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.