hanging out at the park

The park staff managed to get most of the weeds and trimmed some of the oleander bushes around our site before we got here, as we had emailed ahead of time to give them a heads up on our arrival.  When the park is in full swing just after Christmas, it's hard to get on their list of sites to 'garden up' so to speak.  They left the oleander bushes at the back of the lot alone, which was great, so we could decide ourselves how much to lop off.  Donald trimmed about half their height off, to about 4.5 feet.  We just leave the trimmings in the wash for the landscape crew to pick up.   We choose to move our rv as close to the street front of the lot as possible giving us a large backyard. With the oleander hedge it should be great.

Yesterday we stuck around, doing a few chores and visiting.  Our next door neighbours from Edmonton showed up just before lunch, so now Donald got to be one of the supervisors to watch their production.  Hmmph. Not much to watch as it was one back up and done. Good for them! Of course, we were excited to see sweet Ellie Mae, their golden doodle, who spent a couple of hours with us while they did their set up thing.

Now, those of you who would rather read about guy things, well, skip this paragraph. I spent most of the afternoon organizing my little sewing area, in the corner of one of the slides.  Ok Paulette: as per request: things are hopping already in the clubhouse.  On Friday, seven of us ( Gwen, Anne, me, Deb, Karen, Doris, Norma ) went to all three shops in the valley.  We have a bag project that most of us are doing - gifts for the office staff for Christmas.  It is a pattern that Doris made! Joanne's had a sale on batting (40 off) and Olfa mats and cutters ( 40 off ) and then we had coupons ( yah!) for 25 percent of our entire order. Whoo hoo.  The back of Gwen's van was full of batting and pellon.

It is wonderful to be back to early morning swimming in the pool and even though I didn't have time on Friday with the shop hop to swim, the pool was closed for cleaning and I wouldn't have been able to anyway. Just like last season, I am the only person there doing lap swimming in the morning.

Today, of course, is NFL day, so guess what we're doing.  A swim in the morning ( come on, Karen and join me!) and then catch our wonderful boys. Go Seahawks.

Karen's one of a kind golf cart. Purpose: to carry sewing machine to the north hall. You thought golf?

Parked at our site in the Coachella Valley

After Lake Mead, we travelled down to Yuma, with a quick boondock stay in Quartzsite.  There were still problems with our inverter, and the solar dealer that installed our system, and worked on it every single year thereafter as the problems continued, was not able to help us as their technical staff were not in the southwest as yet.

Backup plan #2: do some research and find a reputable solar dealer in Yuma. Done. So, off we went for a week in Yuma to get our rig washed, waxed and the carpets cleaned.  Yuma is the best place and by far the cheapest.  Our appointment at Starlight Solar was for November 5th and with a brand new inverter being installed, we were good to go within a couple of hours.  WOW. We switched from Xantrex to Magnum and what a difference.  We may never have to hook up to shore power ever.Well, ok, if we run the big tv, the computer, the power bars and a couple of lights at night, then we turn the pedestal on.  I used my blow dryer the other day with the solar/inverter and it ran fantastic.

Our arrival at the Sands in Desert Hot Springs was fun, as always.  Since it was Wednesday and the quilting group was at the north hall, I went off to say hello and check in and see what projects were on the go.  Donald continued with backing up into the perfect position on our lot, and of course he had some neighbourly supervision.

This morning I was back to lap swimming at 7:30 for an hour, then 45 minutes of deep water aerobics. I have missed that, for sure!  Coffee with the neighbours ( yes, the supervisor) and then lunch and out for chores.  We had to go to Trader Joes for dog treats ( Trader Joes Organic Chicken and Brown rice snacks ) as all, and we mean ALL dogs go crazy for them.  We don't have a dog anymore, but we can spoil those around us. Donald's favorite place, Home Depot was our stop for two planters.  One mixed with petunias,snapdragons and assorted other plants and the other was a very large red geranium pot.  The mixed planter looks a little sad, but it will only take a couple of weeks to get it looking good again.  Thankyou Miraclegrow.

Tomorrow is a coachella valley quilt shop hop, and then I think Rocky's Pizza with pals for supper.
Good times, good friends, once again.

Lake Mead, GPS woes and the best hot tub soak ever

Always the ying and the yang of life.  Our Garmin GPS is giving us grief by powering down quite often and then taking a long time to come back up.  I checked the Garmin website for our model ( 1490) and they gave some ideas for correcting it, namely that I was to do a software download fix.  I downloaded the software, but was unable to run it, as my laptop operating system is too old.  I have a ten year old Mac laptop that is just great, but yes, things are moving beyond it.  We are so reluctant to get a new laptop. I had to download a map update to the Garmin on our son's computer. We needed to get a card for it, as the Garmin could not hold all the data with the new maps. Gertrude did seem to know all the new roads this time, so that was worth it.  Now if she can only have her power situation fixed.

The great thing about yesterday was an easy drive through the 'spaghetti' interstate/highway system through Las Vegas. The spaghetti term is something we heard yesterday from a fellow at the Beatty RV Park. Gertrude managed to stay awake through that.  Also, our Canadian friends that have a house in Henderson arrived yesterday and we did not think they would be here till after Christmas - what timing! They texted us looking for the website for setting up your Shaw satellite dish ( www.dishpointer.com) and we mentioned we had just set up at Lake Mead. Bonus! We had a lovely spaghetti dinner ( ha! again with the spaghetti! ) and a long soak in their hot tub.  What an absolute treat after 4-5 days on the road! It was the same for them, as they had driven from northern BC to Kansas, to drop off their custom 5th wheel for warranty work, and then drove to Henderson, an even longer drive than we had just made. Yes, Paulette, we will be quilt shop doing!!!! We have that mystery quilt to get supplies for. Donald and Rob call it the Misery Quilt Project.

We love Lake Mead.  Last spring they were renovating sites at Boulder Beach and we have a lovely one overlooking the lake, water very close, as well as washrooms.  We could be here awhile.

The drive from Reno south is pretty ho hum.

This trip we managed to avoid the sometimes chaotic traffic of southern California and drivers in the cities who think they can just weave in front of us.... so we changed our route and it sure is the complete opposite!  Today's route took us down the west side of Nevada, through Reno, Fallon, Hawthorne, Tonopah and our end stop was Beatty.  It seems we got one of the last rv spots open, as this weekend is  Beatty Days 2013.  The park is full, and the friendly park manager said all the hotels and motels are full as well.  It would be nice to stay, but I think we'll head onto Lake Mead National Park for some quiet time. This route would not be pleasant if it was windy or blowing snow.  At Tonopah you are up about 6200 feet.

Todays interesting items: not very much.  A long, mostly straight, desert vista.  Pretty boring and from Reno to Beatty, there is not much of anything for facilities or places to pull over.  We did stop for lunch at Walker Lake.  In fact, there is so little to see that as soon as we saw a yellow sign for cows or deer or burros, that was the highlight.  Next time is the weather is as nice as this, we may stay on US395 all the way.

A long drive day through the Sierra's

Long drive day yesterday, and we were sure tired at the end.  That must be why we slept in till 8 am today!  The weather was clear and lovely over the Siskyou pass, so lets do something different!  At Mount Shasta, we took a new route over 89 to Bordertown, Nevada which is about an hour from Reno.  The highways and roads were great, passing by Mount Shasta and Lassen National Parks, and some lava fields. What was interesting: cattle guards in the roadbeds that were so mild I am sure BC cows would have no trouble walking over them.  Massive trees and so many logging trucks full you would think all the trees would be gone.  Reservoirs that are completely dry. 

Most of Nevada is in higher elevations, so we will meander south today looking for some heat.