Monday, December 26, 2011

This Monday started out as a regular “move day” but it sure didn’t finish up as one.  First of all, as we were leaving Casa Grande, the car disconnected from the motorhome.  For some reason we lost the clip that holds the pin in the hitch that fits into the receiver.  It pulled out and the only thing holding the car was the safety cables.  When I noticed what was happening I slowed the motorhome down to catch the car and brought every thing to a halt on the side of the road.  The only damage appeared to be to the towbar and the new paint job on the motorhome.  Damn.

The RV store in Casa Grande was closed so we decided to drive to quartzsite disconnected. We finally arrived at about noon and drove into town.  We needed to find the missing parts for the towbar and repair parts for the wiring harness.  We managed to find them without much difficulty.

After returning to the motorhome it took about an hour to repair the repairable damage.  At least we thought we’d be ready to leave tomorrow.

For Supper tonight we went to Silly Al’s Pizza downtown.  We’ve made that a regular stop for years as we drive through quartzsite.  And the pizza is really good.  I even scarfed a pitcher of beer with Sharon even though she was drinking most of the beer.

We came back to the motorhome after supper and fired up the generator to watch TV for the night.  Another plan shot to hell.  After starting the generator we figured out it wasn’t putting out any electricity.  We checked all the Breakers and it still wasn’t working.  We gave up on it and just watched TV on our batteries for the night.  We wanted to save the batteries for the furnace but as it turned out the furnace had plenty of power for the night.  It was still running strong in the morning.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

We decided this morning to go out for Breakfast before leaving for California.  We settled on Sweet Darlene’s since we had never eaten there before.  We had sliced ham and scrambled eggs along with hash browns and toast.  It was okay even though I was looking for an omelette on the menu.

We got back to the motorhome and hooked up and got ready to go.  As we took off I realized that the towbar wasn’t locking on one side.  We stopped by the side of the road and after a fashion we got that taken care of and then drove to the LP Gas place.

When we got there, the guy that was filling tanks said he couldn’t fill our tank because the hose was leaking and it was my fitting that was causing the problem.  Just in the nick of time a lady stepped out of the office and saw our problem.  We were missing a rubber washer inside my fitting.  She said she could sell us the washer, and that fixed our problem.  What else is going to happen today????

We also stopped at the gas station before we left town since it was going to be as cheap here as anywhere in California.  No problems there. Hallelujah.

From there we were on the road again only stopping at the Little Sisters Truck Wash for a hose down. $53.00 later we were headed toward our campground in Desert Hot Springs.

We checked in about 1 PM and found a good site seeing the place was almost empty. We got everything hooked up and I settled down with the computer after Sharon checked her newspaper and Facebook page.

Later on, we decided to go to the pool where we could soak our sore bodies in hot water.  We saw Daphne Garrett at the pool and discussed all the problems with the campground and the surrounding resorts, and with the world for that matter.

When we came home Sharon decided we would Patty Melts for Supper.  We also had Sour Cream and Onion Chips to go along with it.  The Patty Melts were made on thick Garlic Bread, and were absolutely delicious.

We also made a couple of phone calls tonight.  One to Phil and Joyce Bach and another to Terry and Jo-Ann Bertamini.  While talking to Phil I asked them if they were going to “Taco Wednesday” at the VFW and they said they would meet us there.

We were in full “record mode” with the DVR so we had plenty to watch tonight for a change.  We only lasted until 10 though, before we decided to call it a night.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

I finished up the Newsletter this morning and attempted to send it out but I had a real problem.  Apparently the file was too large for some of the mail delivery systems and it didn’t go through.  I’ve had this problem before so I just removed the pictures and sent it again.  All the stories are still there but they’re not backed up with pictures.  If it isn’t one thing it’s another.

Sharon took off on a walk this morning and afterwards stopped and got a paper.  She likes to keep up on local stuff, and I could care less.

At noon we were ready to go to the VFW for our usual Taco Wednesday.  It wasn’t really crowded when we got there, but Phil and Joyce were already there waiting for us.  We sat and ate and I even indulged in drinking beer for a change.  We were there for about an hour and a half before we left and came back to Catalina for a “swim” in the pool.

While we were still home, Sharon talked to Jessica who said they were celebrating our Grandson Max’s Birthday today.  So we decided to sing our “Happy Birthday” to him on the phone.  He laughed, and Stella sang along with us.

And then, off we were to the pool.  The pool area was crowded but thee wasn’t that many people in the pool.  A lot were in the hot tub but not many in the pool.  We were there for a couple of hours before we left and came home.  Phil and Joyce stopped over and we had a drink before they headed for home to Thousand Trails.

Neither of us was really hungry for supper tonight so we just snacked instead.  We camped out in front of the TV and watched repeats all night.  Although we did have some American Pickers recorded that we caught up on tonight. But for the most part it took some doing to finally get to 10 o’clock and the nite, nite hour.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Sharon was off on her walk this morning as soon as she got up.  It looked like it was going to be a bright sunshiny day all day today.

I needed to print the remaining Newsletters this morning so I could get them out in the next day or so.  I was also anxious to see if the printer remained fixed from a repair that I did on it at home.  And as luck would have it, it was working fine all the way through the printing.  Although I did get into somewhat of a panic when I couldn’t find the paper for the printer.  In the end, I got all my sh__  together and printed the Newsletters.  After I got everything all disconnected and shut down I realized that I forgot the labels.  So I still have them to do.

By now, it was lunchtime and we settled in for some Bratwurst and Pizza.  I had the Brat and Sharon had the pizza.

After lunch I needed to make some adjustments to our utility hookups and I went outside and took care of that.  Sometimes when you’re in a hurry just to get settled, and

get everything up and running it isn’t always the way you want it to remain for two weeks.  So I quickly made the adjustments and moved on.

We found a couple of shows to watch on the Telly this afternoon and we were late arriving at the pool.  But actually if you get there before they drain the pool, I would say that’s on time.  We were still over there for a couple of hours and of course, a reasonable soak in the hot tub was also in order.

It was already about 5 by the time we got back home, and Sharon had the beef for her planned Beef Stroganoff in the crock pot since early this morning.  She still had to whip up the sauce and the noodles.  It didn’t take her very long and we sat down to Supper by about 5:30.  It was quite tasty indeed.

We planted ourselves in front of the TV for the night and with the programs that the DVR had captured, we had plenty to watch to take us to 10:30.  All the programming is repeats for this time of the year.  But when you expect it, it’s not that discouraging.  We’ll just muck about until our regular shows return for the year.

Friday, December 30, 2011

We awoke with a plan this morning as Sharon took off on her walk up to the corner and around the campground.  Her plan didn’t include me however, and when she got back from her walk she took off for the grocery store.

Phil was supposed to call us this morning and let us know when to meet them at the Pak Inn for lunch.  The Pak Inn is our regular Chinese Restaurant that we usually hit at least a couple of times while we’re here in Desert Hot Springs.

At around I got a phone call from Phil setting up 12:30 as the meet time, so I gave Sharon a call on her phone and let her know.  She was fine with the time and returned home about noon in plenty of time to get to the restaurant.

By the time we got to the restaurant, Phil and Joyce, along with Irv and Linda and Terry were already there.  The other three were long-time friends of Phil and Joyce who we were acquainted with.

After the restaurant we headed over to Outdoor Resorts where our friends Terry and Jo-Ann Bertamini are in residence.  We knew that their son Todd and his wife Lori and kids were there visiting for a few days.  Todd and Lori’s house is where we parked the motorhome while we attended the Calgary Stampede in 2010.  We stayed and visited for a couple of hours and then we came back home.

We were really too late for the pool by the time we got back so we just camped out in the motorhome for the night.

Neither us was hungry for Supper after having eaten a late lunch today so we just snacked for the night.  The TV was offering repeats for the night so we didn’t have much choice in our TV programming.  We did have a couple of American Pickers episodes taped that were repeats but we always enjoy watching them.  After Sharon went to bed I caught a little bit of Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson.  I could however feel my eyes failing so I headed into the padded room.

Saturday, December 31, 2011NEW YEAR’S EVE

Sharon had a plan and so did I this morning.  She was off on her walk while I just waited behind.  After her walk she decided she was going to the swap sale in the campground this morning.  The only things she bought were a couple of paperback books, so there must not have been much up there at the clubhouse.

We then just sat around until lunchtime when I whipped up some Hot Dogs and chips for our midday repast.  Sharon just sat and watched me get it all ready just to see if I could do it.

After lunch we stopped over at Corky and Deb Zimmermann’s for a couple of hours.  We had to straighten out some gossip we had heard about friends Jack and Roseann Derlein from Wisconsin.  I guess the stories of them not coming out this year are true.  They got as far as Mesa, AZ and found a great deal on a campground.  We stayed at Corky and Deb’s long enough so that by the time we got back home it was too late for the pool  today.  This was two days in a row that we missed, and people are going to start wondering what happened to us.

We had planned to have the other half of our Cornish Game Hen Dinner that we had on Christmas Eve tonight.  Sharon defrosted it from the freezer and jammed it in the oven for a very lovely New Year’s Eve Dinner.  We even had a couple of Old Fashioneds to chase those birds into our stomachs. Dinner turned out to be a very appropriate second round for a Dinner that was absolutely delicious the first time we had it.  After dishes we found ourselves in front of our usual repeat programming for the night.  But this time we pitched a change-up as we watched a movie called Training Day instead.  It was quite a depressing movie about a corrupt cop who gets killed by the Russian Mafia in the end of the movie.  But it did succeed in taking us all the way to 10 o’clock and bedtime.  We only missed midnight by two hours.

Sunday, January 1, 2012HAPPY NEW YEAR

We woke up this morning bright eyed and bushy tailed.  It’s the same feeling that we’ve gotten over the past few years, not having to celebrate New Years at 12:01 in the morning.

Today looked like it was going to be another excellent weather day.  According to the National Weather Service the temps should be in the middle 70's for the rest of the week.  We have no complaint about that.

Sharon was off to church early this morning so I asked her to stop at the Chinese Bakery to pick up Bear Claws on her way home.  She had planned on picking up a few groceries anyway so the bakery is just next door.

While she was gone I searched our programming on DirecTV to see if they had changed the schedule to include the Packer game.  I couldn’t find it anywhere, but on the way home Sharon found it on Sirius Radio.  She gave me the report of who was playing and who wasn’t, and we had to watch another game on TV so we could get the updated score on the game.  We’ve managed to see every game this year except for two and we caught one of them at Dennis and Mary Ceshker’s in Mesa a couple of weeks ago.

We watched TV until the Packer game was over with, and got the winning score, and then we took off for the pool.  There was quite a few people there by the time we got there.  Hardly anybody we knew, but a few people showed up after awhile who we were acquainted with. We stayed until about 4:30 before we came back home.

Sharon decided to have BBQued Chicken Wings for Supper tonight.  Before we went to the pool she asked me if I thought they would be okay if she cooked them in the Crock Pot.  I said, “that  sounded like a “no fuss, no muss” way to get them done.”  And later on, when we ate them, it turned out to be a fabulous way to cook them.  The meat was so tender it was almost falling off the bone when we ate them.

After Supper we camped in front of the Telly and watched a couple of repeats before we settled on a movie on the DVR.  The movie was called “Reindeer Games” starring Ben Affleck and Gary Sinise.  We didn’t realize that the movie was “set” in the UP of Michigan.  The last couple of movies that we’ve seen have been rather strange to say the least.

We stayed up long enough tonight to see the end of the movie, but not much after that.  The Sandman was fighting to slam our eyes shut and we just let him have his way.