Cold desert nights

Yes, you are seeing icicles on the Oleander bushes!  This was about 8 a.m. this morning, the result of the sprinkler system watering in the night.  Yep, the furnace was on in the 5th wheel.

Last December we had a couple of cold nights, waking up to frost on the roofs of the park models, so we think this is not unusual for December.

Quilting day for Kim - pictures of that at Paulette's blog. Donald decided to invite Rick along for his to do list of the day - getting the wheels of the truck re-torqued after their rotation, looking for the Wednesday Farmers Market in Palm Desert, and then going out for lunch in Palm Springs.  He should  have had the camera with him as they went hunting for one more place to go.  Rick has sworn by this product, called The Solution , for waterless washing of RV rigs.  He found that it also does an excellent job on computer screens, windows and eyeglasses as well!  Rick had received email from fellow blogger Betty, that this product was in fact manufactured a few miles from here, so off they went!  After finding a non-descript building in an industrial area, sure enough that was the place.  They got the tour, and Don purchased a gallon and a squirt bottle to apply it.  The fellow even threw in the special rag to use.  Well, you better read Rick's blog, as he of course had a camera with him.  I think it was an enjoyable day for both of them and the dogs.

Happy Hour beckoned us at 4:00, so off we went, but not before Donald opened a box that the UPS man dropped off during the day.  He had ordered a new ladder from Camping World, one that is tall, yet folds up to the size of a 2x4.  Just in time to be cleaning with his new squirt bottle and Solution!

Late at night, a big 5th wheel, a Big Country, pulled in across the street from us.  It is so hard to park in the dark, as none of the sites here are large pull throughs.  It looks like they just parked temporarily, and then will set up in the daylight.

Festival fun, dinner fun

Missed a couple of days in posting  - hmmm. No excuse. Sorry about that.  Sunday we were off to the Tamale Festival in Indio, and we had a great time.  The wind had died down, so it was much more pleasant and an early arrival time enabled us to park very close to one of the gateways into the festival.  It also allowed to walk around without the big crowds and have a good look at the booths.  The final decision as to where to try a Tamale was at the Apostolic Church group booth.  It looked very clean, well run and was a fund raiser for their church. Of course, a big attraction was the huge trophy displayed, letting us know that they won first place for beef tamales. VERY good tamales!  With so many tamale boots ( over 120?) this is probably a big honour.   We noticed in Rick's blog, that Grandma Lupe's booth had huge lineups - well, we walked by and sure enough the lineups were incredibly long, already at the early hour.  No trophies to display.  So, Donald walked up to someone in line and asked why they were lining up for this particular booth. " We heard it was pretty good, and saw the lineups, so it must be good. ", then one of the fellows said" And as soon as the people in front of us jump off the cliff, we'll be right behind them!"  That got a few laughs. No, we didn't stand in line. 

Jeep had a large display, with vehicles that you can test drive over an off-wheel course they built, and a large Salsa Dance-Off Stage that that were sponsoring.

This couple may be the winners!

Yesterday, Monday, the wind came up again so we went for a few staples at Vons ( Safeway ) a few blocks over, then to the post office for stamps and to mail parcels.  Great staff at the post office, I always enjoy going there.

Before lunch we went for a walk to check out the park model that Don's family has rented for the month of January, and on our way back we met Rick and invited them over for dinner.  As this post is getting long enough, check out their blog for the carrying - on's! Thanks to Paulette for bringing dessert that was (almost) on the WW plan!

Landing gear saga: email from Jayco today, sort of a brush-off and they just said get it welded ( yeah, duh!)So, Donald promptly called them and they are now looking at it again. He also gave a call to Mario of Palm Drive RV to update him on the email and call.

I have a class this afternoon at the clubhouse about T shirts, and Donald is hanging onto the  US tracphone waiting for calls.

Mariachi Band Stage

Oh yes, there was a booth at the festival by Healthy California, and they were giving away free cookbooks.  So, I accepted " Healthy Latino Recipes, Made with Love".  There are recipes inside using Tomatillos and Cactus leaves.... I think we need to try these!  There is a Carneceria(?) close by where I can purchase all sorts of things.  I will take my cookbook with me.

Landing gear problem diagnosed

We didn't expect the mobile RV technicians back today, but sure enough, they came shortly after lunchtime, even though they are very busy.  They cut a couple of bolts, took a bolt out of the drive shaft, and the leg dropped out the bottom.  It was very tough to get at.  Whenever these things happen to you, the is some second-guessing going on - what did we miss setting up the rig? what errors did we do? In fact I felt it was all my fault because I had the Park maintenance gravel and fix the lot and this happened just afterward.  So, turns out we did everything correctly.  Look at the picture - both sides of the plate is to be welded on the leg.  The one side is welded properly, and the right side weld did not penetrate, and therefore is inappropriate.  The one side broke, trying to hold or do the job all by itself.

We were very lucky that it didn't happen in the night, or at some other time.  We were lucky that we were right there to get boards underneath, that there was not huge damage when it dropped ( however, there may be some when they have to put a new one in ) and we were able to back the truck ever so carefully and hookup again, to take the weight and stop it from leaning one way and twisting the rig.

An email with pictures has been sent to Jayco's service department and we shall see on Monday what they say back.

What else happened today? The Howler continues but we see it is everywhere in the southwest. A shopping trip in the morning for a birthday present, college football in the afternoon, we watched the roadrunners run around the rig, and I have just about finished machine quilting a Christmas quilt. Pulled BBQ beef in the crockpot. Mmmm. Tomorrow: Tamale Festival?

Get out! We're going sideways!!!!!!

The plan for the day was to do some laundry and run over to Kohl's for a bit.  Well, you know the saying about planning...... An early morning visit from the Office Administrator here and the Head Grounds Person led to a complete landscaping of our site.  There was broken glass all mixed in with old lava type rock, a hole in the back of the lot, and Oleanders that were 12 feet tall.  So, we had to pull the 5th out of there, move it to the site next door and it took them the better part of the day to trim the hedges, pull out the dead ones, and move in a huge amount of gravel, spread all over.  It looks lovely.

I headed off with Paulette to Yucca Valley to a couple of quilt stores, and Donald stayed back to do up some laundry ( WHAT a sweetheart ).  By the time we got back around 2 pm, the 5th had been moved back in place to the lot, and Don had put down the landing gear, the back jacks, pulled the truck away, levelled it all up and put out the flowers and patio mats. Oh, he also had the water and sewer hooked up.  So, time to push the button and move out the slides.

TROUBLE!!!!!!!!  The rig made a crunching sound, and started to move/topple over to the door side. OMG.  ADRENALIN RUSH!  Don knew it wasn't good.  The front jack on the passenger side had started to collapse. ( Yes, it was done right in set up ). He is a smart guy: he gradually loaded boards to take the weight, managed to hook up the truck again ( whew, thank...) to take more weight off and correct the lean. He also got the jack out of the truck and used it as well under that edge.  I started making phone calls to the mobile RV guys listed on the RV Park map advertisements.  The second call resulted in a couple of guys coming within 10 minutes!!! Thank you Palm Drive RV and Auto Center.   The fellow said he came quickly, as he could hear it in our voices that things were not good!

So, first they had a quick looky-see, then got another bigger 4 Ton bottle jack and put it under, and moved the boards Don had piled under to a better position.  We could now unhook the truck and be safe.

The guys then started a longer look at what's up.  We have to make a phone call to Jayco on Monday, then obviously the work has to start.  Something in the landing gear broke ( the stop?) and whether is is due to inappropriate initial welds, or fatigue, is still unknown at this time.  The 5th is a 2010 5th.  In other words, pretty new.

Of course, the RV tech took some more pictures, and since it was the end of the day on Friday, he didn't want to start ripping things apart, which we agreed.   More on the story as we go..... good thing we are here for some time, 'cause we ain't able to go anywhere!!!!

the bolt thing should be where the rust mark is

 I met Paulette walking the mutts when I took the garbage to the bin, she had to come have a look, and sure enough Rick was over pretty fast after that!  You know, I kind of let it be known in this blog about their Ryley mutt stealing a steak, so if he wants to write about this, go for it!!!!! 

We better end the day watching An Idiot Abroad for a few laughs. 

Sir, STEP AWAY from THAT Truck.

Wednesday's is quilting day for Kim, and Don made it over to the GM dealer in Palm Springs for his appointment to have the oil changed on the truck and the tires rotated.  He had our mechanic son change the fuel filter in Victoria prior to our leaving.  As he had time to wait for the work to be done, he starting looking around the lot at vehicles - oh no! He found a 2007 1/2, 38K miles, leather interior, full load, sunroof, dvd, chipped, lift kit, new tires and wheels, back up sensors, duramax, crewcab and pretty much anything you can get as an option on it.  I think he was drooling. Of course, the shark salesperson pounced and offered all kinds of help to sell to a Canadian.  No doubt our son will read this, and be emailing about 'how much?'. No, we do not need a new truck.

Couldn't seem to rotate the pic, sorry!

Cute zebras on the rice bowl

 I was busy in the north clubhouse finishing some Christmas wall hangings and visiting and learning with the ladies.  We all must have been ready to quit early this week, as we have the building till 4 pm, and we were all leaving by 3:10.  So, since we had time to organize ourselves, I asked Donald if he wanted to go to Happy Hour at the main clubhouse for 4 pm.  Yep!  Last year we went a couple of times and there wasn't many participants, but this year - whoa! Lots of people, lots of great snacks and conversation.  Our dinner meat was still frozen, so we opted to try out the local Thai restaurant for dinner afterward.  It was o.k., but we have had Thai food a number of times, and I quite often will cook KungPao, and we both felt this place had dialled down the food to meet western tastes, as it was not spicy or hot and not near the freshness of the vegetables.  There is another Thai place in Palm Springs that we might try.

The HOWLER started just after got back to the rig, and we picked up a few things, and continued to get up out of bed and pick up more as the wind got stronger.  We are still rocking and rolling as I type at 11:00 am.  I thought we might go to W*mart to print off pictures from the camera to send to the GG's in Ontario, but the sand has kicked up and we cannot see Mt. Jacinto, so likely the roads will be blowing sand.  Better that than snow. Hmmm sand/snow. Both 4 letter words.  You choose your favorite.