Silent Valley Club, Relaxation in the Mountains - Part 1

Hi there, nice to see you back. Our last chapter concluded on Sunday, October 12^th, with our arrival at the Silent Valley Club in beautiful Poppet Flats, California. The resort, which is sort of like of time share, is in the San Jacinto Mountains at 3,800 feet about eleven miles south of Banning, California.

Monday, October 13^th, Happy Columbus Day. Back in my Sheriff's Office days this was one of our official 11 state holidays. Arizona was one of the last to recognize Martin Luther King day and that holiday superseded Columbus on the holiday calendar, sometime in the late 80's. We had a relaxing day in the mountains today. I spent a little time outside setting up decorations for our month long stay here and then the rest of the day in the Man Cave, doing administrative work, playing and watching Saturday's NASCAR race off the DVR. Jackie also did a lot of little chores around the coach.

Tuesday, October 14^th, we left the coach around 11:30 and headed down the mountain on a run to Moreno Valley and the Costco. When we got to Moreno Valley, which is about 20 miles west of Banning, we stopped at the BJ's Brewhouse for lunch. We have been to a couple different BJ's around California, but this one was a disappointment. Jackie had a Caesar salad that had no romaine and some of the iceberg lettuce was wilted. Her bison burger was OK, but not very big. I had clam chowder, which was quite good, but the portions on the fish and chips was small for the price they charged. We may reconsider coming to BJ's in the future. After lunch we went to Costco and stocked up on vodka and other staples, then headed back to Beaumont and the Walmart before heading back up the hill. We spent the rest of the day in the coach.

Wednesday was, for the most part, a stay at home day. We did leave the coach a little after 5:00 and drive down the mountain to meet some friends for dinner in Banning. We met two couples, Dave and Sharon, and Monte and Carolyn, who were caching friends that we have met off and on at geocaching events for the last couple of years. Dave goes by the geocaching handle Dashon, and Monte by ActiveFire. They both live locally here and between them have hundreds of caches hidden in the area. We met them at a small Mexican place which they told us was one of their favorites. We had never been there, but Tortilla's turned out to be an OK place. The food was good, solid Sonoran style Mexican, tasty but not quite spicy enough for me. The service was good and we would probably come back as it was about the best we have found in the Banning area.

We had a very nice dinner and talked about caching and some of the adventures of the other couples. Dave and Sharon are into missionary work and have been to Africa and South America helping locals. Monte and Carolyn just spent the summer traveling and geocaching. After dinner we drove back up the hill and relaxed the rest of the night.

Thursday, October 16^th, we got a call in the morning from our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock asking if we wanted company for the day. They live Murrieta, California, about ninety minutes away and are also members of Silent Valley. We had last seen them in Redmond, Oregon at the FMCA rally in August. We said come on up and about 1:30 or so they arrived for the day. We spent the afternoon talking and visiting and then had cocktails and dinner. Jackie

had put some chicken legs in the slow cooker in the morning, actually before we knew they were coming up, but there were plenty for four people. They left to go back down the hill about 7:30 or so and we watched TV the rest of the night. It was a very pleasant day and nice to visit with friends. Friday was a stay at home day. A nice relaxing day with a few light chores thrown in for good measure.  We also decorated the coach for Halloween.  Since we don't have the storage space, our decorations are modest, but they do show we are in the spirit of the holiday.

Saturday, October 18^th, we left the coach and headed down the hill about 11:30. Our first stop was the La Casita restaurant in Beaumont, our favorite place for taco salad. We always try to go here at least once during each stay in Silent Valley. After lunch we went out to do some geocaching for the first time in close to two weeks. We cached in the Banning area and were able to get eight finds, along with two DNF's, in about three hours. It took so long for a couple of reasons. We have cached this area heavily over the last few years, so the caches we haven't found are further apart, and some of the caches took us a while to find. At any rate, we had fun and went back up the hill a little before 4:00. When we got back to the coach we stayed in the rest of the evening.

Sunday was another stay at home day. Although they don't sell newspapers up here on top of the hill, we had picked up an early Sunday edition of the local paper yesterday so we had a Sunday paper to read. We stayed in the coach for the day. I got a lot of travel planning done for our planned trip back to Wisconsin next summer. The FMCA Convention is in Madison and we haven't been back to the Midwest for a couple of years now.

Monday, October 20^th, we left the coach after lunch and headed down the hill for some more local geocaching. We were able to find seven new caches, with no DNFs. A couple of the caches were rated three for difficulty, which is pretty hard, and they were tricky. After the caching we made a Walmart run and then headed back up the hill for the rest of the evening. Tuesday was another stay at home day. A few chores, mostly relaxation.

Wednesday, October 22^nd, Happy Birthday to my brother David. David lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia and unfortunately we don't get back to the east coast very often, so we haven't seen each other for several years. After lunch we headed down the hill to Beaumont to get haircuts. Jackie gets her hair cut every six weeks or so, I get mine every six months or so. After our haircuts we went to Kohl's to do a little shopping and then went out and did a couple of nearby geocaches. After getting our two caches we headed back up to Silent Valley and stayed in the rest of the night. Thursday was another stay at home day.

Friday, October 24^th, the first day of the Halloween celebration here at Silent Valley Club. Halloween is always one of the biggest weekends for Silent Valley. They always celebrate the first full weekend before October 31^st. With Halloween falling on a Friday this year, it meant that the celebration up here was almost a week before the actual holiday. People all around the park, especially those parked along the main roads, have been setting up very elaborate Halloween displays. Lots of cemeteries, spiders, skeletons and dead people all around. Some of these people must have whole storage sheds at their home base dedicated to just Halloween decorations.

We had a relaxing day around the house, there wasn't anything going on during the day today. At 5:00 we went over to the main activities area and the bar. We were early enough to get a seat at the bar so we could see everything going on. The adult costume contest was scheduled for 7:00 and over the time period people drifted in, many wearing some very elaborate and nifty costumes. There was a lot of imagination and effort put in some of the costumes. Jackie and I both picked the eventual overall winner as soon as she walked in. Dressed like “Death” she was pushing a hand cart with a coffin on it containing body parts. Yikes!

We had dinner at the bar, although it took two hours to get the food. They only have one guy cooking hamburgers and making sandwiches and the poor guy was slammed. We didn't mind because we were going to be at the bar anyway. After the costume contest they started karaoke. I got to sing about five or six songs because there wasn't much of a rotation. Not too many people were paying attention, it was a pretty crowded and noisy place, but at least I got to exercise the

old voice. They also gave out prizes for the best decorated RV site, but we didn't hear who won. We finally left and headed home just before 10:00 after a very fun evening.

Saturday, October 25^th, the second day of the Halloween weekend at Silent Valley. This morning they had a big craft fair at the Village Center. The fair started at 7:00, but we didn't go down until around 10:00. Jackie bought a couple pair of inexpensive sandals, but that was the extent of our shopping. At 2:00 the trick or treat parade started. Up here they close all of the roads to vehicle traffic, except for emergencies of course, and hundreds of kids and adults walk around getting candy. All the other campers set up chairs and sometimes tables alongside the road and for two hours everyone just wanders around begging.

There were some really good costumes, even among the kids, and we sat giving out candy and having a good time. We went through six pounds of misc small candy in exactly 33 minutes. After our candy was gone we walked the streets taking pictures of the costumes and of some of the great outdoor decorations that have been set up. It is clear that some people have spent thousands of dollars on stuff, including lots of animated displays. Some people really get off on Halloween. After the trick or treating closed down at 4:00 we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day. There was a live band

in the bar tonight, but we decided it wasn't our kind of music and we didn't want to spend the whole night drinking again like last night.

Sunday, October 26^th, we watched people all morning packing up rigs and driving out of the park after the holiday weekend. We decided to go down the hill after lunch to do a few geocaches and we were part of a parade going down the hill, mostly RV's from the park. We were able to get five new geocaches, and one DNF, in a couple of hours. One of the caches was a DNF from last year. Yea! After caching we stopped at the grocery store before heading back up the hill for the rest of the night. We had a nice dinner of country ribs that had been cooking in the crock pot all day.

We have now been here for two weeks and still have another two weeks to go. This would be a good point to stop and publish this chapter of the blog. We will publish again after we leave Silent Valley for Indio. Until next time remember that life is what you make of it, so make it enjoyable. See ya next time.