Some Time with Family, with Friends, and with Mickey!

Hello again loyal readers. You may recall our last episode ended on Sunday, May 16th, with our departure from Silent Valley and our arrival at the Yucaipa Regional Park. The plan is to spend ten days in Yucaipa.

Monday, May 17th we woke up to gray skies and a light drizzle. Since the previous weekend had been so hectic we decided we needed a leisure day, so we just stayed around the coach. We also needed to be home in the afternoon because someone was coming to deliver Jackie’s new CPAP and oxygen equipment. About 2:00 p.m. a guy from a San Diego based medical supply company arrived and spent about 90 minutes explaining how the CPAP machine worked and how to set it up properly. He also fitted Jackie with the right mask. The CPAP machine is very small, however, the oxygen concentrator is the size of a medium suitcase. Fortunately, it is not very heavy. We were able to find a good spot for the equipment in the back, near the bed, and we got everything set up and ready. About 10:30 p.m. we got Jackie hooked up to the equipment and began the first night.

It did not go so well. Jackie was up most of the night trying to get comfortable and used to sleeping with the mask on. I was up most of the night, partly because Jackie was awake and restless, and partly because I was listening to the equipment and also listening for the sound of air leaking out of her mask. Needless to say, it was a long, rough night. The guy who delivered the stuff said it could take days, or even weeks, to get completely comfortable with the equipment, so we expected some rough times. Hopefully, it will get better sooner than later for Jackie. Tuesday we were pretty beat from the long restless night, and it was still cold and gray, so we decided to take another leisure day with no outside activities.

Wednesday we took a drive into Beaumont, back East about 15 miles, to do some shopping for the weekend. Jackie is having a “cousin’s reunion” this weekend. Her brother, Dennis, from San Diego, her cousin Judy (who also goes by “Pia”) from Pismo Beach, her cousin Cherie from San Fernando, her cousin Sue from Big Bear, and Sue’s daughter Stephanie are all coming for a get-together on Saturday. Pia and Dennis are coming Friday afternoon and plan on staying in our coach for the weekend. Thursday we did laundry and spent the day cleaning for the weekend. The last couple of nights have still been rough for Jackie with her new machine. She sleeps a little more, but still awakens a lot. She has trouble sleeping on her side with the mask and can’t sleep on her stomach at all. This causes her to wake up off and on all night long. Hopefully it will get better with time.

Friday, May 21st Jackie got started early on her food for the cousin’s day on Saturday. She made a big batch of my favorite Halibut Chowder (yum!) and a big batch of wasabi cole slaw. About 2:30 p.m. we got a call from Pia that she had arrived in Yucaipa and had decided to get a motel room rather than sleep at our coach tonight. Jackie also got a call from Dennis, her brother, that he probably would not be up until Saturday morning. We had thought we would have two house guests tonight and it turns out we probably wouldn’t have any. Oh well, the cat will be happy. About 5:30 or so Pia came over to the coach and the three of us had a nice chat. We usually get to see her at least once a year when we pass through the Pismo Beach area where she lives, and we had seen her last Spring. About 7:30 or so we decided we needed to eat so we drove into Yucaipa to a place called The Fat Greek. We had seen a billboard on I-10 for the place on Wednesday when we went out shopping and drove by the restaurant. It is right on Yucaipa Boulevard and only a couple of miles from the regional park where we are parked. Neither of us remember the restaurant being there last year when we were here. The restaurant appears to have been a burger joint in a previous life, but they have a huge menu. They have a lot of traditional Greek items, plus regular American fare and even some Mexican food. Both Pia and Jackie had the special, which was lamb chops. I am not a big lamb fan, but they had pastrami on the menu, so I had a pastrami sandwich. Jackie and Pia said the lamb was good and the Greek salad that came with it excellent. I thought the pastrami was among the best I have eaten. It is right up there with Boy’s in Cathedral City, which I have written about before. We will definitely be coming back to The Fat Greek in Yucaipa at some time in the future and would recommend it to anyone who happens to find themselves in Yucaipa, California and likes Greek food. After dinner Pia went back to her motel since she was tired from the six hour drive from the Central Coast. We headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Saturday, May 22nd, Cousin Reunion Day at Yucaipa. Pia came over to the coach from her motel about 10:00 a.m. and shortly after Jackie’s other two cousins, Sue and Cherie , along with Sue’s daughter Stephanie, arrived from Big Bear. We had hoped that the weather would be nice so everyone could sit outside, however, Mother Nature didn’t cooperate and it was cold and windy. Nonetheless, there was plenty of room inside and the women had a great time talking, reminiscing, sharing, and looking at photos. Jackie’s brother Dennis didn’t arrive until early afternoon, but he quickly joined in the sharing and talking. He had a lot of Jackie and Dennis’s mother’s old photos and soon they were all looking at those.

I kind of made myself scarce most of the day in the back of the coach because they were doing a lot of talking about people and occurrences that I had no way of relating too. They were also doing some pretty powerful sharing and I didn’t want to interfere with that either. Although I am technically family, the only one’s I knew at all well were Dennis and Pia, and I don’t really know a lot about their lives either. Jackie didn’t mind my staying apart and I thought it better for what they were trying to accomplish - a reconnecting of cousins who had been separated and out of contact too long. I was doing quite a bit of photo copying and scanning - I was the resident technician. I did come out for lunch, which was Jackie’s chowder and some fruit and salads that the other cousins brought. I wouldn’t miss the chowder!

The visiting went on for the rest of the day and I won’t share any of the details, but I think everyone knew that there was something very powerful happening. The three women cousins had been pretty close when they were young and had drifted apart over the years. I know that they were all very happy to have this opportunity to become one with each other once again. Late in the afternoon we grilled some burgers (veggie for some) and had a very nice dinner. The ladies from Big Bear left around 7:30 p.m. to drive back home, which was only about an hour, and Pia went back to her motel. Dennis was going to stay with us so the three of us spent another several hours talking before finally going to bed. Sunday morning Dennis stayed and visited until early afternoon before leaving. After Dennis left Jackie and I did some cleanup and spent the rest of the day relaxing. We had thought we might want to do some caching, but Sunday began cold and rainy, so we decided to just stay in.

Monday, May 24th we woke to nice weather and went out to do some caching in the afternoon. We were able to find ten caches in a couple of hours in the Yucaipa area. On Tuesday we went out again after lunch and logged fifteen finds along with one DNF. Although we hadn’t been out caching for several days, we made it up on these two afternoons! After caching on Tuesday we headed back to the coach and did some preliminary preparations for our departure on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday, May 26th we packed up and headed out of Yucaipa towards Fullerton, California, in Orange County. We only had about a 60 mile trip, so it only took a couple of hours, even with workday traffic. Our plan is to stay at the Fullerton Elks Lodge for three days so we can make a visit to Disneyland. Both of us love Disneyland and felt the need to let our “inner children” out to play. Although we know a number of people from the Fullerton Elks through their RV club, we have never been to the lodge. They built a brand new lodge a couple of years ago and are supposed to have six RV sites. We arrived at the lodge about 1:00 p.m. and were the only RV in the lot. The lodge is a very nice building on the top of a bluff looking South down Harbor Boulevard and downtown Fullerton. The RV spot we picked was right on the edge of the bluff and had the same view towards the rear of the coach. After we got settled in we drove around downtown Fullerton and did little sightseeing. We also found one geocache in the downtown area. Later in the afternoon we went into the lodge for a cocktail and met some of our friends. We had told Dick and Mary Moore, who are members of the Fullerton Lodge, that we were coming just to try and make sure that we had a spot when we got here. Turns out to not be a problem, but better safe than sorry. Dick was the Exalted Ruler of the Lodge last year so we thought he might be able to save us spot if necessary. We met Dick and Mary for cocktails and had a very nice visit. We met Dick and Mary through our contacts in the past with the Fullerton RV club. We got to know the Fullerton members through our good friends Dave and Marianne Conner, who had been members of the Fullerton Lodge before they moved to the Indio area and demitted to the Indio Lodge. We have been on several campouts with the Fullerton group in past years.

Thursday, May 27th we got up early and headed to Disneyland. The park is only about five miles straight down Harbor Boulevard from the Fullerton Elks. We got into Disneyland about 10:00 a.m. and spent the entire day there, not leaving until nearly 9:00 p.m. Jackie was wearing her pedometer and when we got back to the car in the evening it showed we had walked 10 miles! We did have a great day at Disneyland. Although it seemed crowded, we never had to wait more than 20 minutes or so for any ride. We went on all the “big kid” rides, walked all over, and had loads of fun. We also did some geocaching while we in the park. Although there are no traditional caches in the park (being private property) there were several virtual caches, which are caches that don’t have a physical container or log. You have to go to the cache location and then take some step to “prove” that you were there. Usually its either a photo or some questions which can only be answered by observation of the cache site. This information is then emailed to the person who posted the cache and he or she confirms your “find”. One cache was a small brass monument that marks the exact geographical center of Disneyland park. Another cache required us to attend one of the shows in the Golden Horseshoe Saloon and submit a photo of the show.

The third cache was the most interesting and was the first of its kind we have ever done. Although it was only one cache, we had to go to thirteen different locations inside of the park and find something, usually a sign or plaque of some kind. The clue would tell us to note one particular letter or number from the sign. At the end we had thirteen letters and numbers which turned out to be a password for an encrypted file. We got all the clues correct and were able to unlock the file which turned out to be a certificate of completion for the cache. Kind of a neat cache. It showed us areas of Disneyland and points of interest that we had no knowledge of, despite having been to the place dozens of times in the last 50 years. By the time we got home it was nearly 10:00 p.m. and we were bushed, but we had fun.

Friday we went out for lunch and then did some caching in the Fullerton area and were able to find ten caches in just a couple of hours. After caching we headed back to the coach and changed clothes for dinner in the lodge. The Fullerton Lodge has a full Friday night dinner menu and we had made arrangements to meet Dick and Mary for dinner. We had a couple of drinks first and then ordered dinner. Jackie had a very nice steak and I some really good liver and onions. Dick was nice enough to pick up the check for the dinner. They also had a little jazz combo playing for dinner music and dancing. After dinner the four of us went back to our coach for a nightcap and some conversation. We had a really nice visit and ended up talking until after 11:00 p.m. We really enjoyed our visit to the Fullerton Lodge and it was our first new lodge pin for the banner in several months.

Saturday morning we departed the Fullerton Lodge about 10:00 and headed West towards Santa Barbara. The trip was only about 120 miles but it was right through the heart of Los Angeles and then along the coast Northwest of L.A. Since it was the Saturday of the three day Memorial Day weekend, the traffic was very heavy, especially once we got to the coast. But I had anticipated the traffic, so I just relaxed and rolled with the flow. It took three and a half hours to go the 120 miles but we had a reserved spot at the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge waiting for us. We got in about 1:30 and settled in for a four day stay. Sunday, May 30th we spent the day taking care of some needed chores. We did our laundry and some grocery shopping in Goleta, California, which is the next town West of Santa Barbara and where the Elks Lodge is actually located.

Monday, May 31st - Memorial Day. We woke up to light fog, but by the time we headed out after lunch it had burned off and the day was wonderful. About 70 degrees with a cool breeze off the ocean. We went out to do some caching and managed to add eleven finds in a couple of hours. We then headed back to the coach and noticed that the Lodge appeared to be open, so we went in and visited the bar for an early cocktail. There were only a few people in the lodge, being the holiday and all, but we had a nice chat with the bartender and a couple of the local members. After our drink we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Tuesday, June 1st we left before lunch and headed back East to visit the Ventura and Oxnard Elks Lodges. We had never been to either lodge and we needed some new pins for our banner. Ventura was about 30 miles East of Santa Barbara and Oxnard another 10 miles beyond that. We also did some caching along the way. We hit the Ventura Lodge at lunch time and had a very nice lunch and a couple of cocktails. We also got our lodge pin. The Ventura Lodge is in a business park and the building appears to have been an old office block at one time. They moved from their old downtown building about five years ago. There were not too many people in the bar, although they were having some kind of a luncheon in the back room for local business people. After the Ventura Lodge we headed over to the Oxnard Lodge. Their lodge building is in old town Oxnard and is a very large, spacious old style Elks building. The building was built in 1949 and has a huge dedicated lodge room and a huge bar area. It also has one of the largest ballrooms I have seen in an Elks. There weren’t too many people in the lodge, but the bartender was one of the officers and he gave us a tour and a history of the lodge. He has been a member for almost 30 years. We had a cocktail, got our lodge pin and then headed out to do some caching. We did a couple of caches in Oxnard, Ventura and then back in Santa Barbara. Even with most of our time spent traveling and in the lodges, we still got ten finds for the afternoon.

When we got back to the Santa Barbara Lodge we found that several of our Indio friends had arrived and were set up in the RV lot. We are all headed to Santa Maria and the Elks Rodeo over the next couple of days and most are using Santa Barbara as a stopover point. We went into the lodge with our group about 5:30 or so and had cocktails and then dinner. The dinner was very good and we stayed until about 8:00 when we headed back to the coach for the evening.

Wednesday, June 2nd we left the Santa Barbara Elks for the 65 mile drive to Santa Maria. Although the rodeo we will be attending is an Elks function, it is not at the Elks Lodge. It is at the Elks Rodeo grounds which is on the South end of Santa Maria. We got into the rodeo grounds about 12:30 after a couple stops for fuel and propane. They park people in their lodge groups, so we had to find the Indio Lodge parking area. Once we got settled in we headed into Santa Maria for some lunch and last minute shopping. We will be here at the rodeo for four days before moving on. This is total dry camping, no water, power or sewer, so we will be “roughing it’ for the rest of the week. Only two other couples from the Indio Lodge were here today, the rest will be in sometime on Thursday.

Thursday, June 3rd we woke up to a beautiful Central Coast day. Two other folks arrived for the Indio group in the morning, Chuck and Barbara and Larry and Cec. Chuck and Barbara are actually members of the Palm Springs Elks, but they decided to camp with the Indio group. Larry and Cec are fairly new members of the Indio group. Larry is a retired firefighter from Los Angeles County and also a former Marine. Semper Fi! The rest of the group were due later in the afternoon. After lunch we headed out to do some caching in the Santa Maria area. We managed to locate ten in a couple of hours, then did some shopping for the potluck dinner to be held tonight in the events tent at the rally. Jackie decided to do her wasabi coleslaw. When we got back to the rodeo grounds we found that all but one of the remainder of the Indio group had arrived and parked. We quickly found out that many of the group were planning to go to a local steak house, Jocko’s, for dinner rather than go to the potluck. We immediately said we were in because Jackie and I had just had a discussion that we wanted to be sure to go to Jocko’s sometime during our stay in the Central Coast area. We had been taken there last year by Jackie’s aunt Donna and her boyfriend and found it was one of the best steak houses we have ever eaten at. Jackie had already made her coleslaw, but we will probably be able to eat it ourselves over the next week.

The last people from our group to arrive were Bill and Lynette and they came in around 4:00 p.m. or so. They were having problems with their tow car when they pulled in, the battery was dead. The problem with that is that the car had to be running to be taken out of neutral and disconnected from the motorhome. When Bill got his portable jump start battery out of the coach, the battery in it was dead so we had to bring up another vehicle to jump start the car. Bill finally got the car disconnected and then drove up the road to find a place to turn the coach around so he could back into the last spot in the Indio Lodge’s camping area. I didn’t see it happen, but when he found a place to turn around he clipped another parked coach and tore off part of his main awning and completely removed the bedroom window awning. He also ripped a big hole in the fiberglass on the side of his coach. I am not sure what he did to the other guy’s coach, but he did say there was some damage. I know there is at least several thousand dollar’s worth of damage to Bill’s coach. Yikes! Needless to say, Lynette was not happy and didn’t come to our little cocktail hour. Most of the group did get together for cocktails and chat. We had a chance to catch up with several folks that we hadn’t seen in quite some time.

After cocktails fourteen of us headed off to Jocko’s Steakhouse for dinner. Our reservation was for 7:00 p.m., but they didn’t get us in until closer to 8:00. Even on a Thursday night the place was packed. We had a couple more drinks and just chatted. When we finally got seated we found the food and service were just as good as we remember from last year. I had a New York steak that had to be three inches thick and 20 oz’s at least. Jackie had lamb chops and got three of the biggest lamb chops I have ever seen. For the first time in a VERY long time, I had leftover steak to take home for lunch. The best part is the bill was $50 for both meals! Huge portions, great taste and inexpensive! I would highly recommend Jocko’s Steakhouse in Nipomo, California to anyone that finds themselves in the Santa Maria or Pismo Beach area. Outstanding food and service, but be sure to make a reservation. After dinner we headed back to the coach and vegged for the remainder of the evening.

Friday, June 4th - the fifth anniversary of our moving into our coach. We closed the sale of our house and took delivery of the new coach and have never looked back. People ask us if we still love the fulltime lifestyle after five years and we say ABSOLUTELY! Meanwhile, back in Santa Maria we went out after lunch to do a little bit of caching. We wanted to get at least four caches so we would reach the 1,500 cache finds milestone. And we did! We found seven caches in a couple of hours. After caching we went to the Santa Maria Elks Lodge for a quick visit. The last time we were in the Santa Maria Lodge was back before we were fulltimers and way before we were collecting lodge pins, so we knew we had to go for a drink and a lodge pin. The Santa Maria Lodge is very large and very nice. They also have a great RV lot. Shortly after we got to the lodge we were joined by Red and Barbara, another couple from Indio attending the rodeo. We had one drink, got our lodge pin and then headed back to the coach.

At 5:30 we headed up to the events tent, a couple hundred yards from our coach, for dinner and the night’s entertainment. Dinner was wonderful - BBQ’d chicken, salad, beans and potato salad. The chicken was cooked over an open wood fire and was very tasty. After dinner there was a DJ that played some dance music. There was a rodeo event down at the arena that started at 7:00 p.m. so a lot of the people left, but we stayed to talk to folks and listen to the music. Around 8:00 p.m. the DJ started some karaoke and we ended up staying until almost 11:00 p.m. singing and having a great time. The DJ got the various lodges in attendance to sing group songs and we ended up spending a lot of time with the Santa Barbara Lodge contingent who had a lot of people stay behind. Jackie and I and Lynette were the only ones from Indio who stayed past 7:30 for the entertainment. Some of the Indio people went to the rodeo event, but most just went back to their coaches. Party poopers!

Saturday, June 5th we skipped the rodeo parade which was held in downtown Santa Maria. The parade was supposed to start at 9:00 a.m. and several people had told us the night before that it really didn’t amount to too much. At noon we went up to the event tent for a hamburger lunch which was included as part of our camping package. After lunch we went for a little drive around the area. The day was a little hotter than it had been and without any electric we couldn’t run the air in the coach without running the generator. So just to get out of the warm coach we got in the car and drove down towards Lompoc and Vandenberg Air Force Base. Bill and Lynette came along with us just to have something to do as well. After a couple hours we went back to the rodeo grounds and relaxed until dinner. Dinner was also part of the package and was BBQ beef. Like the chicken on Friday, the dinner was great. After dinner they had some entertainment and then the drawings for various raffles. Although we bought tickets, we didn’t win anything. About 7:30 we headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Sunday morning most of our group was leaving the Elks Rodeo grounds near Santa Maria and venturing a few miles up the road to the Oceano Elks Lodge. One couple was staying at the rodeo grounds for one additional night, and another two were headed elsewhere, but six of us went to the Oceano Elks RV park. We got in and got parked by noon. We have stayed at the Oceano Lodge a number of times and always had a good time. It is only about a block from the beach, so there was a nice cool ocean breeze. About 4:30 we went into the lodge for a cocktail and some karaoke, which they do every Sunday. I did a couple songs and then about 7:00 seven of us went to a nearby Mexican restaurant, Juan’s Old Cantina, for dinner. They have excellent food at Juan’s and I highly recommend it. It is on the corner of State Route 1 and Pier avenue in Oceano. After dinner we went back to the coach and relaxed.

Tomorrow we are leaving Oceano and taking a long 12 mile drive to Avila Beach, California and one of our membership RV parks. We will be in Avila Beach for a week. With that, this seems to be a great time to finish this episode. Until the next time, stay safe and be happy!

A Month on the Mountain

Welcome back friends. Regular readers will remember that our last episode ended on Sunday, April 18th with our arrival at the Silent Valley Club, our ownership RV park in the mountains South of Banning, California. We will be here for 30 days, which will comprise the topics for this episode of our travels.

Monday, April 19th we headed down the mountain from Silent Valley, heading for Rancho Mirage in the Coachella Valley, about 35 miles to the East. Jackie had to go for a followup mammogram at the Eisenhower Hospital campus. She had her regular mammogram done in Cottonwood six months ago and the radiologist there had a “concern” about two small shadows in one breast and suggested a six month followup. It took about 90 minutes to get to the doctor’s and Jackie was in there for quite some time. When she came out it was a sort of good news - bad news kind of thing. The doctor said that the shadows the doctor in Cottonwood saw were nothing, and had been on previous films done here in the Coachella Valley in the past. (A hazard of having mammograms done at different locations). However, he did find one swollen lymph node near her armpit which he wants to do a biopsy of. He is not overly concerned since there are no other obvious or clear problems visible in the breast, but he wants to be sure. So, she has to come back in a week for an outpatient needle biopsy. Needless to say, she is a little worried, but I feel that the swelling will be from some other infection and will not be an issue. After the doctor’s visit we headed back towards Banning and home. Monday evening we had cocktails again with Ray and Suzie and they treated us to a dinner of BBQ’d steaks and baked potatoes. It was great.

Tuesday we had to head out again, this time early in the morning, to take Jackie to her regular doctor in Indio. She had some followup to do on her blood tests and wanted to talk to the doctor about some issues she has had recently, such as shakiness. She is concerned that it may be a blood sugar issue. After examining her the doctor suggested that she might have a low blood sugar problem and that she needed to eat something in the morning for breakfast. Neither of us are breakfast eaters, but the doctor said it was very important for people whose blood sugar tended to run low. Overnight the sugar level drops and that’s what causes the shakiness in the morning. He said she HAD to eat something in the morning besides coffee. He also put her on some vitamins and supplements.

After the doctor’s visit we went out to lunch with Les and Wilma Jean Alexander, some friends of ours from several of our FMCA chapters. They have been staying at the Thousand Trails RV Resort in the Coachella Valley and we wanted to visit with them. Wilma Jean is the President of the 3T’s Chapter, which you may remember is the chapter that has the two day rest and relax rally after each FMCA Convention. We were last with them in Albuquerque last month. Jackie and Wilma Jean are co-hosting the 3T’s rally in Oregon after the Redmond FMCA Convention in August of this year. Les is running for the office of International Area Vice President. Almost all of the chapters we belong to are in the International Area because they have no geographical base, but are made up of members scattered all across the country. We had lunch at La Casita, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. After lunch we headed back towards Banning where we stopped to do some shopping before heading back up the mountain to our coach.

Before we had left to go to the doctor in the morning we had said goodbye to Ray and Suzie who left Silent Valley today to go down to March Air Base in Riverside. Ray is retired military so they can use the RV facilities at the various military bases across the country. They wanted to go down there and get a spot because there is an air show at the base in a couple weeks and all military spots are first come, first served. They wanted to be sure and get a spot before the air show. We may come down for the day to see the show from their patio. Just before we went to bed the rain started. The weather forecast had predicted rain and it finally came. It rained off and on all night.

Wednesday, April 21st we woke up to cold and rain. The weather said it was going to rain for at least the next 24 hours, so we decided to just make it a stay home and relax day. I got caught up on some administrative chores and we both just played on the computer for most of the day. At one point we did get just a little bit of snow! It was too warm to last, but it did pile up a little in the shady areas and we got some pictures. A little later in the evening it sleeted for a little while too.

Thursday the rainy and cold weather continued. It was drizzly on and off all day and the temperature never got out of the 40's, so we just stayed in and relaxed. We did go out and do laundry, but our parking spot is only a few hundred yards from the laundry, so we didn’t have far to go.

Friday, April 23rd we finally woke up to sunshine and no wind. Yea! After lunch we got out of the coach for the first time in several days and went caching. We did some caching along Highway 243 near Silent Valley, and also down in Banning, North of I-10. We garnered nine finds, but we did have two DNFs. First of those in a while. Since we are going to be here for another two weeks we will keep an eye on these two and see if anyone else finds them. If so, we may go look again. After caching we came home and then later in the evening went over to the restaurant here at Silent Valley for dinner. They have very good food here, we have always enjoyed it. They have some of the best liver and onions to be had anywhere. Tonight I had the liver and Jackie had the special, which was pork ribs. Both were excellent. After dinner we headed home as there were not very many people in the bar and we decided it wouldn’t be much fun tonight.

Saturday, April 24th we left the coach early and headed South to San Diego to attend the memorial/celebration of life for Jackie’s mom, who you may remember passed away while we were in Tucson last month. Jackie’s brother Dennis decided to have a memorial at St. Paul’s Senior’s Home, where Beverly lived for almost four years. She still had a few friends living there. When we got to San Diego we stopped for lunch at the Hob Nob Hill restaurant, on 1st Avenue just off of Laurel, for lunch. We have eaten here many times before and it is only a few blocks from St. Paul’s. After lunch we went and helped Dennis set up the room for the memorial. There were about 25 people in attendance. Most were friend’s of Dennis, along with a couple of ladies Beverly knew from her time at St. Paul’s. It was a very nice celebration, with a number of people sharing “Bev Stories” and remembering her. After the service we headed back North to Silent Valley. Sunday we stayed around the coach and just did some light chores.

Monday, April 26th we headed down to the Coachella valley early so that Jackie could continue her medical procedures. We had to stop first at the lab for some blood tests and then we had lunch at Mimi’s restaurant in Rancho Mirage. After lunch we went back to Eisenhower Medical Center so Jackie could have the biopsy done on the lymph node in her armpit. She was in there about two hours and when she came out she said she only had minor discomfort. She did have a big bandage and an ice pack that she was supposed to use for 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off for the next 24 hours. She also couldn’t take a shower for the next 24 hours. We headed back up to Silent Valley and just relaxed the rest of the night, taking care to rotate the ice packs on schedule. She will get the results of the biopsy in a couple of days and we have our fingers crossed that it is nothing major.

Tuesday, April 27th we just stayed in so Jackie could take care of her wound site. It is not very big and she isn’t in much discomfort, but she didn’t feel like doing too much. Wednesday we woke up to more rain and fog so we had another leisure day around the coach.

Thursday, April 29th we finally had some good weather. We headed out after lunch to do some caching down in Banning. We found nine caches in a couple of hours, but also had two DNFs. Hate those we can’t find! After caching we drove East about 20 miles to Moreno Valley to go to the Costco. For the old timer’s who may read this, Moreno Valley, originally called Sunnymead, is where the old Riverside International Raceway was from 1957 to 1989. I remember as a kid and later as a young man watching sports car and NASCAR races at Riverside Raceway. There is now a big shopping center where the old track used to be. Jackie also got the results from her biopsy this morning and everything was negative. YEA!

Friday we did some shopping in Banning getting ready for my Brother Ken and his wife Susan who are coming up to Silent Valley on Sunday to spend some time with us. After shopping we headed home to do some housecleaning. Saturday we spent the whole day cleaning house and getting ready for company.

Sunday, May 2nd, my brother Ken and his wife Susan arrived at Silent Valley at about 9:30. They live in Goodyear, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix on the Southwest side of town. They had a drive of a little over 275 miles, but they made good time. They were originally going to come for a three day weekend, but Susan was called into work on Saturday so they were only able to come over for one night. To make the most of it they left home at about 5:30 a.m. so they could get here early enough to make a day of it. Shortly after they arrived we got into our car and headed South out of Silent Valley towards the mountain resort town of Idyllwild, about 16 miles further on Highway 243. We were going up there to have some lunch, walk around the shops and do some caching. We had introduced Ken and Susan to geocaching when we were in Phoenix just before Christmas last year. They were instantly hooked and are already up over 400 finds in just four months. They had not yet cached in California and were looking forward to going caching with us. I had already lined up about 25 caches in the Idyllwild area and had the files all ready to load into their GPS units when they arrived.

We got up to Idyllwild around 11:00 and did a couple of caches then went to Jo Ann’s Café in the town square for lunch. Since it was still a little early for Idyllwild’s busy season there were not too many people in town. In the summer you have to wait in line to eat in Jo Ann’s. After lunch we spent an hour or so walking around the town center checking out the little shops and galleries. Then we started caching again. All told for the afternoon we found nine caches with no DNFs. We also hit our milestone of 1,400 caches on this trip. Yippee! After caching we headed back down to Silent Valley where we relaxed and talked until dinner. We did a BBQ with steaks and potatoes and some of Jackie’s great Halibut Chowder. Even though Ken and Susan said they were not real fond of fish, they both loved the chowder and even had seconds. After dinner the four of us played some cards and had a great time. We then pulled out the sleeper sofa and we all headed off to bed. The only one not happy was Smokey the Cat. He was not pleased that there were strangers in his living room, which is his bailiwick after bedtime, and he made a real pest of himself in our bed all night long.

Monday morning, May 3rd, we all woke up around 8:00 or so, had some coffee (or at least Jackie and I did) showered and dressed and headed out around 10:00 a.m. for the Coachella Valley. Ken said that they didn’t have to start for home until about 3:00 in the afternoon because that would still get them back home before dark, so we suggested that we drive down to Palm Desert, leave their car, and we would take them on a guided tour of the Coachella Valley. They had never been to this part of California before so they thought that was a good idea. They packed their car and followed us down the mountain and then East to Palm Desert where we left their car in the Costco parking lot. We then drove up through Palm Desert and just drove them around, giving some narrative of our time here and some of the history of the area. We stopped for lunch at the new Cactus Jack’s restaurant in Palm Desert. Regular readers will remember that the original Cactus Jack’s in Indio was our favorite watering hole when we lived here. He opened a second place in Palm Desert. Ken and Susan loved the food. After lunch we drove over to Indio and took them through the Indian Palms Country Club where we lived before we went full-time in 2005. Our old house still looked almost exactly the same as it did when we sold it in 2005. The only thing different was a couple of shrubs in the yard. We then drove down Highway 111 all the way over to Palm Springs. Along the way we stopped briefly in Cathedral City at our friend Barry’s shop so he could meet Ken. Jackie also wanted to pick up a UPS package that we had delivered there.

After our multi-hour tour of the Coachella Valley we dropped Ken and Susan off right about 3:00 and they started the drive back to Phoenix. We then headed back up to Silent Valley to relax and cool off. It was 94 degrees in the Coachella Valley and the air conditioning on our car was not working. It was good to get back to Silent Valley and 72 degrees! We later got an email from Ken that they had made it home before 7:00 p.m. We really enjoyed our short time with Ken and Susan. He is my youngest brother, actually the same age as my oldest daughter, which means we could actually be their parents. Nonetheless, we have a good time with them. They are avid cruisers, and had just completed a Caribbean cruise last week. While we were at lunch they were telling us about a four day cruise on Princess Cruises that they are thinking about for December. It leaves out of Los Angeles and is just before Christmas. We told them that if they decided to go to let us know because we would probably be interested as well. We had said we weren’t going to go on a cruise this year in order to save some money after our expensive Alaska trip, but a four day is pretty inexpensive and we are usually in Southern California around the holidays anyway, so there wouldn’t be any major travel involved. They would be a lot of fun on a cruise.

Tuesday we decided to stay around the coach for the day and catch up on some chores and rest after the busy weekend. That night Jackie go to do her first night of sleep study. You see, I have been telling her that I notice that there are times when she seems to pause in her breathing at night. I thought that she should talk to her doctor about the symptoms of sleep apnea and see what he thought. At her last doctor’s appointment she talked to him and he suggested a sleep study. A person used to have to go to a sleep center and spend a couple of nights in order to get a sleep study done, but the doctor said he had heard that a home program had been developed. He made some calls and then made arrangements for this “kit” to be sent to Jackie so she could do an in-home sleep study. Essentially it’s a small data recorder, smaller than a lap top computer, which is hooked to three sensors that you have to wear on you body. One is a device that fits under the nose to measure breathing, another is a tube that fastens around your chest to measure respiration, and the third is a blood oxygen sensor that attaches to the end of your finger. Once you get all wired up you get in bed, turn on the recorder and it records all these measurements for the whole night. You have to do this for three straight nights and then pack everything up and send it back to the company where they analyze the data.

When it came time for bed I helped get Jackie “wired up” and started the recorder. The thing on the finger is the most odd because it glows red. She looked like ET with his “Heart Light” on the end of his finger. The other odd thing is that the system talks to you when one of the sensors becomes dislodged or stops working right, so several times during the night we heard a voice saying “check breath sensor” and then “breath sensor OK”. Kind of weird. Needless to say, Jackie didn’t sleep too well with the wires and stuff hanging off of her. I think that’s why they have you do it three nights in a row, so you get used to it and they can get at least one good night’s data.

Wednesday, May 5th - Happy Cinco De Mayo! I got up and out early to take the car down to Cathedral City in the Coachella Valley for service. The air conditioning decided to stop working and there is a Jeep dealer down there. The car is also due for its oil and filter change. I got into the service center about 9:30 and dropped the car off. I had their shuttle drop me off at my friend Barry’s shop a couple miles away so I wouldn’t have to just sit around the dealership for hours. While at Barry’s I read and then walked down to Boys Restaurant a few blocks away. Boys was one of the places at which I used to eat lunch frequently when I worked at the Desert Princess Resort in Cathedral City. They have pretty good food, but my favorite is their pastrami sandwich. I have yet to find a pastrami sandwich anywhere that is as good. I had a great lunch and then headed back to Barry’s for a while. Around 2:00 Barry said he didn’t have any work he could do because he was waiting on parts. Barry owns and operates a transmission repair shop and is the “builder”, the guy who actually rebuilds the transmissions. He has other staff to work with customers and to remove and replace the units from the vehicles. He left the shop foreman in charge and we headed off in his car to Cactus Jack’s in Palm Desert for a cocktail. After a couple of drinks he took me back to the dealership and dropped me off. Just as I got to the dealership they were parking the car so I talked to the service writer. He told me that they had done the oil change but had to order a condenser for the A/C and I would have to come back in a few days. The A/C will be covered under the warranty, but the oil change cost nearly $200! One of the down sides of having a diesel. They go longer between oil changes, but they are more expensive and you can’t go to the local Quicky Lube because they don’t have the right oil or filters. Oh well, it gets good mileage too. I then drove back up to Silent Valley to relax for the rest of the night.

When I got back up to Silent Valley I found that Ray and Suzie Babcock had returned and were parked in a spot right behind us. We went over there for cocktails and chatted about their adventures. They had left Silent Valley last week and gone down to the March Air Force Base in Riverside, about 30 miles away. He is a retired Air Force guy so he gets to camp on military bases with RV parks. He wanted to be there for the air show which was this past weekend. They said the air show was great. We were originally going to go, but when Ken and Susan said they were coming to see us that weekend we cancelled. That night at bedtime we hooked Jackie up to her sleep machine again for the second night. She slept a little better this time.

Thursday, May 6th we had company for the afternoon. Our friends Ray and Anita Purcell came up about 11:00 to spend some time with us. Ray and Anita have been owners here at Silent Valley Club for many years and were instrumental in getting us to join back before we went full time, when we still had a house in Indio. Ray and Anita are members of the Indio Elks Lodge and their RV group and we used to do a lot with them back before we left to travel. We have also met them on the road a couple of times and spent some time with them. We enjoy their company. They had lunch and stayed until late afternoon when they headed back home. Later in the afternoon we had Ray and Suzie over for cocktails. We were going to go to the Silent Valley restaurant for dinner, but because of the big late lunch we had we decided to stay in for the night. That night Jackie did her last night of her sleep study.

Friday we left early for Indio to go to Cactus Jack’s and meet Jackie’s girlfriend Nancy for lunch. We had a very nice lunch and spent a couple hours chatting and catching up. After lunch we did some chores, going to the RV store for some parts, dropping Jackie’s sleep study package at the UPS store, and going to Walmart. After all that we headed over to our friends, Barry and Colleen, for the evening. We have not been able to spend much time with them since we got back into the area and we were looking forward to a fun night. Although it was hot, about 93 degrees, we went out on a boat ride shortly after arriving and fixing some cocktails. You may remember that Barry and Colleen live in their motorhome full-time in a very luxurious RV country club in Indio. The club has some interior lakes and waterways and Barry and Colleen have a waterfront lot and an electric party boat. We spent about an hour out on the water talking and drinking before heading back to their coach. Barry and I sat and talked for hours while the girls played cards in the motorhome. Colleen had fixed corn beef and cabbage, one of my favorite meals, and we had a great dinner. We ended up staying up talking and playing cards until midnight. Needless to say we didn’t want to drive the 50 miles back to Silent Valley at midnight so we slept on their couch. It was not a particularly comfortable night, it was hot and a little cramped, but it worked OK.

Saturday morning we woke up and had some coffee and then the four of us headed over to Cactus Jack’s in Indio for lunch before we started back up towards Silent Valley. After lunch we made a brief stop at Jackie’s “adopted” niece Vickie’s house. Vickie’s son is Shane Ryan and Jackie is his godmother. Vickie is Jackie’s old friend Nancy’s daughter. Although Jackie is not related to any of them by blood, she considers them all family, as do I. Shane is 15 and in high school now. We had a nice visit with Vickie and Shane and then started back up the road for Silent Valley. Shortly after we got back to the coach Ray and Anita Purcell drove up. You may recall they had been up for the day on Thursday. They were on their way up to Idyllwild with some friends and just stopped for a quick hello. One of the friends with them was Russell, whom we met several years ago up in Washington State one summer. Russell is an old friend of Ray’s and they all happened to be staying in an RV park in the same town in Washington when we were up there. We have not seen Russell since then. With them was Russell’s girlfriend. They only stayed for a few minutes and then continued on their way to Idyllwild. Jackie and I spent the rest of the day lazing around the coach catching up on our rest from our busy last couple of days.

Sunday, May 9th was Mother’s Day. This was Jackie’s first Mother’s Day since her mom died and the second since my mom died. We spent the day at home relaxing. Monday we headed down into Banning for lunch at Chili’s. We had gotten and email coupon for a free appetizer and it was expiring in a couple of days so we decided to use it. After lunch we headed over to the Hemet area to the South of Banning to do some geocaching. We got10 caches for the afternoon. After caching we headed back up to Silent Valley and cocktails with Ray and Suzie. They had left for the weekend (in their car) to visit with their kids in the LA area.

Tuesday morning I got up and left early and headed back down to Cathedral City by myself to get the air conditioning on the car fixed. They had to order a new condenser. It took most of the day to get it fixed, but we finally have A/C again! Yea! It was covered under warranty too, so it didn’t cost anything. Double Yea! Wednesday we headed back to the Coachella Valley again after lunch. Jackie had a late afternoon doctor’s appointment in Palm Desert so we decided we might as well go down a little early and get some caching in. We had a good afternoon and found 15 caches. Then we did some shopping and finally took Jackie to the doctor. She got the results of her sleep study and it confirmed that she is suffering from sleep apnea. The study shows that she is only getting a couple of hours of good sleep each night and has a lot of episodes of apnea, where she just stops breathing. This causes the blood oxygen to go down. This is not a good thing. The doctor is going to recommend a CPAP machine. We are going to do some research to see what is in store for her. Ray is on a CPAP, so he should be a good resource. After the doctor’s visit we headed back to Silent Valley for the rest of the night.

Thursday, May 13th was a leisure day. We did our laundry and some minor chores. Jackie was contacted by a medical supply company who advised that they would be the company providing Jackie with the CPAP machine and oxygen. They were only waiting for the final Medicare approval. They said that they could come out next Monday, when we are in Yucaipa, to deliver the equipment and train Jackie on it’s use. We are a little concerned about the oxygen, the doctor had not mentioned that when Jackie was there. However, his office later confirmed that the doctor wanted her on night oxygen. I guess we will have to figure where to keep the stuff.

Friday our friends Barry and Colleen came up about 3:30 to spend the weekend with us. That evening we went over to the Silent Valley restaurant for dinner. Ray and Suzie went with us and the six of us had a very nice dinner. After dinner Colleen and Jackie played their usual Skipbo (card game) tournament while Barry and I sat in the back and sang karaoke. We had a great time drinking and singing. We actually stayed up until after midnight, which is highly unusual for any of us. Barry and Colleen settled into the sofa bed for the night.

Saturday, May 15th was Jackie’s birthday. Yea Jackie! After everyone got their coffee and got cleaned up we headed South to Idyllwild, about 18 miles up the road from Silent Valley. Although we had just been up their with my brother Ken and his wife a couple weeks back we always enjoy visiting. We drove around the neighborhoods for a while looking at all the neat houses and then stopped for lunch at Arriba, a Mexican restaurant in town. We had never eaten there before, but it had been recommended by Ray and Anita so we thought we would try it. Although Ray had told us the food was great, we were less than enthusiastic. The food was OK, but pretty generic without any big flavors. We probably won’t eat there again and will not recommend it to anyone. After lunch we did some shopping around town before heading back to Silent Valley. Before we left Idyllwild we picked up a pizza to have for dinner. Barry and Colleen had decided to stay Saturday night as well since this is probably the last time they will see us before we start our summer travels up North. Again, Barry and I sang while the girls played cards. We had another great night, although we didn’t stay up past 11:00 this time.

Sunday was to be a day of travel for us. Our 30 days in Silent Valley were complete and it is time to move on. We are leaving today for Yucaipa where we will be staying at the Yucaipa regional park. Since we only have about 30 miles to drive we didn’t get into a big hurry to leave. We had our coffee and relaxed for a little bit before Barry and Colleen packed their stuff and headed off to home. We then packed up the coach and got ready to leave. We ended up leaving around 11:00, which is only about an hour later than our normal leaving time. We didn’t even bother to hook up the car. I kidded Jackie that she needed to drive the 30 miles to Yucaipa to requalify for her driver’s license. She doesn’t drive much since we retired and are almost always together.

The trip down the hill and into the park only took about 45 minutes. We are going to be here in Yucaipa for 10 days. We only had to pay for five days since we had a credit with the park. This is where we were staying last Spring when we learned that my mother had died back in Arizona. We left the park early and they were nice enough to give us a credit for the days we didn’t use. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting set up and settled into our new home for the next 10 days.

And this, dear readers, is where we will leave you. After our time in Yucaipa we begin our summer travels, so look forward to new adventures and discoveries. Until the next time, be happy and enjoy the journey of life.

From the Rio Grande to the Rio Colorado

Hello again. The last episode of our travel log ended with us in Deming, New Mexico, en route to Albuquerque for the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) Convention. At this point we are traveling with our friends, Peggy and Vernon Bullock. We stopped in Deming at the Little Vineyard RV park.

Saturday, March 20th we headed out of Deming, New Mexico North towards Albuquerque. Our route North took us through the little town of Hatch, New Mexico, which claims to be the chili capitol of the world. I know that I have seen the name “Hatch Chili’s” displayed and we have bought cans of Hatch Chili’s. We arrived at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta grounds about 2:00 p.m. or so and got parked. We had earlier offered to help the Fulltimers Chapter of FMCA serve ice cream at the ice cream social during the rally, so this made us “volunteers” for the rally. As a result, we got to park with the other volunteers, which turned out to be a really good thing. We had parking on asphalt with 50 amp electric service and a water supply! We have never had this good a parking spot at any other FMCA convention.

Just a quick recap for those who have not read previous posts about FMCA rallies. FMCA has two large conventions each year. The locations vary - we have been to conventions in Minot, North Dakota, Charlotte, North Carolina, Pomona, California, and St. Paul, Minnesota. When we started going to rallies in 2005 the conventions were big - there were nearly 7,000 coaches in Minot in 2005. With the economy and fuel prices being what they have been, the rallies have gotten progressively smaller, with the average now about 3,000 - which is still a lot of motorhomes and people. The Albuquerque rally was going to be a little different because most of the parking for the coaches was at the Balloon Fiesta grounds, on the North end of town. However, most of the meetings, seminars, vendors and displays were at the Albuquerque Fairgrounds, about 12 miles away. They did provide bus service between the two locations, as well as the location for two of the night time entertainment events, which were scheduled for a third location, the Sandia Indian Casino near the Balloon Fiesta grounds. We have not attended an FMCA rally that was this disjointed and spread out. The rally is providing shuttle service between the various venues, but they also have sufficient parking to allow attendees to take their own vehicles. We decided that we would rather “commute” on our own than depend on the bus service.

We spent the rest of Saturday just hanging around the coach resting for the remainder of the week. We did do a hamburger cookout with Peggy and Vernon. Unlike the Monaco rallies, the FMCA rallies don’t include any meals. Sunday we didn’t do too much either. The actual rally activities don’t start until Monday, with Saturday and Sunday being parking days. After lunch we did take a drive over to the fairgrounds so that we would know the route on Monday and wouldn’t get lost.

Monday, March 22nd, the first day of rally activities. We had to get up and out of the coach by 8:30 a.m. (yikes!) so that we could get over to the fairgrounds to prepare for the Chapter Fair at 9:30 a.m. All of the FMCA rallies include a Chapter Fair early on the first day of the rally. Any chapter of FMCA can reserve a table and set up a display to try to attract new members to their chapter. FMCA has over 500 chapters, all of which are focused on some common interest. You have heard me talk about several of the chapters we belong to, including Monaco International Chapter, which is for Monaco Coach owners, Elks International Chapter, which is for members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the 100%ers Chapter, which is for folks who live 100% of the time in their motorhomes. Right now we belong to eleven different chapters. I am currently the President of the 100%ers Chapter, and Jackie is also an officer of the Chapter. We have set up a couple of other Chapter Fairs at past rallies and, since our Chapter is getting very low in membership, we decided to set up a table at the Albuquerque rally. We set up a very nice table and talked to a lot of people during the hour and a half of the fair. Several people took applications, but we didn’t get any sign-ups out of it.

After the Chapter Fair we took down our table display and headed over to a seminar on full-timing put on by the Full Timers Chapter, of which we are also members. Unlike the 100%ers Chapter, the Full Timers Chapter allows members who actually still live in houses part of the time. It is a minor distinction in the focus of the chapters, but the Full Timers have several hundred members, while our 100%ers Chapter has about 16. Peggy and Vernon went to the Full Timers seminar with us and signed up to join the chapter. They still have a house in Northern California that they live in a couple of months a year., but they travel in their coach most of the time. Peggy and Vernon have never been to an FMCA rally before and we are sort of mentoring them at the rally.

After the Full Timers seminar the four of us headed out to do lunch in downtown Albuquerque. Both us and Peggy and Vernon are big fans of a TV show called “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” which is on the Food Network. The series features a well known chef, Guy Fieri, who travels around the country seeking out funky, cool places to eat. The show is a half hour and features three different restaurants on each show. There were two places in Albuquerque that he had featured on his show and we wanted to try at least one of them while we were here. Since all four of us like Mexican Food we decided on a little Mexican restaurant in the middle of downtown called Cecelia’s. We had a little trouble finding it and by the time we got there it was about 2:10 p.m. We walked up to the place (a real dive looking building), started to open the door and were met by a woman who told us they were closed! Apparently they were only open for breakfast and lunch. Well, bummer - the food featured on the show had really looked good.

Not to be deterred, we headed over to the second Albuquerque restaurant which had been featured on the show, the Standard Diner. This was a place that had once been a service station and had been converted into a restaurant. It was also downtown and only a mile or so from Cecelia’s. The four of us met at the Standard Diner and went in for lunch, or actually an early dinner. The restaurant was very nicely decorated and the service was excellent. We all had one of the menu items which had been featured on the show, a bacon wrapped meat loaf with all the fixings. It was delicious! Although the place was not inexpensive, it was not outrageous either considering the size of the portions. I would encourage anyone visiting Albuquerque to at least try the Standard Diner once. It is on Central Avenue, near downtown. I would also encourage anyone who travels a lot to watch “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” (also known as Triple D) on the food channel for great ideas on where to eat all over the country. After lunch we headed back to the balloon fiesta grounds for a happy hour with the members of the Full Timers Chapter that were parked in the area. We had a nice visit and then settled in for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, March 23rd we headed over to the fairgrounds around 10:30 or so to visit the vendor area. The FMCA conventions always have a big turnout of vendors selling all sorts of motorhome and RVing stuff. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the vendors, but not buying much. After five years on the road, we have pretty much everything that we need for the coach and out lifestyle. We go to the vendors to see if there is anything new, and to enter the contests and drawings for give aways. After a quick lunch at one of the overpriced food booths at the fairgrounds Jackie and I went to a seminar on a product that allows you to tap into your coach’s engine computer and monitor all of the engine information on a laptop computer much more accurately than you can with your dash gauges. I have been wanting one of these for a couple of years, but the $400 cost has always been a deterrent. After the seminar Jackie agreed that the program could be useful in helping to achieve good fuel economy and performance and said if I wanted it I should buy it. I still was a little hesitant, and decided to think about it overnight.

After the Silverleaf seminar, the name of the product I was looking at, I went to a seminar and business meeting of a brand new FMCA chapter, the Military Veteran’s Chapter. Surprisingly, with 500 chapters in FMCA and a membership that tends to be over 50, FMCA had never had a chapter just for vets. One of our acquaintances decided to try and start one up and started signing up charter members, of which I was one. This meeting in Albuquerque was the formation meeting and we had over 150 charter members! I suspect this may end up being one of the larger chapters in FMCA when they start to recruit in earnest. While I was at the vet chapter meeting Jackie went back to the vendors.

We had intended to go over to the new coach displays after the vet meeting to look at the display coaches, but the weather had turned cold and windy, and we were tired, so we went back to the coach to rest instead. That night the entertainment was set to start at 7:30 at the Sandia Casino, an Indian casino located about a mile from the balloon fiesta grounds where we were parked. We rested until it was time to head over to the casino. The Sandia Casino was very big and very nice, actually worthy of a Las Vegas Strip venue. The entertainment was supposed to have been in a outdoor concert amphitheater but had been moved inside to a huge ballroom because of the cold weather and the threat of rain. The ballroom was ok, but the seating was flat so the view of the stage was not the greatest. The entertainment for the evening was a local song and dance troupe called the Pink Flamingo Express. They did a lot of older rock and roll music and were pretty good after a somewhat slow start. What made the difference was they started getting the audience involved and bringing people up on the stage to “perform” in different numbers. All in all it turned out to be pretty good entertainment. All FMCA rallies include two or three nights of entertainment, usually one night with a fairly well known performer and less well known groups or individuals on the other nights.

After the concert we decided to stay at the casino and “game” for an hour or so before heading back to the coach. I was just fooling around on a dollar slot machine with $20 and hit a $300 jackpot! I immediately cashed it out and quit for the night. I walked over to Jackie and showed her my $300 ticket and told her that my $400 Silverleaf system was now only going to cost us $100 - yea! Jackie only lost about $40 bucks, so we had a pretty good night. When we went out to get the car it was raining cats and dogs, and kept raining all night long. Good thing we are parked on asphalt.

Wednesday, March 24th we headed over to the fairgrounds about 9:30 a.m. to attend a seminar on advance geocaching. It was being put on by some acquaintances of ours who started a Geocaching Chapter. While we were at the seminar we joined the chapter and added it to our list of member chapters. The seminar didn’t go too well because of problems with the audio visual equipment. Peggy and Vernon had gone to the seminar with us because over the last month or so we have been together they have become very interested in geocaching. We were a little disappointed in the seminar but while we were in the room we noticed that it had started snowing outside - and fairly heavy snow at that. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a camera with us, so we couldn’t get any real good pictures. It snowed for a couple of hours, but it was too warm for it to stick to the ground very long. The grassy areas and shrubs got kind of white, but it didn’t stay long.

After the geocaching seminar we had lunch and then did some more shopping. I did go over a buy my Silverleaf system that was made a lot less expensive by virtue of my casino winnings. At 12:30 we headed over to where the ice cream social was to be held. The Full Timers Chapter has always been the volunteer servers for the FMCA ice cream socials and we had volunteered to help. It was this service that got us our great parking spot! We really only have to stand and hand out ice cream bars for an hour, but it is always a lot of fun. Peggy and Vernon had also volunteered as brand new members of the Full Timers and were there with us. After the ice cream social we went to a meeting of the International Area, one of the FMCA organizational units, and then headed back to the parking area for a social hour with our new geocaching group.

The entertainment this night was again at the casino so Jackie and I headed over there about an hour early to do some more gaming. Neither of us had much luck and ended up losing about $40 or so. We then headed into the ballroom for the evening’s show, country and western star B.J Thomas. Thomas was big back in the 60's and 70's, but has only had a couple of modest hits since then. He is now on the fair and casino circuit. His biggest hit was “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The show was not too bad, but the sound was not great and Thomas did not have a lot of charisma - it was kind of a boring show. After the show we headed back to the coach for the night.

Thursday, March 25th was the last day of the rally and we really didn’t have any seminars or sessions that we wanted to attend until afternoon. One of the things we had wanted to do was go to the Norcold representatives at the rally and complain about our refrigerator problems we had had last month. When we went to the booth in the vendor area they told us to contact the customer service rep at the service center, which was located at the Balloon Fiesta grounds, not too far from where we were parked. Since we had some time we went there only to find that the customer service rep had already headed home. We were talking to a guy who was Norcold’s service manager for the Western area of the country and told him our sad story, including that shortly after the cooling unit was fixed the ice maker went out. The service guy told us he couldn’t do much for us with regard to the cooling unit and our insurance deductible, he would come over and take a look at the ice maker for us. He followed us back to the coach, checked over the refrigerator and made some adjustments for us. Then he looked at the ice maker and told us that, yes it was shot and we needed a new one. He then offered to replace it for free to try to make up some of our unhappiness with Norcold. He then proceeded to put in a new ice maker for us. That would have been about $250 or $300 to get fixed, so we felt a little better about Norcold - or at least this particular representative of the company.

After getting the fridge worked on we headed over to the fairgrounds about 1:00 for the business meeting of the Elks International Chapter. Immediately after the meeting they had a social hour in the same room. Normally there are several hundred members at the Elks International meetings, however, this one was poorly attended, with only about 70 or so. After the Elks social we headed back to the parking area because I had scheduled a business meeting for the 100%ers Chapter at 5:30 in a tent near where our coach was parked. Unfortunately, only three couples showed up for the meeting and I needed four for a quorum, so we couldn’t have an official meeting. That was very disappointing because I had personally contacted at least seven members of the chapter and told them of the meeting and most told me they would be there. Unless we have a meeting our chapter will go into inactive status next year.

The entertainment for this night was being held in a large tent right in the parking area. The group was the Flying J Wranglers and was another local group, this one VERY country. A little too much so - we left after about 10 minutes and headed back to the coach for the night. They also held a “balloon glow” at the parking area, where several hot air balloons set up at night tethered to the ground and light up the bags with their burners. Unfortunately, it was too cold to go out wandering around the balloon field and we couldn’t see it from where we were parked.

Friday, March 26th we had to leave the Balloon Fiesta grounds and the FMCA rally. One of the other FMCA chapters we belong to is called the 3T’s Chapter. The sole purpose of the chapter is to hold a two day rally after each FMCA convention to allow members of the chapter to rest. The three “T’s” stand for “To dump, To launder, and To rest.” The rally is always held the two days immediately after the rally and always at an RV park within an hour’s drive of the FMCA venue that has full hookup sites. In this case we headed for a KOA about 20 miles from the Balloon Fiesta grounds. We got in around 12:30 or so and immediately headed out for lunch and to a local Laundromat to get our laundry done. That evening we had a nice meal at the park with the rest of the Chapter. There were ten rigs in attendance at this mini rally. Among them were Peggy and Vernon again, who we had encouraged to join the 3T’s.

Saturday was the “rest” day so after a relaxing morning we headed out with Peggy and Vernon to do some geocaching, something we had not done in a week or so. We found seven caches within a couple hours. After a stop at the grocery store we went back to the coach where Jackie helped Peggy register to be “real” geocachers. They now have an official geocaching name (Team 2Bs) and seven caches to their credit. Later on that evening we had a happy hour with the group and then the entire chapter went to a Chinese restaurant near the KOA for dinner. The food was very good and it was nice relaxing with our friends over dinner. We then headed back to the coach for the night.

Sunday, March 28th it was time to head out on our own again. We will be heading West from Albuquerque, working our way back through Arizona to Southern California for the remainder of the spring. Peggy and Vernon are headed East, towards Texas and then up to Michigan in the summer months. We have been traveling on and off with Peggy and Vernon for the last two months and we will miss them. Our original plan was to leave Albuquerque on Sunday, spend two nights in Gallup, New Mexico, two nights in Flagstaff, Arizona, and then down to Surprise, Arizona, near Phoenix, on April 1st where we have reservations for a week at a nice RV resort. However, I have been watching the weather and there is a storm coming in at midweek so we changed plans. We left Albuquerque at about 10:00 a.m. after a final breakfast get-together with the 3T’s and headed West towards Gallup, about 150 miles. We got into Gallup but only paid for one night. We didn’t even unhook the car since they parked us in a pull through spot.

Monday, March 29th we awoke in Gallup, New Mexico to 27 degrees! Way too cold - time to head out! We started West on Interstate 40 again, this time headed to Flagstaff, Arizona, about 180 miles away. Since we gained an hour when we went into Arizona, we got to the park about 1:00 p.m. and got settled in. Our cat, Smokey, is no longer traveling in a cage. He is now allowed to stay and, although he still does not care for the moving vehicle much, he does settle down on the floor after a little yelling at us. We stayed at the Black Bart RV park on the East end of town. Not the nicest park, but far less expensive than the only other park in town, the KOA. We registered here for two nights which will have us leaving on Wednesday morning. The snow is expected to hit Flagstaff on Wednesday night. By that time we should be down in the desert near Phoenix and safe from the snow. After a couple of quick errands we relaxed in the coach for the rest of the day and evening. I forgot to mention that I had been able to get the Silverleaf system hooked up to the coach and the laptop that I use for navigation and was able to use it on both Sunday and Monday as we traveled. It is amazing the information that you can get from the computer. I think it will be very helpful in getting better fuel mileage, and also ensuring that the coach doesn’t have any heating problems in the summer. A very nice system.

Tuesday we headed out for lunch at one of the two Triple D recommended restaurants in Flagstaff. This one was called Salsa Brava and was right on old Highway 66 on the East end of town. It is a Mexican restaurant with some slightly unusual things on the menu. I had a chicken chimichanga with a cream sauce that was very good. They also have a salsa “bar” with several varieties of salsa to try. It was a little on the pricey side, but the portions were good, as was the service. Not a bad place to try. After lunch we headed up to the Lowell Observatory which is on a hill overlooking downtown Flagstaff. One of the other couples who were at the 3T’s rally knew we were going to Flagstaff and gave us two free passes for the observatory. They belong to some society that gets them free passes to a variety of venues around the country. The Lowell Observatory was founded in 1894 and has been an active astronomical laboratory ever since. This was the observatory that discovered the planet (now ex-planet) Pluto back in 1930. We got there in time for a tour of the place led by a very knowledgeable docent. We got to visit one of the original telescope domes and tour the museum. It was a fun and educational tour. After the observatory we did some caching, but were only able to find three. We had tried to get to several others, but ran into access and parking problems. When it started getting late in the afternoon we decided to call it quits at three finds. We are both also starting to get winded from spending the last week and a half at altitudes over 6,000 feet. Neither Jackie nor I do well at altitude. She has been sucking on an inhaler for the last couple days. I find myself waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air. Take me back to the low desert - soon!

Wednesday, March 31st. We have been watching the weather and it shows that up here in the high country they are expecting snow Wednesday night and all day Thursday. Our reservation in Surprise, Arizona, in the Northwest Phoenix area, starts on Thursday. Time to get out of dodge before the snow hits. We pack up the coach under cloudy skies with a pretty stiff wind. About 10:00 a.m. we head out of Flagstaff and head South on Interstate 17 towards Phoenix. It is only about a 115 mile drive to our next destination, the Pioneer RV Resort, We arrive at the park about 12:15 p.m. and get settled in for one night. We are now under 2,000 of elevation, in no danger of snow and with air thick enough to breath! Yea!

A little background about Pioneer. There is a small park here with an “old west” town set up. It really is only a theater and a couple of store fronts, but it is a tourist attraction that has been here for many years. When I first started withe the Sheriff’s Office in 1970 our shooting range was here at Pioneer. Sometime in the late 80's the Federal Government, who owned the land our range was on, decided they needed the land to build a Federal prison. The Sheriff’s range was moved out to the far Northwest, halfway to Wickenburg on Highway 60, and the Feds built a minimum/medium prison on the site. We can see the prison from where we are parked.

After getting set up we headed North a couple of miles to the outlet stores located in Anthem, Arizona. Anthem didn’t exist when I left the Phoenix area in 1998. It is now a far reaching bedroom community. While we were wandering around the outlet stores I was wondering if Anthem was part of Phoenix, or an unincorporated area of the county like parts of Sun City. That question was answered when we left the stores to head home. We saw several Phoenix Police vehicles parked near a slope by the freeway. There was also a van from the coroner’s office and a Phoenix PD crime scene van. This tells my cop mind that there is, or was, a dead body somewhere in the immediate area. After we got home we put on the local news on the over-the-air TV, but didn’t catch any mention of a body up in Anthem. I guess in a metro area of 3 million people some dead bodies have to go unmentioned.

Thursday, April 1st we headed out of Pioneer and drove a grueling 25 miles to the Sunflower RV Resort in Surprise, Arizona. We will be here for a week and I am looking forward to seeing some of my family. My kids and most of my grandkids all live in the West Phoenix area, as well as one of my brothers, Ken, who lives in Goodyear. We are looking forward to getting with some or all of them during the next week. After we got settled into the park we did our laundry and relaxed the rest of the day. We have a nice spot near the back of the park looking East over the Aqua Fria River channel and Sun City.

Friday we went out after lunch to do some caching. We have never cached in the far Northwest part of Phoenix and there are a lot of caches out here. In a few hours we had managed to get 12 finds with no DNF’s. After caching we headed over to the Sun City Elks Lodge for a cocktail. We have been to this Lodge before, but it has been a couple of years. This is one of the larger lodges in the order with well over 2,000 members. Tonight was fish fry night and they were lined up out the door to get into the restaurant. We just had a couple of drinks. We also signed up for the Easter Sunday brunch that the Lodge is having. As soon as Jackie saw they were going to be serving leg of lamb she was ready to come. They will also have baked ham for me since I don’t care for lamb. After our cocktails we went down the street to the local Olive Garden for dinner. Had a very nice dinner outside on the patio. It was nice finally being back in nice weather where we could do that. After dinner we headed home for the evening.

Saturday, April 3rd I spent a good part of the day doing work around the coach. I needed to do my maintenance activities, checking fluids, lubricating things, that kind of stuff. I also did some minor fixes like a couple of loose body panels. Late in the afternoon we headed down to Goodyear to meet my oldest daughter Tye for dinner at the Golden Corral restaurant. Tye had wanted to buy us dinner. We got to the restaurant and met with Tye, her youngest daughter (and my youngest granddaughter) Jordan, Tye’s oldest daughter (and my oldest granddaughter) Crystal, Crystal’s husband Tyrell and their son, Little Tyrell. My son Roy was out of town and my other daughter Tracie was working. Tye’s husband Frank is disabled and was not feeling well, so he didn’t come. We had a very nice dinner at the restaurant, which was a buffet, meaning we ate way too much!

After dinner the five of them followed us back up to Surprise to the motorhome where they spent several nice hours visiting with us. It was nice to see at least some of the family again. Tyrell is my second great grandchild and the only one that lives here in Phoenix. It is fun to see him. He is pretty shy and still doesn’t come to me, but Jackie was able to pick him up and hold him for a little while, which is great progress. He is nearly two, so I figure in another year or so he will feel comfortable enough to let me hold him and interact. He sure is a cute kid.

Sunday, April 4th was Easter Sunday. We headed over to the Sun City Elks Lodge about 12:30 for the Easter Brunch. They seated us at a table with two other couples who were friends. They were both from Washington State but spent much of the winter in the Sun City area. They were very friendly and we chatted all through brunch. It was kind of funny because one of the women was convinced that she knew us from somewhere because we looked familiar to her. She kept taking guesses and asking questions trying to figure it out. They didn’t look familiar to us, but it kept the conversation going. The brunch was pretty good. They had lamb and ham along with scalloped potatoes and creamed green beans. They also had a small green salad bar and some breakfast items. The food was tasty, there just wasn’t a lot of variety. Nonetheless, it was still a good brunch and we had good company. After eating we thought we might go to the mall or something just to walk around, but we found everything was closed for Easter. We ended up going home and just playing on the computer for the afternoon.

About 3:40 in the afternoon I was sitting in the back of the coach at my desk and Jackie was up front at her computer on the kitchen table. I felt the coach start to move around, kind of like someone was jumping up and down. This went on for about 30 seconds and both of us, at nearly the same time, asked “are you jumping around?” Jackie said something about an earthquake and I told her, “Arizona doesn’t have earthquakes.” She said that it sure felt like one. I went on the computer and checked the earthquake site and sure enough, there had just been a big (7.2) earthquake in Mexico, just South of the border near El Centro, California. This was over 200 miles away as the crow flies and we felt it pretty strongly. As I always do when I feel a quake, I filled out the survey form on the quake web site for the shake map. I then spent the next hour watching CNN news cover the quake. Pretty interesting. I lived in Phoenix for nearly 40 years and never felt a quake before.

Monday, April 5th we headed out after lunch and went down to Goodyear to visit with my brother Ken and his wife Susan. Shortly after arriving we headed out with them to do some geocaching in the area. Earlier this year we had introduced them to geocaching and they got hooked. They are already up to nearly 400 caches and have hidden a couple of caches of their own. We went out first and found their two caches so we could sign them and get credit. Then we went out and found four others for a total of six caches for the afternoon. Most of them they had already found and signed, but we did find one that was only a couple of days old that was a new find for them too. After caching we headed over to Applebee’s for a nice dinner, then back to their house where I helped Ken with some of the geocaching software. They are getting ready to go on a Caribbean cruise in a week or so and are taking all their caching stuff with them. They want to cache in Florida before they board the ship and they have already identified caches on the various islands they will be visiting. Go Ken and Susan!

Tuesday we did some shopping in the afternoon after lunch. For lunch we did the West Phoenix location of My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. Both Jackie and I had the same menu items that we had at the location in Tucson, and both of us found them to be not nearly as good. As Jackie said while we were eating, “if this was our first time at this restaurant, I wouldn’t come again and wouldn’t tell anyone else about it.” The food in Tucson was very good, the food at this Phoenix store was marginal at best. Jackie said the meat in her gyro was salty and dry, my stuffed peppers were mushy and had way too much cheese. The potatoes on my plate were nearly inedible. All in all, this was not a good restaurant experience. We told the waitress about our concerns, and she didn’t seem to care at all and no one else came out to talk to us. We might go back to the Tucson store, but will not ever go to any of the Phoenix locations again.

Wednesday, April 7th we took a drive down to where my daughter Tye lives in Glendale. When they were at the coach last Saturday we had told her that she could take some Halibut and Salmon with her, but we forgot to get it out. We wanted to take some down to her. Although she was working her husband Frank was there. My son Roy was also there. He had been out of town on Saturday so it was nice to see him for a little while. After visiting Frank and Roy we did some caching up near Sun City and Peoria. We were able to find seven caches with no DNF’s. After caching we headed home for the evening.

Thursday morning we were up and packing the coach for a 10:00 a.m. departure for the Colorado River. We left Surprise and headed West for the 150 mile drive to Ehrenberg, a little town on the Arizona side of the river, just across from Blythe, California. The drive was pretty uneventful, other than a little wind, and we arrived just about 1:00 p.m. After getting set up in a nice spot right on the river we relaxed the rest of the day. We are staying at one of our Western Horizon’s parks, Colorado River Oasis, and will be here ten days. We have been to this park a couple of times before, but only for a day or two at a time. This will be our first extended stay here.

Friday, April 9th we were up and out by 9:00 a.m. heading North in the car towards Lake Havasu City. Lake Havasu is in Arizona about 80 miles North of I-10 along the Colorado River. For those who have lived in a cave all their lives, Lake Havasu is where the original London Bridge was relocated back in the 70's. We are headed up there to spend the day with our camping group from the Indio Elks Lodge, the Desert Drifters. We had found out that the Drifters were having an outing at Lake Havasu this weekend and that 23 rigs, including our best friends, Barry and Colleen, were going to be there. They had all gone up on Thursday, the day we came to Ehrenberg from Phoenix. It took a little under two hours for us to drive up and we arrived at the RV park where the Drifters were staying around 11:00, just in time to go to lunch with Barry and Colleen. We had to hurry through lunch because the Drifters had rented a pontoon boat for the day and we were going out on it at 12:30 along with Barry and Colleen and several other friends of ours from the Indio area.

A van from the boat rental place picked us up at the RV park and took us down to the docks. We had nice inboard party boat, probably about 22 feet long, and headed out for a cruise. We were going to be out about 2 hours or so. We toured around under the London Bridge for a while, then headed South on Lake Havasu towards Parker Dam, the structure that creates the lake. The weather was just perfect, in the middle 70's, and it was very nice out on the water. It was a little too early in the year for swimming in the lake - the water was still rather chilly, but being on the boat was fun. After our two and a half hours we went back to the dock and took the van back to the RV park. The group was scheduled to go to the American Legion in town at 5:30 for dinner, but since it was only about 4:00 we decided to go to the Lake Havasu City Elks Lodge for a cocktail. Barry and Colleen, who are also Elks, went with us. We had never been to this lodge. We had a couple of drinks and got a lodge pin for our banner and then left to go to dinner. We got out a little late, about 5:40 and then realized we didn’t know where the American Legion was. We finally found it and arrived about 50 minutes late. Although the rest of the group was just getting served their meals, the tables were full and the food didn’t really look all that appetizing, so we left there and headed over to a nice restaurant on the lake for dinner. The four of us had a very nice dinner - a little pricey, but nice. The worst part was the drinks. We each had one drink (doubles) and our drink cost was a third of the total bill. The name of the restaurant was Shugrue’s, and while I can recommend the food, try to avoid drinking there if at all possible. It is very over priced on alcohol. It does have a very nice glassed-in dining area overlooking London Bridge and the water and has a very nice atmosphere. After dinner we went back to Barry and Colleen’s coach and decided to stay the night since it was nearly 9:30 by the time we got done eating. We slept on the couch, which was not too comfortable, but at least we didn’t have to drive home two hours in the dark. Saturday morning we got up, had some coffee and then headed back down South to Ehrenberg and our own coach. Barry and Colleen were playing golf and were leaving at 9:00, so we got out just before then. We got home around lunch time and spent the rest of the day just relaxing around the coach.

Sunday, April 11th we left the coach after lunch to do some caching. Surprisingly, there are not a lot of caches in the Blythe area. We did one “run” of caches up U.S. 95 from Blythe along the California side of the Colorado River. We were able to find seven caches before a low fuel warning light forced us back across the river to the Flying J in Arizona. There is about 20 to 25 cent difference in the price of fuel between California and Arizona. After caching we went home and I made a batch of chili for dinner.

Monday was a chores day, we did our laundry at the RV park and then did some shopping in Blythe. We did manage to get in one cache, a puzzle cache. Normally we don’t do puzzle caches, but this one was at a pioneer cemetery right across the street from our park so we couldn’t resist. Usually puzzle caches require you to find certain things, use the information you acquire to solve riddles or puzzles to find the actual coordinates of the cache. In this case we had to find a certain family’s plot in the cemetery, count the number of wooden crosses, find a clue on one of them and then apply all the information in a code to get the coordinates. We did it! Yea us! One more cache for the records.

Wednesday, April 14th we went out after lunch to do some more caching in the Blythe area. We were able to find a total of ten for the afternoon. While we didn’t have any DNF’s for the day, there were two caches that we had started to head for and called them off before we got to the immediate area because it was clear that they were too far out in the desert and too difficult to reach. We drove about four miles out into the desert for one until we came to a steep wash that I decided would just not work with our Jeep. While we have four wheel drive, we do not have the trail package that I thought we would need for this descent. The other one we called off involved having to cross a golf course and there were golfers out playing. We didn’t want to get knocked in the head by a ball just for a cache. Sometimes you have let good sense prevail in this sport. After caching we went back to the coach and had cocktails with some of our neighbors who had invited us out for a chat. An interesting group. One is a single male traveler who has been full time for seven years. Another couple are from Sequim, Washington and travel about 7 months a year. We had a lot to talk about with them since we spent a week in Sequim last Spring. The third neighbor were a couple from Desert Hot Springs, of all places, right in our old backyard. We had a very nice chat before retiring for dinner and the rest of the evening in the coach.

Thursday we went into Blythe in the afternoon to take in a movie. There is only one theater in Blythe, and they only have three movies showing. The only one that was of any interest to us was “Date Night” with Tina Fey and Steve Correl. The theater was pretty shabby and for the first quarter of the film we were the only people in our theater. A couple of young girls came in a little later, but that was it. Pretty close to a private screening. Although the theater was a little junky, the seats were comfy and the equipment worked, so we enjoyed the movie. It was a pretty decent romantic comedy, certainly not Oscar material, but pretty funny. After the movie we went home and had another happy hour with our neighbors and then dinner.

Friday, April 16th, we headed out after lunch for some more caching. We had pretty much exhausted the close caches, so we had to head East to Quartzsite to get near some we hadn’t found yet. We were only able to find four in a couple of hours because most were desert caches that required some hiking. The last one we had to hike about a half mile out into the desert and it was a little rougher than we expected. We had to go through several washes and with the temperature nearly ninety degrees, we were pretty wore out by the time we got back. We did find the cache we went looking for, but it finished the day for us. After cooling down we did some quick shopping and then headed home. While out at cocktails with the neighbors we became aware that there was going to be karaoke at the clubhouse that evening. We had a quick dinner and headed over about 7:30. There were not too many people in attendance, and even fewer singing, so I got to do about a dozen songs. Had a great time and sang until 10:30 before heading home for bed.

Saturday we decided to stick close to home and we just hung around the house and relaxed. We had cocktails with the neighbors in the late afternoon and after dinner went back over to the clubhouse for more karaoke. There were a lot more people at this session than there were the night before. There is a regular residential mobile home park inside of the RV park and a lot of the residents were there. The crowd was also much younger, more people in their 30's. Because there were so many singers I only got to do about five songs all night, but we still had a good time. We headed back to the coach about ten or so.

Sunday, April 18th we packed up the coach and hit the road again. We headed West on I-10 for the 150 mile trip to Silent Valley, our ownership park in the mountains above Banning, California. We got into Silent Valley about 2:00 p.m. and picked out a nice spot near the clubhouse and store. When we arrived we found that our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock were parked right across the road from us. After we got set up we went over and had cocktails with them and chatted. We then had them over for dinner. We had been cooking pork ribs in the crock pot all day and we had plenty for the four of us. We had a very nice dinner and caught them up on what had been going on with us since we last saw them in Tucson at the Monaco rally. They didn’t go to Albuquerque for the FMCA convention.

And that brings us to the end of this episode of our travels. We are going to be here in Silent Valley for a full 30 days, so the next chapter will cover our time here in the mountains. Until the next time, keep the faith, keep the fun!