bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday-  Wine day!

We woke up after a good nights sleep in the industrial park in Rancho Cucamonga. This was only the second time we have stayed at a business. Our first time was our first night of full-timing where we stayed in the Camping World parking lot in Roanoke VA.

After breakfast, we drove east on I-10 to the Cabazon Outlet Mall, just west of Palm Springs. Bob pulled into the parking lot and there was a lot of construction, which is not good when you have a very large vehicle,  so I took the car to look for RV parking. Most outlet malls have  and RV/bus parking area, but it was not marked. While I was driving around looking for a place to park the motor home, security met with Bob and led him to the RV parking area. I met him there. Most have a nice area, this was a dirt field behind the mall. Not good!

Anyway, while driving into the mall, we noticed Hadley Fruit store, so since the mall did not open until 10 AM, and it was 9:40, we hopped into the car and went back to the fruit store. We entered the store and they had a wine area, right inside the entrance, to the right. We walked into the area, I stopped and went OH! Most of the left wall had Honeywood wine. This is my favorite wine, from Oregon. Bob just turned around and went to get a shopping cart! I always look for it, but this is the first time I have actually found it, outside of Oregon! It was even reasonably priced at $10 per bottle or 3 for $27. I bought six bottles! They even did wine tasting, so we tasted several kinds. (Bob drove back to the motor home!) We also picked up a loaf of fresh bread and some Vidalia Onion and Honey salad dressing.  So $ 67 dollars later, we exited.

We continued on the next 20 miles to Thousand Trails in Thousand Oaks, just past Palm Desert, before Indio. We pulled into the TT, and the ranger Tom greeted us. We parked the motor home, and ran around in the car looking for a site. We wanted a site in the 50 amp, but the sites were narrow and with the palm trees so close, we settled on a pull-thru 30 amp. We set up, turned on the air conditioner, and went to lunch in Indio at Ciro’s, where we had eaten when we were here in January.

We returned to the motor home and it was really hot, Low 90’s. So we turned the air up and took a nap. We woke to it being even hotter inside. The fan was running and the clock was on. I asked Bob if we were on the inverter. He did not think so, but checked and sure enough we were. We had blown the breaker. So we turned off the basement air and just used the roof air in the living room and the motor home cooled off nicely.

We went to the Baskin Robbins, where in January they had my favorite flavor, German Chocolate Cake. They did not have it this time, so we made do…

We went to dinner at The Elephant Bar. No reservations, but there was an empty table in the bar, so we ate dinner there. It was still happy hour, so Bob had a Guinness and I had a glass of Moscato. They had Cupcake Vineyard Muscato, and I have a new favorite wine! They sell it at BevMo and World Market, so we will have to pick up some before we leave California. Cupcake is a California vineyard.

We returned home, put on our bathing suits and went to the hot tub! This is a very nice TT with lots of activities. There were a lot of people playing cards in the Family Center and on the pool patio.

Sunday- Happy Easter!  I woke up early, since I could hear people leaving for sunrise services,  so I got up to work on the blog. Bob woke up at 7, and we ate a nice breakfast.

We took off for the Palm Springs Street Fair. They advertise that there are about 100 vendors. Today, since it is Easter, there were only about 30. We made a number of them happy! We bought a three pack container of fresh, awesome looking strawberries for $6, last week we had seen them for $13-$17, for the same thing. I bought a T-shirt with this embroidered on it for $10, a leather purse, a wallet for Bob, a statue for the front table, a compass for the CRV, and socks for Bob, 5 pairs for $5. We left there happy and went to Palm Desert.

We stopped at Trader Joe’s for some pretzels and received money in return for the street market in Palm Desert. This street market, which is 40 years old this year, really was larger, with a lot more vendors. There were a number of empty spots and less people there today., but still quite a few vendors, probably close to a hundred. . We had lunch, Bob had a chicken tamale and I had a pulled pork sandwich. Both were good. We bought Bob a shirt. We were afraid we were getting sunburned so we headed back to the motor home and took a nap.

When we woke up, we went to Bev Mor to get the Cupcake Moscato, but they did not have any, at least the manager knew what we were talking about. We stopped and picked up new shoes at Famous Footwear. Bob’s were bothering him and we both found the New Balance 609 that we like, so we each bought a pair. We returned home and ate leftovers for dinner. We put rubber shelf liner in the closet under the new containers,as the containers had moved while we were traveling. 

Monday- We woke up early and started to prepare the motor home for travel. When we opened the shades we noted that the wind was howling. By this time we knew we were under a wind advisory. Bob checked the weather forecast online and there were 50 mph winds in the Banning Pass, which is that very windy area, just west of Palm Springs. 

We decided we would stay put in the Thousand Trails. We took the dogs and walked over to the ranger station. Ranger Tom was on duty again. He asked us which direction we were traveling. We said east and he told us we would be okay going that direction. The problem was to the east. He said that they gage the wind issues by the trucks that go by. We could see trucks flying east. Tom said that the winds were going to continue all week. Also, that they should quiet down for a bit around 9 AM. He would let us stay, but felt it would be okay to leave. So we decided to follow his advise.

We packed up and left TT around 8:30, driving east on I-10. The winds was at our back, so it really was no issue. As we climbed up the pass, we noted that the wind decreased, the higher we climbed and it ended when we reached the top and headed down, about 6-7 miles from the TT.

We continued on I-10 east, stopping only three times. We waved at Quartzite as we passed through. The second rest area we passed, which was the first in Arizona, was closed. We stopped at the next one for our lunch break.

Our third stop was at a Pilot station, just west of Phoenix, where we added diesel, at $3.89 per gallon. Much less than the $4.19 in California.

We continued east on I-10, turned onto I-17 south, then back onto I-10. We should not have followed the GPS directions. We could have cut out onto a southern route, and taken I-8 to Casa Grande, totally avoiding Phoenix. We ill do that next time. It would have added six less stressful miles to our drive.

We easily found Palm Creek RV and Golf Resort. We pulled into the entrance and the ranger came out to greet us. He asked if we were with the rally. We said yes, and he sent us to the second stop sign, said turn right, and look for a ranger. As soon as we turned right, we could see Dave and Darlene waiting for us. They waved us into the RV line, and instructed us to unhook the car. While Bob was unhooking, Darlene and I were talking. They live here for six months a year and she runs the writers group. So we had a lot to talk about.

They guided us to our site, # 971. This resort is huge, with 2,937 sites. The sites surround the golf course. We are parked in the pet section. The sites are large, with concrete patios. There are a lot of park models as well as RV sites. This is also a “senior” community, with lots of activities. Their season ended yesterday, and they still have a six page activity list for the week!

We settled in and went to the office to register. There was a mix up, with another couple named Gray, so we have to get that straightened out tomorrow.  We both have Alfa’s and are staying in the same section. We are staying with our buddies in the Roadrunners.

We went to dinner at Macayo’s, a nice Mexican restaurant. This company has been in business for over 60 years. The food, in general was good. We split a Prickley Pear margarita, which was excellent.

We returned home and sat our for awhile, as the temperature dropped. We finally became cold, so we moved back into the motor home, opened all the windows and watched TV, falling asleep on the couch and recliner.

Sunset from our patio.

Tuesday- I was going to walk this morning, but my I-pod needed to be charged. So I set it up and rode my bike around the park. Bob walked the dogs. We arrived back at the motor home at the same time. They were giving away a breakfast bag at the tennis center, so we walked over there. They handed us a bag and we were able to pick one each of the following. 4 oz of orange juice, a yogurt, a piece of fruit( apple, orange or banana), and a muffin. We returned to the motor home and ate our breakfast.

I had rec’d an email from my editor that I need to update 10 articles, so after my shower, I started on that, updating and sending two back to him. .

We noticed that we were having a problem with our black tank. Bob said it was full, and he had just emptied it last Wednesday. When he checked it, not a pleasant job, he found that it was full of toilet paper. We had read on the Alfa blog that someone else had a problem with Angel Soft TP. Since our problem in the winter of 2011 in Breck, we have been very careful to make sure that we purchase only the septic safe Angel Soft. We know we did, but we checked the TP we have and it did not break up like it should. ( you take a covered container, put water in it, take some TP and put it in the container, cover and shake. The TP should break up into little pieces). So he spent the time snaking the black tank, again, not a pleasant job! He managed to get it cleaned out. So we are donating the rest of the TP to a shelter and heading out to buy a different brand.

We went to Walmart, which was literally around the corner from the park. We returned to the motor home, ate lunch and Bob’s A-fib started again. So he stayed home to relax and I went to Mahjong at the Activities Center. It is the first time that I saw the new 2013 card. It took some time to get back into the groove, but I ended up winning one game, a closed set with only two’s. That was fun! Next time is Friday!

I returned in time for us to pack up and  go to happy hour with the Roadrunners and some folks from some other Alfa clubs. I had some wine but Bob stuck with water. No beer while he is having the A-fib.

We returned and ate a light dinner of leftovers and settled in to watch some TV.

Wednesday-  Bob still has the A-fib, but we had things to do. So we drove north, about 40 miles, to Mesa and the closest Navy Federal Credit Union. We wanted to move some money around. We are probably going to move all the money to them, as you are now able to take a picture of a check with your phone camera and make the deposit.

We stopped at Honeybaked Ham for lunch. We both like ham salad and for some reason they do not have ham salad anywhere in the LA area! At least we never found it anywhere.

We returned home and took a nap. Bob still has the A-fib and it is over 24 hours. He seems to be doing a little better, the still has the irregular heart beat.

No happy hour today. The resort had a traditional country concert with a performer, named DeLon. (his first name, his last name was Thompson.). The concert was good. It was a  lot of old country songs, with some Elvis and even some Alan Jackson and George Strait thrown in.

We returned to the motor home and watched TV before bed.

Thursday- When we woke up, Bob was still having the irregular heartbeat. Since this had lasted so long, we decided he should go to the ER. He took a shower, and while I was in the shower, the heartbeat converted to normal. So we ended up not going to the ER.

We went looking for sandals for each of us. Bob found some, but I could not find any. I will just have to keep looking.

We went to happy hour again this afternoon, then ate dinner, watched TV and went to bed.

Friday- I have been enjoying riding my bike around the park every morning. We stopped off for another breakfast in a bag. Mine keeps going into the refrigerator, as I don’t want all the calories.

I went to Mahjongg at 12:30. They had banana splits from 12-1:30, so on the way to Mahjongg, we stopped off and split one. Bob walked back from the activity center to the motor home and fixed a few things around the motor home.  I won 5 games and came away $1 ahead. It made up for Tuesday.

We went to happy hour until 5:45, the we went with Marvin and Marian to dinner at the Elks Lodge. The local lodge was very busy for a Friday evening. Dinner was chicken fried steak, with mash potatoes, gravy and green beans for $8. Drinks for all of us cost a total of $10. What a deal!

We returned home, watched TV and went to bed.

The weather all week has been beautiful, with bright blue skies, temps in the 80’s to 90’s, with dry air. Some winds, which cleared out the air, so we do not have the smog they have in LA.

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