs and we finished setting up the coach for our six night stay here in Astoria. We are here for another rally with the Overland Trailblazers group, however we are in a couple of days early because there is a big car show in Long Beach, Washington, across the bridge.

We are parked just a couple of spots down from our good friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock. They also recently joined the Trailblazers Chapter and are here for the rally. They arrived only a few minutes before us after coming up the Oregon Coast. We last saw Peggy and Vernon at their house in Mineral, California back in July. You can check the blog archive to read about our time there this year. We relaxed for a while and about 5:30 Peggy and Vernon came over, along with their little Aussie dog Belle. Our young cat, Benji, really likes Belle and Belle, who is not a big fan of cats, tolerates Benji. We had cocktails, outside for a while, and then when it got cold back in the coach. We spent some time catching up and then Jackie served a chili relleno dinner, which has become the sort of “welcome back” dinner when we meet up with Peggy and Vernon after an absence. We had a great time and about 8:30 the Bullocks went back to their coach and we watched TV for the rest of the night.

Saturday, September 10th, we left the coach about 9:00,with Peggy and Vernon in our car, and headed north to the Rod Run to the End of the World car show in Long Beach, Washington, across the Columbia from Astoria. The show was at the north end of the Long Beach Peninsula, about 30 miles from our RV park. This is a large show that has been going on for 33 years now. We arrived and got parked and started looking around at the several hundred cars on display in a huge grass park. The girls went off to check out the vendor booths and Vernon and I walked around the cars. There were some really nice cars, as is usual, but there were a few unusual pieces as well, especially some nicely restored old trucks. We spent about an hour and a half at the show before leaving and going down into Long Beach to Chen's Chinese restaurant for lunch. We had been here back a few weeks ago when we were here in Long Beach and Peggy and Vernon wanted to try it out. They were quite happy with the food and we all took leftovers home.

We drove back to the RV park and spent a few hours in the coach taking care of some chores and relaxing. About 5:00 we had happy hour with the Overland Trailblazers group. The rally doesn't really start until tomorrow, but there were already about ten rigs here in the park, so they had an informal happy hour just so people could mingle. We were there about 90 minutes before we headed back to Peggy and Vernon's coach for a snack of shrimp cocktail. We had some shrimp, another drink, and talked until about 8:00 when we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Sunday, September 11th, Patriot Day and the fifteenth anniversary of the terror attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Hard to believe it has been that long. I went out and got a Sunday paper, so we relaxed in the morning with the paper and coffee. About 11:00 we and the Bullocks left and drove into Astoria for lunch. We finally settled on a place called Baked Alaska, which was on an old cannery pier on the river bank. We had a great lunch and then drove around Astoria a bit before heading back to the coach where we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

At 6:00 we went to the activities room for our first group happy hour. There are about 24 rigs here, so it is a big group. They put out some nice appetizers, shrimp, cheese, crackers and wine. Everyone socialized for a while and the the President of the group gave a little speech before turning the group over to the rally master. He spent a half hour or so going over the itinerary for the rally. After the happy hour we sat with the Bullocks for a little while before heading into the coach for the rest of the evening.

Monday, we were up and out early. The whole group left the park in a caravan about 9:00 for several activities and tours. Our first stop was the Astoria trolly. The trolly is a 1913 electric trolly car which was built by the American Car Company in St. Louis. It was in regular trolly service in San Antonio, Texas until 1933, when it was laid up in a transportation museum in San Antonio. It was not well maintained, but has now been fully restored here in Astoria by a non-profit foundation which operates it on three and a half miles of abandoned rail track running
along the waterfront. To provide electric power for the traction motors, a large generator, similar to those on our motorhomes, is mounted on a small rail car coupled to one end of the trolly. This was much less expensive than putting up poles and running power wires along the route. The ride was fun and the conductor and motorman (driver) were very knowledgeable about Astoria history. We also stopped and took some group photos.

After the trolly ride the entire group went up to the top of the hill to the Astoria Column. I wrote in some detail about the column in the most recent previous episode of the blog, so I won't repeat it here. After the group saw the column we went down the hill to a local pizza parlor for a salad and pizza lunch, provided by the rally. The pizza was OK, but not the best I have had. At 1:00 the group met again at the Astoria Maritime Museum. The group was given a guided tour of the museum by volunteer docents and then we had time to look around on our own. There is a lot of stuff about the history of Astoria and the other Columbia River cities, about the fishing industry that used to thrive here, and about the river itself. The mouth of the Columbia is considered one of the most dangerous places for navigation because the forces of the huge river pouring water out and running up against the ocean waves and
tides create huge standing waves at the mouth of the river. Over 200 large ships, and many more small boats, have been lost over what they call the Columbia Bar, the shallows at the mouth of the river. The museum also has one of the old Columbia light ships, a floating lighthouse, moored next to the museum. We didn't have a chance to go tour it, but it looked neat. These boats used to be moored on the ocean side of the Bar as a warning to ships. They no longer use lightships since radar and other navigational aides have been perfected. After the tour of the museum we went back to the park and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. We had cocktails with the Bullocks about 5:30, but there was no official happy hour with the group because everyone was wore out from the busy day.

Tuesday, September 13th, we were up and out of the RV park with the whole group at 9:00 again. Today we were going to a nearby attraction, Fort Clatsop, which is a part of Lewis and Clark National Park. Fort Clatsop, which is also where the Park HQ and Visitor's Center sets, is only a couple of miles from the RV park. This area of Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington has dozens of sites dedicated to Lewis and Clark. For those not familiar with the story, President Thomas Jefferson decided in 1803 to send an exploratory party to the unknown areas west of the Mississippi River, among other things to locate the Northwest Passage, a water route to the Pacific Ocean. He selected Army Captain Meriwether Lewis to put together this Corps of Discovery. Lewis chose his friend, Captain William Clark, to be his second in command. They put together a group of 31 explorers, mostly Army or former Army enlisted men, and in May 1804 they headed west on the Missouri River. They endured a lot of hardships, including finally realizing that the Continental Divide would preclude a water route to the Northwest, arriving on the north bank of the Columbia River near the mouth of the river in November of 1805.

After talking to the local Native Americans they decided that the best place to winter would be on the south side of the river where the land was more level and there was abundant game to hunt. They built Fort Clatsop, named after the local tribe, and hunkered down for the winter. According to the guide with the Park's Service who gave us a talk, they were in the fort for a hundred days, of which only six had sunshine. They have built a replica of the small fort which our group got to tour. We also spent some time going through the visitor's center. This is a “scattered” National Park with a dozen different individual sites on both sides of the Columbia marking areas of historic importance to Lewis and Clark's visit here. It was quite interesting.

After the tour of the park HQ we and the Bullock's went out and had lunch in Warrenton, the small town across the bay from Astoria. We did a couple of geocaches and then stopped at Costco for some supplies before heading back to the RV park for a relaxing afternoon. About 5:00 we had happy hour with the group, followed by a pot luck. The rally masters provided some raw oysters for the group, as well as a big batch of cooked oysters and clams. Jackie did some baked beans for the pot luck. The meal was great, no one went hungry. We sat and talked for a while after dinner, and about 8:00 we were back in the coach watching TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, September 14th, the last full day of the rally. There were no organized activities for today except for tonight's dinner. We left the park with the Bullock's about 11:30 and went out to lunch again on the Astoria waterfront. We ate at a very nice place called the Bridgewater Bistro. It was a fairly high end place with great food and great views. After lunch we went out and did some exploring of Astoria and some geocaching. We were able to get five new finds for the afternoon. One of the places we visited was the site of the wreck of the Peter Irendale on the pacific beach side of the peninsula. The Peter Irendale was a 285 foot, four masted sailing ship which ran aground in a storm in October 1906. All of the crew got off safely, but despite great efforts, they were unable to get the ship re-floated and she ended up partially buried in the sand of the beach and the owners just abandoned it. Because the ship had an iron and steel hull there are parts of the ship still visible 90 years later on the beach. A part of the bow, now mostly just frames, as well as a couple of the steel mast collars are still above the sand.

After our exploring we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. I took down the screens and did some other work in preparation for our departure tomorrow. We have to leave early because we have an appointment in Keizer, near Salem, Oregon, at noon to have a new windshield put in the Jeep. We got a bad crack a couple weeks ago. About 5:30 we joined the group for happy hour and our last group dinner. Tonight the rally hosts put on dinner and brought in a caterer who made BBQ salmon and chicken. There were also a couple of side dishes and desert. Everyone had a great time and the food was very good. About 8:00 we were back in our coach and watched some TV until bedtime.

Thursday, September 15th, we were actually packed up and on the road by 7:45 today. We are traveling 130 miles southeast to Keizer, Oregon, a suburb of Salem. We are headed to the Elks Lodge and have an appointment with Safelite Glass to put a new windshield in the Jeep. Most of the trip was on two lane highway, but the trip was pretty much uneventful. We made a fuel stop and still arrived in Keizer at about 11:30. Unfortunately for us, there were no sites available at the lodge's RV park. They have 42 sites, but none were available. We had the glass guy coming, so we had to stay at least for a while, so we found a place in the lodge parking lot, unhooked the car and parked. We had lunch, did some research on where to go, finally settling on trying the Salem Elks Lodge, which had a few openings.

A little after noon we saw a coach leave and the camp host came over and told us a spot was available. We looked at it and thought it looked a little tight, but we tried it and got in without too much trouble. Yea, we got a spot. This lodge is good because the sites are 50 amp full hookup, even sewer. Right after we got parked the glass guy showed up. Perfect timing. We continued to set up the coach and he fixed the windshield. By 3:00 we were done setting up and Jeep was done. We just relaxed the rest of the day, tired after our early start and long day.

With our arrival here in Keizer we begin a couple of weeks or so of travel on our own, no rallies no friends with us. So, it also marks a good place to close out this chapter and get it published. Until next time, keep this in mind. Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. See ya soon.