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.