Hello again. Our last chapter concluded on Monday, September 14th in our “home” of Pahrump, Nevada. When we arrived here in Pahrump on September 1st we were able to finally park at our new home base, the Escapees Co-op RV park, Pair-A-Dice. We were on the list for almost two years and our name finally came up last month. Yea! We now have a spot we can come and go from as we please without worrying about reservations.
Tuesday, September 15th, was a stay at home day. We got some chores done including re-covering a couple of our dining room chairs with faux leather. Wednesday we went out after lunch to do a couple of chores. We first went to the UPS store and picked up our mail. One of the things in the mail was some papers from our private membership park near Banning, California, Silent Valley. We first bought into Silent Valley in the summer of 2004, a year before we sold the house and went full time. We were drawn to it because a number of our RVing friends in the Indio Elks RV travel club were members. The dues at that time were around $500 a year and for that you got up to 120 days of camping at no cost. And, it was a really nice park with lots of amenities. It really is a good deal money wise if you get to use it. However, the dues are now over $700 a year and we are getting to Southern California less and less. In the last two years we were only there for one month. It was no longer cost effective. When we got our spot at the Escapees we knew that we would now be even less likely to spent time there, so we decided to try and find someone to take over the membership. Because it the membership involves a deeded undivided interest in a leasehold, you can't just stop paying dues and drop out. That creates credit risks and problems. You have to find someone to take over your interest.
Fortunately for us, Silent Valley for the last couple of years has been seeing increased interest from younger people and within a month of putting a notice on the Silent Valley Facebook site we had a couple of nibbles. One finally decided and went up last weekend and signed the papers to take over our interest in the park. The papers we got today were our release and transfer of the interest in the park to the new people. We had to get them signed and notarized and then return them to Silent Valley, which will relieve us of our responsibility for the dues. Yea! Perfect timing. The monthly amount we will be paying at the Escapees park is only about $10 more than we were sending to Silent Valley each month and we can use the Escapees park year round if we want. Life is good. The UPS store, which does do notary work was really busy, so we went to our bank and they did the notary for us. And, it was free. Yea! We also stopped at the medical center and made appointments in October for our annual check ups and prescription renewals. After our errands we headed back to the coach, stopping at KFC to pick up dinner. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach.
Thursday, September 17th, we
walked over to the clubhouse for the park's monthly Board Meeting.
The park has a nine member board of directors that is responsible for
management of the park and it's assets. The meeting was fairly well
attended, with most of the more or less full time residents in
attendance. After the meeting we stayed for panel discussion with
the candidates for election to the board later in the year. Four of
the seats on the board are up for election. After the meeting we
went back to the coach and pretty much stayed in for the rest of the
day. I went out for a quick run to the post office to mail the
papers back to Silent Valley, I wanted to get that off our plate as
quickly as possible.
Friday, September 18th
, we
left the park after lunch and went out to check on some more of our
own geocaches. We checked four of the caches that are in the far
northern part of the Pahrump Valley. After checking caches we went
to Walmart for some supplies, then headed back to the coach. We
stayed in for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Saturday we
went out for a tour of the Escapees park courtesy of Charlene
Darling, the wife of the current park Board President. She was very
nice and took us around to all the different facilities and explained
things. The park has a very nice Quonset hut with all kinds of
tools, metal and woodworking, hand tools, lumber and supplies, all of
which is available to any owner. They also have a vehicle
maintenance pit, which would be handy if I still did my own car
service, along with a wash rack and air pump station. It was a very
informative tour. About 1:00 we left and went to the Lakeside
Casino, which is just down the road from the park, and had lunch in
their cafe. They have pretty good food at a reasonable price. After
lunch we stayed and gamed for an hour or so. I broke even and Jackie
lost $20. We then checked on a couple more of our own caches that
are in the southern part of the valley. We went back to the coach
and relaxed for an hour or so, then at 4:30 we left and drove to the
Elks Lodge for karaoke. Tonight was the first karaoke in about six
months, but most of the people there were familiar to us from last
year. Lots of good singers. The KJ had some problems with his
equipment which slowed things down a bit. I guess after not doing it
for six months it takes a little time to get everything right again.
While I was in the back room singing and chatting with our friends
Jackie went to the bar and played poker on the slot machine. She
ended up winning $100! More than made up for what she lost earlier
in the day. We left about 9:00, the first time we have been out
after dark in a long time. After we got home we watched a little TV
and went to bed.
Sunday, September 20th, we left the coach after lunch and drove out to the north side of town to a second hand store we like to visit from time to time. It is called Building 160 and has a little bit of everything. We didn't find anything that we couldn't live without. After that visit we went to Home Depot to pick up a couple of things and look at some stuff for our yard later in the year. I bought an 8 foot ladder, which just barely fit into the car, and a few other little things for projects around the lot. After shopping we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach. Monday was a stay at home day. I got some chores done, put a florescent light fixture in the shed, washed the car, and did a few other little things. Jackie spent some time with her new rock painting hobby. Other than that we spent the day and evening relaxing.
Tuesday, September 22nd, the first full day of Fall. I spent some time in the morning working on creating a few new geocache containers so we could put a few more caches out around Pahrump. After lunch we went out to scout some new locations for caches and found two likely spots. Once both caches are physically placed I will submit them to the online reviewer for approval. Once they are approved and published other cachers will be able to come find them. After driving around for a couple of hours we went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Wednesday we left the coach around 12:30 and drove to the Red Sky BBQ restaurant, one of favorite Pahrump eateries. We both had the full rack of ribs, eating half and taking half home for dinner tomorrow. After lunch we checked on our mail and then did a little more scouting of the area for potential geocaches. We found another good spot and set a cache there to be activated later. After our touring we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the day inside.
Thursday, September 24th, we stayed at home for the most part. About 2:00 our friend Regina Rubinstein came over to visit. She and her husband Richard live in an RV park less than a mile from the Escapees park. We first met them during our times at the Wine Ridge park. Regina loves karaoke and we have spent many hours at karaoke parties with she and Richard. She now works as a cafeteria worker at a middle school here in Pahrump and she stopped by after work for a quick visit to see our new digs. After Regina left we went out to do some work on one of the three new geocaches we are putting out. Before a cache can be published on the caching site it has to be approved by a volunteer reviewer. The reviewer had some concerns about one of the caches and we had to change it a bit.
Speaking of our new caches, one of them is one I have been thinking about for a couple of years and finally got around to getting it hidden and written up. It is called Binion's Treasure and it is located adjacent to what was Benny Binion's ranch in what is now central Pahrump. Benny Binion is known for the fact that he opened Binion's Horseshoe Casino and Hotel in downtown Las Vegas in 1951. Benny went to prison in 1953 for tax evasion and ultimately lost his gaming license, but except for a brief period in the early 1950's, the casino remained owned and operated by members of the Binion family until 2004. At the time the ranch was built Pahrump was a general store at the end of dirt road. The ranch also remained in the Binion family until 2019 when the property was sold for $1 million. Since the 60's there have been consistent rumors that Benny Binion had buried millions of dollars worth of silver, rare coins, and other valuables on his property in Pahrump to avoid having to pay taxes. Dozens of people have been arrested over the years excavating or otherwise prowling the Binion property in search of the alleged buried treasures. None of Benny's alleged treasure has ever been found. The Binion ranch was quite the local legend her in Pahrump. After our drive to the new cache we went back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Dinner was the other half of yesterday's BBQ ribs from Red Sky.
Friday, September 25th, we left the coach after lunch and drove into town to do a Walmart run and check our mail. After Walmart we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the day inside. The smoke from the California fires is still pretty evident here in Nevada, so we don't spend a lot of time in the afternoon outside. Still too warm and a little too smokey. All three of our new caches were activated this morning and within a couple of hours all three had been found by one of the local geocachers. Saturday we went out about 1:00 for a late lunch. We first stopped at a new Thai restaurant not too far from the RV park, but they were only doing take out. We then went to an Indian restaurant in town that has great food, but they weren't opening until 3:00. We ended up at Chat Thai, one of our favorite places and had a great meal. After lunch we went back to the coach and relaxed for a couple of hours. About 5:00 we left again and went to the Elks Lodge for Saturday night karaoke, meeting our friends Len and Debbie Forrest, and Tom and Phyllis Howell. Both couples are into karaoke and we have known both of them for years from our stays up at Wine Ridge RV park. It was a big crowd, with a long rotation, but I got to do three songs and listen to a lot of other good singers. Jackie spent some time at the bar slot machine, but didn't make any money tonight. We left around 9:00 and went back to the coach. We watched a little TV and went to bed.
Sunday, September 27th was a stay at home day. My brother Russ and his wife Zen came up to visit, arriving around 1:00. They live in North Las Vegas and Russ works at the Golden Nugget Casino in Downtown Vegas. We had a very nice visit. They usually come up once or twice when we are in Pahrump, but this is the first time at the new home base. I took Russ on a little tour of the facilities and he was impressed, especially with the workshop building. We spent most of the visit just sitting and talking. We had not seen them since about this time last year. About 6:30 we served dinner, lasagna and garlic bread. They brought an apple pie which we had for dessert. They left around 7:30 and drove home. We spent the remainder of the night with the TV. Monday was also a stay at home day. We went to the laundry room here at the park before lunch and started our laundry. We were all finished by 1:30 with clean clothes and bedding. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing.
Tuesday, September 29th, we went out after lunch to do a Walmart run. We also stopped for mail and I stopped by the Sheriff's Office to pick up my paperwork for my concealed carry permit renewal. After our errands we went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the day. Wednesday was mostly a stay at home day. We go out mid afternoon for an appointment that Jackie had with an ophthalmologist. She has been having more and more difficulty seeing clearly since the beginning of the year and wanted to get a good, medical grade exam on her eyes. The doctor told her that she does have cataracts in both eyes and will need to have surgery to take out the cloudy lenses. We have to go back in a couple of weeks to figure out what level of surgery to have, how much it will cost, and when we can get it done. After the doctor we headed back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the day.
Thursday, October 1st, another month in history books. Today is the third anniversary of the mass shooting in Las Vegas so that was what the local news channels were all covering. We went out after lunch to get our toes done. I just get mine cut, Jackie gets a full pedi. After the pedi we did a Walmart run and also stopped at the Dollar Tree for a few more Halloween decorations. After we got home we just relaxed for the rest of the day.
The beginning of the new month marks a good spot to close this chapter out and get it online. Until next time, think about this. You may be a poor driver if your GPS says, “in 500 feet, turn left and stop the vehicle. I’ll be getting out.” See ya soon.
