Silent Valley Club - Relaxation in the Mountains, Part 2

Welcome back readers. Our last chapter concluded on Sunday, October 26^th while we were parked at the Silent Valley Club RV Resort in the mountains south of Banning, California. We are about half way through our month long stay here.

Monday, October 27^th, we had a leisure day at home. The park is now about two thirds empty and much quieter than it was over the Halloween weekend. We did a few chores, including taking down the Halloween decorations. Even though the actual holiday isn't until this coming Friday, it is over up here. We won't have any trick or treaters on the 31^st. Tuesday was also a stay at home day.

Wednesday, October 29^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove down the hill and headed east towards Palm Springs. We stopped first at the UPS service center near the Palm Springs Airport to pick up our mail. After getting our mail in hand we continued east to the Cactus Jack's restaurant in Palm Desert to meet with our friend Barry Cohen. Barry and his wife Colleen were our closest friends when we lived in Indio. Colleen died a little over a year ago and we have been worried about Barry living alone. They were high school sweethearts and had been married for close to 50 years when Colleen died.

Regular readers will know that Barry and Colleen have actually lived full time in an RV longer than us, however, they seldom traveled. Up until a couple years ago Barry worked full time running his transmission repair shop and they had a beautiful lot at the Motor Coach Country Club in Indio. Barry finally sold his shop and just before Colleen died they sold their big lot and got a smaller lot in the same resort. We were worried that Barry wouldn't want to go out on the road without Colleen, but we were pleased when he went out this past summer and traveled for several months. He went to Denver and spent a month or so with his daughter, then drove up to Idaho and Washington State to meet with friends. He only got back to the resort in Indio a few weeks ago. We had talked to him on the phone a couple times over the summer, but this was the first time we were able to meet with him and talk about his experiences.

We had a great lunch and talked about his travels and his family. He really seemed to enjoy traveling with his friends from the resort and I think he will probably continue to try to get out of the desert during the hot summer months. After lunch with Barry we stopped at the mall and shopped for a while before heading back to Silent Valley for the rest of the night.

Thursday, October 30^th, was another stay at home day. About 1:00 or so we had a visit from an old acquaintance of mine from my Maricopa County Sheriff's Office days. Bob McCullum and his wife Lola had just arrived in Silent Valley in their RV and had come over to visit. I have a lot of people from the Sheriff's Office on my Facebook page, including Bob and he had sent me a message a few days ago that they were going to be up here and would come by to see me.

Bob and Lola just started full timing in their trailer back in June of this year. They are not members of Silent Valley, but are up here on one of the affiliate programs for a week. I did not know Bob well back in the 1970's, he had started a couple of years before me and he worked mostly on the east side of the county, Mesa, Chandler, that area, while I worked on the far west side of the county. Back in those days it was almost like two different Sheriff's Offices, not of lot of interaction between the patrol divisions on opposite sides of the county. The substations were sixty miles apart and unless you worked downtown you never ran into someone from the “other side” of the county. Bob also retired nine years before me, so I had probably crossed paths with him two or three times in the early part of my career.

Nonetheless, we knew all the same people and had a good time playing “where are they now” with a lot of folks I know. Jackie and Nola talked about their efforts to go out full time in their RV and what some of their future plans were. After a couple hours of pleasant conversation they left to go back to their trailer. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach.

Friday, October 31^st, Happy Halloween. We left the coach after lunch and went down to Banning to do some geocaching. We had a good afternoon of caching, getting 13 new finds and one DNF. After caching we stopped at Walmart for some supplies before heading back up the hill for the rest of the day. No trick or treaters up in Silent Valley tonight, no one walking around at all.

Saturday, November 1^st, was another stay at home day. It had started raining pretty hard about 3:30 in the morning and it rained on and off for most of the morning. Our passenger side slide leak came back again, dripping water into the kitchen. Not a drenching, but enough to be concerning and using up a lot of towels. We played some cards and watched a couple of movies we had taped. A good day to stay indoors.

Sunday, November 2^nd we got an extra hour to sleep thanks to daylight savings time and going back an hour. We wanted to get off the hill today, but thanks to yesterday's rain it was too wet to geocache, so after lunch we drove down the hill to Banning and went to the small theater in town for a movie matinee. We saw Ouija, a horror flick starring no one you would know. It was pretty generic and typical, but it did have a number of “jump” moments and an interesting plot line with a twist I didn't see coming. At least it was a horror movie with no slasher moments, no nudity and not much foul language. It has been a while since we saw a movie and although this was not Oscar material, we still enjoyed the afternoon. After the movie we stopped at the grocery store for a newspaper and a few other things and then headed up the hill for the rest of the day. Monday was another stay at home day.

Tuesday, November 4^th, Happy Election Day. We already voted in Nevada by absentee ballot, so we decided to take a drive to Idyllwild, a small mountain community about 16 miles south of Silent Valley. They have a number of nice restaurants and shops there and we like to visit at least once during each stay at Silent Valley. We had lunch at a place we had not visited before, the Mile High Cafe. It had pretty good Yelp reviews so we thought we would give it a try. It was interesting in that it seems to be owned by a Korean family, so there is Asian food as well as the usual American food on the menu. I had a Reuben sandwich that was very good. Jackie had a veggie omelet breakfast that she also said was good. The portions were not very large and the prices were a bit higher than we would normally expect for what we ate, but the service was good and the food was very tasty.

After lunch we did a little bit of geocaching. We have cached up here in Idyllwild a lot, so there are not a lot of caches close in town for us to go for. We struck out on our first two efforts, getting DNFs for both caches. On the third try we finally found one. Yea! Since we were running out of daylight we settled for the one find and went into town to walk around a couple of shops. We spent an hour or so shopping, but didn't buy anything. About 3:45 we headed back to Silent Valley since it now gets dark up here by 5:00 or so with the loss of daylight savings. We stayed in and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, November 5^th, we left the coach a little before 11:00 and drove down the hill to visit with a friend ours who lives in the north part of Beaumont at the Highland Springs Country Club. Marianne Conner and her late husband David were friends of ours in Indio when we lived there and they also went full time in their RV in 2005. We traveled on and off with them for a couple years before David got sick and they had to buy a house and get off the road. David died about four or five years ago but we still try to see Marianne whenever we can.

We drove to her house and visited for a few minutes and then the three of us went to a restaurant in the nearby community of Cherry Valley for lunch. We went to Flo's, a place that is fairly new to this area, but has had a place in Chino for fifty years. It is a breakfast and lunch place that has very good reviews. The service was good and Jackie's chicken fried steak breakfast was enough for two people. She said it was very good. I was not as happy with my beef dip, which was small and a little light on meat. When we checked in on Yelp we got a free piece of pie, which was apple and very good as a closer for the meal. After we ate we sat and talked for an hour or so before we went our separate ways. We made a stop at Home Depot for some lights and then went back up the hill for the rest of the day.

Thursday was another stay at home day. Did a few things around the coach and spent some time in the hot tub. My old work acquaintance Bob and his wife left this morning for one of their parks on the Colorado River.

Friday, November 7^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and started down the hill enroute to Moreno Valley to meet our friends Gary and Ramona Wilson for lunch. We had arranged to meet them at the Olive Garden near the mall. We arrived about the same time they did and went into the restaurant for lunch. The last time we had seen the Wilson's was back in April, the last time we were up here in Silent Valley. We do stay in touch by email and Facebook, but it is still nice to meet in person from time to time.

We had a very nice time chatting with the Wilson's about everything going on with them. They had quit full timing a couple years ago, and had sold their motor home, but now they were getting the urge to get back into the lifestyle. Their health issues were somewhat resolved and they told us they are shopping for another motor home as we speak. I hope they can find something and get back on the road because we always enjoyed traveling with them.

The meal at the Olive Garden, where we met for lunch, was not so great. I was disappointed and dismayed. We were seated quickly and a server was right there and overall service was not bad, with one exception, unexpected and, in my mind, covert up-selling. We ordered drinks and the server brought an order of bread sticks, as always. She then asked if we would like some marinara or Alfredo sauce for the sticks. I didn't think anything of the offer, thinking it was just Olive Garden being the old Olive Garden I remember. We said, sure bring some of each. It wasn't until we got the bill at the end of the meal that I saw they charged $3.79 for each sauce! The waitress never mentioned there was an extra charge and I don't recall seeing it on the menu. To top it off, the marinara wasn't even very good. It was more like a weak tomato basil than a thick, rich marinara I expect from a restaurant claiming to be authentic Italian. I ordered the seafood Alfredo and it was OK, except that the bay shrimp and bay scallops in it were very tiny and there were not many of them. The portion was also much smaller than I remember, even for the lunch portion. I was very disappointed in both the quality and quantity of the meal.

I have heard rumors that the stockholders of the Darden company, the owners of both Olive Garden and Red Lobster, have been unhappy with the performance of the company and that some major stockholders, finance people, not restaurant people, have been visiting the restaurants and then passing on "ideas" to the restaurant management people regarding how to cut back on expenses and increase profits. I saw a lot of this going on today, compared to the last time I visited an Olive Garden, about a year ago. One small, but telling example is there is no longer any fresh ground pepper offered. That is a small, personal touch but clearly some bean counter decided it was not profit generating, so dump it. Olive garden used to be one of my favorite places to go for a good meal, no more. I will not be back and watch people who no nothing of food try to run what was a fine restaurant chain.

After a long chat with Gary and Ramona we left the restaurant and made a couple stops at stores in Moreno Valley. This is the center of retail shopping in the Inland Empire and they have just about everything you could want. After shopping we headed back up the hill and relaxed win the coach the rest of the night. Saturday we stayed in Silent Valley. We went down to the Village Center after lunch and did our laundry. We didn't have much competition for the laundry facility as there are probably only thirty or forty RVs in the entire park, which has over 850 spaces. We wanted to get our laundry done now as we head down to Indio on Monday and didn't want to have to do laundry down there right as we settled in.

Sunday, November 9^th, we stayed around the coach, cleaning house and putting stuff away in preparation for moving tomorrow. Monday, November 10^th, Happy 239^th birthday to the United States Marine Corps. We were packed up and leaving Silent valley about 11:30 enroute to Indio, about 50 miles east. Since we only had a short distance we didn't hook up the car and Jackie drove behind me for the trip. We arrived at the Indian Waters RV Resort about 1:00 or so and quickly registered and were led to our site. We are going to be here in Indian Waters for two months, one of our longest stays since we moved to full timing in 2005. We got the basics set up, utilities, slides out, TVs working, that kind of thing before heading to the nearby Cactus Jack's Restaurant for a late lunch, early dinner. We called our friend Barry Cohen, who only lives a mile or so west, and he met us so we could chat. We had a great lunch and a good time talking to Barry.

We then went back to the coach and did a little more settling in. I wanted to get the sun screens up since it is still in the 80's here in the desert. After we got settled in we just relaxed for the rest of the evening. Our departure from Silent Valley after a month marks a good point to get this episode of the blog published. We will update the blog from time to time during our stay here, every couple weeks or so. Until the next time, remember the words of journalist Franklin Jones, “Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake when you make it again.” See ya next time.

Silent Valley Club, Relaxation in the Mountains - Part 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At Home in Pahrump - Part 2

Hello readers, welcome back. Our last chapter ended on Wednesday, September 24^th, while we were still in Pahrump, Nevada, our legal residency. We have been in Pahrump for almost three weeks and will be here for another two or so. On Thursday we spent most of the day around the coach. We did go out after lunch to do some shopping and ended up going to both Walmart and Albertsons. We were getting stuff to do planned meals for the next week or so because Jackie's girlfriend Helen, who now lives in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is coming out to visit. She is in Los Angeles right now visiting family and will be driving out here to be with us on Saturday. She will be staying with us for five days.

We also made a visit to the Pahrump Chamber of Commerce because Jackie got a phone call from the President of the Monaco International Chapter who confirmed that the Chapter will be holding it's March rally here in Pahrump. Since they know that we are “from” Pahrump, and here currently, they wanted us to do a little legwork for them. Our first stop was the Chamber to arrange for them to get 200 tourist packages together before March so they could go in the goody bags that are always given out. We also have a few other chores they want us to do during the next couple of weeks. After all our errand running we went back to the coach for the rest of the day.

Friday, September 26^th, we left the coach after lunch and went out to do our laundry. The laundry took a couple of hours, after which we stopped and picked up mail and did a couple other small errands before heading back to the coach. I went down to the pool and watched a storm move into the area over the mountains between us and Las Vegas. While I was in the hot tub I was visiting with two young couples, one from Switzerland and one from the Netherlands, both of whom were visiting in the states for about six weeks, traveling in rented motor homes. After I got back from the pool Jackie and I went over and sat with Len and Debbie, having cocktails. Our visit was cut short when the rain moved in and we had to go in the coach. It rained really hard for about ten minutes and then it was over. We spent the rest of the night in the coach.

Saturday, September 27^th, we hung around the coach for most of the day doing some cleaning and chores. Around 3:00 Jackie's girlfriend Helen arrived after her drive from Los Angeles. We sat and talked for a while and then about 5:00 we had dinner. Jackie had made a nice meatloaf for dinner and it was great. About 6:00 or so the three of us left and drove down to the VFW for karaoke again. It was much the same crowd as on Saturday, including our friends Len and Debbie. With more than a dozen singers, the rotation was long and I was only able to get three songs in before we left around 9:30. We went back to the coach and talked until bedtime. Jackie and Helen keep in touch by Facebook and phone, but we haven't seen her for over a year, so there is a lot to talk about.

Sunday we had a relaxing morning with the Sunday paper. After lunch we went out to one of the local casinos for a little gaming. Helen likes to gamble, and we are not opposed to a little gaming from time to time. After the casino we headed home and just enjoyed the nice weather. Monday morning we left after lunch and went out to do some geocaching. Helen doesn't cache, but she has been out with us a couple of times and enjoys watching. We got four caches and then Jackie's new phone appeared to go on the fritz and stop working. The screen was dark and we couldn't get it to reboot. We stopped caching and drove to the Verizon store only to find out she had swiped the screen wrong and turned down the light. Oppsie. We then went home and had a nice corn beef dinner that had been cooking in the crock pot all day.

Tuesday Jackie and Helen left about 10:30 for a girl's day. They went to the Lakeside Casino for lunch and some gaming and then went to a nail salon for a mani-pedi. They got back to the coach about 3:30 or so, looking good. I went out and ran a couple of errands while they were gone, including going to the sheriff's office to turn in my paperwork and get my CCW permit renewed. After the girl's got home we went to the pool for a while and then had a nice dinner of chili relleno. A nice relaxing day.

Wednesday, October 1^st, another month gone. We decided to stay home today and relax. We played some cards and just hung around the house for the day. Around 6:00 we left to go out and have dinner. We decided to try a BBQ place called Red Sky BBQ, which has gotten pretty good reviews and was recommended by a couple people we know. It is kind of a small, eclectic place with furniture that looks like it came from a used restaurant store. All the tables and chairs are different, from very formal looking to very casual. The menu is not extensive, but there are lunch sandwiches that you would expect to find and the dinner menu is ribs and steaks for the most part. Jackie and Helen both had the lamb t-bones, which they said were OK. Not outstanding, but OK. I had the rack of baby backs that was very good. The bones were very meaty and the pork was cooked perfectly. It could have used a little more smoke flavor in the meat, but they were still very good and I took half the rack home for lunch the next day. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.

Thursday, October 2^rd, Helen left to head for Las Vegas about 8:00 this morning, so we were up early to see her off. She is going to spend a few days in Vegas before flying back home. After lunch we went out and did a few geocaches, finding six in a couple of hours. Caches around here that we haven't gotten yet are out in the desert and often far apart, so the caches per hour rate goes way down. After caching we picked up our mail and did a quick Walmart run before heading back to the coach. We watched TV the rest of the night, catching up on some of our shows that we didn't watch while Helen was here visiting.

Friday we had a quiet day at home. We did a load of laundry, but mostly just relaxed. At around 5:00 we went over to the pool for a night of karaoke. The park has music most of this weekend in conjunction with the Grape Stomp which is going on at the winery right next door. There were only about six singers tonight, including our friends Len and Debbie, and I got to sing four or five songs. It was a very nice evening, after which we went back to the coach and watched TV until bed.

Saturday, October 4^th, after lunch we walked over to the winery next door to the RV park to take in the Grape Stomp. Grape Stomp is an annual event in Pahrump, held usually in early October, that has been going on for eleven years. It's called Grape Stomp because the core of the festival is the stomp contests where two person teams try to stomp the most juice out of a given amount of grapes in two minutes. One team member stands in the tub and stomps while the other kneels in front and pushes the mushed grapes around to allow the juice to flow out of the hole in the tub into the measuring pan. Of course, the unofficial “mascot” for the festival is Lucy Ricardo from the I Love Lucy episode where they are in Italy. Every year there are one or two Lucy and Ethel teams. Many of the teams do dress in costumes and some are pretty funny.

The festival also has lots of craft booths, wine tastings, food booths and live entertainment for the periods in between stomps. They usually have four sessions each day with daily and overall winners. I think the winners last year got over a liter of juice in two minutes. We spent most of the afternoon there, looking at booths, watching the stompers and listening to the band. About 4:00 we went back to the coach and cooled off, it was a little hot today, and had an early dinner. Just before six we went over to the pool area for more music and karaoke. It was originally going to be only a dance party, but the DJ decided to include karaoke. Unfortunately, they had some equipment problems and the music and singing didn't start until after 7:00. I got to do two songs before we decided to call it a night at 9:00 and went back to the coach. It was a fun day and evening. Sunday was a stay at home day. The Grape Stomp was still going strong and we could hear the band all day. We did the newspaper in the morning and just hung out for the afternoon.

Monday, October 6^th, was another moving day. Our month at Wine Ridge was up and we had to face the arduous 3.3 mile trip to the Preferred RV Resort in Pahrump so we could be at the Beat the Odds Chapter rally. On the way I stopped and filled the coach with fuel because when we leave here this coming Saturday we are headed on a longer journey, all the way down to Silent Valley, south of Banning, California. I didn't want to have to worry about filling the tank when we left for a long day's drive.

We got settled into the Preferred Resort pretty quickly. This resort is in the center of town, right near the three big casinos. The Beat the Odds Chapter of FMCA is a smallish chapter that holds two rallies a year, one in the spring in Laughlin, and one in the fall here in Pahrump. They area always three day rallies with a slot tournament. We went to our first one last year when we were here in Pahrump. We had learned about the chapter when we were at the Chapter Fair at the Western Area rally in Indio a couple years ago. We had gotten on their mailing list and we found that the Pahrump rally is always in early October and the last couple years we have been in Pahrump during that time. We found the group to be a lot of fun and we actually won a few bucks at the rally last year, so we decided to go again.

After we got set up we went out for some lunch at a cafe called Mom's. We had been there a few years back and it was pretty good. They give you lots of food for a moderate price. Service was good, but they are not super friendly. Probably has something to do with the fact that they are a popular breakfast spot so they are probably tired by lunch. After lunch we went back to the coach until the pot luck with the rally group at 4:00. Everyone gathered in the clubhouse and they had some welcome speeches and went over the rally schedule before everyone ate. It was supposed to be heavy appetizers, but there was some pretty good food brought in. After dinner everyone went back to their coaches and we watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, October 7^th, we were up early and out of the coach by about 8:30 because we had to be in the Nugget Casino by quarter to nine for the rally slot tournament. When you register for the rally you pay $50 each to be in the slot tournament. Last year both of us did well enough to get our money back, but didn't win any of the bigger prizes. The tournament is divided into two sessions, morning and afternoon. I suspect the casino does that in an effort to get you to spend more time in the casino. Jackie went in the first morning session at 9:00. The session is five minutes of play, a short break and then another five minutes. Unfortunately Jackie got just over a thousand points between both periods. Not very good. I went with the 9:20 group and only managed about 1,500 points, again not good.

We spoiled the casino's plans by leaving not too long after we had our sessions. We did play the regular slots for a little while and Jackie left forty bucks to the good, I lost twenty. We went out and did a couple errands, then went back to the coach for lunch. A little before 1:00 we were back in the casino for the afternoon session. This time Jackie didn't even make a thousand between the two periods. I did a little better, getting a little over four thousand for the two periods. This put my total at just under six thousand points, which MIGHT get me my money back. Sadly, I think Jackie is out of the running. After the afternoon session we headed back to the coach and just relaxed for the rest of the day. There were no other rally activities for today.

Wednesday, October 8^th, we didn't have any morning activities so we were able to sleep in this morning. At 1:00 we went down for the Bunco tournament at the clubhouse. Warran and Marla, the same people who ran our Bunco tournament at our rally in July, were hosting this session. We played three sets in a couple of hours and I ended up with 12 wins and 6 losses, along with two Bunco's, a score I didn't figure to put me in the winners group. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and we got to meet almost everyone at the rally as we moved from table to table. Right after the Bunco session I drove down to the Nugget Casino to set up my music equipment in the banquet room where the rally is doing dinner tonight. I had volunteered my services to the rally hosts to provide music tonight. They didn't want to do karaoke, only background music before and during dinner. They also didn't expect that anyone would hang around after dinner to dance. I got the equipment set up and working and then headed back to the coach to change for dinner.

Dinner was very nice, an hour of cocktails before and then a buffet with chicken, pork and veggie selections, as well as a salad and potatoes. I had music playing very low in the background and didn't have to attend the music much as it is all automated. I was surprised to find that my Bunco score of 12 wins was in a four way tie for most wins, the first time it ever happened according to Warren. I got $25 for that achievement. Not surprisingly, given our scores, neither Jackie nor I won anything with the slot tournament, despite them going down to 28^th place for prizes. After the money was given out everyone left the ballroom, so I packed up my stuff and Jackie I gamed in the Casino for an hour or so before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening. This was the last of the activities for this rally, but we are staying on at the park for another couple of days.

Thursday, October 9^th, we went out after lunch and did our laundry. After the laundry was done we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day. About 5:00 our friends Len and Debbie came over for dinner. We sat outside and had cocktails and talked for a while, then went inside and had dinner. Jackie made some chicken enchiladas which were wonderful. After dinner we sat outside again until about 8:30 when Len and Debbie headed back to Wine Ridge and we went in the coach to watch TV until bedtime.

Friday we spent the afternoon doing some errands. We stopped at the Gold Town Casino to cash in our player's card points before we left town. I only had about 4,500, so I got a couple of tee shirts. Jackie had over 16,000 because Helen had been playing on a copy of her card while she was here and she plays higher denomination games than Jackie does. They didn't have any prizes, mostly home appliances, that interested us, so Jackie just used her points for free play, trying to win some money, but alas, she struck out. Oh well. We then picked up our mail and did a Walmart run before heading back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Saturday, October 11^th, was another travel day. We left the RV park about 10:00 and headed south towards Hesperia, California, about 190 miles. We stopped in Baker, California, a small desert town about two hours southwest of Las Vegas on I-15, for lunch at the Mad Greek restaurant. Any time we go out of Pahrump in this direction we stop at the Mad Greek for lunch. Great food. We ended up getting into Hesperia about 2:30 or so. We stopped at the Elks Lodge, which has nice pull through spots so we didn't have to unhook the car for our one night stay and got the basics setup for the night.

About an hour after we got setup the power went out. At first I thought I had forgotten to turn something off because the Elks here only has 30 amp power. However, when I went outside I saw the breaker wasn't tripped. I also noticed that there were people outside the Elks lodge looking at the power boxes and I realized their power was off too. About the time I noticed the traffic signals down the block were out too I heard sirens and figured that someone must have smacked a pole and caused a general power outage. The police and fire all stopped about a block away. I turned on the generator so we would have A/C because it was still hot. After about 90 minutes the power came back on and we just stayed in the coach for the afternoon and evening.

Sunday, October 12^th, we left Hesperia and drove down the Cajon Pass on the freeway into the I-10 corridor and then on to Banning and Silent Valley. This part of the trip was only about 77 miles and we got to the gate of Silent Valley about noon. We quickly found a spot and got setup. I did the basic stuff, including the sun screens, because it was about 90 degrees, but I saved the decorating for the next day. We will be here in Silent Valley for a month before moving down to Indio for a couple of months.

Our arrival here in Silent Valley sort of marks the end of our summer travels for this year and is a good point to close this chapter of the blog. Until next time, remember the wise words of singer Eddie Cantor. “Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” See ya next time.

At Home in Pahrump - Part I

Hello there, welcome back. Our last chapter ended on Sunday, September 7^th, when we arrived at the Wine Ridge RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada. Regular readers will know that Pahrump is our place of legal residency. It is the place where we have our regular mailing address, our voting records and from where our driver's licenses are issued. This year we are planning on being “home” for five weeks, a couple weeks longer than has been the norm.

On Sunday we got the basic setup done with the coach, but since we arrived in the afternoon and the sun was very hot, I didn't do any of the outside stuff. We just stayed in the coach trying to be cool for the rest of the day. Monday I got up early and went outside to do the rest of our setup. I washed the windows and put the sun shade screens on, put up my flagpole and did the rest of the outside decorations. I didn't do lights or setup and fancy patio because it is still in the 90's most of September and we are not likely to be spending much time outside.

After lunch we drove down and picked up our mail in person for the first time in a year. The gal who runs the UPS store was excited to see us. We are in touch with her off and on all year, but don't get to actually see her much. After we got our mail we went to Walmart for some supplies and then headed home. We spent the rest of the day at home.

Tuesday, September 9^th, we went out after lunch to check on the geocaches that we have hidden around the Pahrump area. We currently have fourteen caches hidden here. Over the summer we noticed that all of a sudden most of our caches were being DNF'd by people looking for them. We learned that someone, or a group of someone's, probably kids, have been going around Pahrump stealing caches. We contacted another cacher in Pahrump that we know and he told us they lost a whole bunch of caches. Today we went out and replaced most of the missing caches. We still have three to fix, a couple that needed a little extra construction work because they were special novelty containers. We now have eleven of our caches back up and ready to find. We also changed all of our caches to premium, which means that for someone to see them on the geocaching.com website they need to be paid members. Most kids won't spend $35 to become premium members, they will just get on and look at the regular caches and go steal those.

We went back to the coach and relaxed for a couple hours and then at about 6:00 we left and went to the Pahrump Elks Lodge for a cocktail and to attend the Lodge Meeting. Although we go to a lot of Elks Lodges in our travels, we rarely attend lodge meetings. Since Pahrump is our home lodge we decided to go to the meeting tonight just to be good Elks. We haven't been to a meeting in a couple of years.

We had a cocktail at the bar and played a little on the slot machines before the meeting started at 7:00. The meeting went for about an hour and was a pretty typical meeting. It is still good to go and see the rituals again, they make you feel like a real Elk again. After the meeting we headed home and watched TV until bed.

Wednesday, September 10^th, we were up and out of the coach by about 11:30, heading for Las Vegas, about 60 miles or so southeast. Folks in Pahrump call this “going over the hump” since you have to climb to 5,500 feet over Spring Mountain Pass to get between Pahrump and Vegas. Our first stop was the Jason's Deli for lunch. Jason's is a national chain and the reason I like to go is that they are about the only place outside of Louisiana where you can get a mufaletta sandwich. A mufaletta is ham and salami on a toasted roll with an olive relish. I fell in love with them a couple years ago when we were in Louisiana and a year or so back I discovered that Jason's Deli served them. I had a quarter sandwich, which is normal because the actually full roll is about 14 inches in diameter. Jackie also had the mufalleta, but with turkey instead of ham and salami. Not a “real” mufaletta, but it still has the olive relish.

After lunch we headed for Sam's Club for some stuff and then on to Costco for some more stuff. This was a fill the freezer back up trip. We also picked up one geocache in the Costco parking lot, just so we could have a Las Vegas cache. After Costco we headed back over the hump to home. We got to the coach and put away all the stuff we bought, then went to Albertson's for a quick regular grocery run. I guess today was just a supply day. After we got home we had dinner and watched TV until time for bed.

Thursday, September 11th, Patriot Day. Of course, we spent some time in the morning watching the news coverage of the attacks, and talking about where we were. Being on the west coast, the all three planes had already hit in Washington before we had left for work at 7:30. I watched the towers fall while I was at work. Actually, not a lot of “work” was done that day, we mostly stood around and watched the TV.

After lunch we headed out to fix the last three of our caches that needed to be replaced. After we got those taken care of we went out to find a few caches because we were within three of our next milestone. We got four new finds before we decided it was too hot, one of which was number 6,600. Yea! After caching we headed down and picked up our mail then went home for the rest of the day.

Friday morning, about 10:30, my brother Russ and his wife Zen came up from Las Vegas to visit for the day. My brother has lived in Vegas for about 25 years and works as a boxman on a high stakes craps table at the Golden Nugget Casino downtown. We usually get to see Russ and Zen once a year when we come through Pahrump. We either go down to visit them or they come up to see us.

We talked and caught up until close to 1:00 when we decided to go to lunch. We went to a place called the China Wok, which just a couple days ago opened at a new location in Pahrump, right on the main drag. They used to have a small place in a strip mall behind the Walmart, but over the last year they built a big new, standalone building and it just opened on Wednesday. We had eaten in the old place a couple times and enjoyed it. The new building is very nice and we had the buffet. It didn't seem like the buffet was as extensive as others we have been to, but that may be because we were there for lunch. They did have a sushi bar which pleased Jackie. I thought the food was OK, but a little bland for my tastes.

After lunch we went back to the coach. Sometimes when they come up we do some geocaching because we got Russ and Zen started in caching about four years ago and they really enjoy it. However, today it was close to 100 degrees and very sunny, so it was way to hot to go out in the desert caching. We sat in the coach and just talked and enjoyed each other's company until they left to drive back to Vegas about 7:00. It was really great spending time with Russ and Zen and we will probably see them again before we leave since we are staying here for an extended period this year.

Saturday, September 13^th, was a stay at home day. I got a few administrative chores done, but mostly we just played and relaxed. Sunday we had a relaxing morning with the Sunday paper. After lunch we went out to one of the local casinos, Gold Town, for a little gaming. We played for a couple of hours, both losing about $20 or so in the process. After the casino we stopped at Walmart for some groceries and then headed home for the rest of the day.

Monday, September 15^th, we went out after lunch to do laundry. That took a couple of hours, after which we picked up our mail and Jackie stopped to get a haircut. We then went home and had a nice pork loin cooked on the BBQ for dinner and watched TV the rest of the night. Tuesday was another stay at home day. Although it was really hot, in the middle of the afternoon we suddenly had about fifteen minutes of heavy rain. Although the weather was talking about the remnants of another Pacific hurricane, there was no thunder and after the rogue cloud passed, the skies cleared up and it was nice again.

Wednesday, September 17^th, we were up and out early, about a quarter of nine, to drive over the hump to Las Vegas so I could go to the ophthalmologist about the floaters in my right eye. I went to see him last year and he said it wasn't anything serious, just annoying, but to come back if it didn't clear up. When we got back in town I made another appointment because they don't seem to be any better. After an examination he said that I had some allergies that were causing film on my eye, as well as excessive watering and he told me to get some drops and use them for a week to see if that helped any. If not, to call him back.

After the doctor we stopped at Outback for a late lunch. We both had a rack of ribs, so no dinner tonight. We couldn't do any caching because the doctor dilated my eyes and it caused it to seem way too bright. Jackie had to drive home because the light was bothering me too much. After we got home we just settled in and relaxed the rest of the night. I did go to the pool for a little while, which was really nice in this heat.

Thursday, September 18^th, we left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching. It was a little cooler today, in the low 90's, the humidity had left and there was a breeze, so it wasn't unbearable. We went out and found six new caches in about an hour and a half. Because we have cached so much in Pahrump the one's we haven't found are quite a ways away, which limits the numbers we can get in a set time period.

After caching we dropped off our requests for absentee ballots at the County building. We are going to be gone from the area in November when the election comes around. We then went down to the Verizon store so Jackie could upgrade her phone. She has been dying to get a new Samsung S5 and had to wait until our contract period was up so she could get an upgrade. We spent over an hour at the store, but we managed to upgrade her to a new Samsung and I took her old Motorola, so I now have a smart phone for the first time. We also upgraded the MiFi because we could for only fifteen dollars. We also changed our plan to 12 gigabites of data shared between the three devices, and unlimited text and talk. We had 12 before, but it was 10 for the MiFi and 2 for Jackie's phone. This way I didn't have to get another data plan to keep Jackie's old phone. We also saved $20 a month by upgrading the plan. After Verizon we headed home and spent most of the evening fooling around with our new phones and stuff.  Jackie took her first picture with her new Samsung, a pic of me for her contact list.

Friday, September 19^th, we went out after lunch to do a few geocaches again. We were able to get four new finds, along with a couple of DNF's before we decided it was getting too warm to desert cache. We then made a quick run to Walmart before heading back to the coach. About 5:30 we left to go visit some caching friends of ours who live here in Pahrump. John and Nancy Bingle have lived here for about ten years and are avid cachers. They have several hundred caches set out just here in the Pahrump area, as well as several hundred more in other areas. We first met them a couple of years ago at a geocache they had put out near their home. We have run into them a couple of times a year since, mostly at caching events or when we are here in Pahrump. We had been in contact with them today because one of our DNF's was one of their caches and when we filed the DNF online John called us. He invited us to come over and visit this afternoon.

They have a very nice home on an acre of land only about a mile south of the RV park. We sat and talked with them for several hours, mostly about caching, but also about Nancy's ongoing battle with breast cancer. We left their place a little before 8:00 and made a run to the local Carl's Jr. for a hamburger for dinner. We then went back to the coach and watched TV until bed.

Saturday, September 20^th, I was up and out of the coach by about 9:00 to go to the range for my annual weapons qualification for my Federal concealed carry permit. The way the Federal law is worded you have to renew the permit each year and a range qualification is required. The guy I contacted this year uses a range not too far from the RV park and by 9:30 I had shot, qualified and had the signed off paperwork in hand.

I went back to the coach and Jackie was just getting in the shower so we could get out early to do some geocaching. The people we had visited last night had put out a dozen new geocaches that were just published overnight and we were hoping to get a few First to Finds, or FTFs. We don't get many FTFs because we don't tend to be early risers. Well, today was no different. We found when we got to the first cache that we were already third in line to sign it and it was the same for all the rest of the new one's we went to. Nonetheless, it was a nice morning and by noon we had gotten nine new finds, all new caches. However, we were not FTF on any of them. (sad face) We stopped and picked up our mail and then headed back to the coach for the rest of the day. We did a few chores and around 5:00 we actually went outside and sat with some friends of ours who were parked in a site across the street. It had gotten overcast and the temperature actually dropped to 80 and it was comfortable to sit outside.

Len and Debbie are people we met five or so years ago at one of the Western Horizon's parks. They are also full timers, but they travel with a pull trailer, so we don't see them at rallies like most of our other friends. However, they tend to frequent the same parks we do during the winter, so we often meet them in Pahrump, Indio and other places that are frequented by full timers in the winter. We sat and chatted with them and another friend, Phyllis Deal, who we had met a few years back when she was the assistant manager here at the RV park in Pahrump. She and her husband Don liked karaoke and we became friends starting with that. After the park was sold to a private owner, Phyllis worked for a year or so before she left. They actually have a house here in Pahrump. A few weeks ago Don had surgery for a tumor on his lung and, although the surgery was a success, a day later he had a stroke and is now in rehab working on recovering. We have kept up contact with Phyllis through Facebook, but this was the first time this year we had a chance to actually see and talk to her. We ended up staying outside and talking until about 8:00 when we finally went back inside and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday was a relaxation day. We had the newspaper in the morning and I watched the NASCAR race in the early afternoon. Both of us got a few chores done, but mostly had a restful day. I even got over to the pool for a little while before dinner. Monday we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We did part of a series that we had started last year when we were here and, because the caches were very close together and pretty easy to find, were able to get a dozen caches in just about an hour and a half. After caching we made a quick stop at the Verizon store because Jackie had some questions about her new phone, then we went to the Saddle West Casino for some gaming. An hour, and forty dollars, later we left and went to Walmart for some supplies, then back to the coach for the rest of the day.

Tuesday, September 23^rd, we didn't do too much as the heat was back for a couple days. After lunch I took the car to the car wash for a badly needed cleaning and then we drove down to the pawn shop in town to see if they had an inexpensive digital photo frame. Our last one gave up the ghost a while back and we like having one in the coach. Well, they did have a couple, but they were no bargain. All of the stuff in the shop was expensive, about the same price as you would pay at Walmart. I was a little disappointed. After the pawn shop we hit the nearby Smith's food market to see what they might have on sale that we wouldn't get at Walmart. We got a couple of things then headed home. We had cocktails with Len and Debbie on the patio then BBQed some burgers and watched TV until bed.

Wednesday, September 24^th, for the most part we had a quiet day at home. Around 1:00 we drove to a local Mexican place for a late lunch. We wanted to have a late lunch because we are planning on going to the VFW post for karaoke around 5:00 and we didn't want to have to worry about dinner. We went to a place called El Vaquero which had really good ratings on Yelp and we hadn't been there yet. The food was pretty standard Sonoran Mexican fare, but it was spiced nicely and you got a pretty good portion. Both Jackie and I had the same combo, chili relleno, taco and enchilada. She had chicken in her taco and enchilada, I went with a shredded beef taco and a cheese enchilada. The service was very good and the ambiance OK. We will probably go back to this place at some point, which is more than I can say about the other two Mexican places in town.

A little before 5:00 we left the coach and drove to the VFW for karaoke. The place was pretty busy and we were greeted by a gal by the name of Janice. She was an off duty bartender and was clearly from New York. She gave us hugs, welcomed us and introduced us to most of the people at the bar. Not too long after we sat down with our first cocktail we were joined by Len and Debbie, who where the one's who told us about the VFW karaoke on Wednesdays. They both like to sing too. They had a fairly long rotation, as many as a dozen singers at one point, and some of them were pretty good. There was one black guy named Terell who came in later in the evening who had a fabulous voice. Because of the long rotation I only did four songs, but we had a great time and will probably go back. After karaoke we went back to the coach and watched some of the new TV shows until bedtime.

We still have another two and a half weeks here in Pahrump, and it has been about that long since we published last, so this seems like a good time to get this one online. Until the next time, enjoy life, smile more and stay safe. See ya.

The Road to Pahrump: On our way Home

Hi there, welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Tuesday, August 19th when we arrived at the Corps of Engineers RV park near the Columbia River, not too far from Rufus, Oregon. This is a nice little park that sits right on the edge of the John Day River, where it flows into the Columbia. We stayed here once back in 2005 and wanted to come back again. Our friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock came here from the last of the rallies, the one in Prineville, but they are only staying for a couple of days.

On Wednesday, the four of us left the coaches around 10:30 for a day of exploring and geocaching. We drove west to The Dalles, a city in Oregon on the south side of the Columbia River. This town of 15,000 or so was founded in 1857 and was mainly a river port town for traffic on the Columbia River. Later the railroads came through the area and the town became centered around rail traffic. It is a cute little town with a lot of really pretty old buildings that have been well maintained for the most part. We had lunch in a place called the Baldwin Saloon, which is one of the oldest buildings in town. It was built in 1867 and has seen a number of uses, including warehouse, saloon and restaurant. In 1991 the current owners reopened the place as a restaurant after extensive renovations. Much of the interior and exterior decoration is original to the building and it is a very neat place to visit. The food was good too, although a little pricey.

After lunch we drove around town doing some sight seeing and geocaching. We also crossed over the bridge into Washington to find a couple of caches. We ended up with six new finds for the day. About 3:30 we arrived back at the RV park and rested for a while. At 5:00 we had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon and then had dinner at Peggy's. She made the penne pasta dish that I love and Jackie made a salad and some garlic bread. We had a great dinner and headed back to our place about 8:30.

Thursday, August 21st, Peggy and Vernon were packed up and out on the road by about 7:00 this morning. They are headed to Rapid City, South Dakota, where they have their "official" residency. They need to renew their driver's licenses and have to be there in person. We are staying her at the river for another three days. We had a quiet day today and stayed around the coach taking care of some minor chores.

Friday we left the coach after lunch and went out to do some geocaching. We crossed the river into Washington and drove up the highway for about 20 miles finding a few caches along the way. We went as far as the little town of Goldendale, Washington, before some storms started moving in and we decided to head back to the coach for the rest of the afternoon. We ended up a half dozen new finds to our credit, along with one DNF. Saturday was another stay at home day.

Sunday, August 24th was another travel day. We packed up and left the John Day River about 10:00 and started east and south on Interstate 84. We are now on our way to our "home" in Pahrump, although it will take us a couple weeks to get there with a number of two night stops along the way. Our first stop was in Baker City, Oregon, 188 miles southeast of where we started. We ran into a bit of rain along the way, but mostly it was an easy trip. We arrived at the Oregon Trails RV Resort about 2:30, got setup and settled in and just stayed in the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Monday we went out about noon and drove into the little town of Baker City. There are around 10,000 residents of this town, which was founded around 1870 as a way station on the Oregon Trail. The town has continued as a railroad town and support for local agriculture. We stopped for lunch at a place called Rising Sun Palace and Sunset Lounge. Quite a mouthful, but it had very good ratings on Yelp. It is a Chinese restaurant, but also seems to be the hot spot in town for evening drinking and entertainment. The restaurant was very nicely decorated and the food and service were certainly up to the ratings. We both had lunch specials for under $9.00 and there were four selections in each, plus soup. I also ordered egg rolls and if you check in on Yelp you get a free appetizer, we chose pot stickers. As you might guess, we took home almost as much as we ate. The quality of the food was great and the service was good, even though there was only one server. Angie was very friendly and helpful, even looking up the address and phone number of the local Elks Lodge for us. I would highly recommend this place if you are passing through Baker City. It's not even that far off the Interstate for a quick lunch.

After lunch we did some geocaching in Baker City, ending up with seven new finds, along with two new DNF's. The caches took us on a pretty complete tour of the town, which was a lot of fun. After caching we stopped in at the Elks Lodge. The bartender, a young guy, probably in his mid twenties, looked at our cards and told us he grew up in Pahrump. He had never had any visiting members from Pahrump and was very friendly and chatty. He moved to Oregon before we changed our residency to Pahrump in 2007, so he was not familiar with a lot of the changes that have come to the area. The lodge was very friendly, even bought our second drink, and we talked to several members as well as the bartender. Jackie even won twenty bucks on the slot machine, although I lost my twenty, which made us even. We also got our first new Elks Lodge Pin in quite a few months. After the Elks we drove back to the coach and watched TV until bed.

Tuesday, August 26th, another travel day. We left Baker City about 10:00 and headed down Interstate 84 towards Homedale, Idaho, a small town just northwest of Boise. The trip was only a little over a hundred miles, so we arrived in Homedale about noon. We were a little concerned about the RV park we picked when we were routed down a narrow farm road into an industrial area and then a half mile gravel road to the RV park. However, we were pleasantly surprised when we found a large RV park with huge grass lawns and sites sitting right on the banks of the Snake River. We pulled into our site and we are facing the river, only a hundred yards away, and it is beautiful. We have full hookup 50 amp service, great satellite and phone service, all for $25 a night. An undiscovered gem of an RV park.

After we got setup and had our lunch of leftovers from yesterday's Chinese, we took a drive into Homedale to sight-see and geocache. There weren't many caches in town, but we did get one so we would have one for the area. We then decided to take a drive to Caldwell, Idaho, about twelve miles or so east to the Elks Lodge. This is another new Elks for us and they were open. Again, the bartender was very friendly, as were several of the other members in the bar. They also bought the second drink for us and we were able to get another new lodge pin for our banner. We left the lodge and did some caching in Caldwell, but we were only able to find two. The total for the day was three new finds and one DNF. We also made a quick stop at the grocery store for a few things and after caching headed back to the RV park where we relaxed the rest of the night.

Wednesday, August 27th, we left the coach about noon for a day of sightseeing and geocaching. We were heading for Boise, the Capital of Idaho, which is only about 30 miles southeast of the RV park. Our first stop was in the city of Nampa, which is nearly 90,000 population and second only to Boise in the state. We found a very nice Mexican restaurant called Jalapeno's which had good Yelp ratings. The food was good, but not outstanding. Jackie had fajitas, I had a combo plate. I would give the place something between three and four stars out of five.

After lunch we did a geocache in the parking lot next door to the restaurant then started towards Boise again. Our next stop was the town of Meridian, a bedroom community of Boise, where we did two virtual geocaches. Once we had these we headed into Boise proper and spent the next couple of hours driving around looking at the area and doing a few caches. We ended up with six new finds for the day. We took a few photos of the capital building and explored some very neat old neighborhoods. Boise was founded in 1863 as a fort intended to protect settlers coming along the Oregon Trail. The city also had a history of support for mining in the surrounding mountains. The population is a little over 200,000.

About 4:30 or so we drove to the Boise Elks Lodge for a visit. The Boise Lodge is number 310, which makes it one of the older lodges, chartered in the late 1800's. The lodge is on the outskirts of town it is very clear when you drive up to it that it used to be a restaurant. At one time it was a JB's, then a Chinese place. The Elks bought it a few years ago and are in the process of trying to fix it up inside. They only have about 450 members, so it is not a big lodge. We had a cocktail and chatted with the bartender and a couple of other members who were in the bar. We were able to get a lodge pin for our banner as well.

After one drink we left the Boise lodge and started driving west back towards home. On the way we stopped at the only other Elks Lodge in the area, the one in Nampa. This lodge was located right downtown in what looked like an old business building. We were the only people in the bar when we went in and were still the only ones there when we left after a drink. The bartender told us that it was usually pretty slow in the summer. We weren't able to get a lodge pin since the bartender said that they were out of them. After we left the Nampa Lodge we drove the last fifteen miles back to the RV park and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Thursday, August 28th, was supposed to be a travel day, but we so enjoy the view from this spot that extended our stay here by one day. We wanted to do two extra days, but the park has something going on this weekend and they couldn't accommodate us for Friday. We made today a stay at home and relax day and that's pretty much what we did.

Friday morning we were packed up and heading out of the park by about 9:30. Today is a long day, by our standards anyway, traveling 230 miles south to Winnemucca, Nevada. The drive was pretty desolate, mostly high desert, and we were on U.S. 95, which is a two lane road, making the trip a little more stressful. We arrived in Winnemucca about 3:00 and got checked into a nearly new RV park on the east end of town. It is called New Frontier RV Park and it seems to be a good choice. Huge, level gravel spots, no trees to deal with, and full hookup 50 amp sites for about $25 a night with discounts. We decided to just check in for the full four days of the holiday weekend, that way we don't have to deal with the traffic. After we got setup we just chilled for the rest of the day.

Saturday, August 30th, we left the coach after lunch and drove to the nearby county fairgrounds for a visit to the Tri-County Fair and Stampede. We had seen this advertised yesterday when we came into town and when I looked it up I found that it is put on every labor day weekend. We like fairs, so we decided to visit. We got there and the first thing we noticed was that there was no admission fee. The fair had a small carnival, maybe a dozen rides, an exhibit area with a whole bunch of antique tractors on display, along with some military equipment, and a few other tents with stuff for sale. We spent a half hour or so going through the 4-H building where all the kids have their animals on display for judging. Lots of rabbits and chickens in the small animal area and lots of pigs, goats and sheep in the large animal area. A few kids had beef, which was what was being judged when we were walking around. Little kids with great big steers. We only were at the fair for about 90 minutes, but pretty much saw everything. We stopped and did one quick geocache on the street near the fairgrounds, just we would be sure to have at least one in Winnemucca, then we drove up the hill to Walmart for some shopping. After Walmart we headed home and then stayed around the coach the rest of the day.

Sunday, August 31st, we started the morning with the Sunday paper, the first time we have been able to do that for a couple weeks. We have been in small towns without daily papers for a while. Later in the morning we took our dirty clothes down to the laundry at the RV park and started the washers. Since this is a brand new park there were brand new machines and it was convenient. By 1:00 we had finished our laundry and had lunch, so we went out for an afternoon of geocaching in Winnemucca. We did a few in the desert close to the RV park and then went into town for some urban caching. One of the caching was a virtual cache that took us to five different historical sites in Winnemucca, including a corner bank that was robbed by Butch Cassidy back at the turn of the century. We ended up with thirteen new finds, and one new DNF, by the time we quit about 4:00. We went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day.

Monday, September 1st, Happy Labor Day, and Happy Anniversary to us! This date in 1998 I left Phoenix and moved to Indio to be with Jackie and begin the second stage of my life. This has been the most wonderful 16 years. We pretty much hung around the coach for most of the day, but about 5:30 we headed over to the historic Martin Hotel for dinner. The Martin is built right next to the railroad tracks and was one of the major hotels in town at the turn of the century. The Martin is also known for it's Basque restaurant. There are actually two Basque places in Winnemucca and Peggy and Vernon have told us about both of them. The other one, Ormachea's is closed on Mondays, so we went to the Martin by default.

The food was very good. It is a small dining room and the tables are all family style, meaning you will end up sitting with people you don't know. Shortly after sitting down we were joined by a couple from Salt Lake City who were just passing through on their way to California. We chatted with them for most of the meal. Another couple sat down later, but they were at the other end of the table and too far away to talk with very much. The service is also family style and you only order an entree, everything else comes automatically. They start with a chicken vegetable soup and then a salad and beans. With dinner you get vegetables and french fries and everything is served in big bowls that you have to pass around.

I had the Martin steak, which was a 16 oz rib eye that was smothered in mushrooms and garlic. It was cooked perfectly and was very tasty. I ended up taking half of it home because of all the other stuff they gave you before the entree. Jackie had lamb chops and said they were good too. She got four chops and took two of them home too. All in all it was an excellent meal and a great way for us to celebrate our anniversary. After dinner we headed back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, September 2nd, we were packed up and headed out of Winnemucca on Interstate 80. We are going about 135 miles south to Fallon, Nevada. It was an easy trip, mostly freeway and we arrived in Fallon about 1:00 or so. We found a parking spot at the Bonanza Casino, a place we have stayed before. The casino has a dozen full hookup sites out in the back parking lot and they only charge $15 a night. They are only 30 amp, but it is not too hot here, so we should be fine. Once we got hooked up Jackie left to go get a pedicure. I stayed with the coach and after Jackie got back we didn't go anywhere else.

Wednesday we were out after lunch for some geocaching. We did caching pretty much in Fallon and ended up getting a dozen new finds, along with three new DNFs, in a few hours of caching. After caching we stopped at Walmart for a few things and then went back to the coach where we relaxed the rest of the night.

Thursday, September 4th, we left Fallon about 10:30 and headed south on Highway 95 to the little town of Mina, Nevada, about 110 miles away. Mina is a turn of the century railroad town that is one step away from a ghost town now, with a population of 156. However, there is a pretty decent RV park just south of town at which we have stayed before. Highway 95 between Las Vegas and I-80 is a pretty desolate road with only a few towns along the 600 or so mile route. You have to set up your daily drives pretty carefully, especially if you don't like long drives (over 200 miles for us) or long days. The only reason to stop in Mina is the RV park.

We arrived in Mina about 1:00 and got setup in a nice pull through spot with full hookups. We were the only rig in the park and the office was closed. I didn't get registered until about 3:30 when I saw the owner's vehicle by the office. We are only here for one night, so we didn't even unhook the car. We just leveled, put the slides out and settled in for the night.

Friday, September 5th, we were up early, and had the coach ready for travel by about 9:00. I wanted to get an early start today because it was supposed to be hot, in the low 90's, and we had two 6,000 foot mountain passes to go through today on our way to Beatty, Nevada. The trip was only 160 miles, but the up and down concerned me in the heat. The Jeep is pretty heavy and really puts a load on the coach when it climbs grades. I really have to watch the temps as we travel.

Getting started before the heat of the day worked out as we made Beatty by noon and the coach didn't get critically hot at all on the trip. We checked into the Beatty RV park, just north of town, and got a nice full hookup, pull through spot with 50 amps, all for $25 a night. We are going to stay here for two nights as our reservation in Pahrump isn't until Sunday. I always try to build a little slack in our travel schedule between reservations so as to accommodate any necessary changes in plan.

After we got the basics hooked up we drove into town for lunch. When we asked the guy at the RV park for recommendations on lunch he told us there was only one restaurant in town where he would spend his money, KC's Outpost. It was mostly a sandwich and pizza place, but we went there and ordered a pizza. We also had some homemade clam chowder that was out of this world. The pizza was very good, although a little on the pricey side. I guess when you are in the middle of the desert you pay more for supplies.

After lunch we drove around town for a little while doing some sightseeing. It didn't take long as the town is pretty small. Founded as a railroad town and support center for mining in the surrounding mountains, the town has pretty much dried up now, with a population of just over a thousand. It relies now on tourism, touting itself as the gateway to Death Valley National Park. In a way it is as the park is only about 20 miles west and Beatty is the biggest community anywhere close. After our tour of the town we headed back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the day.

Saturday, September 6th we went out about 10:30 or so to do some geocaching and exploring. After an hour or so of caching we stopped for lunch at a place in Beatty called Mel's Diner where we had hamburgers for lunch. The burgers were excellent, having that old fashioned homemade drive-in taste. After lunch we continued caching and drove a couple miles south of Beatty to the ghost town of Rhyolite. Rhyolite was a silver mining town founded in 1905 with the discovery of a huge silver lode in the nearby Bullfrog mountains. Unlike many frontier towns, a lot of money was put into infrastructure in Rhyolite and in just two years the town had dozens of concrete and stone buildings, concrete sidewalks, electric lights, water mains, telephone and telegraph lines, daily and weekly newspapers, a monthly magazine, police and fire departments, a hospital, school, train station and railway depot, at least three banks, a stock exchange, an opera house, a public swimming pool and two formal church buildings. With more than 5,000 population in 1908 Rhyolite was the third largest city in Nevada. However, the city declined just as fast as the silver ore was depleted and no new finds were made. By 1910 the population was less than 1,000 and the mines closed in 1911. By 1920 the town was abandoned and vacant. It is now administered by the BLM which tries to maintain some control over the area to avoid total destruction of the remaining relics.

We drove around town, took a few pictures, and then continued caching, including a cache at the Rhyolite cemetery. We finally quit caching about 3:30 and headed back to the coach with 13 new finds and a couple of DNF's. One of the DNF's was a cache that was supposed to be hidden in the wreckage of a twin engine Beechcraft that made a crash landing years ago alongside the road not too far from the RV park. The only thing left of the plane is the aluminum structure, but it is still interesting to look at. You can see the damage from the crash landing on the right wing and the tail structure. We looked and looked, but couldn't find the cache that was supposed to be there. After we got back to the coach we just watched TV the rest of the night.

Sunday, September 7th, we left Beatty about 10:00 on our final leg "home" to Pahrump. We only had about 80 miles to travel and we arrived at the Wine Ridge RV resort about 11:30. We are going to be here at Wine Ridge for a full month, and then another week at another resort in Pahrump, so we have a good long while to enjoy the area. After we got settled into our site we did the basic setup and then relaxed for the day. It was very hot and humid, with thunderstorms rumbling around the area. The remnants of a hurricane in the Pacific. I decided I would wait until morning to set up the outside decorations and screens when it was a little cooler. Our arrival in Pahrump marks an excellent place to close this episode of the blog and get it published. As I said, we are here for a month, so I will probably have something in a couple of weeks or so. Since the last time I published we lost two of the brightest lights in the comedy heavens, Robin Williams and Joan Rivers. I will leave you with a quote from each. Williams; "Never fight with an ugly person, they've got nothing to lose." Rivers; "People say that money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made." Until the next time, keep a sense of humor about you, it makes life much more tolerable. Bye.