Visting Family and Friends in Central California

Hi there, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Friday, July 1^st, when we traveled from Santa Maria, California, on the cool Pacific coast, to Fresno, California, in the HOT San Joaquin Valley. On Saturday we went out after lunch and drove to the home of Jackie's 2^nd cousin, Stephanie Kopf, and her husband Ron. They also have three kids, Tyler, Bryce, and Madison. Stephanie's mom, Sue, with whom Jackie grew up, was up from the Torrance, California area to visit for the holiday. Shortly after arriving at Stephanie's house we went over to another home, a friend of Stephanie's, who's house they are taking care of while the family is on vacation. This house is a very big place in a gated community, but more important on this 100 plus weekend, it has a pool! I didn't bring my suit, but Madison and Ron were enjoying the pool. Everyone just sat around and visited. We brought some snacks, Stephanie had some, and later in the afternoon they ordered in some pizza and wings. We had a great time catching up and didn't leave until about 8:00. We headed back to the coach and stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, July 3^rd, we enjoyed the Sunday paper and talk shows before heading back over to see Stephanie and her family. We again spent the afternoon in the “borrowed” home, enjoying the pool and spending time with family. We had picked up some KFC for the group on the way over, so we had a great dinner. We left around 7:30 and went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Monday, July 4^th, Happy 4th of July! We left the coach about 2:30 and drove over to Stephanie's house for the afternoon. This time we were actually at her house, not the one they are watching, the reason being that they are going to BBQ today. We sat around and talked with everyone, including Stephanie's oldest son Tyler, whom we hadn't yet seen this trip, and his girlfriend. For dinner Ron BBQed some nice tri-tips and we had that with beans, potato salad, and corn on the cob. A real all American meal for the Fourth of July. We stayed and talked until about 8:00 when we headed back to our place. After we got back to the coach we could hear a lot of personal fireworks going off in the surrounding neighborhoods, but when I looked outside I couldn't see any of the various public fireworks shows. I guess they were all more out in the suburbs. We watched TV until it was time for bed.

Tuesday we had a day on our own. Stephanie told us that she and the kids were doing stuff all day and wouldn't be home until late. It was still pretty hot, but we went out and did some geocaching anyway. We got five new finds and one DNF before we decided we were sweaty enough. We did some shopping at Sam's Club and then Walmart before heading back to the coach. About 6:00 we were craving some Mexican food, so we headed out to a local place called Toledo's that had good Yelp ratings. The food was very good and plentiful and the service was excellent. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched TV the rest of the night.

Wednesday, July 6^th was another travel day. We had the coach all packed up and ready to head north to Carmichael, California, a suburb of Sacramento. We had about 180 miles to drive. The electric is always the last thing to get unplugged and put away before we leave. I did that, got back in the coach, ready to drive and found that there was no electric in the coach at all, no 120 VAC and no 12 VDC, nothing. Normally when I pull the plug from shore power the inverter kicks in and provides 120 VAC to the outlets and the 12 VDC power never goes away. The engine started and ran fine, so there was nothing wrong with the engine batteries. I started doing some troubleshooting and one of the first things I did was take my multimeter and checked the house batteries. They were fine, right at a little over 12 volts. I then checked on the other side of the battery cutoff switch for the house batteries, no voltage at all. I found my culprit. I disconnected the house batteries and then took the switch off the wall. This is a small rotary switch that is there to allow you to cut all the 12 volt power. I have never had to use it in the ten plus years we have had the coach. Nonetheless, when I took it apart it was burned out. Some internal screws had worked loose over the years allowing the internal connector to not make good contact and the heat buildup burned out one of the contacts. Since the switch is only there if you want to cut the power, I just connected all the wires from the switch together on one bolt, put some electrical tape on it and yippee, we had power again. It's only a workaround fix, I will order a switch online and get it replaced soon, but I really don't need it for the short time we will be traveling.

Once that problem was solved we dumped the tanks, since the Fresno lodge didn't have sewer at the sites, and were on the road to Carmichael only about an hour later then our planned departure time. We had no further incidents and arrived at the Carmichael Elks Lodge about 3:30. There were plenty of open spots and we got parked and hooked up in short order. We will be here for a total of six days. After we got settled in we went to In and Out to pick up a quick dinner, our first meal for the day. We then watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching in the area. We were able to get six new finds, and on DNF, in a matter of hours. At one of the caches we actually ran into another cacher who walked up while we were searching. This happens rarely enough to merit a mention when it does. After caching we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the evening there.

Friday, July 8^th, we went out after lunch and did a few geocaches before heading to Costco for some supplies. We were able to get four new finds, and one DNF, before we stopped at the local Costco. We then headed back to the coach and put everything away. We relaxed in the coach for a while and at about 6:00 we walked over to the Carmichael Elks for drinks and dinner. While we were still having a cocktail our friend Curt Minard walked in. We met Curt and Sharon Minard about six years ago through Peggy and Vernon Bullock. Curt and Sharon are members of a Northern California RV travel club along with Peggy and Vernon. Curt and Sharon have a Monaco Knight with the same nice floor plan as ours, theirs is just one year newer. Sharon had gone to the State Fair with her daughter, so Curt came over to have dinner with us. They live in Carmichael and are members of this lodge. We had a very nice steak sandwich for dinner and enjoyed our time talking to Curt. We haven't seen them in a couple years, although we stay in contact through social media. We will be with Curt and Sharon again in just a few days when we all gather at the Bullock house for their fourth annual 50^th anniversary party. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Saturday, July 9^th, we left the coach about 11:00 and headed for the California State Fair. The Elks Lodge is only about six or seven miles from the Cal Expo grounds and the State Fair started yesterday. We first made a quick stop at the Minard's house to pick up some tickets that Sharon had. She had called Jackie this morning and told her that she had two entry tickets and two monorail ride tickets left over from a booklet that Sharon's daughter had bought. Since entry into the fair was $10 even for seniors, this was a good savings. We then stopped at Denny's for a quick lunch. Experience had taught us that all you get at fairs of any kind is poor quality, yet highly overpriced, food.

We arrived at the fairgrounds about 12:30, paid our $10 to park and joined 50,000 or so other happy Californians at the State Fair. We have been to a lot of county fairs in our travels, and even the Arizona State Fair once, but this was the first here in California. We had a great time, checked out most of the exhibits and the commercial buildings. We ended up spending nearly five hours walking around the fairgrounds. We bought a few little things, but really didn't spend much money thanks to the free entry tickets. We left the fairgrounds about 5:00, went back home, bought a pizza and stayed in the rest of the evening resting our aching feet.

Sunday, July 10^th, we left the coach about 2:30 and went out to do some errands before going to visit some friends in the area. We went back to a geocache that we had DNFed a couple days ago to try again. We had gotten a hint from the cache owner and, sure enough, there was the cache, still in place after having not been found for over a year. Yea, fixed a DNF! We then stopped at Costco and picked up another six pack of vodka. We realized that in less than two weeks we will be going into Oregon for a couple of months. Oregon liquor laws are very restrictive, which makes liquor up there very expensive. We wanted to have as big a supply as we reasonably could.

After our errands we went over to Kathy Yarbrough's house in nearby Citrus Heights for a visit. Kathy and Jackie have been friends for decades, having met many years ago at work. Kathy and her husband Bill have a nice manufactured home in a 55+ community. Kathy was babysitting for her six year old granddaughter Bella, whom we have watched grow up over the years. We had a very nice visit and Kathy made dinner for the five of us. We visited until about 8:30 when we left to go back to the coach, where we spent the remainder of the evening watching TV.

Monday, July 11^th, we went out after lunch and did our laundry. After laundry we did a Walmart run, stocking up for our trip to the little mountain town of Mineral for the Bullock's annual party. Mineral has only 123 people and a small general store, so we wanted to be sure we had everything we needed for the six day stay. Once we had all our chores done we went home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday we were packed up and ready to travel by about 10:30. Today we are going about 140 miles north to the town of Red Bluff, California. The trip was uneventful and we arrived at the Red Bluff Elks Lodge about 2:30. We are only staying for one night, so we unhooked the car and did the minimal setup necessary to stay overnight. We did leave the campground briefly to go get the car washed. It was so dirty we weren't even sure what the color was anymore. We also did one geocache, just so we could drop all our travel bugs off in a new location. After our errands we went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, July 13^th, we left the Elks about 10:30 and started the 42 mile trip east to the town of Mineral. Although it is only 42 miles, the elevation goes from only 300 feet in Red Bluff to nearly 5,000 in Mineral. Because of the climb we didn't tow the car. The first time we came up here, four years ago, we towed the car and the coach overheated badly. I had to stop several times to let it cool down. Since then we drive the coach and car separately. The coach still got hot on today's trip, but only for short periods before cooling down again. We arrived in Mineral about noon and got settled into the only RV park in the area.

It is a very rustic park, but does have full hookup sites, although with only 30 amp electric. The site we have is nice, but like all the sites, there is no way to get satellite reception with the coach roof mounted antenna. After we got everything else done I set up our spare outside dish so we would have some TV. It took me almost two hours to get everything working and find a signal, but we now have TV. It isn't HD because our little spare antenna doesn't do HD, but we get TV and can record our shows, so we can get by. While I was working on the TV Dave and Karen VanEgdon moved into the site two down from us. They are also here for the festivities this weekend.

About 5:00 we went over to Peggy and Vernon's “cabin” for dinner. I say cabin in quotes because it is actually about 4,000 square feet of two story house now. When they bought it years ago it actually was an old forest service cabin of less than 1,000 square feet, but they have really improved it into a very nice property. The reason we are here is that four years ago Peggy and Vernon had a 50^th Wedding Anniversary party here and it was so much fun their kids decided they needed to do it every year. This is the fourth annual 50^th party. In addition, on Saturday, Peggy and Vernon's son Larry is getting married at the house, so it is a wedding party too. We last saw Peggy and Vernon in April when we parted company in Apache Junction, Arizona after spending three months traveling with them. The group at the house was small today. In addition to us and the Bullock's there were Karen and Dave, and their 7 year old granddaughter Cherish, and Larry and his bride to be Dawn. Peggy cooked a ham and we brought some salad. There were also scalloped potatoes and cake. We had a great meal and sat and talked until almost 9:00 before we headed back to our coach for the evening.

Thursday, July 14^th, we went over to Peggy's house in the early afternoon. I brought in all the musical equipment I would need for the party and the wedding and started to get set up. We spent most of the afternoon at the house, talking and enjoying the great mountain weather. Another of our RVing friends, Curt and Sharon Minard came in today and parked right across from us in the RV park. Tonight we had a cook your own meat night and we had some nice steaks. Tonight there were probably 20 people who were at the house for dinner. We had another great evening and went back to the RV park about 8:30 or so where we relaxed the rest of the night.

Friday we were up early and over at Peggy's house by 9:00 for breakfast sandwiches. We had bacon and egg sandwiches, fruit and some sweet rolls and it was good. After breakfast we went back to the coach for a while, returning to Peggy's place about 4:00. Tonight was a heavy snack night with most people bringing some snack dish to share. Jackie made her taquito casserole which is always a big hit. After dinner I started doing some karaoke. We only had three other singers beside myself, Sharon, Pat, and Tara, but we had a great time and sang until about 8:30 or so when everyone started packing up to head to their own places. There were probably 30 people tonight. Some are in the RV park, some are in the only motel in town, some are locals, and some even pitched tents in the backyard. It is a busy place.

Saturday July 16th, I was up early to finish up preparations for the wedding music. Dawn, the bride, had some very specific requests for music before and during the ceremony. Normally that is not an issue with Amazon streaming music, but the internet at the house is terrible, so I am having to download hard copies of the songs and storing them on my tablet. If I had to rely on the internet at the house we wouldn't have much music. I finally did get everything setup and working right and we went over to the house about 1:00 or so to visit. Today they are expecting about 70 people, many of whom we have met over the years at the house, others that we have not. We had a fun time visiting with people. Most of the Bullock family was there. Their other son Matt and his wife Roxanne were there, as well as their daughter Trinity and son Troy. Troy is the Marine stationed in Yuma. He is on leave so he and his wife Makayla were also able to come. Peggy and Vernon's daughter Katie, the professional chef, was also there helping with the cooking for the party.

At 4:00 the wedding took place in the backyard and it was very nice. The weather was gorgeous, the setting very nice, and the music came off without a hitch. I played sound man for the rest of the evening, with some easy listening music during the photo shoot and dinner, which was also served outside. It was a very Western wedding and the food was BBQ chicken and tri-tip, along with a lot of side dishes brought by guests. After dinner we did some dancing and everyone seemed to have a great time. I finally had to shut down the music about 9:15 when I couldn't see the computer keyboard or mixer controls any more. The backyard gets very dark when the sun goes down. We helped do a little cleanup and then headed back to our place.

Sunday, July 17^th, we were again up early, this time cooking biscuits at 8:00 for the breakfast. Peggy distributed the biscuit cooking among a number of the guests and we had 40 to make. We then went down to the house at 9:00 for a biscuits and gravy breakfast. Sharon Minard had made about three gallons of great sausage gravy and we had a great time. There were probably 30 people at breakfast, but today will be the day most of them leave. After breakfast I took Jackie home and then went back to the house to disassemble the audio equipment and bring it back to the coach to get packed up. No more music duties.

After I got everything put back in it's place in the coach we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. About 4:00 we went down to the house to have a leftovers dinner. Tonight it was only nine people and we had another good dinner, snacking on all the little bits of things left over from previous dinners. We had plenty to eat and had a great time. We left about 8:00 and went back to the coach where we watched TV the rest of the evening.

Monday, July 18^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove down to the house. It is now just us and the Bullock's, so they got in our car and we drove to the town of Chester, about 35 miles east. Chester is one of the towns that sits on the shores of Lake Almanor, a pretty large mountain reservoir. We went to one of the local restaurants that sits on the lake shore and had a nice lunch out on the back patio. After lunch we drove around through town for a few minutes and then headed back to the hours. We did manage to pick up a couple of geocaches while we were out.

We dropped Peggy and Vernon off at the house and we went back to the coach and relaxed for an hour or so. About 3:30 we went back to the house and I helped Vernon load his pickup with a dozen bags of trash to take to the dump. We dropped off the trash and then came back and the four of us just sat around and talked. Later in the evening Jackie and Peggy made a chili relleno casserole and the four of us had dinner. We talked for a while longer and finally headed back to the coach about 7:30 where we watched TV the rest of the night.

Tuesday was another moving day. Today we are only going to Redding, about 75 miles northwest. We had everything packed up and ready to go by about 10:30. Peggy and Vernon came by to say goodbye, but also told us that they told us that they too were going to Redding sometime today to take Vernon to the doctor. He was complaining of chest pain yesterday and it was still bothering him this morning. He has had heart attacks in the past and just had a shunt put in a month or two ago. We were only on the road for a half hour or so when Peggy called and said that the doctor wanted him in the ER in Redding to be checked out ASAP. They were heading down the hill and wanted to ask us to stop so they could drop their dog Belle off with us while they went to the hospital. Peggy wasn't sure if Vernon would have to stay overnight, so she didn't want to leave Belle at home in case they didn't get back up there today. Belle and our cats get along fine, so we said sure and stopped at the bottom of the hill, before getting on the freeway, and waited for them.

They arrived in about ten minutes, dropped off Belle and we continued our trip to Redding. We arrived at the Redding Elks Lodge about 1:30 and quickly settled in for our one night stay here. Within a half hour the animals settled in too and just wandered around the coach ignoring each other. We spent the rest of the evening in the coach, except when we had the pleasure of walking the dog. Reminds me why we have cats. We heard from Peggy about 9:30 that they had given Vernon a whole bunch of tests and finally determined that it was not a heart issue, but was rather some sort of muscle strain in his chest. Weird, but good news. They came by about 10:00 and picked up Belle and we went to bed.

Wednesday, July 20^th, we were packed up and on the road about 9:30, heading north and leaving the People's Republic of Kalifornia, heading for southern Oregon. After a fuel stop, and a lunch stop we arrived at the Valley of the Rogue State Park about 2:30. This park is located about halfway between Medford and Grants Pass, Oregon. It is right off of I-5 and on the shore of the Rogue River. We had reservations so we were able to check in and get set up quickly. We did the basic set up and then relaxed for the rest of the day. We will be here for seven days. Although there are a lot of trees I was able to get a spot that we had used before on other trips and I was able to get a good satellite signal. We have full hookup, 50 amp and good wifi. All is good.

Our arrival in Oregon makes a good closing for this episode. We will be traveling in Oregon for about a month, then up to Washington for a while. Until next time, remember the words of Mae West. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” See ya soon.

The Summer 2016 Travels Begin

Hi there, welcome back to the story. Our last episode concluded on Wednesday, June 15^th when we left Silent Valley, near Banning, California, and drove the high desert town of Lancaster, California. Lancaster sits in the Antelope Valley of north Los Angeles County and is paired with the City of Palmdale. Both cities are at about 2,600 feet elevation and both have populations near 160,000. Although Lancaster started life as a railroad town, both cities are now heavily reliant on the U.S. Military as their lifeblood. The huge Edwards Air Force base and range is located just north of Lancaster in the Mohave Desert, and Palmdale airport is host to much of the military's air assets development program. Air Force Plant 42 and the Lockheed Martin Skunk works, both highly classified, are located there. Both Boeing and Northrop Grumman also have facilities on the grounds. This little corner of the Mohave Desert is the aerospace center of the western United States. We are staying at the Lancaster Elks Lodge, a very nice, large lodge with a big RV park. The sites are water and 30 amp, but that is sufficient for our relatively brief four day stay.

Thursday, June 16^th, my eldest daughter Tye's birthday. We left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching. The last time we were in the Antelope Valley was just prior to our beginning to geocache, so we have no finds up here yet. We were able to get ten new finds, and one DNF, in just a couple hours. One of the caches was a virtual, meaning no physical container, which required us to walk down several blocks of downtown Lancaster on the Aerospace Walk of Fame. All along the main street there were monuments, several dozen in total, memorializing famous people in aerospace, like Chuck Yeager, the early astronauts, and others who brought the country such great success in aeronautics. The cache required us to answer seven questions, the answer for which were on the monuments or murals in the downtown area. It was a lot of fun, and educational too. After caching we stopped at Winco for some groceries and then went back to the coach where we relaxed the rest of the day and evening.

Friday we left the RV park about 11:30 or so and drove to nearby downtown Palmdale for lunch. On the way into town on Wednesday we had noticed a Creole and Cajun restaurant listed on yelp. It had very high ratings and we like Cajun food, so we thought we would try it. It was a small storefront place just off the main drag. They had a small menu, but what they did have was great. Jackie had the shrimp etouffee and I had a shrimp poo boy. Both of our dishes were outstanding. We also bought a pound of their homemade andulliee sausage to go, for use in a future dish. After lunch we set out to do some shopping, hitting a number of stores. We also picked up a couple of geocaches for good measure. We finally finished shopping about 4:00 and then went home and spent the rest of the evening in the coach.

Saturday, June 18^th, we went out after lunch to the movies. It was too hot to cache, so we went to see Keanu, a movie that has been out a few months. It is a comedy about a couple of middle class black guys who end up getting involved with several drug gangs while chasing a stray kitten that one them has fallen in love with. Other than a little too many “n” and “f” bombs it was pretty dumb, and pretty funny. And the kitten, who looked a lot like our Benji, was drop dead cute. After the movie we stopped at a couple stores, then headed back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Sunday was a travel day. We are in the middle of a major heat wave in the western U.S., so we were packed up and out early, leaving Lancaster about 9:00, heading northwest to Bakersfield, about 85 miles away. We were able to beat the heat and climb the Tehachapi grade without any heating issues. We got into Bakersfield about 11:00 and settled into an RV park for a one night stay. We didn't even unhook the car, just stayed in for the entire day.

Monday, June 20^th, the summer solstice and the longest day of the year, the first official day of summer. The heat wave was still blanketing the entire Southwestern U.S. in triple digit temps, so we were again on the road early, about 8:30, so as to beat the heat. Our trip today was about 130 miles west to Santa Maria and the Elks Lodge there. The trip went pretty well, the coach got a little warm going up the grade to top the coastal range, but it wasn't in the critical range and quickly cooled down once we started down the other side. Also, the other side of the range was a lot cooler, with the ocean breeze coming in. We arrived at the Santa Maria Elks about 11:30. At first we were afraid we wouldn't have a spot, despite having reservations, because all the sites were full. However, within a minute a coach pulled out and we had our space. We registered for our eleven day stay and got settled into our full hookup 50 amp site. We were pretty beat from two days of early travel in a row, so after we got set up we just stayed in and relaxed the rest of the day. We look forward to seeing Jackie's family over the next week and a half.

Tuesday, June 21^st, we left the coach after lunch and headed to what is called the Five Cities area, the cities being Arroyo Grande, Oceano, Grover Beach, Nipomo and Pismo Beach. We first did a little geocaching in Arroyo Grande and Grover Beach. In about an hour we were able to get five new finds. After that we hit a couple of stores, eventually finishing at a Von's where we picked up some fried chicken and fixings. We would have gone to KFC, but it seems that there are none in the area. With dinner in the bag we drove to Pismo Beach to spend some time with Jackie's Aunt Donna and her grandson Corey, who is her caretaker. We had last seen Donna and Corey last November when we stopped in for a week after our trip back east for rallies.

We had a great time catching up and trading stories. In November Donna had just gotten out of the hospital after a bout with pneumonia and was pretty weak. Now she looks like her old self, very upbeat and talkative. She will be turning 91 next week, one of the reasons we are here at this time, and she doesn't move around real well, but mentally she is doing good. We had the fried chicken for dinner finally left about 8:00 to head back to Santa Maria and home. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV.

Wednesday, we left the coach after lunch and went to Walmart for some supplies. After we went back to the coach and put the groceries away we drove to Pismo Beach and the outlet mall to shop. The only thing we bought was some new underwear for both of us. We did a couple of geocaches and then drove to Donna's house to visit. We chatted and had cocktails with Donna and Corey. We left about 6:00, drove back to Santa Maria and had dinner in the coach. We spent the rest of the night in.

Thursday, June 23^rd, we headed out after lunch to do some more geocaching. Today we stuck around Nipomo, a small town about ten miles north of Santa Maria. We were able to score eight finds in a couple hours, along with one new DNF. After caching we went up to Donna's to visit and have cocktails. We stayed for a couple hours, leaving a little after six to head back home. Since it was kind of late we stopped at In and Out for dinner, taking home a couple of burgers. We then spent the rest of the night watching TV.

Friday was a stay at home day. We did some cleaning and small chores, but spent most of the day relaxing. About 6:00 we went over to the Elks Lodge for their Friday night “grill your own” dinner night. The Santa Maria Lodge is one of the larger lodges in the country, with close to 3,000 members and it's Friday night dinner is very popular in town. It is open to public, although Elks members get discounted prices. When you go in the lodge you pick whether you want steak (rib eye or New York), chicken, fish, pork chop or baby backs. You pay for the meal and they give you a colored ticket which you later exchange for your protein later. Whenever you are ready you pick up your meat, go out back to the cook room, and cook it yourself. They have a huge deep pit, wood fired BBQ, seasonings, and lots of BBQ forks. You write your name on a little wooden stick and put it in your steak so you can keep track of it among the dozens on the grill.

We stopped in the bar first for a cocktail and ended up sitting next to a couple that happened to be in the motor home just down from ours in the RV park. We struck up a conversation with them and ended up sitting with them in the dining room. Seating is family style around very long tables. We cooked our meat and then went through the buffet line for the rest of the stuff. They had baked or french fried potatoes, beans, veggies, garlic bread and a salad bar. We had a great meal and talked to the other couple, who were from Santa Barbara, for an hour or so. By the time we left about 7:15 the dining room, which held probably 300, was full and people were still coming in. After dinner we walked back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Saturday, June 25^th, the first thing we heard was the rumble of souped up engines starting around 7:00 as participants for the Elks annual car show started rolling in on the lawn right behind the RV park. We could look out the window and watch them getting set up. We were here a couple of years ago when they had the car show and it was great. We had made arrangements to have Corey, Donna and Jackie's cousin Pia come over for an early dinner. One of Jackie's other cousins, John, who lives down in Torrance, also came up to Pismo to visit, so he was coming over too. I walked over to the show and took some pictures early, before it got too crowded.

The rest of the family came over around 2:30 or so and I, Corey, John and Pia all walked over to the show to look around. They had probably 60 or 70 cars and trucks and it was a great show. We took some pictures and ogled the cool cars. The show broke up about 3:00 and they all started to pull out. We went back to the coach and sat around and talked. We had dinner about 6:00. Jackie made a nice meatloaf, broccoli and mashed potatoes, and Pia brought a salad. We had a great dinner and then talked some more. Everyone left and headed home about 7:30 and we spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Sunday we left the coach about 12:30 and headed north for an afternoon at a winery in Avila Beach. Avila Beach is a small community just north of Pismo Beach. Jackie's cousin Pia is sort of an unofficial photographer for a lot of the local bands and musical groups. One of those groups was playing at a local winery this afternoon and we all decided to go. We stopped at Donna's house first, to pick up Donna and John, but Donna woke up with a cough and decided not to go. John still wanted to go, so the three of us left and drove to Avila Beach and the Kelsey See Canyon Winery. There were quite a few people already there when we arrived, just before the band started. The band, Back Bay Betty, was a light rock and jazz group of five and Pia knew a lot of the people there.

The party was out on the lawn, with a lot of tables and umbrellas. It was a good thing, because the winery was a bit up in the hills away from the ocean. It was in a valley and it was pretty hot. We got a bottle of Zin to split with everyone and we had some lunch. We knew there would not be any food, so we packed a picnic lunch for everyone. The band was actually pretty good and we stayed there until almost 4:00, listening to music, watching people dance, enjoying the wine and a nice afternoon. After we left we stopped at Donna's to drop John off, and went in for a cocktail. We left a little after six and went home, where we stayed in the rest of the evening.

Monday, June 27^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove to Pismo Beach to have lunch at the Splash Cafe. Splash is in downtown Pismo, just a block from the pier and beach, and is very well known for it's excellent clam chowder. We try to have lunch here at least once whenever we are in the Central Coast area. We missed it the last time we were here and were not about to repeat the mistake. It is not a very big place and we had to wait in line for about 15 minutes before we got to the order desk. Fortunately, we were able to find a seat right after we ordered. When it is really busy that can be a challenge too. I had a bowl of chowder and a fish sandwich. Jackie had chowder and some calamari. We had a wonderful meal, although for some reason Jackie's chowder was a little thinner than mine. Must have been the bottom of the vat or something. Almost everyone we know that has been to Pismo has been to Splash and we would highly recommend it.

After lunch we did some caching in the five-cities area, actually hitting all five cities for at least one cache. We were able to get ten new finds, and no DNFs, in a few hours. I always tell people that geocaching takes you places you wouldn't normally go to or find. Today proved that idea again. One of the caches took us to the Temple of the People, which is located in an unincorporated area between Avilla Beach and Oceano. The area is known as Halcyon and was founded in 1903, when there wasn't much development around these parts, by a religious organization called The Temple of the People. Originally founded in 1889 in New York state, the group moved to California and built the Halcyon Hotel and Sanatorium, where all manner of addiction and nervous ailments, as well as tuberculosis, were treated and which remained open until 1949. Other members of the Temple followed the founders to Halcyon from Syracuse, and made their living through farming, poultry, and handicrafts. The group owned nearly all the land of what was then Halcyon. In 1923 they built the Blue Star Memorial Temple, which still stands today and is operated as an unaffiliated church, still operated by members of the Temple of the People society. Jackie has been to this area a lot over the years, she even lived here briefly in the 80's, but never knew this place was here. Yea geocaching.

After our geocaching we went up to Donna's house for cocktails and to visit. We were originally going to order in some pizza for dinner, but we were so full from lunch that we decided not to. We stayed and visited with everyone until about 6:00 when we left and drove back to Santa Maria. We stayed in and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Tuesday we left the coach about 10:30 and went out to do our laundry. In the past it has been hard to find laundries in Santa Maria. They are all old, grubby and small. We found one on the south end of town that we have used the last couple times we have been here, but it is kind of the best of the bad. Today we lucked out and found a brand new laundry only a mile from the Elks Lodge. It is huge, nice new machines, and clean. We had a light, fast food, lunch and did our laundry. We then ran a couple of errands and headed back to the coach.

We spend a couple hours relaxing in the coach and getting things put away. We left again about 4:00 and drove to nearby Nipomo, the next town north, to meet everyone for a great dinner at our all time favorite steak house, Jocko's. We have written at length in past blog entries about how great Jocko's is. Esthetically it is a bit of a dump, and the wait can be really bad sometimes, but the quality and quantity of the food makes up for it all. We met Donna, Corey, Pia and John there and had a cocktail while we waited for our table. Tomorrow is Donna's 91^st birthday, so this was kind of the celebratory dinner. I had the large Spencer steak, which is a boneless rib eye, or is sometimes called a Delmonico steak. The steak was well over a pound and as always was preceeded by a huge salad, a veggie plate, and served with beans and a giant pile of french fries. The steak was cooked perfectly for me, charred outside, raw inside. Jackie had lamb chops, which were slightly overcooked this time, a rare misstep for Jocko's. Everyone enjoyed the meal, although it did get a little loud at times. After dinner we headed back to the coach with our big containers of leftovers, and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, June 29^th, we left the coach after lunch and I drove Jackie to Pismo Beach to meet Pia for a pedicure. Donna was supposed to be there too, but decided this morning she didn't want to go. After I dropped Jackie off I drove to another RV store where I was able to find a new door for my water heater. Somewhere on the road between Bakersfield and Santa Maria the door came open and apparently blew away. The new doors only come in white, so I will have to get some gray paint to try and match it to the body paint on the coach. Fortunately, it's in an area on the exterior where there is only one color, not in any of the graphics. After that I walked around the nearby outlet mall and an antique store, and then sat in the car and read until Jackie was done.

After Jackie was done with her toes we stopped and picked up some groceries and then went to Donna's house to visit. Today was Donna's 91^st birthday, so Corey made a lasagna and garlic bread for dinner. We brought some salad. After dinner we had cake and ice cream and sang happy birthday to Donna. We finally left about 7:30 and went back to Santa Maria, staying in the rest of the night with the TV.

Thursday, June 30^th, our last day here in Santa Maria. We went out after lunch to do some shopping. Our first stop was a Best Buy store so Jackie could have one of the techs there look at her phone. Yesterday, while we were at Donna's, her new Samsung phone spontaneously reset itself to factory specifications. That is not supposed to happen, certainly not just by picking the phone up. She lost all the changes she had made, including her contact list and photos. Last night I was able to get most everything reloaded and working again, but there were a few things she wanted done that I didn't know how to do. The Best Buy guy tried and fixed a couple of things, but she still does not have the photos she had taken over the last couple weeks. Since she wasn't doing backups she won't get them back either. We then went to Walmart and stocked up for our departure tomorrow. By the time we stopped at home and put away the groceries it was time to go to Donna's for one last visit before we departed the area. We had a great visit, although Pia had called and said she was not feeling well and wouldn't be over. We had some snack stuff for everyone and we talked until about 6:30 when we headed back over to Santa Maria for the rest of the night.

Friday, July 1^st, halfway through the year. Today was a travel day and we were packed up and on the road about 10:30. We were driving 175 miles northeast to Fresno, California and the Elks Lodge there. Since today was the first day of the Independence Day long weekend there was a lot of traffic on the roads. Nonetheless we arrived safely into the furnace of Hell. From temps in the 60's at the coast to 105 in Fresno, yikes. We got into our spot at the Elks Lodge and did the minimal setup. Since this lodge only has 30 amp electric we are limited to running one A/C and it is struggling to keep the living room cool. Since we were whipped after the long drive and the heat we just stayed in the rest of the day. We will be here for five days, provided we don't melt before then.

This marks a good place to close this chapter and get it published. Until the next time, remember the words I recently found in a fortune cookie. Don't take life too seriously. Laugh and smile at it once in a while. See ya soon.

Peace and Quiet in Silent Valley

Welcome back friends. Our last chapter ended on Monday, May 23^rd, after the first week of our month long stay in Silent Valley. Silent Valley is a large, time share type RV resort in the mountains south of Banning, California. It sits at 3,500 feet, in between the desert climate zone and the coastal climate zone. That makes the weather up here unpredictable. It is always at least ten or fifteen degrees cooler than the Coachella Valley, but sometimes it can be really cool and damp, more the coastal influence. That is what we have been dealing with the last few days, evening temps in the 40's, daytime in the mid 60's.

Tuesday, May 24^th, we had a stay at home day. I did some chores around the house, including climbing onto the roof of the RV to check on the wiring of our satellite antenna. We have been getting intermittent outages on certain channels and I think it has to do with the wiring. I did find that some of the coax connectors were just slightly loose, so I tightened everything up. We will see tomorrow if the problem persists. We got a few other chores done around the house.

At 4:30 we went over to the Babcock's for cocktails with them and the Wilson's. After cocktails we did some hamburgers on the grill for dinner. We had a good time, sharing stories and talking. We stayed until a little after 7:30 when we went back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, we left the RV park about 11:30, riding with the Babcock's, and went down the mountain to the Coachella Valley to do some errands. Our first stop was the Greek Islands restaurant in downtown Palm Springs. We discovered this place several years ago and like to go there whenever we have to go to Palm Springs, which is usually to pick up our mail when we are camped in Silent Valley. Silent Valley does not allow any kind of mail or package delivery, so when we get our mail forwarded to us we have it sent to the UPS service center in Palm Springs, by the airport.

We had a great lunch, with some calamari appetizer and then I had Biftecca, a Greek spiced ground round dish, and the other three all had gyros. Everyone was very happy with the meal and we were glad we introduced Ray and Suzie to the place. We left the restaurant and headed to the airport to pick up our mail. Once we had that done we then went to Palm Desert to a satellite TV dealer so that Ray could see if they had a part he needed for his satellite antenna. As it turns out they didn't, so we left there empty handed. We then made a stop at Costco where each of us got a few things. Once Costco was done we were back on the road to the RV park, arriving back around 4:30. We were kind of tired, so we spent the rest of the evening in the coach.

Thursday was a stay at home day. We both got a few things done around the coach, a couple minor repairs and some home office work. Some friends of ours, Larry and Renate Mitchell moved into a spot very near us. Larry is a retired fireman and the Mitchell's are good friends of the Babcock's. It was through them that we met the Mitchell's. We had cocktails with Ray and Suzie, but made dinner on our own, after which we watched TV until bed.

Friday, May 27^th, the first day of the long Memorial Day Weekend. The RV park is filling, with most of the more desirable spots now filled. Late comers are going to be stuck with smaller sites and those hidden under trees. Another stay at home day. We will probably stay up here for the entire holiday weekend. We got some chores done, did our walk, and enjoyed a much nicer, warmer day. In the afternoon Ray came over and we watched the season finale of NCIS. His DVR didn't record it for some reason and he wanted to see it. We went to the Babcock's about 4:30 for cocktails and dinner. Ray made a pork loin and veggies and we had a great meal. The Wilson's were also there for dinner and the Mitchell's stopped by after dinner and talked for a while. About 7:00 we went back to our coach and stayed in the rest of the night.

Saturday I left the coach about 9:30 and went down to the Village Center with Ray to attend the Annual Meeting of Silent Valley Club. It was the usual annual meeting, presentation of the audit reports, some reports on the state of the club. They did not have an election this year as there were an equal number of open board slots and candidates, so there was no need for the expense of an election. The meeting lasted an hour, after which I went back to the coach and had lunch.

We stayed around the coach today, doing a few chores, taking our exercise walk, the usual activities. About 6:00 we walked down to the Village Center again for their annual Veteran’s Recognition show, held on Memorial Day weekend every year. Ray, who is an Air Force Vet, went with us, along with Suzie. Gary is a Navy vet, but they had driven to eastern Los Angeles County for some medical tests today and were pretty tired, so they didn't come. The ceremony was very nice, all of the vets in the audience were invited up on stage to introduce themselves, their branch of service and years of service. There were probably thirty or forty vets, most of the Vietnam era, in attendance. Everyone got a small U.S. Flag and a nice eagle key chain from the Boy Scouts. After the ceremony we went back to the coach, had a light dinner and then watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, May29th, we left the coach about 10:00 and walked down to the Village Center for the craft and rummage sale. They had a lot of people with tables set up selling stuff. We spent about an hour walking around, bought a couple of little things, and then went back to our coach for lunch. At 1:00 we went to the dog show. Even thought both the Babcock's and Wilson's have dogs, they didn't want to go. We had a great time watching and playing with all the dogs. There were over thirty dogs in the show and they were cute. The winner of the talent catagory was this border collie that kept a balloon up in the air. We went for a little walk after the show and then went back to the coach.

I spent the rest of the afternoon outside watching the NASCAR race on TV. About 5:00 Ray and Suzie came over and we had cocktails. Larry and Renate also came over for a visit and Larry joined us to watch the end of the race. After the race we and the Babcock's cooked some steaks and had dinner together. The Mitchell's always eat mid afternoon, so they did not join us for dinner. By 8:00 Ray and Suzie had headed home and we watched a little TV until it was time for bed.

Monday, May 30^th, Happy Memorial Day, the day we set aside to honor those who gave their lives in defense of our freedoms. Today was another stay at home day, not because there was anything going on here at the park, but because everyone else will be on the road going home today. We had a very relaxing day in the coach.

Tuesday, May 31^st, we left the RV park and drove down the mountain about 11:30. We stopped at a local eatery called Gramma's Country Kitchen for lunch. We have been here a couple of times in the past and always enjoyed the meal. Jackie had an omelet and I had a pastrami sandwich. The pastrami was not as good as my favorite place in Cathedral City, Da Boyz, but it was better than you get at most places.

After lunch we set out to do some geocaching. It was pretty warm, in the high 80's, but we were still able to get ten new finds, along with two DNFs, in a few hours. After caching we went to Walmart for some supplies and so Jackie could get a pedi. After Walmart we went back up the hill, arriving back at the park a little after 5:00. We put away the refrigerated stuff and then took cocktails over to the Babcock's for happy hour. The Wilson's were there too and we sat and talked until close to 7:00. We then went back to our place and watched TV the rest of the night. Wednesday was another stay at home day. I got some chores done, including degreasing the radiator, a job that needed to be done before we started driving in the summer heat. The rear radiator on our coach tends to pick up oil and other fluids from the engine over time, causing it to be less efficient. Jackie also got some stuff done and we had a fairly quiet day.

Thursday, June 2^nd, we left the coach about 11:00 and drove down to Banning to see a movie. We saw Alice Through the Looking Glass, a Disney movie based on the second of the Alice in Wonderland books. The movie was produced and directed by Tim Burton and I really like Tim Burton movies, even though they are technically kids films. The story was similar to the books, but the visuals of the movie were fantastic. It was like being in a two hour dream. We both really enjoyed the movie, and no swear words! After the movie we went to Kohl's for some shopping and then stopped at a place in Banning called Fisherman's Market for a late lunch, early dinner. I had really good fish and chips and Jackie had a calamari steak that she said was good too. After eating we drove back up the mountains and got back in time to go down to the Babcock's for cocktails with them and the Wilson's. The Mitchell's left this morning to go home. Our friends Gloria and Bob Baron came up today, but we didn't see them. They are parked on the other side of the dry creek from our spot. They will be up here for while too, so we will get to spend some time with them. After cocktails we went home and stayed in the rest of the night.

Friday was another stay at home day. We went down to the village center after lunch and did our laundry again. We finished about 3:00 and then stopped and visited with Bob and Gloria Baron at their campsite for a while. About 5:00 we walked over to the Wilson's for happy hour and then dinner with them and the Babcock's. Gary had made a wonderful batch of chicken and broccoli Alfredo, along with salad and some garlic bread made by Ray. The six of us had a wonderful time. About 7:00 we left, went back to our place and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, June 4^th, our eleventh anniversary of full timing. It was June 4^th, 2005 that we took delivery on the coach and began living in it. It has been a great eleven years! We stayed up on the mountain again today. Jackie went down to the village center about 8:00 to set up a table with Suzie for the craft and swap meet. Jackie was trying to sell some clothes and some of the pop top lanyards she has made. There were not too many people in the park, so they didn't sell much. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the coach, doing chores and relaxing. About 5:00 we went to the Babacock's coach and had cocktails with them and the Wilson's. About 5:30 we walked over to the bar and had drinks and a light dinner with Bob and Gloria Baron. We finally got back to the coach about 8:00 and relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Sunday we left the coach about 11:30 and drove down the hill to Beaumont where we met the Babcock's and the Wilson's for lunch. We went to Patsy's Country Kitchen, one of our favorite places in town. I had lunch, most everyone else had a late breakfast. After lunch the other two couples headed back up to the RV park and we went to Walmart for some supplies. We were back at our coach before three. We had cocktails with the Babcock's and Wilson's at their place and then back to our own coach for the rest of the night.

Monday, June 6^th, the 72^nd anniversary of the D-Day Invasion of France. We had a stay at home day. I did some office work related to my Monaco International Regional Director duties. Jackie was cooking a crock pot meal of chicken breasts in a cream sauce for the group. About 4:00 we got a call from Ray that they were stuck at the vet's office with Casey, their dog. He had some kind of infection in or around his nose and they had to do more tests. About 5:00 the Wilson's came over for cocktails and then the four of us had dinner. The meal turned our really well. Although we missed the Babcock's, it was nice too to have some one on one time with Gary and Ramona. They went home about 7:00 and we watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, June 7^th, we went down the hill for lunch with the gang and also so Jackie could get a haircut. The six of us had lunch at a Chinese place called Wall, which had very high ratings on Yelp. It offered both buffet and menu order. Most of us had the buffet and it was terrible. It was clear that the people rating it high didn't have the buffet. Never again. After lunch we went to get Jackie's hair cut and then a quick stop at a grocery store. We also picked up a couple of geocaches since we hadn't cached in a while. It was too hot to do a lot, but we got two new finds, one of which was an old DNF from several years ago. Yea! After that we headed back up the hill. We got with the Wilson's and Babcock's for cocktails, but no one wanted dinner, so about 7:00 we were back in our coach and watching TV for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, June 8^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove down the hill and then east to Palm Springs. We stopped at the UPS center by the airport to pick up our mail, then continued on to Palm Desert to Cactus Jack's where we met our buddy Barry Cohen for lunch. We had a great lunch, talking with Barry and with George, the owner of Cactus Jack's. After lunch we ran a few errands, Costco, Sam's and Walmart. We weren't buying much, but we were pricing new phones because Jackie's contract for her current Samsung Galaxy 5 is out and she wants a new phone. I want her old Samsung even more so I can get rid of the slow, clunky Motorola I have now. We then headed back to the RV park. We went to the Babcock's for cocktails around 5:00 and then Ray and Suzie served Ray's taco salad for dinner. His taco salad is something that we always have to have at least once when we spend any amount of time together. We talked until about 7:30 after which we went back to our place and relaxed the rest of the night.

Thursday we were heading back down the hill after lunch to go to Best Buy and the Verizon store in Beaumont, still checking on phones. We stopped at Best Buy and hooked up with TJ, one of the mobile communications specialists. She was very nice, very knowledgeable and very helpful. We ended getting Jackie's new phone there. She got the gold colored Samsung S-7 edge, their newest model. She had wanted her last phone in gold, but they didn't have any when we got it. TJ took care of all the transfer of data to the new phone and switching the numbers on the phones. Now Jackie has a nice new phone and I have a much faster and new to me Samsung S-5. TJ also threw in for free a screen protector and a wireless charger for Jackie's phone, almost a hundred dollars worth of stuff.

After Best Buy we stopped at Walmart for a couple things, including a new belt carrier for my new, larger smart phone. We then had to stop briefly at Best Buy again because we forgot to get the protection for the new phone. These new smart phones are close to a thousand dollars now, so you need to take out the damage and loss protection. After that we headed back up the hill. We had the Babcock's and Wilson's over tonight for cocktails and then we had leftovers from Tuesday night, the chicken and rice dish that the Babcock's missed because they got hung up at the vet. Everyone enjoyed dinner and by 7:30 we were alone with the TV for the night.

Friday, June 10^th, we had a stay at home day. Both of us spent several hours working with our new phones, setting them up and getting them to our liking. I also spent some time doing trip planning for the summer travel time. About 5:00 the Wilson's and Babcock's came over for happy hour, joined a little later by Bob and Gloria Baron. We all sat around and talked for a while and then did some lamb and beef on the BBQ. The Wilson's didn't stay for dinner, but we and the Baron's and Babcock's had a great meal and were able to eat outside for a change since the weather cooled a little. By 8:00 everyone had gone back to their own coaches and we watched TV the rest of the night.

Saturday was, for the most part, a stay at home day. It was foggy and actually very cool, as in the high 50's, low 60's. I spent an hour or so after lunch cleaning up the outside decorations and stuff, getting ready to leave in a few days. We did leave the park briefly to try and get a geocache for the day. We were trying to get a “souvenir” from geocaching.com for “Get Outdoors Day”. The souvenir is just an icon that they put on your statistics page, but avid cachers like us try to get them. The first cache we went to, a few miles down the road, was a bust. We couldn't find it and had to DNF it, so we went to another one and got our find for the day, and our souvenir. Yea! It was too foggy, cold and windy to do any more caching, so we went back home and relaxed the rest of the day.

Both the Babcock's and the Wilson's left the park this morning. The Wilson's went down to the base of the hill, in Banning, to spend their required ten day “out” period in the KOA campground before they come back up to Silent Valley for another 30 day stay. That's the rule here, 30 in and ten out, up to 180 days total for the year. The Babcock's went home to Menifee. As a result, we had drinks all by our lonesome for the first time in several weeks. We then watched TV until bed.

Sunday, June 12^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove down the hill. We are going to Moreno Valley to meet our friends Bev and Jerry King, along with the Babcock's and Wilson's, for lunch. After we got down the hill we stopped at the KOA and picked up the Wilson's, then we headed west to Moreno Valley. We got there a little early, but just sat in the parking lot and talked while we waited for the rest of the group. Just before noon all eight of us were there, so we got seated at the Olive Garden for a nice lunch. We had a great waiter and great service, and the food was pretty good too.

Bev and Jerry King are motor home friends we met at a Monaco rally about eight or nine years ago. He is a retired fire chief from Los Angeles and knew Ray Babcock. They had a home near the fairgrounds in Pomona and another RV home in Indio, not too far from the one Barry Cohen lives in. The recently bought a different home, a single story, near the Ontario area. Jerry is close to ninety years old and getting a little frail, so this past year they finally gave up the motor home lifestyle, selling their RV place in Indio and their RV. They are still traveling, going to Europe this summer to explore and finish with a 12 day cruise on the Rhine River. We had a wonderful lunch, which was also celebrating the King's 46^th wedding anniversary. After lunch the Babcock's went back home to Menifee, the King's went back to their house and we and dropped the Wilson's off at the KOA before going back up the hill. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and then watched TV until bedtime.

Monday, June 13^th, we went down the hill after lunch to visit the Best Buy store again. When we got our phones on Thursday the Samsung representative at the store told us we could come by on Monday for a lesson on the Samsung smart phones. Jackie had a few things she wanted to ask about and I had discovered over the weekend that everything on my phone, which was Jackie's old one, worked great except the text messaging. I could send texts, but not receive them. I don't text a lot, but I would like it to work so I could if I wanted. The Samsung guy, who went by T, helped us out a lot. He installed a memory card in my phone, which fixed the texting problem, and helped Jackie with all her questions. I have to say that the experience of upgrading our phones at the Beaumont Best Buy has been the best experience we have had in twenty years with Verizon.

After our phone stuff we did a quick Walmart run before heading back up the hill to the coach. We relaxed in the afternoon, doing a few little chores. About 5:30 we took our drinks and went over to the Baron's coach for cocktails and dinner. We sat and talked for an hour or so and then Bob did some hamburgers on the grill. We ate outside and had a great time with them. We finally went back to our place about 8:00 and then watched TV for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, June 14^th. We originally planned on leaving Silent Valley today, however we modified our plans a little, extending our upcoming stay in Santa Maria and shortening our Bakersfield stay. Since we still had one day left on our current 30 day stint in Silent Valley, we decided to use it. A free day is a free day. We went to do laundry after lunch and then just relaxed in the coach for the rest of the day.

Wednesday, June 15^th, we were packed up and ready to leave Silent Valley at about 11:00. We didn't hook up the car until we were down the hill. My theory is that I don't need another 5,000 pounds pushing the coach down a steep, winding road. We headed northwest towards our next destination, Lancaster, California, about 115 miles or so. We have not been to Lancaster since February 2008 when we were at both Elks International and Monaco International rallies here. The Elks rally was held at the Lancaster Elks, which is our destination today. They have a large, 43 site RV park with water and electric at all sites.

Although the trip was fairly short, it was quite stressful. The 10 and 15 freeways were very busy, and it is a long uphill drag on the 15. I was worried about heating, but I was slow and steady and coach didn't get hot at all. The last 60 miles to the Palmdale-Lancaster area was under construction almost the whole way, with very narrow winds, and just to put the cherry on it, very strong side winds. I was worn out by the time we got to the Lancaster Lodge. We found a nice spot and got the minimum stuff set up, registered at the lodge and headed out for a late lunch/early dinner. We found a nice Mexican place just down the road from the lodge called Don Cuco's Hacienda. The food seemed a little pricey, but the potions were very big and the food was good. I had red chilli and Jackie had mixed fajitas. We were very stuffed when we left. We went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day and night.

This marks a good place to close this episode since it has been about three weeks. We will be here in Lancaster for four nights, then Bakersfield for one. After that we are in Santa Maria for 11 days, mostly visiting family there and celebrating Jackie's aunt Donna's 91^st birthday. Until the next time, remember that nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. See ya soon.

Back In California Again

Hi there, good to have you back. Our last chapter concluded on Tuesday, May 3^rd when we left Arizona after nearly four months and returned back to our old stomping grounds of Indio, California. On Wednesday we decided it was too hot to do anything outside, so we decided to take in a movie. We went to the new Century Multiplex that opened last year to see Mother's Day. This was a fairly standard romantic comedy, with Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts, and Jason Sudeikis among others. The story involved several different families who all interact around Mother's Day. The movie got off to a bit of a slow start, but it came around and was quite funny. We enjoyed it. After the movie we got one nearby geocache, did a Walmart run and then went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Thursday, May 5^th, Happy Cinco De Mayo, the day when everyone is Mexican. Most people in Mexico don't even consider it a big holiday, but it is kind of like St. Patrick's when everyone is Irish for a day. In the spirit of the holiday we went out to La Casita, one of our favorite Mexican restaurant's here in the valley, for lunch. We met Shane Ryan, Jackie's Godson, who is now 21 years old. When I moved out here to be with Jackie he wasn't even in school yet. We had a great lunch and caught up on what was going on in his life. After lunch we ran a few errands and Jackie got her hair cut. We also picked up a couple of geocaches. We then headed home and stayed in the rest of the day.

Friday, May 6^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. In a few hours we were able to get a dozen new finds, along with one DNF. We also checked on three of our own caches to be sure that they were still in good shape. After caching we made a quick Walmart stop and then headed home for the rest of the evening.

Saturday we headed out about 10:30 and drove over to Palm Desert to the College of the Desert Street Fair. Even though summer is close and it is getting hot, there were still a lot of people at the fair and a majority of the vendors were still in action. We bought a couple of little things before leaving and going back to Indio for lunch at Cactus Jack's. Regular readers will know that CJ's is one of our oldest and favorite local hangouts. There were very few people there, although as we were eating an old friend of Jackie's, Bert Einum and a lady friend came in for lunch. Jackie met Bert in the 80's here in the Desert and I became acquainted with him mostly through the Elk's travel club when he and his girlfriend would travel with the group. We had not seen Bert for probably eight or nine years. We chatted briefly, but not for long as we had our lunch in front of us. We had a great lunch and then went back to the coach.

We were having some friends over for cocktails, so we spent some time cleaning and getting ready. About 6:00 Rex and Vicki Jennings and Kevin Ray and his partner Ron Caple for happy hour. Rex and Kevin are big geocachers and we met them through the local caching group. Vickie and Ron tolerate the sport and support their significant others. We had cocktails and snacks outside and had a great time catching up. We had not seen these guys since we were here in December of last year. About 7:30 they left, we cleaned up and spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Sunday, Mary 8^th, Happy Mother's Day. Not a big holiday for us as both of our mother's have passed on and Jackie never had any kids. We spent the morning with the paper and our coffee and morning talk shows. About 1:30 our good friend Barry Cohen came over to spend the afternoon with us. Barry and his wife Colleen were probably our best friends when we lived here in Indio. Colleen died of cancer about three years ago, but Barry still lives in their motor home at the Motorcoach Country Club here in Indio. They actually started living full time in their motor home four years before us, but Barry was still working, so they didn't travel much. Colleen died just right after Barry retired, so they never did get to go on the road. Barry hasn't done too much traveling since either because he doesn't want to travel alone. He is now starting to move on and has a girlfriend and is now making travel plans again.

We talked for a while and then went into the back of the coach to do some karaoke. Barry loves to sing, but will only do it with me in private. I bought my first karaoke machine fifteen years ago, when we still had a house, and Barry went in with me to buy the first set of disks for the machine. We have been singing together ever since. We had a great time, sang for a couple of hours, and shed a few tears. About 6:30 Jackie served a nice meatloaf and mashed potatoes dinner. We had dinner and talked a bit before Barry left about 8:00 or so. It was great seeing our old friend again. We watched TV until bedtime.

Monday, May 9^th, we went out after lunch to do some shopping. We went to Costco, our first stop there since we left the Desert back in early January. Yuma and Casa Grande only had Sam's Clubs, which fulfilled most of our needs, but it was still nice to get back to Costco. I like their in-house Kirkland brand stuff. After Costco we hit a grocery store for a few things and then went home for the rest of the day.

Tuesday, we went out after lunch to drive around and check on our geocaches that we have hidden here in the Coachella Valley. We wanted to make sure that they didn't need maintenance, and also to fix a couple we knew needed some work. We ended up replacing one with an identical container, and replacing another cache with a new cache at the same location. We relaxed at home until about 6:00, when we drove to Cactus Jack's to have dinner with Rex and Vickie, and Ron and Kevin, the same people who came over to the coach on Saturday. We had a great dinner and talked for a couple of hours. We finished dinner and went home, getting back about 8:00 or so. We watched TV the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, May 11^th, we had lunch and then went to our regular doctor's office so that he could take a look at Jackie's left breast. She had a benign lump removed in March when we were in Yuma, and it was still causing a lot of pain for her. She wanted to go to the doctor's to be sure it wasn't a major problem. The doctor talked to her and then told her she needed to get a diagnostic ultrasound of the breast in order to see what was going on inside. She called and was able to get an appointment tomorrow at the Eisenhower Hospital Breast Center in Rancho Mirage. We then ran a couple of errands and headed back to the coach for the rest of the day. It is getting really hot, close to 100 degrees, so it is a little to warm for any serious geocaching. We stayed in the coach the rest of the day and evening.

Thursday, we went to Eisenhower Hospital for Jackie's 11:00 appointment. They took her right in and after the ultrasound she had a consultation with the doctor who advised her that everything looked fine inside and that the pain was normal after an invasive surgery like she had. This made both of us feel a lot better. We then went to Olive Garden for lunch. Jackie had won a $25 gift certificate for Olive Garden at a car show in Yuma, so we went to have a nice big lunch and use that. We had a great lunch and then headed back home. We did stop to get one nearby geocache before leaving the parking lot of Olive Garden. We went back to the coach and relaxed, staying out of the 102 degree temperature. Today was the first day of 2016 with temps over 100 in the Coachella Valley. We stayed in the rest of the evening.

Friday, May 13^th, oooooooow, scary. We left the coach after lunch and drove to Rancho Mirage so I could see the dermatologist about some spots on my body. I had my annual check in December, but there was a small red spot on the inside of my right elbow that wouldn't go away, and then I saw a small black spot on the back of my right ear, in the crease. Since I had my melanoma back in 09 I have used an abundance of caution with spots. When I got in the doctor said the red spot was likely a basal cell carcinoma, the most common type of skin cancer, and easily treatable. I had one removed from my other arm a few years ago. The doctor numbed the skin, cut the spot off and then cauterized the wound. He looked at the black spot, which was the one I was most concerned about, and said he didn't think it was a cancer at all, just a spot. He said just to keep an eye on it and we would check at the end of the year when I do my annual.

After the doctor we stopped at Home Depot for some things I will need for projects I planned to do while we are up in Silent Valley, and then Costco for a couple of things. After that we headed home to get out of the 100+ heat. We stayed in for the rest of the day and evening.

Saturday, May 14^th, we woke up after a noisy night of wind. The wind was still kicking up pretty strong today, making caching less desirable. We stayed in for most of the day, finally leaving a little before five to go over to Rex and Vicki's house for a last get together before we left the valley. Ron and Kevin also came over and the six of us had another great night of cocktails, snacks and stories. Jackie's birthday is tomorrow, so she got cards from both couples and Kevin gave her a gift of two metal ammo boxes. Costco had been recently selling ammo boxes, which are great for geocaches in the desert, but we hadn't got around to getting any. Since Kevin works at Costco, he thought it was a great gift. It was. We visited until a little after 8:00 when we packed up and headed home. After we got home we watched a little television and then headed to bed.

Sunday, May 15^th, Happy Birthday to my lovely wife Jackie, as well as our cat Benji. Benji is four today, Jackie not so much. Today was supposed to be a moving day, with us leaving Indio and driving to Silent Valley, our time share RV Resort in the mountains south of Banning. However, I had been awake half the night listening to the wind howling outside, and the weather forecast called for continuing, and even worsening winds today and tonight. With that we decided that we would just stay an extra night in Indio and go up to Silent Valley on Monday, after the winds died down.

I called the RV park and arranged for the extra day. There was certainly no problem with us staying an extra day as the place is mostly empty anyway. About 1:00 or so we went to Cactus Jack's for a birthday lunch for Jackie. When we arrived we noted that John and Janet Moore were in there eating breakfast. Janet is the sister of Colleen Cohen, Jackie's very close friend who died a few years ago. We had not seen John and Janet for a couple of years, so we talked for a little while before sitting down to eat. We had a great lunch and then went back to the RV and relaxed the rest of the day, watching the wild winds blow.

Monday, May 16^th, as forecast the winds died down in the early morning hours and we packed up the coach to travel. We were on the road about 11:00 and heading west to Banning. Since the whole trip was only about 50 miles, Jackie drove the car rather than hook it up to the coach. We always unhook the car at the base of the hill going up to Silent Valley anyway as that last 11 miles is a steep, winding road. We were a little concerned about finding a decent spot because our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock had brought their coach up on Friday and said that the place was pretty busy. Our other friends, Gary and Ramona Wilson, were also up in Silent Valley, parked right next to the Babcock's. This was a surprise as we thought they were still back east in Ohio somewhere.

After we arrived we were able to find a great spot, nice and long with perfect satellite alignment, the two most important factors. Nearly all the sites here have full hook ups and 50 amps, but there are a lot of trees, so sat reception can become iffy in some areas. We got parked, registered and settled in in the afternoon. About 5:00 we went over to the Babcock's coach, only a hundred yards or so away, and had cocktails with them and the Wilson's. It turns out Gary was having some complications as a result of last year's heart surgery, so they came back to California early so he could see his doctor in Ontario. We had a great time catching up. Although we stay in contact through social media, we hadn't seen the Wilson's or Babcock's since we left Yuma the first of April. After our visit we went back to our coach and had a nice pot roast dinner that had been cooking all day in the crock pot. We watched TV until bedtime. We will be here in Silent Valley for a month, a great time to relax and get make some repairs on the coach.

Tuesday, May 17^th, it was nice to wake up to cool temperatures after a very nice, cool night. After lunch we went to the laundry facility here at Silent Valley to do laundry. We were desperate to refill the underwear drawers after three weeks. After laundry we went back to the coach, arriving just in time for a couple of thunderstorms to move through. We got some hard rain for about ten minutes, a bit of a noise and light show, but then it cleared up. We spent the rest of the day hanging around the coach.

Wednesday was a stay at home day. After lunch I spent three or four hours installing a TV in the bay so we can watch TV on the patio outside. It works great. Jackie did some chores of her own inside while I was working outside. About four we went down to the Babcock's for an early happy hour. They were doing early dinner with the Wilson's, but we joined them for cocktails. A little after five we went back to our coach, ate dinner about 7:00 and then watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, May 19^th, we picked up Ray and Suzie and the four of us drove down to Banning/Beaumont for lunch, some geocaching and then shopping. We had lunch at La Casita, our favorite Mexican place in the area, and then tried to do some geocaching. Jackie and I were at somewhat of a disadvantage because we come to this area for a month or two every year and we have pretty much cached the place out. There are not many caches left in the urban area that we haven't already gotten. Nonetheless, we hit a couple of caches and struck out the first two times with DNFs. These were caches that had not been found in a while and were probably gone. We did find two, after which we went to Walmart for some supplies. On the way back to Silent Valley we stopped for another cache that was just down the road from the resort. It was a difficulty five cache, meaning the hardest in terms of being able to find it. It proved to be accurate, as none of us were able to spot it. So, two finds, three DNFs for day. After we got back we just stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Friday was a stay at home day. I finished setting up some decorations and lights outside, mostly red, white and blue for Memorial day. I also got a few little things done in the house. We watched a movie in the afternoon and then went for a little walk. On the way back to the coach we stopped and visited with the Babcock's and Wilson's for a while. We then went back to the coach, had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Saturday, May 21^st, we had a quiet day on the mountain. It was pretty chilly, low 60's, so we didn't go outside much. Relaxed, watched a movie, did a little house cleaning. Jackie made a big pot of clam chowder and about 4:30 the Wilson's and Babcock's came over to our coach. We had cocktails and talked and about 6:00 dinner was served. It was a good batch of chowder and everyone enjoyed it greatly. About 7:30 everyone left for their own places and we watched TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday was a relax at home day. There is no newspaper delivery up here, so we had to go without a Sunday paper. We watched a recorded movie on TV, went for a walk, did a few little chores. Today was the Babcock's anniversary, so they left the mountain and went home for a couple days. They left their coach up here since they are only going to be away one night. Late in the afternoon Gary and Ramona brought two of their daughters, and one grand daughter, over to meet us. They are up here visiting Gary and Ramona for the day. They didn't stay long and we later had cocktails and dinner and then watched some TV until bedtime.

Monday, May 23^rd, we left the coach about 12:15 and went down the hill, then over to the little town of San Jacinto, about twelve miles south of Beaumont. As the crow flies San Jacinto is only about seven miles southwest of Silent Valley, but there is no road going down that way. It is still only about 25 miles, so it's not a real long trip. We went for a late lunch at a place called Patsy's Country Kitchen in San Jacinto. This was our first time at this one, but there is also one in Beaumont that we have been to several times and really enjoyed. They have great food, big portions, and good service. They are only a lunch and breakfast place, but that is fine with us.

After lunch we got one geocache and then went to the movie theater in San Jancito to see Money Monster, a movie with George Clooney in the starring role and Julia Roberts as the female co-star. It is a combination of Wall Street financial shenanigans mystery coupled with an action movie hostage situation. It probably wasn't an academy award winning movie, but we enjoyed it a lot. After the movie we headed back up to Silent Valley, stopping at the Walmart in Beaumont for some supplies first. We didn't get back to the coach until around 6:00, so we didn't have any group get together tonight. We also didn't have any dinner because we were still full from lunch and the movie popcorn. We watched TV until bedtime.

This marks the end of our first week up here in Silent Valley and a good place to close this chapter of the blog. We still have another three weeks or so up here before moving on to our summer travels. Until the next time, remember that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy of life lies in having no goal to reach. See ya soon.