Monday, December 15, 2008

We got ready to go early this morning and took off for the Golden Corral for their Buffet Breakfast.  It was quite pricey but it was also quite good.  They had a multitude of selections that were all good.  It cost us about the same as Breakfast at Denny's would have.

On the way back we had a couple of stops to make to pick up a few things shopping.  Our first stop took us to Walgreen's to get their phone number to have a prescription called in.  As long as we were there I picked up a few packages of "hot patches" for my leg.

After Walgreen's we stopped at the gas station and filled up for $20.  Man, it's been a long time since that's happened.  It's a pleasure to go to the gas station on this trip.

While we were at the Post Office we got a call from Corky Zimmermann who is at Desert Hot Springs already.  Corky is a retired Firefighter from West Bend, Wisconsin. We called him this morning and he was just returning our call.

We just sat around this afternoon, except that Sharon took a nap to rest her Breakfast.  By three I was ready for some Peanuts and Coke to hold me over.  It held me over right past supper and into about 8 when had a couple of Turkey Salad sandwiches on a bun.  For the rest of the night we just sat in front of the tube.  Sharon even sat up until the end of Seinfeld tonight.  She's usually gone to the mattresses before then.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

We had a plan today to pickup a few things at the grocery store, eat lunch at McDonald's, and then go and see "Australia" at the movies.  We got all our stuff done by 2:30 including picking up a prescription and made it to the Theater in time for the movie.

I would have to say that if you like an action movie, this probably isn't for you, but if you like a movie with a good story that has spectacular action in it, don't miss it.  We had a thoroughly good time for the 2 hours and 45 minutes of it's length.

By the time we got out it was dark and raining outside.  We went to a matinee cause it was cheaper, but by the time we got popcorn and soda we had  blown the savings.  No matter, Sharon has wanted to see this show since it came out.

We got back home and after we had eaten so much popcorn, we weren't interested in eating supper tonight.  In fact I didn't even have a sandwich til about 8 o'clock.

We watched TV for the rest of the night until after Seinfeld.  Actually Sharon woke me up after that show was over with.  I think the new medication I'm taking is making me sleepy.  It's supposed to be one of the side effects and it's sure working on me.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Sharon was on a tear this morning as she cleaned up the entire shanty and then did 4 loads of laundry.  Man, who can keep up with that woman.  I used to help her with the laundry, but for the past couple of years she'd rather have me out of the way.  I always thought I was quite helpful.  Oh well.

I called Fantastic Vent today about our vent that just popped up for no reason.  It's been wired down since Deming. A rep named Bob Berretta said he would send me a new lifter assembly for free.  I've heard nothing but good things about this Michigan company, but this is the first time I've experienced it.  I just have to wait for the parts now.

I also tried to adjust the new icemaker valve today when we tuned it on.  It quit working at the end of the summer and I've had the new valve since then but didn't want to put it in for fear it might freeze up before we could get someplace warm.  That's what happened to the valve the year before last.

I also called Jerry and Mary to see if they wanted to go for burgers at the Elks tonight or just have cocktails at home.  Mary said they wanted to go out so we'll pick them up around 5 and head over there.

We usually only get a couple of chances while we're here to get together with Mary and Jerry, but we always enjoy our time together.  We were over there by 5 and had a drink before we left for the Elks.  The Elks serves delicious burgers along with a couple of other sandwiches including Chicken.  After a couple of pitchers of beer we left and went to Jerry and Mary's and had another drink before we called it a night.

We were back home by about 8:30 and just in time to watch a little tube before heading for bed for the night.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

We went to JB's this morning for Breakfast and I had Montezuma's Revenge all day today.  I finally got an upset stomach after all the trips to the bathroom.

We stopped at K-Mart so Sharon could return the shoes she had bought in Branson a while back.  They kept slipping off her feet and apparently didn't fit well.

We went shopping to Fry's for a few groceries so we could reach our $100 threshold to get an additional 10 cents a gallon off our fill-up tomorrow.

This was also a "get-ready-to-go" day today.  We'll be moving on tomorrow.  With me almost incapacitated, Sharon picked up the grill and the chairs we had outside.  It wasn't much but it was my job to take care of that.  I'm sure I'll still be responsible for the sewer and hoses tomorrow morning.

For the rest of my day I sat in the recliner except for those times I required a trip to the bathroom.

It was pretty shaky TV for the day and we watched Discovery for most of the day while Sharon knitted. We watched a couple of repeats as we surfed back and forth between channels.

By the time bewitching hour rolled around we were both ready to call it quits.  It had definitely been a long day and it sure didn't feel like it was going to get any shorter in the near future.  Besides tomorrow will be a new day and things will look up I'm sure.

Friday, December 19, 2008

We left Casa Grande after a quick stop at the gas station so we could get our gas at 10 cents a gallon less than what they were selling it for.  We picked up about 30 gallons for $1.459 . We took the by-pass through Gila Bend instead of driving through Phoenix.  We had left a little late to fight the traffic up there.

We arrived in Quartzsite around noon and drove through town on B-10 and returned on Kuehn Rd.  We looked for our friend Jack's tent where he picked up some vents a couple of years ago but apparently the guy isn't here this early this year.  We ended up a Tyson Wells Campground where we have stayed before on different occasions.  After we got settled we took a walk over to Prospector's Panorama across the street.  I walked through the tool tent at K-B's looking for a sand blasting kit.  I didn't manage to find one so I was left with nothing.

Afterwards we took off to the Grubstake for lunch.  It's like a British Pub and they serve loads of foreign beer even though we had domestic.  They're food is absolutely fantastic.  I had Coconut Shrimp and Sharon had Crab Cakes.  Two very nice Friday Dinners for Catholics.

There isn't many vendors here yet so we were pretty much done shopping for the day.  We came back home and watched TV for the rest of the day and night.

We both cashed in our chips and left the casino at 10.  There was nothing left on TV to watch.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

We didn't really get going this morning until almost lunchtime.  We went past the Snowbird Welcome Center and found it closed on Saturday and Sunday.  We won't be getting our pins this year....... yet.

We decided that we would try someplace new this year to eat and found the Palo Verde Café on north 95 set way back off the road.  It's been there since we've been coming here, but we've eaten there before.  It looks like a Mexican food place but the cuisine is all "American".  And it's was quite clean and the food was excellent.

After lunch I wanted to take in the tool shed at the west end of town, so we drove down there.  As luck would have it, I found the sand blasting kit that I was looking for yesterday.  Sometimes you just have to check another place when you're here in Quartzsite.  I paid $12 for the kit.  A nice price, I thought.

I came back home, as I was done for the day.  Sharon saw a whole bunch of "used merchandise" places all grouped together on B-10 that she wanted to check out.  I turned on Discovery on TV and took a nap while she was gone.  She took an FRS radio with her when she left, but I knew we'd never reach each other from where she was going, about a mile away.  I didn't hear her calling until she got back to our stop light which was about a half-mile away.

Neither of us was hungry for supper but Sharon stopped by the Bakery and picked up some donuts on her way home.  I had to have one immediately, just to taste 'em.  They were pretty doughy but good.

We settled in front of the TV for the rest of the night.  It was mostly repeats but we settled on Discovery where they were playing "The world's Dumbest Drivers." They were right.  Some of those clowns were at least as dumb as we've ever seen.  We both took the high road to the low bed at 10.  We were finished.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

We got a leisurely start this morning since we were only driving about 2 hours to get to Desert Hot Springs and Catalina Spa.  The price of gas jumped sharply today because the Arabs are cutting production again.  It's gone up about 10 cents a gallon.  That's a nice round number and it seems that everybody's on the bandwagon.  We had intended to stop at Ehrenberg to gas up before we went into California.  We decided against it since we'd be sitting for the next 5 weeks.  We'll probably end up paying 30 cents a gallon more.

We stopped at Carl's Jr. in Coachella on the way in, and had they're new Steak Sandwich.  It was a slab of sirloin in a bun.  It was pretty good but not something I'll order again.

We arrived in Desert Hot Springs sometime around noon and got set up immediately.  We did a little clean-up on the patio and we were ready to go.

We stopped at Henry and Arlene LeDuc's over at Desert Pools Resort for a couple of hours.  Henry gave me a beautiful desk set of a cut-out Fire Truck of Walnut with Brass pens on either end.  It is gorgeous.  I was very appreciative indeed.  We stayed until almost dark when we realized that we should stop and see Corky and Deb Zimmermann also.  As luck would have it they just got back from a side trip up to Idlewild in the mountains.  They didn't make it all the way because of the recent snowfall up there. 

We stayed at Corky and Deb's long enough to have a couple of beers and then we came home and ate supper.  Sharon cooked up a DiGiorno's pizza.  After that we settled in and watched some tube.  We did, however, stay up until about 10:30 before heading to slumberville.