Monday, March 19, 2012

We awoke to a bright sunshiny day today with the potential of becoming a very decent day.  The temperature had warmed up some compared to the last couple of mornings.

This was also a get-ready-to-go day today, but we wouldn’t be doing much about it,  since we are only moving back to Catalina Spa a mile down the road.  This will be our last inter-campground move, before we get on the road, and start heading east toward home.

When the clouds cleared from the mountains today we were surprised to find less snow than we had expected.  Mount San Jacinto was dusted with the white stuff and the San Gorgonio mountains were pretty well covered.  It looked like most of the snowfall fell north of I-10.  It didn’t come far enough down the mountain to affect us here in Palm Springs.  It hasn’t in the last 12 years that we’ve been coming out here, but it has come down as low as 1500 feet.

We just sat around until after lunch today, and we each had a little nap before we decided to go to the pool for the afternoon.  By this time it was around 70 degrees but we knew the pool would be much warmer.  We were surprised to find an almost empty pool when we got there, but it quickly filled up after we arrived.  We actually found out from our friends that they had come to the pool over the last couple of days.  It was just a little too Brrrrrrrr for our tastes.  In fact except for dumping the holding tanks, I stayed inside for two days.

We stayed at the pool until about 5 tonight and were relieved when we realized that this was the last time that we’d have to drive over here this year.

For Supper tonight we just cleaned up the leftovers in the fridge.  I had Ribs and Fried Potatoes and Sharon had the stew from last night.  After we finished our meal we also had a slice of Apple Pie for dessert.  For just throwing our Dinner together, it turned out to be quite good.

We settled in after supper for a good TV watching night.  By the time the night is over we’ll have a couple of things on tape that we just didn’t have time to watch tonight.  In fact it’s a trick trying to catch everything we want to see on Mondays.  And by the time the night was over, at least for us, we didn’t watch everything we had on tape.  But we’ll watch it over the next couple of days when the pickins’ are slim.  For now we’ll just fold up our tent and call it a day.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

We got a leisurely start this morning as we knew that there would be many empty spaces at Catalina and we’d have our pick of them.  The campground has been relatively empty for most of the year and there would be no reason that has changed, especially this late in the season.

We got “on the road” and arrived at Catalina about 10 o’clock and found a site immediately.  Unfortunately while setting up the dish we found that it wasn’t working right.  This is not a good thing since we still have about 5 weeks left on the road, and DirecTV has not had a good history of taking care of problems on the road.  In any event, after trying everything we knew how to do, we called Tech Support and had them on the phone for about 20 minutes resetting and checking our programming.  We didn’t get a resolution for the problem except that they recommended a service call for the problem.  It seems ridiculous to pay for a service call to tell me the receiver is on the fritz.  We’ll move the motorhome tomorrow to a spot where it worked a week ago.

By 11:30 we got ready to go to Almar Acres for soup today.  Phil and Joyce had called yesterday and said they were coming over so we’ll meet them at the resort.  We arrived at Almar at 12:45 and Phil and Joyce were already there and waiting for us.  We took our time getting over here thinking that we would be getting here first to save the table for us.

The soups today were Corned Beef and Cabbage, Minestrone, Chicken and Rice and Corn Chowder.  I tried the Chicken and Rice and Corn Chowder and Sharon also tried the Minestrone.  They also serve some very good breads, that are worth the money, even if you only ate the bread.  The cost is $4 for all the soup you can eat.  Even though I’m not much of a “soup person”, the soups are very good and very hearty.

After lunch Phil and Joyce stopped back to Catalina to have a dip in the pool before going back to Thousand Trails down the road a piece.  Sharon and I came home about 5 and Phil and Joyce were warming up in the hot tub when we left.

Sharon beat me to the cable when we got back and went outside and hooked it up for the night.  This is going to be another late night watching TV on the cable tonight.

We had leftover stew for supper tonight.  It was much better than the other night when th veggies were still a little raw.  Sharon put them back in the crock pot for awhile and they turned out great.

Sharon couldn’t last all night tonight so she went to bed at 10 while I sat up and finished out the night on TV.  I’ll be sleeping late tomorrow I’m sure.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

We awoke to a nice sunshiny day that looked like it was going to get really warm today.  We had plan for this afternoon to go down he highway and have Dinner with Phil and Joyce this afternoon.

We still weren’t getting reception on the dish this morning and we tried to move the motorhome back in our site, to avoid what may have been an obstruction, but to no avail.  We decided to move our site instead of setting up the portable dish.  While setting up the dish would have been easier, it just seemed more practical to move to a site where we knew we could get reception.  It only took us about 15 minutes to relocate to a another site 2 spaces away from where we were.  With the new location we were getting reception but the receiver was still acting weird.  Hopefully it will keep working until we get home.

We picked up all our stuff from the old site and moved it to the new one, and I finally hooked up the utilities for the next 12 days.  By the time we got settled in the new site it was lunchtime and Sharon whipped up some Egg Salad for Sandwiches.  She told me she didn’t have any Mayo so she used Thousand Island Dressing instead, and the sandwiches tasted different but quite good.

After lunch we left for the pool wanting to spend some time there, before we came home early, and got ready for Dinner.  The pool was crowded today and we were there early.  We left to come home about 3:30 so that we could get across the Valley by 4:30.

We were going to the Classic Club which is a golf course about 20 miles from our campground.  The restaurant is called the Bellatrix which is a weird name, but who am I to judge.  After all it’s probably named after someone.  The clubhouse is quite large with several dining areas but not really overly elegant.  Their food was very good however, even though the Happy Hour menu was quite limited.  But we had a good time seeing Phil and Joyce again for the day, and we made some plans to see each other again on Wednesday for Taco Day.  That will be the last time we get together until next year.

By the time we got back home we were still in time for a regular night of TV.  And we wouldn’t have to watch it until 11 o’clock either.  So by 10:15 we celebrated and went to bed right on schedule.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

I awoke this morning with a plan to change the oil in the motorhome, but after looking at the weather thought it was going to be too warm to do today.  So I’ll put it off until tomorrow wen it’ll be a few degrees cooler.

Sharon took off early this morning, with the laundry, to get us caught up for the week.  She was gone for most of the rest of the morning today getting home at lunchtime.  It seemed to take her longer this morning than it usually does, even though there didn’t seem to be more laundry.

We finished up the Egg Salad on our sandwiches today for lunch and then just sat around and waited for pool time to roll around.

By the time we got to the pool today at 2:30 it was already crowded.  It looks like the warm weather is really drawing people out to the pool.  And even the people who generally show up later are coming earlier now.

We stayed at the pool until about 5 today and when we came home it was nice and cool in the motorhome.  We had turned on the “air” before we left today and it was very comfortable when we got back.

Sharon had grilled two chicken halves today before we left for the pool so all she had to do was reheat it when we got home.  She fried up potatoes for me and made a salad for herself and we both ate cauliflower.  It was quite the concoction we had tonight.  And it was worth the bother even though we only ate a small portion of the chicken.  We’ll have the remainder for Chicken Salad and Pot Pies, etc.

Thursday is a good night for TV and we settled in front of the tube for the night.  Besides Sharon didn’t have any puzzles and she lost her book God only knows where.  So we sat and were entertained until the bewitching hour and then we headed for the rack.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Sharon slept late this morning so I got started on today’s project a little late.  I had intended to change the oil on the motorhome.  I wanted to get started before the walking traffic started past the motorhome.  It’s against the rules to change oil in the park but with all the rest of the rules that are broken in this park, I wanted to pick and choose which ones I break.

It took me about an hour and a half, taking special care to avoid being detected, so I didn’t cause myself any undue trouble.  I finally got finished up without a hitch and now we’re ready to go home with new oil in the buggy.

We needed to take a grocery trip today and left just before noon so we could stop and get some fish for lunch.  We had planned on going to Carl’s Jr. And then go on to finish our shopping trip but we were looking for a restaurant in the Cathedral City area and the GPS took us in the wrong direction.  I got disgusted so we just continued on to Wal-Mart.

It took us about an hour to finish up the grocery shopping and get back out to the car.  Sharon turned on the GPS and it took us back to the Carl’s Jr. that we missed before.  It got us close enough this time so that we could see the restaurant, so we just drove over accordingly.  Sometimes I think Jill takes us deliberately in the wrong direction.

We finally managed to get our fish for lunch and it was quite good.  When we got here in Desert Hot Springs we discovered the fish sandwich from Carl’s was very good so we’ve had it a few times

By the time we got back home it was time for the pool.  We went over and the water in the pool was too warm.  Everybody there was complaining since the temperature outside was warm also today.  We did stay until later on today but we didn’t even hit the hot tub today.  Generally you want to hit the hot tub just to warm up for the walk home.

Sharon whipped us up a Chicken melt sandwich for supper tonight, with the leftover chicken she grilled the other day.  We also had some potatoes in the fridge that she heated up for me.  The sandwich was on the specialty bread we picked up at Wal-Mart, and it was quite good indeed.  It was an experiment that turned out great.

Tonight we had absolutely nothing on TV.  With March Madness on CBS and nothing on the off channels except Fringe, we decided to watch a movie instead.  I had The Matrix recorded and we watched that for 2 and a half hours tonight.  It was a pretty good movie if you like Sciences fiction, and I’m generally a fan.

The movie took us right up to the time reserved to call it a night.  We went to bed like good little kids, without water and without having to go to the bathroom twice.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

We were off this morning to our usual Saturday morning Breakfast at Two Springs RV Resort.  The food was excellent as usual and we walked out happily satisfied again.  We also found out that there will only be one more Breakfast before they call it quits for the year.

After Breakfast we stopped at home for a brief respite before we headed off to the College of the Desert Flea Market in Rancho Mirage.  The last time we were there I didn’t finish the market but I was convinced that I could have, if I had more time.  It was very crowded today and we started at the beginning and getting through a couple of rows, I realized that there was nothing there that I was even remotely interested in.  I didn’t make the grade today either.  I guess I just got disgusted and really didn’t have much incentive to keep going.  The weather was actually quite hot today also which really didn’t bother me that much.  Sharon was affected by the heat more than I was,  and she stayed with me for a couple of rows and then took off on her own.  Which was fine with me since I needed to stop more often and sit and rest my back and leg.  And besides I didn’t want to hold her back from finishing the market.

I finally got disappointed enough and I called Sharon and headed for the shuttle for a ride back to the car.  I waited for an interminable amount of time until Sharon arrived at the shuttle stop.  At that point I was disgusted enough to just walk back to the car, and to hell with the pain.

We both arrived at the car at the exact same time and the anger had alleviated the pain of walking the distance.  I did stop a couple of times to rest on the way however, but I only found one place to sit on the way.  It must have been 3/4 mile back to the car and I was “spent” by the time I got there.   It was a good thing we just sat and rode in air conditioning on the way home.

We got back early in the afternoon and just sat down for awhile.  We actually took a nap before the rest was over with.  By the time Sharon awoke it was after 3 and I had lost interest in going to the pool anyway.  Missing the pool for one day is not that earthshaking.

Sharon took off for church this afternoon and I put together the Taco Loaf that we would be having for supper.  By the time she got home all we had to do was throw it in the oven to melt the cheese on top.  Although we had some left over we only used a half a loaf of bread initially.  It was quite good as always.

We had a wind warning tonight but it didn’t affect the dish at all tonight.  Probably because the wind didn’t start til after we went to bed.  We actually had enough to watch to get us to 11 tonight, even though Saturday is a lousy night for TV.  We were ready for bed when we finally went there. I was sleeping almost as soon as I hit the pillow.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

We got up this morning and Sharon had a brilliant idea.  She suggested using up the remaining Elk Breakfast Sausage by making Egg, Sausage and Cheese McMuffins for both of us.  We would also check out the Hash Browns that we got from Jo-Anne Bertamini before they left the area and headed toward home in Alberta.  Everything turned out just great and I think that our hash brown problem has been solved with the new product.  We always had a problem getting them turn out like the restaurant kind.  These looked perfect and tasted just like the ones we get in the restaurant.

After Breakfast, Sharon went and got her Sunday paper to read for the day.  She usually purchases the paper out of the vending machine in the park, but lately it’s become a slot machine, by taking her money and not giving anything back.  So today she drove over to the corner store to purchase one.  She was back in a flash since it’s only 2 blocks away.

We sat around and read the paper for a couple of hours before we headed out for the pool.  The rumor in the pool was that 37 rigs left the park today and by the indications of the number of people in the pool that number was probably right.  This is the time of year that the exodus north takes place. The Canadians are starting to head home and the parks are starting to look deserted.  The pool water was a little cooler today and it felt very good for a change, and not too warm.

Sharon spent some of the afternoon before we went to the pool making the insides of a Chicken Pot Pie.  When we got back she put everything together and flung it in the oven. She made it in a 10 X 10 glass dish and we ate at least 3/4 of it before we stopped gorging ourselves.  We walked away from the table with our eyes bulging out.

Sitting to watch the tube tonight almost made my eyes jam shut, but surfing to find programming kept me awake.  We only stayed up until 10 tonight having not found much that we were interested in on the Telly.  The March Madness takes a whole network out of programming for the whole day.  I wish I was interested in the B-Ball.