MERRY CHRISTMAS-HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

February 14, 2020

I forgot to get Denny a Valentines Day card. Think it is the first time that has ever happened. With being homeless and living at people's houses, we never went to stores like we usually do and  I just never gave it a thought. The night before, I mentioned to Denny that I forgot to get him a card. Could have knocked me over with a feather, but he told me he had gotten me one. That day he went to get diesel at the Fry's grocery and got a card at the same time. Most unusual for him to remember without some prompting from me. I usually buy cards ahead of time before we leave home, so looked at my stash. I saw one with a red heart, read it, signed it and gave it to him the next day. Was proud of myself for having one til he told me it was a CHRISTMAS CARD. Felt pretty stupid, but certainly gave us a good laugh. Chalking it up to SENIORITIS!

PALM SPRINGS

February 22, 2020

Moved to Palm Springs a week ago yesterday on  February 14th.  Finally starting to get some warm weather, nice to be in shorts, short sleeved t shirts and flip flops. It cooled down to 71 today (Denny actually put on a sweatshirt ), but going back up to 80's next week. 

This is our favorite area that we have traveled to. Just feels right. Eventho there are alot of people in the winter, still feels small town to me. Might be because even the side streets are 4 lanes wide. We have met several couples here on our travels, but now only down to 1.5 couples. All the others have either stopped traveling to  winter in one spot,  too ill to travel or have passed away.  Sad, but that happens when you get to our age. We met a great couple several years ago, but one guy has passed away, hence the .5 couple. They lived here full time, but we still see Bob. 

There are all sizes of RV's here, from a 10' teardrop trailer to 40' motorhomes and 5th wheels. 

We have never seen handwritten words on the side of an RV. They also put up a tent beside it which is against the rules. So far, no one has said anything. Must be a family traveling around, enjoying life.

Took this picture from outside our rv. You see alot of toy hauler trailers, but this is a big one. it holds 2 bicycles, a motorcycle and a little convertible sports car. You can see the lady tying down the sports car so they can leave the next day.  Our 5th wheel is the L shape on the left 

Short little trailer, a little too small for us! We have even seen smaller here at the park

This is the view coming into Palm Springs on I-10 from AZ. Amazing you go thru miles and miles of desert and then, all of the sudden, civilization.  The Palm Springs area is actually 7 cities  right next to each other, Cochella on one end, Palm Springs on the other. You never know what city you are in unless you see a sign. Before we started coming here, We always thought Palm Springs was one town, not 7 making up the whole area. 

View from our chairs outside the RV

HOME AT LAST

February 11, 2020

Finally picked up our RV last Tues.  The Camping World here called Camping World in Fife about all the hanging wires from the AC that wasn't working. Of course, they denied everything, said it was working when we picked it up. They would never admit a thing like that. So now it is our word against theirs. Makes no sense why, if it was working, that we would disconnect wires just so we would have the hassle  to take it in to get fixed again. Will certainly have a fight on our hands when we get home.

After we got back to the campground, I was looking at the labor bill. We were charged for 6.5 hours of labor that took 2 weeks to complete. Amazing how long it took. I was on the phone with them probably every other day checking on  the progress because we are scheduled to leave Feb 14th for Palm Springs. We were getting nervous that that wasn't going to happen. 

We are certainly glad to be in our own home again. Feels so good to be back to normal. Many thanks to  our friends and family that helped us out, Judy Skinner, Denny's first cousin, who winters in Surprise, AZ,  Lynn and Rolf Ausen in Scottsdale, friends that moved here from Kirkland, WA and Bob and Elaine Green, my 2nd cousins that live in Buckeye, AZ.  It made it so much easier that we didn't have to hotel it for 14 days.  Think of the cost of that on top of our bill. 

This is a very friendly park.  Reminds us of the type we had when we first started out. If people walk, drive or bicycle by,  everyone waves and says hi. 

We have never seen a little trailer have an attached room on the side. Reminds me of an Arizona room. An Arizona room is an attached room that you see on park models in Rv parks to add additional space. That is where we stayed at Judy's park model. In California, it is called a California room

This is our neighbor who lives across the street in the Class C to the left of her head.  Small, but she lives there with her husband,  2 kids and a big dog. Her husband works in the area so they are here full-time.  I took this picture because I have never seen a carrier that attaches to the front of a bike for her little one. She said it is very stable and helps her center of gravity. She stopped by on her way out for a bike ride. 

When we were living at Judy's, we saw this palm tree decorated.  Most people decorate palm trees and catcus with lights or metal sculptures

This pillow and the sign below were at Judy's house. Thought they were cute!

Hopefully nothing else happens on the road. 

CROSSING OUR FINGERS

GEOCACHE HIKING

January 30, 2020

Most of the time when we geocache in the desert, it just entails a lot of walking around. My geobuddy, Bernie, wanted to the the Geo Art Valentine series. Geo Art is when the caches are in the shape of something, not just in a line or random. We have done a few in the shape of an egg and a circle. Close to Area 51, the Geo Art is in the shape of an alien head and a spaceship. They are fun to do. This heart was in the middle of the desert, no trails or anything. We went up and down washes and hills. Sometimes there was no clearing, so we had to go straight thru the bushes and cactus. We found all 50 geocaches, it took 6.5 hours. I drank 4 bottles of water, BUT, forgot my lunch in the refrigerator. I only had cookies and a small tangerine with me. How could I have forgotten that! Thank heavens Bernie gave me one of his sandwiches. Bernie is very tall so his stride is much longer than mine. I take 3 steps to his one. I hiked 13 miles, but Bernie only had 10.   Seems like there must be a web design that will make the shapes you want and map it out for you.  Caches have to be at least 550 ' apart.   Looks like alot of  hard work but there is alot of Geo Art. Amazing to me.

I also had the wrong shoes. Of course, they were in the RV, which we don't have right now. Thought i would have blisters, but didn't. I wore my most comfortable walking hoes, but they aren't made for hiking.

Picture of the geo Art. The yellow circle smileys are ones that have been  found. The green circles are ones I haven't found.

Views of the desert. Can't really tell by these pictures how hard the terrain was to get thru.

Thought this was a strange looking saguaro cactus. Have never seen one with 4 little ones growing at the base

HOMELESS

February 6, 2020

Last August we had our air conditioning units on  the roof replaced. We had such a terrible experience at Camping World that we said we would never go back there.  We had been customers since 1996. We left in December so we had no reason to test it.  A few weeks ago it was hot enough, so tried to turn it on. It didn't work. It seemed to us that they didn't connect it to the thermostat when they installed the units. Since it was under warranty we had to take it back to Camping World January 28th. We thought it would be a few days, but that  was wishful thinking on our part. Luckily, we have friends and family that we could stay with.  When we took it in, the parts rep asked if they had told us they were really backed up.  No, the clerk DID NOT mention it.  It might be 3-4 days.  Why would they make an appointment for a certain day when they are so backed up. We thought it meant it would be done then, but that was wishful thinking on our part again. In 3.5 days, it had been worked on one hour!  It has now been 9 days and we are still homeless. First few days we stayed with Denny's cousin, Judy. She had been expecting company on the 6th, but they came early, so we had to move up to our friends in Scottsdale for 1 night, then down to my cousin in Buckeye. I took a few things out of the RV, but, seems like every time I want something , it is in the RV. GRRRRRR, so frustrating. Embarrassing to ask people if we can stay at their house, especially when we had no idea it would take this long.

If we are lucky, we might get it tomorrow. Turns out it is the thermostat itself, which isn't under warranty because it wasn't worked on.  The computer board went out. Still seems strange to us that this all started when they worked on it.   We haven't had much trouble with the RV yet, so guess it's our time. It is 13 years old.

We just spent $2500 on our truck, so this trip is turning out to be very expensive.

Will let you know when we get our home back