Hello again. Our last chapter ended on
Friday, December 15th, as we ended a month long stay in Pahrump,
Nevada. Saturday morning we were packed up and on the road by about
10:30, starting towards Indio, California. We stopped for lunch at
the Mad Greek Restaurant in Baker, California, on the I-15 about two
hours south of Las Vegas. When we leave Pahrump for the Coachella
Valley we always go out the back way, which takes us through Baker.
We always stop at the Mad Greek. Today while we were eating we were
approached by a guy who told us that they were filming an episode of
a TV show for the Travel Network and that we needed to sign a release
so they could use our image if we happened to show up in the
background. We watched them film just a few booths behind us, so at
least the back of my head will be on TV sometime in the future.
After lunch we continued on our
journey, stopping at the Hesperia Elks Lodge around 3:30 to spent the
night. This is only a stop over, so we didn't even unhook the car.
We settled in and relaxed for the rest of the evening. On Sunday
morning we were on the road again about 10:30, made a fuel stop and
grabbed a quick bite to eat, then headed on to Indio. We arrived at
the Indian Waters RV Resort about 2:00 and got settled in for our two
week stay. We got set up, went out and got a Sunday paper, and then
relaxed in the coach for the rest of the day.
Monday, December 18th, we went out
about noon and had lunch at La Casita, one of our old favorites here
in the desert. Their taco salads are to die for. After lunch we
stopped so Jackie could get a haircut. We then went back to the
coach and I finished putting up the Christmas decorations and other
outside flags and lights. Around 5:00 we left and did a quick Costco
run. Our friend Kevin Ray, who works at Costco, told us that 5:00 on
a weekday is the best time to come to the store. He was right. We
had some returns and there was no line and when we checked out with
our vodka supply and a few other things there were no checkout lines
and Kevin was our clerk. Thank you Kevin, it's always nice to “have
a guy” to go to and get the real info. We went home, put stuff
away and watched TV until bedtime.
Tuesday, December 19th, we had a stay
at home day, at least for me. Jackie went out and got a pedi, but I
spent the day in the coach doing chores. I got a lot of things done,
as did Jackie after she came back. We had dinner and then relaxed
with the TV the rest of the evening. Wednesday we left the coach
after lunch and did some shopping at Walmart and Winco. We also
checked on one of the caches that we have hidden here in the
Coachella Valley since it was in the Walmart parking lot. After
shopping we headed home and stayed in the rest of the day. For
dinner we had some of the homemade Chili Colorado, beef simmered in
red chili sauce, that I had been cooking all day. This was my first
effort at this dish, which is one of my favorites, and I have to say
it turned out great. After dinner we watched TV and then went to
bed.
Thursday, December 21st, was a stay at
home day. I did some office work, including finishing up my first
edition of the Full Timers Chapter newsletter. Last summer I agreed
to take over as editor starting with the first quarterly issue of
2018. About 4:00 we went over to Jay and Donna Blumenthal's coach
here in the RV park for cocktails. We have known Jay and Donna since
we started getting involved in FMCA chapter activities around 2008.
Jay was on the FMCA Executive Board as Area President for the
International Area. Since at the time all of the chapters we
belonged to were in the International Area, we got to know Jay and
Donna well. We even helped out with a couple of International Area
rallies. They now only travel back and forth between New York and
Indio, spending five months here and five months back there, with a
month or so of travel each way. We had a nice evening, catching up
as we had not seen them since this time last year. About 6:00 we
went back to our place, had dinner and relaxed the rest of the
evening.
Friday, December 22nd, we left the
coach about 12:30 and drove to a fairly new restaurant in Palm Desert
called Manhattan in The Desert. They have another location in Palm
Springs that has been there a long time, but recently expanded. The
new place is right across the street from the Palm Desert Cactus
Jacks. We went there to meet our old friend Barry Cohen. Barry and
his wife Colleen had been our best friends when we lived here in the
desert. Colleen passed away a few years ago but Barry chose to
continue to live in the motor home they had lived in since 2003 at
the upscale Motor Home Country Club here in Indio. Barry seems to be
doing pretty well, working part time at Cactus Jacks just to have
something to do and get a little spending money. He has a woman
friend, Cathy, that he spends a lot of time with, and even traveled
with for three months this past summer. We had a great lunch and
spent about an hour and a half talking and catching up. The food at
the restaurant, which is primarily a deli type place, was good, but a
little on the pricey side for what you get. After lunch we stopped
at a couple of thrift stores and even picked up a geocache on our way
home. We went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the night.
Saturday, December 23rd, we left the
coach about 10:30 and drove to the College of the Desert in Palm
Desert for the weekend Street Fair. The fair was about a third
smaller than normal, probably because Christmas is only a couple of
days off. It took a couple hours for us to walk the whole fair and
the only thing we bought was a bracelet for Jackie. After the street
fair we drove towards Cathedral City, stopping at a Goodwill store
along the way to look for some things for our parade at the rally in
Indio in a couple weeks. Once we got to Cathedral City we stopped at
Palm Springs Ford to look at new cars. We are considering getting
rid of the Jeep. It is now ten years old and has over a hundred
thousand miles and, frankly, has been a bit of a cursed vehicle from
the very beginning. We are thinking about something a little smaller
too, to lighten the load on the coach when traveling. Ford makes a
number of models that are flat towable, which is what we need, but we
had never really looked closely at them, or even sat in one. We
originally went to check out the Focus, which is a sedan, not an SUV,
but is smaller and lighter than the Jeep. They were OK, but then the
sales guy showed us the C-Max Energi, which is a plug in hybrid. It
was actually roomier and more comfortable than the Focus. We really
like this model. The Edge, which is one of Ford's towable SUVs, were
nice, but it is as heavy as the Jeep and a little too pricey for us
at this time.
After our car shopping experience we
headed back towards Palm Desert and stopped at the mall for a little
shopping. Around 3:30 we went to Cactus Jack's for a cocktail and
early dinner. This past year, while we were traveling back east, our
friend George, who owns Cactus Jack's, closed the Indio location for
good. He now only has the Palm Desert restaurant. He did move the
chef over along with a few of the Indio employees. We were able to
say hello to the bartender, Kevin, who is also an old buddy of ours
from back when we lived here. George also came in while we were
there and we got to talk to him, and, of course, Barry was working
tonight as the parking lot greeter, so we got to see him too. We
had a couple of drinks and a nice dinner, I had the beef ribs which I
can't get anywhere else, and Jackie had a pasta dish. About 6:30 we
left and on the way home stopped at Neil's Lounge, another bar that
used to be a hang out for us in the old days. It is know owned by
some other friends of ours, Jackie and Jim Babington. They were not
in, but we had one drink and I sang a couple of songs since they were
doing karaoke and didn't have many singers. After we finished our
drink we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.
Sunday, December 24th, we stayed home
for the day. I did a few chores and Jackie spent some time cooking
sweet potatoes for tonight's Christmas party at the park. About 3:30
we packed up our drinks and food and went down to the clubhouse for
the party. There were probably over 150 guests and the ballroom was
full. There was tons of really good food and we had a great meal.
We sat at a table with some people we didn't know, most of whom were
from Canada. We had a great meal and great conversation, and after
dinner we even did a little dancing. About 7:00 we went back to the
coach and spent the rest of Christmas Eve with the television.
Monday, December 25th, Merry Christmas.
In the morning we exchanged Christmas cards, which is the only thing
we do for holidays, then relaxed with coffee. After our walk we had
lunch and then went out to do some geocaching. It was a great day
for caching as there was no traffic and everything was closed, making
urban caching a lot easier. We were able to get 14 new finds, with
no DNFs, and near the end we hit the 9,000 finds milestone. Yea!
About 4:00 we stopped caching and went back to the coach and relaxed
the rest of the evening. We did some steaks on the BBQ, along with
leftover sweet potatoes from yesterday's dinner. We watched a couple
of stupid Christmas themed disaster/horror movies, then went to bed.
Tuesday, December 26th, we left the
coach after lunch and drove to Palm Springs Motors and took the Ford
C-Max Hybrid car we were looking at on Saturday for a test drive. We
really liked the way it drove and rode and we decided to talk deal.
We were at the dealership from about 1:30 until about 6:30, but we
finally made a deal to lease a 2017 Ford C-Max plug-in Hybrid. We
used the Jeep for a trade in, so, as is the way with car dealers,
they immediately “seized” the Jeep and took custody of it. I
guess that serves the purpose of making it harder to back out of the
deal, plus they don't have to worry about the customer wrecking it
before the deal is consummated. After we signed the lease papers
they gave us a 2017 Ford Explorer SUV as a loaner car. We couldn't
take the C-Max because we have to take out of state delivery, so we
have to wait until day after tomorrow. They helped us unload all our
stuff out of our old Jeep into the Explorer and we headed home after
a very long, exhausting day. We went back to the coach and just
crashed for the rest of the night.
Wednesday, December 27th, we left the
coach about 9:30 and drove to Rancho Mirage for our annual checkup
with the dermatologist. Ever since my melanoma scare back in 2009 I
have had a skin check every winter with Dr. Milligan, my
dermatologist. He found a dozen small places on me to spray with the
liquid nitrogen, but there was one spot on my right wrist that he
decided looked like a budding basal cell carcinoma, a slow growing
skin cancer. That one he numbed and cut off with a razor, then
cauterized the wound. That is about the third one of those I have
had cut off since 2009. He also checked Jackie over and didn't find
any problem areas.
After Dr. Milligan we took a drive over
to Palm Springs Ford since it was not too far from his office. We
had to take over the title to the Jeep as well as some money for the
additional down payment we are making to keep payments low. After
our quick visit there we stopped for lunch and then went to our
regular doctor for our annual checkups. The doctor was very pleased
with my 45 pound weight loss and with my labs, which were
outstanding. All of my labs, including the sugar which was what
prompted me to get serious about losing weight last visit. Jackie's
checkup was also OK, with no major changes since last year. We got
our new prescriptions and were done for another year. After the
doctor we headed back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the
night.
Thursday, December 28th, we were
supposed to meet the people from the dealership at 9:30 so we could
drive to Ehrenberg, Arizona to take delivery of our new car. We
would drive the Explorer there, the dealer's driver would take the
C-Max, we would meet an Arizona notary public in the Wendy's at the
Flying J Truck Stop just inside Arizona, sign the papers and take
possession of the car. The dealer's driver would then take the
Explorer and go back to Palm Springs and we would have a new car.
Unfortunately, we got a call from the dealer about 8:30 telling us
that they were still working on the credit. It seems that my credit
has nothing on it because I haven't had anything financed since my
last lease in 1999. It wasn't that my credit was bad, it was just
not there. We told them to try Jackie's since our Jeep had been
financed with Jackie's name on the credit app. We finally got a call
from them about 1:00 that everything was now OK, but that Jackie had
to come down and sign one more form to finalize everything. We drove
to the Ford dealer, signed the paper and made arrangements for
tomorrow again for the car swap. It was too late to drive to
Ehrenberg now. After the Ford dealer we headed back to the coach,
stopping at Walmart for some shopping first. I spent some time
taking down Christmas decorations and then we watched TV until
bedtime.
Friday, December 29th, we left the
coach about 9:15 and drove to the Denny's restaurant in Indio where
we met with Izzy, our salesman from Palm Springs Ford, and a lady who
was the driver taking our car to Ehrenberg. We checked some papers
with Izzy, gave him a copy of our insurance and he left to go back to
the dealership. We got in the Explorer and the lady got in our C-Max
and we hit the freeway heading east. About ninety minutes later we
pulled into the Wendy's at the Flying J just across the border in
Arizona and sat down with the notary. As it turns out, it was the
same guy that notarized our paperwork when we bought the motorhome
twelve and a half years ago. He said he has been doing this for over
18 years and has a lot of repeat business. About a half hour, spent
mostly watching the notary fill out forms, Jackie signed a couple of
papers, we traded keys with the lady from the Ford dealership and got
back on the freeway in our new car. Yea! Ninety minutes later we
were back at the coach.
Around 5:00 we left again and drove
over to Rancho Mirage and the Sunrise Country Club to meet with an
old friend of Jackie's, Gina Spector, and her husband Randy. Jackie
worked with Gina back in the 80's when they both worked for Avco
Finance Corporation. This is the first time they have seen each
other for probably 20 years or more, although they have been in
contact over social media for the last couple years. Gina is retired
but Randy still works as a district manager in the finance industry.
They have a small condo in Rancho Mirage, but live in the Rancho
Cucamonga area full time. We met at their condo, talked for a bit,
and then they drove us up to their club for drinks and dinner. We
had a nice dinner and a couple of drinks, then went back to their
place. About 8:30 we left, drove back home and relaxed the rest of
the night.
Saturday, December 30th, we had pretty
much a stay at home day. I had a lot of work to do to figure out how
to load stuff into the new car, which has quite a bit less storage
than our old, big Jeep did. I also had to take down all the outside
stuff because we are leaving here tomorrow and driving over to the
other side of town to Cathedral City. It took all day, but I finally
got everything sorted out, stored and put away. We spent the rest of
the evening with the TV. Sunday, December 31st, we had the coach
packed up and were on the road by 11:00 for the 45 minute ride over
to Cathedral City. Of course, Jackie had to drive the new car since
there is no tow bar yet, her first time driving it. We arrived at
Cathedral Palms around noon and got settled into our spot. About
1:30 we went out for a quick lunch at La Casita, one of our favorite
Mexican places, then did a geocache so we could claim an end of the
year souvenir from Groundspeak. We then went back to the coach,
finished getting set up and then relaxed for the rest of the night.
We watched the ball drop in New York City at 9:00 local time, then
went to bed around 10:30. We never heard any thing at midnight, so
either it was pretty quiet or we were sound asleep. See ya later
2017.
Monday, January 1st, 2018, Happy New
Year! We had a quiet night and left the coach after lunch to go out
and do some geocaching. Caching on holiday's is great because there
is no traffic and most businesses are closed. In a couple of hours
we were able to get ten new finds, and one DNF. We were out for
about two and a half hours, stop and go driving in about a four mile
or so circle around the RV park and the new car was on electric the
entire time. The battery was about dead when we got back to the
coach, but the gas engine had not yet started, so we did the entire
day on electric only. Yea! Charge it overnight and go again
tomorrow. We spent the remainder of the evening in the coach
watching TV after dinner.
Tuesday, January 2nd, we left coach
after lunch and went out to run some errands. We stopped at Palm
Springs Ford for a minute to check on the tire repair kit for the new
car. The one they gave us doesn't fit into the little floor
compartment that the owner's manual says it should be in. Turns out
the other one they had didn't either and was smaller, so we kept the
first one they gave us. It turns out, to my surprise, that many new
cars don't come with any spare tire anymore, not even the little
space saver type. Our car has no spare, just an electric pump with
tire repair fluid, OK for a small flat, but not for a blowout. I
guess that's why they include roadside service for the warranty
period of the car. After the Ford dealership we went to the urgent
care near our doctor's office so Jackie could get something for what
seems to be another sinus infection. Her ear has been plugged up,
and she has been getting constant sinus headaches, for the last week
or so. It took two hours to get in, but they cleaned her ear out and
prescribed a Z-Pac antibiotic for the infection. Hopefully that will
help. By the time we got out of the doctor's it was getting dark, so
we just headed back to the coach. We stopped on the way and picked
up a pizza for dinner. We had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.
Wednesday, January 3rd, we had a day of
errands. We went out after lunch and made a quick stop at a shoe
repair place so Jackie could get a cut fixed in her leather purse.
Nice guy, didn't even charge for the repair. We stopped at the bank
so I could deposit some money for the tow bar we are having put on
the new car next week, then stopped at Walmart to return some floor
mats that didn't fit right. We then went to Goodwill and dropped off
some stuff for them, then made a stop at the Ford Dealer to pick up a
little bottle of touch up paint for the new car. After we finished
our errands we headed back to the coach and relaxed for a little bit.
About 5:30 we went over and picked up our friends John and Suzanne
Budovec so we could go to dinner. They arrived in the RV park
yesterday. We have known them since back before we went full time
when we traveled with the Elks RV club. We don't see them too often,
but we have a lot of friends in common among FMCA. We went to
Nicolino's Italian restaurant in Cathedral City, a place we used to
go to for lunch from time to time when we both worked in Cathedral
City. We had a very nice dinner and a couple hours to talk and catch
up with John and Suzanne. After dinner we went back to the park,
dropped them off, then went home and watched TV until bedtime.
Thursday, January 4th, we left the
coach about 12:30 and drove to the Boys Restaurant here in Cathedral
City for lunch. I used to eat at Boys at least once a week when I
worked in Cathedral City, only a couple miles north. I loved their
pastrami sandwich and have tried to get there at least once any time
we are in the Coachella Valley. Today things were different though,
I don't know if they have changed cooks, or owners or what, but the
food wasn't as good or plentiful as it has been in the past. The
pastrami sandwich used to be packed thick with lean, chopped on the
grill, meat, today it was about half as big and meat was fatty and
not chopped at all. Jackie had zucchini with her hamburger and it
used to be tender and flavorful, today it had almost a papery texture
to the breading and they were pretty much flavorless. Sadly, I think
this will be my last visit to Boys.
After lunch we ran a couple of errands,
stopping at the Ford dealer to pick up the touch up paint I ordered
yesterday, and then stopping at a gold dealer to see what they were
offering for some gold that Jackie had to sell. It was still not
enough to sell it for, so we left with the gold and headed back to
the coach. After we got home I spent an hour or so installing a new
water pump in the coach. The old one, which is actually only about
four years old, still pumped water but would not shut off when all
the spigots were closed. After that repair we just relaxed for the
rest of the evening and then went to bed.
Friday, January 5th, we left the coach
after lunch and went out to do some grocery shopping. We went to
Rancho Mirage and went to Sam's Club, Walmart, and Costco, which are
all conveniently located within a few blocks of each other. After
our shopping we went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of
the day. Saturday we left the coach about 12:00 and drove to Ciro's
Italian Restaurant in Indio to have lunch with a group of FMCA
friends. The lunch had been arranged by Steve and Judy Czarsty with
whom we have been friends for about ten years. Judy had been the
National President of FMCA about eight years ago or so, having been
elevated from Senior Vice President when the the National President
had to resign for health reasons. She and Steve have been active in
FMCA for many years and are full timers. They are not as active now,
having “been there and done that,” and have gotten a smaller
motor home. They had flown out to the West Coast to visit family and
go to the Rose Bowl, and they knew that a lot of their old friends
were in the Indio area. Jay and Donna Blumenthal, and John and
Suzanne Budovec were also there, as well as five or six other folks
we didn't know who had been active in FMCA for many years. We had a
great lunch and it was nice to catch up with Steve and Judy. We last
saw them in Indianapolis last summer at the FMCA rally. Before lunch
we spent some time checking on some of our geocaches that we have
hidden in the Indio area. After lunch we went back to the coach and
I spent the remaining daylight getting ready for our departure from
Cathedral City in the morning. We spent the evening with the TV and
went to bed.
Sunday, January 7th, we were up early,
about 6:00 a.m., and we had the coach packed up and on the road by
8:30. We were heading back to Indio, to the Fairgrounds for the FMCA
Western Area Rally. We were going in early with some of the other
members of the Overland Trailblazers West Chapter, a group we joined
a couple of years ago that always has a big group at the Western Area
rally and has really good parking. We were invited to come in with
the early group because I am doing music and karaoke for a Chapter
party tonight and need the time to get set up. By 11:00 we were
parked at the rally and had the coach pretty much set up. After
lunch I packed up the music gear and went over to the room where the
party is being held and set everything up.
At 4:30 we went over to the party room
and helped with the final preparations for the 5:00 dinner. Our
friend Gloria Baron and her husband Bob are rally masters for the
Trailblazers Chapter and she had set up a great Mexican themed
dinner. I played Mexican music before and during the dinner, which
was great. They had margaritas and beer and lots of nice appetizers
like mini tacos and taquitos, as well as chips and salsa. The dinner
was a “walking taco” which is a small bag of Doritos, which you
crush up, then put meat, cheese, lettuce, salsa, and what ever else
you want, into the bag and eat it with a fork. No plate, no mess.
After dinner we did karaoke, but it was a dull group. Only two other
people other than me sang, and one of those only did one song. The
lady that did sing several songs, including a couple of duets with
me, is new to the group and she was really great, professional
quality as a matter of fact. The party only went until about 7:30,
after which I packed everything back in the car and we went back to
the coach for the rest of the night.
Monday, January 8th, was, for the most
part, a free day. The actual rally doesn't start until Wednesday and
the Trailblazers Chapter didn't have anything scheduled until
tonight. We left the coach after lunch and drove over to Eisenhower
Hospital in Rancho Mirage so Jackie could get her annual mammogram.
After she was done we headed back to the Fairgrounds, stopping at
Costco on the way to put fuel in the car. This was the first time we
have put gas in the car since we got it eleven days ago. Yea! It
only has a 14 gallon tank and took less than ten gallons to fill
today. This is also the first time in ten years we have been able to
buy gas at Costco. Our old Jeep was a diesel and very few Costco's
carried diesel fuel. After we got back to the fairgrounds we visited
with some of the Trailblazers for a while, then went back to the
coach and got ready to go out to dinner.
We were invited to go to dinner with an
FMCA Chapter called the Eastern Gourmands. This is basically a “fine
dining” chapter that goes out for a dinner at an upscale local
restaurant at various FMCA events, Area Rallies and Conventions. The
group today was going to the Chop House at Jackalope Ranch here in
Indio. We have been to Jackalope Ranch a number of times over the
years, but the Chop House is the upscale steakhouse part of the
restaurant that they just put in a few years ago. We went there at
5:30 and had a cocktail in the bar, and then at 6:00 joined the group
in the Chop House. There were two couples in attendance that we were
already friends with, Pat and Jim Goetzinger, who we know from the
Full Timers Chapter, and Don and Norma Preston, who we know from the
Monaco International Chapter. Either Jackie or I have held various
offices in these chapter over the years. Also in attendance were Jon
Walker, the National President of FMCA and his wife Sondra, Christine
Cross, the wife of Lon Cross, the President of the Western Area, and
Rett Porter, the National Senior Vice President and his wife Claire.
The tables were set up for four people, so we sat with the Preston's,
whom we last saw in Indiana last summer. Don and Norma are not at
the rally here, but they have a spot at an ownership RV park in Indio
and are currently parked there.
We had a great dinner, albeit
expensive. I had seared Ahi that was wonderful, along with French
onion soup, and Jackie had rack of lamb and salad, which she said was
also wonderful. The service was great and we had a good time. We
look forward to joining this group this summer again at the the FMCA
rally in Gillette, Wyoming. After dinner we headed back to the
fairgrounds and spent the rest of the evening in the coach.
Tuesday, January 9th, we left the
fairgrounds about noon and drove over to the TKB Deli in Indio for
lunch. It had rained on and off all night, so everything was wet,
but the rain had stopped in the morning. This place is not fancy but
has wonderful deli sandwiches. As a matter of fact, it has been
rated in the top five nationally by Yelp for three years running.
After lunch we went back to the fairgrounds and took care of some
small chores around the coach. There are still no rally activities
today, although there is some stuff going on with the Trailblazers
chapter. At 3:00 we went over to one of the buildings for the
Trailblazers chapter business meeting. The rain was coming back this
afternoon and evening, so they moved the meeting indoors. After the
business meeting we went back to the coach and just stayed in the
rest of the evening.
Wednesday, January 10th, we woke up to
clear skies. The rain quit yesterday afternoon, it was really windy
for a few hours, then it settled down. Today was the first actual
rally day, but the activities today were minimal. Around noon Jackie
went to the auditorium to spend the afternoon at a table signing up
people for her craft classes on Thursday. She is doing the pop tab
lanyards craft class again. About 1:30 I came to the auditorium for
the Chapter Fair. This is where any FMCA Chapter can set up a table
to advertise it's chapter and sign up new members. I was floating
between the Military, Elks and Full Timers Chapter's tables, helping
out where needed. Everything was done around 3:00 and Jackie and
I
went back to the coach.
Our friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock arrived
this afternoon and ended up parked right across the road from us. At
4:00 we went down to the area next to where the Overland Trailblazers
group is parked for the annual BBQ. This is a tradition for this
Chapter, the Chapter provides ribs and chicken, smoked and BBQed, and
then the members bring all the side dishes. They fed almost 150
people and there was still food left over. A great meal and great
company. About 6:30 we were done and back in the coach. We had a
cocktail with the Bullocks, then spent the rest of the night watching
TV.
Thursday, January 11th, I was up and
out about 9:00 and went down to the auditorium to set with the craft
sign up sheet for Jackie's later class. No more people showed up.
Jackie went down to one of the other buildings at 9:30 and did her
first class for the lanyards. At 11:00 I was back at the coach when
the mobile oil change guy I use every year came to change the oil,
oil filter and fuel filters on the coach. This is an annual
maintenance thing that we have to do every year. This year I also
had the oil and filter changed on the generator. That is every two
years. About the time the mobile guy was done, Jackie was finishing
up her class, so we left the fairgrounds and went to In-N-Out for
lunch.
After lunch we went back to the
fairgrounds and hung around the coach for an hour or so, then started
getting dressed for the big parade. Regular readers may remember
that the Western Area Rally always has a big parade on Thursday which
is in line with the theme for the year. The theme this year was
“Viva Las Vegas” and our Chapter had a big contingent walking and
riding in the parade. We had a pickup truck with a wedding arch
mounted in the back, a male AND female Elvis riding in the back of
the truck, and an amplifier playing Viva Las Vegas and Going to the
Chapel. I was providing the music via my phone and a bluetooth
connection. Jackie was dressed as the trashy,
Friday, January 12th, I was up early
and drove the new car to one of the local RV repair places where they
were supposed to install the equipment on the car so we can tow it
behind the motor home. I got there and the guy told me that he
couldn't do it today because he had a job from yesterday that he
wasn't done with and he just wasn't going to be able to help me. I
ended up buying the base plate that they had ordered, the part that
installs on the car, in hopes that we would be able to find someone
else to do the work. I finally talked to Roadmaster, the company
that makes the equipment and has a booth here at the rally. They are
going to be in Quartzsite and will do the job there next Friday.
We left the coach again about 11:00 and
went down to one of the buildings to help the Full Timer's Chapter
with the Full Timing Seminar that the Chapter presents at many of the
rallies. I was one of the panelists and Jackie helped with the
membership booth and selling shirts. The seminar was well attended,
as they usually are, and went pretty well. When it was over we went
down to the vendor area to walk around. After about an hour we met
up with Ray and Suzie Babcock, our RVing friends from Menefee. They
did not come to the rally this year with their coach, but they did
come down today so Ray
We went back to the coach with the
Babcock's and Bullock's and we all sat around and talked until about
5:00 when we all drove to the China Bistro restaurant in Indio, just
around the corner from the fairgrounds. This is our favorite Chinese
place in this area and Ray had made reservations for us. We had one
of the family style dinners with six different entree's and all the
other side dishes. We ate the majority of it, and all six of us were
stuffed. After a very nice dinner Ray and Suzie left to drive home,
about an hour and a half away, and we went back to the fairgrounds.
We went in the coach and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Saturday, January 13th, the last full
day of the rally. We had no scheduled activities today, so were able
to walk down to the vendor area about 10:30 and walk around without
being in a hurry. About 12:30 we met Peggy and Vernon at Macario's
Mexican Grill for lunch. This is a Mexican place that has been in
Indio for many years, but for some reason we never went to it. The
food was OK, typical Sonoran cooking, tasty buy not outstanding. The
service left a little to be desired. After lunch we went out and
checked on the last three of our own geocaches in the Indio area to
be sure that they were OK. We then went to Walmart for some supplies
before returning to the Fairgrounds. We sat with some of the
Trailblazers group for cocktails until the sun went down and it got
chilly. We then went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of
the evening.
Sunday, January 14th, another travel
day. We were packed up and on the road about 10:30, heading east
towards Quartzsite, Arizona. Jackie had to follow in the new car
since we don't have the tow bar set up yet. Fortunately, it was only
about 120 miles and we arrived in Quartzsite about 1:00, or 2:00
Arizona time. We got settled into the Crawford RV park in the middle
of Quartzsite for our six night stay. It was nice to have full
hookups again. Jackie made chili relleno casserole for dinner for us
and the Bullocks and we spent several hours talking after dinner.
They left about 8:30 and we watched a little TV before going to bed.
Our departure from Indio marks another
month of travel and is a good place to close this chapter and get it
published. Until we talk again, ponder the words of Maria Robinson.
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning but anyone can start
today and make a new ending.” See ya soon.
