A Month in Silent Valley

Hello again. Our last chapter concluded on Wednesday, May 2^nd, when we traveled from Lake Havasu, Arizona to Indio, California. Thursday we went out after lunch and did a Walmart run. Not too long after we got back our friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock pulled into the park and took the spot right next to us. We last saw them in Camp Verde, Arizona back in early April. They left and took a quick trip to West Texas to see some other friends and then on the way back stopped in Yuma, Arizona again so Vernon could get some emergency dental work done in Algodones, Mexico. They are working their way back home in Northern California and decided to stop and see us for a couple of days. We had cocktails with them at 5:00 and then Jackie did a Mexican dinner for the four of us. It was good seeing our great friends again. After they went back to their coach we watched a little TV and then went to bed.

Friday, May 4^th, Happy Star War's Day. (May the Fourth be with you, for the culturally under-informed.) We left the RV park around 10:30 and met Peggy and Vernon at a local restaurant called Sloan's for brunch. Back when we stilled lived here in Indio this was an Elmer's, a small chain of coffee shops based in Oregon. It still has a coffee shop type menu, so it was a good place for either breakfast or lunch. Jackie had breakfast, the three of us had beef dip sandwiches. After breakfast we went shopping, we went to Costco and the Bullock's went a couple other stores. We put fuel in the car for only the third time since we bought it in late December. It took 8.9 gallons of gas and the miles since the last fill up was 1008, for over 110 miles per gallon. I later did an analysis and found that in the four months since we bought this car we have put in just over $80 worth of gas. Over the same period in 2017 we had put over $426 of diesel fuel in our old Jeep. Nice savings.

After our Costco run we went back to the coach and put everything away, then left again and did a quick run to Winco for a couple of things. We like Winco for deli lunch meats. We spent a couple of hours relaxing in the coach and then changed clothes and left about 5:30 with Peggy and Vernon in our car and drove to Cactus Jack's in Palm Desert. Up until last year we would have been able to go to the Indio location, but the owner, George, gave up that place after over 30 years when the owner tried to raise the lease payments without doing any improvements. George now only has the Palm Desert place, which is still doing very well. Both our friends George, and Barry Cohen, who works part time at Jack's, were in Las Vegas for a golf tournament, so we were not able to see them. We did see Kevin, the bartender at Jack's who used to work at the Indio place and was a good friend our ours too. The four of us had a great meal and a great time visiting. The new Cactus Jack's is a lot more modern looking, but it doesn't have the intimate feel of the old Indio store. The food is just as good, same cooks, but the feel is completely different. After dinner we headed back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Saturday, May 5^th, Happy Cinco De Mayo! Since today's temperature was supposed to be in the low 100's it was a stay at home day. Jackie and Peggy made one quick trip to the grocery store to pick up a few things, but that was it. We had cocktails at 5:00 and then the four of us did some steaks, potatoes and asparagus on the BBQ. We had a nice dinner and talked for a while. After they went home about 8:00 we settled in and watched TV the rest of the evening. Sunday we relaxed in the morning with the Sunday paper. Peggy and Vernon pulled out about 10:00 or so, working their way back home. We will see them again in a couple months when we start the summer RV rally tour. About noon we left the RV park and drove to Cathedral City and Don and Sweet Sue's restaurant to meet Jackie's Godson Shane for lunch. Shane was five years old when I came out to the Coachella Valley from Phoenix and he is now 24. He has had diabetes since he was seven, but seems to be doing OK health wise. We had a great lunch and sat and talked for an hour and a half. After lunch we headed back to the RV park, stopping at Stater Brothers grocery to pick up some steaks they had on sale. After we got home Jackie was packaging up the steaks for the freezer and noticed that the two porterhouse steaks we bought had been priced as gourmet hamburger patties at $6.99 a pound instead of the $4.99 that was the sale price for the steaks. Since that was a $6 difference I drove back to the store, only a mile or so away, and talked to an assistant manager. She not only refunded the entire $21 we had paid, she also told me to take the steaks as well. She said, “they made the mistake, not you. Have a great day.” With $15 worth of free steak, you bet I'll have a good day. kudos to Stater Brothers for good customer service. After I got back to the coach I spent a little time packing up for travel tomorrow. We had dinner and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Monday, May 7^th, we left the RV park in Indio at 10:00 and headed west towards Banning. We are headed for Silent Valley Club, which is a private RV park in the mountains between Banning and Idyllwild. The park is at 3,500 feet, so it is about 20 degrees cooler than the desert on average. We have been members since 2002 and try to use it when ever we can. We can stay for 30 days at a time and a total of 120 days per year. We rarely use more than 60 days, but that still gets our daily rate down to about $10 a night for full hookup and 50 amp service. Because it is a little later in the year than we normally come up here it was a little crowded. They have 850 sites, but there are certain areas that are our favorites, plus there a lot of trees, so you have to be careful to be sure to pick a site where the satellite will work. After a half hour of driving around, we finally settled on a spot near the park's main center, where the office, bar, restaurant and laundry are located. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting set up for our month long stay here. About 5:00 we walked over to where some friends were parked. Bob and Gloria Baron have been friends since we were in the Indio Elks RV club together. They still live in the same country club in which we had our house back before we went full time. They are also members up here, and followers of many of the FMCA events, so we cross paths with them a couple times a year. We had cocktails and snacks with them and stayed about an hour an a half. Gloria is going in tomorrow for open heart surgery to replace a leaky valve. She will be in Loma Linda so they are leaving the RV up here and Bob will commute from here rather from the valley, a savings of 50 miles one way. We went back to our coach and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, May 8^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and drove down the hill and then east to Palm Springs, to the UPS center near the airport. We had the UPS store in Pahrump forward our mail package to us last week while we were in Indio, however, because the RV park is on summer schedule, they don't leave the gates open at all, even during the day. As a result, the UPS truck couldn't get into the park to deliver our package. We had to contact UPS yesterday and have them hold the package at their Customer Service Center for us to pick up. It took about 45 minutes to get to the UPS center, we picked up our mail and turned right around and drove back to Banning. We stopped for lunch at La Casita, our favorite Mexican place in the area, then went to Walmart for some supplies. After our errands we went back up the hill. I went to the pool for a little dip in the hot tub, but other than that we just stayed in the rest of the day. Bob Baron did stop by around 7:00 to let us know that Gloria came through the surgery just fine and was in a room recovering. She was having some pain, but the doctor said her heart was fine and she would probably be in for 3 to 5 days depending on her recovery speed. Good news.

Wednesday, May 9^th, was a stay at home day. We got a few chores and fix it projects done around the coach. Thursday was another great Silent Valley day, temps in the low 80's. Stayed at home and did a few more chores. Friday was another stay at home day. Today a cold front moved onto the California coast and the clouds leaked over into Silent Valley in the way of mist and fog. The temps were in the 50's and low 60's today and it was misty nearly all day. We went out after lunch and did our laundry at the laundromat here in the park. After we done we took everything home and put it away. About 5:30 we again went down to the central plaza area and had a drink at the Watering Hole bar. Despite the fog and cold there were quite a few people there. After a cocktail we went into the Chuck Wagon, which is the adjacent restaurant for dinner. They don't have a real extensive menu here in Silent Valley and have always had problems keeping good cooks. The problem is that unless they live in the little “hillbilly” community of Poppet Flats they have to drive at least 12 miles each way up and down a windy mountain road to get to and from work. Last year they had a really good cook who did a weekend special every Friday and Saturday that was scratch cooked and really good. He is no longer there and the new guy has only been here a couple weeks. He did have a Salisbury Steak special which is what we both had. The steak was a frozen piece, but the mashed potatoes were real and the squash was cooked perfectly. It was all covered in mushroom gravy, which was also tasty. Not gourmet food, but not too bad. After dinner we went back tot he coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, May 12^th, we are still wrapped in fog and cool, windy weather. We left the coach about 11:30 and drove down the hill to run a couple of errands. We first stopped at Patsy's Country Kitchen in Banning for lunch/breakfast. They serve huge portions of really good food and they are one of our favorite cafes in the area. After lunch we went to Best Buy to look for a couple things I needed, which they didn't have. We then went to Walmart and Jackie went in to get a pedi. While she was busy with that I did the grocery shopping. We both got done about the same time after which we went back up the hill and relaxed in the coach for the rest of the dreary day. Sunday was Mother's Day, which is not a big holiday for us as both of our mother's have passed away and Jackie never had kids. We stayed around the coach for the day, getting a few chores done and just relaxing. For dinner I made a pot of chili as the weather was still quite cool up here in the mountains.

Monday, May 14^th, we left the coach about noon and drove down the hill, headed towards the town of Hemet, about 30 miles southwest. Actually, Hemet is only about five miles from Silent Valley as the crow flies, but there are no roads that go that way except for an old trail that cuts across the Indian Reservation which is blocked by a gate. Since our helicopter is in the shop, we had to drive the 30 miles to the Golden Ginger Chinese restaurant in Hemet. We went there to meet our friends Ray and Suzi Babcock. They live in Menifee, which is another 25 miles or so west of Hemet, so Hemet seemed like a nice middle place to meet for lunch. We hadn't seen Ray and Suzie since we left Yuma in March. We had a great lunch and spent about 90 minutes chatting, catching up and making plans for our summer travels to the rallies in Wyoming this summer. The Babcocks, as well as the Bullocks and a lot of our other friends, are all going to the summer rallies. Ray also let us use his mail address to get some large packages from Amazon. I need to replace the vent fan in the kitchen of the coach and needed a place to have the parts sent. After lunch we drove back towards Silent Valley, stopping in Beaumont at the Walmart for a few things. We arrived back home just after 4:00 and spent the rest of the evening in the coach.

Tuesday, May 15^th, Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife and best friend, Jackie. And, also to our little fur kid Benji. Benji turns six today, Jackie not so much. We had a fairly quiet day around the coach, not leaving the park at all. We went out briefly to look for a geocache that is supposed to be hidden near the village center, but for the second time came up empty. For dinner we did some steaks, sweet potatoes and corn on the BBQ. We had a little scare just after sunset when one of the feral cats that inhabit Silent Valley came to visit. We had the front door open, with the screen closed and he and Benji were snarling at each other a little bit. I went down the stairs and yelled at the black cat outside and he took off. Benji had gone up the stairs back into the coach, so I didn't think anything of where he was. I was going to close the door to prevent any further confrontation, but when I opened the screen to get the door to close it, Benji bolted down the stairs, out the door and after the other cat. This is only the second time in his life he has gone outside, the first time just after we got him at less than a year old. He went under the coach and he and the other cat were yelling at each other. Benji climbed up into the under carriage of the coach and was just sitting there mewing. I ran the other cat off, then had to crawl under the coach and drag Benji down from his perch. There are too many predators in Silent Valley to let a house cat loose after dark. We finally got him back inside and he settled down after a half hour or so. Not sure who was more scared, him or me. We just watched TV for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, May 16^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and headed down the hill and then east to Palm Desert. Jackie had late afternoon appointment with her regular doctor to discuss the anxiety and shakiness that she has been experiencing. Our first stop, however, was Cactus Jack's Bar and Grill where we had lunch with our old friend Barry Cohen. We had a great lunch and spent almost some time catching up. While we were there we also saw several other friends from our days when we lived here in the Coachella Valley, including George Bishop, the owner of Cactus Jack's, Jim Babbington, the owner of Neil's, another bar in Indio that was one of our places, and a couple of waitresses that Jackie has known for a long time. After our lunch with Barry we stopped at Kohl's in La Quinta to kill some time before the doctor's appointment. We made the 3:45 appointment and Jackie talked to her doctor, who recommended that she up the dosage on her anti anxiety meds and keep him informed as to the progress. Once we were done at the doctor we headed back west, up the hill and back to the RV park. We spent the rest of the evening in the coach.

Thursday, May 17^th, a stay at home day. I had one big chore today which was replacing the power vent fan in the kitchen. That meant spending four and a half hours on the roof, taking out the old vent, cleaning up the old caulk and sealants, then installing the new vent. Of course, as is always the case there were issues with fit, screws that didn't line up, etc. Finally, about 4:00 or so I got the new fan installed. I still have to go up tomorrow and put caulk and sealant all around the new fan before the job will be complete. With a dozen trips up and down the ladder, and spending four hours on my hands and knees, I was one tired puppy this evening. We just had dinner and stayed in the rest of the night. Friday was another stay at home day. In the afternoon I went up on the roof and finished the vent project. Jackie and I then worked on some stuff for the craft classes she will be putting on at the FMCA rally in Gillette this summer. After dinner we watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, May 19^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and went down to Banning for a movie. We went to see Life of the Party with Melissa McCarthy. Although it was the typical McCarthy formula movie as was her character, but it was still a very funny and enjoyable film. In this one she plays a recently divorced mom who goes back to finish her last year of college at the same school at which her daughter is a Senior. As always, she gets wild and crazy and funny shit happens. After the movie we went to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. It was called Conseula's and it is in Banning. The food was good, but not outstanding. After lunch we did a quick Walmart run, then went back up the hill and relaxed the rest of the day. Sunday was a stay at home day. We did a few chores, but mostly just relaxed.

Monday, May 21^st, we were up and out of the coach by 9:30, going down the hill and then south to San Diego. We are going down there to visit with Jackie's brother Dennis, who lives and works in La Mesa, one of the suburbs. We have not seen Dennis in person in a couple of years and he wanted us to come down. He even offered to put us up in a nearby Holiday Inn since he lives in a one bedroom apartment. It took about two and a half hours to get to San Diego, where the weather was surprisingly cool. Good thing we dressed for it. We met Dennis at a restaurant in the Kona Kai Resort, which is located on Shelter Island, a marina area on the peninsula leading to Point Loma, the entrance to the San Diego harbor and bay. We had a very nice lunch and talked for a while. After lunch we drove to the Holiday Inn in La Mesa and checked in. After we got into the room we drove over to Dennis's apartment and visited with him until about 8:00. We had some good discussions and caught up on a lot of stuff. After our visit we went back to the hotel and watched a little TV before bed.

Tuesday, May 22^nd,we were packed up and out of the hotel around 10:30. Our original plan was to meet Dennis for lunch before we started back north towards Silent Valley, but Jackie talked to him and he some urgent work things to take care of and told us he wouldn't be able to make it. Dennis is a residential property manager here in San Diego and he just changed management companies. Since he is an independent contractor he was able to take his clients with him if they agreed to change companies too. He told us that he had 30 of 35 clients agree to move with him, but that the transition was proving to be more challenging than he thought it would be, and that he needed to spent some time working with the clients. We made a stop at a Costco not too far from the hotel to gas up the car and pick up a few things, then stopped at a Fuddrucker's hamburger place for lunch. After lunch we got on the freeway and headed north, arriving back at the coach about 3:30. We stayed in for the rest of the night. It was a good visit with Dennis but Benji was happy to see his peeps again. He was probably lonely last night, being all alone in the coach.

Wednesday, May 23^rd was another stay at home day. I worked on a couple of projects, getting two more things off my To Do list. Jackie spent some time on her craft class prep and a few other chores. We had a relaxing, but productive, day. Thursday we left the coach about noon and drove down the hill to Beaumont. Our first stop was the La Casita Mexican restaurant where we had a great lunch of taco salad. La Casita has the best chicken taco salad anywhere. After lunch we stopped at Kohl's and did some shopping, then went to Walmart for a few things. We finished the afternoon at Great Clips where we both got haircuts. Although Jackie gets her haircut about once a month, I go six or eight months between trims. Once we were done with our haircuts we headed back up the hill and stayed in for the rest of the day.

Friday, May 25^th, the first day of the long, Memorial Day Weekend. The campground is filling up and we are seeing a lot more people walking around. I expect it to be very busy this weekend. We had a stay at home day, getting some housecleaning and chores done. Jackie made a big pot of clam chowder for tomorrow. Ray and Suzi Babcock are coming up for the day. Tomorrow is the annual meeting for the Silent Valley Club and Ray and Suzie are members. Saturday Ray and Suzie got up to the park just before 9:30. A little before 10:00 the for of us walked down to the Village Center for the meeting. The meeting was being held outside and it was quite cool, but it was only an hour, so we did OK. No big news from the meeting, so we headed back to the coach. We sat and talked for a while and around 1:00 or so Jackie served the chowder, along with sourdough bread. Everyone enjoyed the soup and we sat and visited until Ray and Suzie left around 3:30 or so. We spent the rest of the day in the coach.

Sunday, May 27^th, we stayed up on the mountain all day since there were a lot of activities going on. About 11:00 we walked down to the Village Center for the craft sale. I got a good deal on a new microphone for my sound system. After the craft sale we went back to the coach for lunch, chowder of course, then at 1:00 we walked down to watch the dog show. Lots of nice dogs, most of which seemed to be rescue dogs. After the dog show we went back to the coach and watched some TV, including the Indy 500 which I had recorded. About 6:00 we went back down to the Village Center for the evening activities. They had a BBQ set up and were serving hamburgers and brats, along with chips and potato salad. We each had a burger for dinner. We then stayed for the live band outside on the patio. The band was called Fortunate Son and was, of course, a Credence Clearwater Revival tribute band. They were very good, although Jackie thought it was too loud. We stayed for the first two sets, but left at 9:00 because it was getting a little too chilly. We watched a little TV then went to bed.

Monday, May 28^th, Memorial Day. Although today is the actual holiday, there are no scheduled activities at the park for today. Most of the people up here are working folks and they have to be back at work tomorrow. As a result, we watched people leave all day long. We didn't go anywhere today, wanting to avoid an traffic on the roads down below. We just had a relaxing day around the house. By evening the place was very quiet again and looking pretty empty. Tuesday was a stay at home day again. After lunch we went down and did our laundry at the Village Center. It was surprisingly busy, I guess everyone else who is staying up here after the holiday had the same idea. After we finished we went back to the coach, put stuff away, had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, May 30^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and went down the hill to the movie theater in Banning. The Fox theater there has a Wednesday special $3 matinee and the large popcorn and large drink were only $5, so we had a movie and fixings for $11, not a bad deal today. We saw Deadpool 2 with Ryan Reynolds. We had seen the original Deadpool when it first came out about a year ago at the suggestion of Jackie's brother, who fancies himself a big movie expert. He was right though, it was a very funny and enjoyable action movie, despite that fact that we are not generally fans of the action comic book genre of movies. The sequel was equally funny and enjoyable. Reynolds' character constantly breaks the “fourth wall” and talks directly to the audience and has some of the funniest one liner quips I have seen in a while. It is very comic book, very action hero, and very entertaining. We loved it. After the movie we did some shopping, stopping at Hobby Lobby, Kohls and Walmart, before heading back up the hill. We had dinner and watched TV for the evening.

Thursday, May 31^st, was a stay at home day. We got some chores done and relaxed. We have been hearing stories for the last two weeks about a pretty good sized coyote whose territory seems to be the large hill that separates the D section of Silent Valley, where we are, from the F section. We are parked right next to the hill and when they cut the grass around the sites they only go about fifteen feet from the pad, so up the side of the hill the grass is probably 18 inches tall or so, making really good camo for a coyote. A number of people have posted sightings in the campsites right around where we are, but last night just after sundown the guy parked right across the street knocked on our door and told us he had seen the coyote running through our site and to watch any animals we had. Later he posted a photo he took from a distance of the coyote in the grass right behind our coach. The picture is hard to make out because of the low light and good camo, but you can just make out the coyote in the center of the pic.

Friday, June 1^st, we left the RV park about noon and drove down the hill, headed to Hemet to meet Ray and Suzie Babcock for lunch. We arrived at Big Daddy's Cheese-steaks right at 1:00. We first discovered this place about three years ago with Peggy and Vernon Bullock when we were here in the area. It is just a little hole in the wall in a strip mall in the old downtown area of Hemet, but they have really good sandwiches. Ray and I had traditional cheese-steaks while the girls both had chicken cheese-steaks. Everyone enjoyed their food and we had a good time visiting with our friends. After lunch we went to the Hemet Hobby Lobby so Jackie could get some more craft supplies for her classes in Gillette this summer. We then headed back towards Banning where we made a quick stop at Home Depot, looking for something to hang our hummingbird feeder on. We arrived back in Silent Valley around 4:00 and stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Saturday, June 2^nd, we left the coach about 11:30 and headed south about 16 miles to the mountain community of Idyllwild, California. It has been a couple of years since we visited this little town, but we usually try to get up here at least once when we are in Silent Valley. We had lunch first at a place called Idyology, which is in a building which was a Chart House restaurant many years ago. I don't how long the current place has been around, but it was our first time there. It is a bar and cafe with a basic menu. I had a steak sandwich, which was really a version of a Philly cheese-steak. Jackie had a chicken pesto sandwich. The food was good, but not outstanding or memorable. After lunch we spent a couple of hours walking around the various shops in the village square area. Since it has been a couple years since we were here, many of the shops we remember have gone out of business and new stuff has popped up. Pretty typical for small, tourist driven communities. About 3:00 we headed back to Silent Valley and spent the rest of the evening in the coach. Sunday was our last full day in Silent Valley for this visit. We stayed around the coach for the day, spending a few hours putting stuff away and getting ready to leave tomorrow.

Monday, June 4^th, the 13^th anniversary of the day we moved out of our “sticks and bricks” house in Indio and into the motor home. Of course, the first two weeks we were parked at an RV park in Indio while I worked my last two weeks as an Association Manager and we packed and arranged the coach so we could live comfortably. We have been in it ever since, over a hundred thousand miles and thirteen years. Yea us! Today was also the day to leave Silent Valley and we were packed up and on our way down the hill by about 10:00. While we are headed to Santa Maria, on the Central Coast, the trip is over 300 miles, so we will be making a couple of stops. Today we are going about 80 miles to Hesperia, California. We arrived at the Hesperia Elks Lodge around 1:30 or so and got settled in for a one night stay. We have stayed here many times before, using it as a “way point' when we travel Interstate 15 in and out of Southern California.

About 4:00 we went into the lodge for a cocktail and to meet with Beverly and Brian West who live in Hesperia. Beverly is a cousin of Jackie's on her mother's side, the daughter of one of Jackie's uncles. Of course, she is also named after Jackie's mother. Beverly is a couple years older than Jackie and Jackie has not seen or had contact with her since 2000, when Jackie and I went to the Los Angeles area for the funeral of Jackie's uncle Jack Barkdull, Beverly's father. We had a very nice visit and a couple of drinks in the lodge, then they came to the back and came into the coach for a little while. It turns out that after they retired about 25 years ago they too were full timers, in a fifth wheel trailer, however they gave it up after a few years because they missed having a house. They now live in a triple wide park model in a nice mobile home park in Hesperia. After Brian and Beverly left we relaxed for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, June 5^th, we left Hesperia about 9:30 and set off on the second leg of our trip, traveling about 140 miles to Bakersfield. We arrived in Bakersfield around 1:30 after a fuel and lunch stop in Tehachapi. We got settled in to the RV park for another one night stay. On Wednesday we left Bakersfield about 9:30 again for the last leg of this run, going 130 miles to Santa Maria, California. We arrived at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge around 12:30 and quickly got parked. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting set up for our 12 night stay here. Regular readers will know that we come to the Central Coast when we can so we can visit with Jackie's aunt Donna who lives in nearby Pismo Beach.

Donna was married to “Barky” Barkdull, Jackie's uncle, who passed away about eight years ago. Donna, who is 93, is the last of Jackie's family from that generation since Jackie's mom and all the rest of her family have now passed on. After we got set up we relaxed for the rest of the day.

Our arrival here in Santa Maria after a month in Silent Valley marks a good point to close this chapter and get it published. Until next time, remember the words of the great Mae West. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Now get out there and LIVE! See ya.