Back In California Again

Hi there, good to have you back. Our last chapter concluded on Tuesday, May 3^rd when we left Arizona after nearly four months and returned back to our old stomping grounds of Indio, California. On Wednesday we decided it was too hot to do anything outside, so we decided to take in a movie. We went to the new Century Multiplex that opened last year to see Mother's Day. This was a fairly standard romantic comedy, with Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, and Jason Sudeikis among others. The story involved several different families who all interact around Mother's Day. The movie got off to a bit of a slow start, but it came around and was quite funny. We enjoyed it. After the movie we got one nearby geocache, did a Walmart run and then went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, May 5^th, Happy Cinco De Mayo, the day when everyone is Mexican. Most people in Mexico don't even consider it a big holiday, but it is kind of like St. Patrick's when everyone is Irish for a day. In the spirit of the holiday we went out to La Casita, one of our favorite Mexican restaurant's here in the valley, for lunch. We met Shane Ryan, Jackie's Godson, who is now 21 years old. When I moved out here to be with Jackie he wasn't even in school yet. We had a great lunch and caught up on what was going on in his life. After lunch we ran a few errands and Jackie got her hair cut. We also picked up a couple of geocaches. We then headed home and stayed in the rest of the day.

Friday, May 6^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. In a few hours we were able to get a dozen new finds, along with one DNF. We also checked on three of our own caches to be sure that they were still in good shape. After caching we made a quick Walmart stop and then headed home for the rest of the evening.

Saturday we headed out about 10:30 and drove over to Palm Desert to the College of the Desert Street Fair. Even though summer is close and it is getting hot, there were still a lot of people at the fair and a majority of the vendors were still in action. We bought a couple of little things before leaving and going back to Indio for lunch at Cactus Jack's. Regular readers will know that CJ's is one of our oldest and favorite local hangouts. There were very few people there, although as we were eating an old friend of Jackie's, Bert Einum and a lady friend came in for lunch. Jackie met Bert in the 80's here in the Desert and I became acquainted with him mostly through the Elk's travel club when he and his girlfriend would travel with the group. We had not seen Bert for probably eight or nine years. We chatted briefly, but not for long as we had our lunch in front of us. We had a great lunch and then went back to the coach.

We were having some friends over for cocktails, so we spent some time cleaning and getting ready. About 6:00 Rex and Vicki Jennings and Kevin Ray and his partner Ron Caple for happy hour. Rex and Kevin are big geocachers and we met them through the local caching group. Vickie and Ron tolerate the sport and support their significant others. We had cocktails and snacks outside and had a great time catching up. We had not seen these guys since we were here in December of last year. About 7:30 they left, we cleaned up and spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Sunday, Mary 8^th, Happy Mother's Day. Not a big holiday for us as both of our mother's have passed on and Jackie never had any kids. We spent the morning with the paper and our coffee and morning talk shows. About 1:30 our good friend Barry Cohen came over to spend the afternoon with us. Barry and his wife Colleen were probably our best friends when we lived here in Indio. Colleen died of cancer about three years ago, but Barry still lives in their motor home at the Motorcoach Country Club here in Indio. They actually started living full time in their motor home four years before us, but Barry was still working, so they didn't travel much. Colleen died just right after Barry retired, so they never did get to go on the road. Barry hasn't done too much traveling since either because he doesn't want to travel alone. He is now starting to move on and has a girlfriend and is now making travel plans again.

We talked for a while and then went into the back of the coach to do some karaoke. Barry loves to sing, but will only do it with me in private. I bought my first karaoke machine fifteen years ago, when we still had a house, and Barry went in with me to buy the first set of disks for the machine. We have been singing together ever since. We had a great time, sang for a couple of hours, and shed a few tears. About 6:30 Jackie served a nice meatloaf and mashed potatoes dinner. We had dinner and talked a bit before Barry left about 8:00 or so. It was great seeing our old friend again. We watched TV until bedtime.

Monday, May 9^th, we went out after lunch to do some shopping. We went to Costco, our first stop there since we left the Desert back in early January. Yuma and Casa Grande only had Sam's Clubs, which fulfilled most of our needs, but it was still nice to get back to Costco. I like their in-house Kirkland brand stuff. After Costco we hit a grocery store for a few things and then went home for the rest of the day.

Tuesday, we went out after lunch to drive around and check on our geocaches that we have hidden here in the Coachella Valley. We wanted to make sure that they didn't need maintenance, and also to fix a couple we knew needed some work. We ended up replacing one with an identical container, and replacing another cache with a new cache at the same location. We relaxed at home until about 6:00, when we drove to Cactus Jack's to have dinner with Rex and Vickie, and Ron and Kevin, the same people who came over to the coach on Saturday. We had a great dinner and talked for a couple of hours. We finished dinner and went home, getting back about 8:00 or so. We watched TV the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, May 11^th, we had lunch and then went to our regular doctor's office so that he could take a look at Jackie's left breast. She had a benign lump removed in March when we were in Yuma, and it was still causing a lot of pain for her. She wanted to go to the doctor's to be sure it wasn't a major problem. The doctor talked to her and then told her she needed to get a diagnostic ultrasound of the breast in order to see what was going on inside. She called and was able to get an appointment tomorrow at the Eisenhower Hospital Breast Center in Rancho Mirage. We then ran a couple of errands and headed back to the coach for the rest of the day. It is getting really hot, close to 100 degrees, so it is a little to warm for any serious geocaching. We stayed in the coach the rest of the day and evening.

Thursday, we went to Eisenhower Hospital for Jackie's 11:00 appointment. They took her right in and after the ultrasound she had a consultation with the doctor who advised her that everything looked fine inside and that the pain was normal after an invasive surgery like she had. This made both of us feel a lot better. We then went to Olive Garden for lunch. Jackie had won a $25 gift certificate for Olive Garden at a car show in Yuma, so we went to have a nice big lunch and use that. We had a great lunch and then headed back home. We did stop to get one nearby geocache before leaving the parking lot of Olive Garden. We went back to the coach and relaxed, staying out of the 102 degree temperature. Today was the first day of 2016 with temps over 100 in the Coachella Valley. We stayed in the rest of the evening.

Friday, May 13^th, oooooooow, scary. We left the coach after lunch and drove to Rancho Mirage so I could see the dermatologist about some spots on my body. I had my annual check in December, but there was a small red spot on the inside of my right elbow that wouldn't go away, and then I saw a small black spot on the back of my right ear, in the crease. Since I had my melanoma back in 09 I have used an abundance of caution with spots. When I got in the doctor said the red spot was likely a basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer, and easily treatable. I had one removed from my other arm a few years ago. The doctor numbed the skin, cut the spot off and then cauterized the wound. He looked at the black spot, which was the one I was most concerned about, and said he didn't think it was a cancer at all, just a spot. He said just to keep an eye on it and we would check at the end of the year when I do my annual.

After the doctor we stopped at Home Depot for some things I will need for projects I planned to do while we are up in Silent Valley, and then Costco for a couple of things. After that we headed home to get out of the 100+ heat. We stayed in for the rest of the day and evening.

Saturday, May 14^th, we woke up after a noisy night of wind. The wind was still kicking up pretty strong today, making caching less desirable. We stayed in for most of the day, finally leaving a little before five to go over to Rex and Vicki's house for a last get together before we left the valley. Ron and Kevin also came over and the six of us had another great night of cocktails, snacks and stories. Jackie's birthday is tomorrow, so she got cards from both couples and Kevin gave her a gift of two metal ammo boxes. Costco had been recently selling ammo boxes, which are great for geocaches in the desert, but we hadn't got around to getting any. Since Kevin works at Costco, he thought it was a great gift. It was. We visited until a little after 8:00 when we packed up and headed home. After we got home we watched a little television and then headed to bed.

Sunday, May 15^th, Happy Birthday to my lovely wife Jackie, as well as our cat Benji. Benji is four today, Jackie not so much. Today was supposed to be a moving day, with us leaving Indio and driving to Silent Valley, our time share RV Resort in the mountains south of Banning. However, I had been awake half the night listening to the wind howling outside, and the weather forecast called for continuing, and even worsening winds today and tonight. With that we decided that we would just stay an extra night in Indio and go up to Silent Valley on Monday, after the winds died down.

I called the RV park and arranged for the extra day. There was certainly no problem with us staying an extra day as the place is mostly empty anyway. About 1:00 or so we went to Cactus Jack's for a birthday lunch for Jackie. When we arrived we noted that John and Janet Moore were in there eating breakfast. Janet is the sister of Colleen Cohen, Jackie's very close friend who died a few years ago. We had not seen John and Janet for a couple of years, so we talked for a little while before sitting down to eat. We had a great lunch and then went back to the RV and relaxed the rest of the day, watching the wild winds blow.

Monday, May 16^th, as forecast the winds died down in the early morning hours and we packed up the coach to travel. We were on the road about 11:00 and heading west to Banning. Since the whole trip was only about 50 miles, Jackie drove the car rather than hook it up to the coach. We always unhook the car at the base of the hill going up to Silent Valley anyway as that last 11 miles is a steep, winding road. We were a little concerned about finding a decent spot because our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock had brought their coach up on Friday and said that the place was pretty busy. Our other friends, Gary and Ramona Wilson, were also up in Silent Valley, parked right next to the Babcock's. This was a surprise as we thought they were still back east in Ohio somewhere.

After we arrived we were able to find a great spot, nice and long with perfect satellite alignment, the two most important factors. Nearly all the sites here have full hook ups and 50 amps, but there are a lot of trees, so sat reception can become iffy in some areas. We got parked, registered and settled in in the afternoon. About 5:00 we went over to the Babcock's coach, only a hundred yards or so away, and had cocktails with them and the Wilson's. It turns out Gary was having some complications as a result of last year's heart surgery, so they came back to California early so he could see his doctor in Ontario. We had a great time catching up. Although we stay in contact through social media, we hadn't seen the Wilson's or Babcock's since we left Yuma the first of April. After our visit we went back to our coach and had a nice pot roast dinner that had been cooking all day in the crock pot. We watched TV until bedtime. We will be here in Silent Valley for a month, a great time to relax and get make some repairs on the coach.

Tuesday, May 17^th, it was nice to wake up to cool temperatures after a very nice, cool night. After lunch we went to the laundry facility here at Silent Valley to do laundry. We were desperate to refill the underwear drawers after three weeks. After laundry we went back to the coach, arriving just in time for a couple of thunderstorms to move through. We got some hard rain for about ten minutes, a bit of a noise and light show, but then it cleared up. We spent the rest of the day hanging around the coach.

Wednesday was a stay at home day. After lunch I spent three or four hours installing a TV in the bay so we can watch TV on the patio outside. It works great. Jackie did some chores of her own inside while I was working outside. About four we went down to the Babcock's for an early happy hour. They were doing early dinner with the Wilson's, but we joined them for cocktails. A little after five we went back to our coach, ate dinner about 7:00 and then watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, May 19^th, we picked up Ray and Suzie and the four of us drove down to Banning/Beaumont for lunch, some geocaching and then shopping. We had lunch at La Casita, our favorite Mexican place in the area, and then tried to do some geocaching. Jackie and I were at somewhat of a disadvantage because we come to this area for a month or two every year and we have pretty much cached the place out. There are not many caches left in the urban area that we haven't already gotten. Nonetheless, we hit a couple of caches and struck out the first two times with DNFs. These were caches that had not been found in a while and were probably gone. We did find two, after which we went to Walmart for some supplies. On the way back to Silent Valley we stopped for another cache that was just down the road from the resort. It was a difficulty five cache, meaning the hardest in terms of being able to find it. It proved to be accurate, as none of us were able to spot it. So, two finds, three DNFs for day. After we got back we just stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Friday was a stay at home day. I finished setting up some decorations and lights outside, mostly red, white and blue for Memorial day. I also got a few little things done in the house. We watched a movie in the afternoon and then went for a little walk. On the way back to the coach we stopped and visited with the Babcock's and Wilson's for a while. We then went back to the coach, had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, May 21^st, we had a quiet day on the mountain. It was pretty chilly, low 60's, so we didn't go outside much. Relaxed, watched a movie, did a little house cleaning. Jackie made a big pot of clam chowder and about 4:30 the Wilson's and Babcock's came over to our coach. We had cocktails and talked and about 6:00 dinner was served. It was a good batch of chowder and everyone enjoyed it greatly. About 7:30 everyone left for their own places and we watched TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday was a relax at home day. There is no newspaper delivery up here, so we had to go without a Sunday paper. We watched a recorded movie on TV, went for a walk, did a few little chores. Today was the Babcock's anniversary, so they left the mountain and went home for a couple days. They left their coach up here since they are only going to be away one night. Late in the afternoon Gary and Ramona brought two of their daughters, and one grand daughter, over to meet us. They are up here visiting Gary and Ramona for the day. They didn't stay long and we later had cocktails and dinner and then watched some TV until bedtime.

Monday, May 23^rd, we left the coach about 12:15 and went down the hill, then over to the little town of San Jacinto, about twelve miles south of Beaumont. As the crow flies San Jacinto is only about seven miles southwest of Silent Valley, but there is no road going down that way. It is still only about 25 miles, so it's not a real long trip. We went for a late lunch at a place called Patsy's Country Kitchen in San Jacinto. This was our first time at this one, but there is also one in Beaumont that we have been to several times and really enjoyed. They have great food, big portions, and good service. They are only a lunch and breakfast place, but that is fine with us.

After lunch we got one geocache and then went to the movie theater in San Jancito to see Money Monster, a movie with George Clooney in the starring role and Julia Roberts as the female co-star. It is a combination of Wall Street financial shenanigans mystery coupled with an action movie hostage situation. It probably wasn't an academy award winning movie, but we enjoyed it a lot. After the movie we headed back up to Silent Valley, stopping at the Walmart in Beaumont for some supplies first. We didn't get back to the coach until around 6:00, so we didn't have any group get together tonight. We also didn't have any dinner because we were still full from lunch and the movie popcorn. We watched TV until bedtime.

This marks the end of our first week up here in Silent Valley and a good place to close this chapter of the blog. We still have another three weeks or so up here before moving on to our summer travels. Until the next time, remember that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy of life lies in having no goal to reach. See ya soon.