Monday, January 16, 2017

We got up this morning with a full day on our agenda.  We started it off with a good Breakfast at the Cottage too.  We picked up Henry and Arlene on the way and to our surprise they were waiting out on Dillon Road for us.  They had walked the two blocks from their campground out to the road.  We could have scooped them up without even stopping.

We all had a nourishing Breakfast in a half-full restaurant.  It was the first time this year that the restaurant was only about half full.  But the waitresses were still rushing around like busy little Beavers.  Our food was very good, as usual.

After we left the restaurant we stopped by the Post Office only to remember that it was Martin Luther King Day today and the Post Office was closed.  We mailed one of the pieces of mail in the outside drop box and then moved on.

After we got back home we sat around for awhile before we went to the pool.  We had invited Phil and Joyce and Henry and Arlene over to have a dip in the pool this afternoon and then to stop by for a little cocktail hour.  At one thirty we went to the pool for the afternoon.  Phil and Joyce showed up a few minutes later and we soaked in the pool and the hot tub until about 3:30. 

Henry and Arlene opted out of the pool but we called them later and they came over for the cocktail hour.  We sat outside until it started getting dark and then the wind picked up a little and it started getting a little nippy outside.  We moved the party inside

and it was much more comfortable.  It gets cold here after the sun goes down at dusk.  The party broke up around 6 and we all went our separate ways.

By this time we had a bunch of stuff recorded on the DVR and we got about watching it.  Sharon called it quits early tonight....again.  I was napping in my chair during the boring parts of our shows tonight, but I hung in there until 10:30 before I actually went to “bed” to sleep. 

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

We awoke to a very nice sunshiny day today even though the morning was a little nippy.  We had decided a couple of days ago that we were ready for Chinese again today.  The six of us, Phil and Joyce, Henry and Arlene and Sharon and I would be taking a little trip down the road to the Hibachi Grill to have lunch today.

We picked up Henry and Arlene and headed out for the restaurant about 12:30 and we would meet Phil and Joyce at the restaurant.  It’s a shame that none of our cars will fit 6 people comfortably because Phil and Joyce are at Catalina Spa about a half mile down the road.  We do enough together that it’s a pain in the ass to have to take two cars all the time.

In any event, the restaurant was not as busy as it was the last time we were here.  But the food was very good as it usually is.

We left the restaurant and headed over to Harbor Freight on Date Palm Rd.  I needed a couple of tools and figured I could pick them up over there.  It was the smallest Harbor Freight that I’ve ever been in.  It wasn’t that the store was small, it’s that usually Harbor Freight is overloaded with items and crowded in that manner.  This store had plenty of room between the aisles even though there were many items on the shelves and bins.  I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, and left the store empty-handed.  Henry found a small wire cutter that he picked up.

On the way, home we found a tremendous amount of traffic on Varner Rd.  We didn’t know what the occasion was, but it was very busy.

Chinese food, as a general rule, goes immediately to my eyes, and today was no exception.  We got back home, and I settled into my recliner and it wasn’t long before my eyes slammed shut.  When I woke up I found my “travel partner” was nowhere to be seen.  That is of course until I looked into the bedroom.  She was suffering from “Chinese eyes” also.

We were both up in time to settled in front of the TV for the night.  We had a few shows to watch that were our regulars and that carried us to bedtime.  We finally gave it up at 10:30.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Another sunshiny day today and we had a plan to take advantage of it, even though it was to go to the VFW today for Taco Wednesday.  According to the weather report the sunshiny weather will end tomorrow for a couple of days.  It looks like we’ll be traveling Friday in the rain.

But today we left home about 12:50 and picked up Henry and Arlene waiting on the road and headed out for the club.  The parking lot was overflowing but surprisingly the VFW was not.  It’s usually crowded, without places to sit, at this time of the year.  But we came in and Phil and Joyce were already there and seated with open chairs all around them.  This was an unusual situation.  We didn’t have a clue why the place was so empty but it was only good for us having a place to sit ourselves down.

We ate early today but we still had our usual amount of beer before we left for the week.  Actually none of us will be here next week.  Phil and Joyce are headed home next Tuesday, Henry and Arlene are going to be in Annaheim for a hockey game, and we’ll be in Yuma for the week.  The LeDucs and us will be back the week after.  Phil and Joyce will be back in March.

After lunch, we all headed back home for the day.  I don’t know what everybody else did, but Sharon and I settled in for a little nap.  Me in front of the TV and Sharon camped out in bed.

There would be no Supper tonight except the usual Double Decker PB & J sandwich later on.

We settled in front of the TV for the night with some of our regular shows on tonight.  There was another awards show on tonight but we don’t usually watch that crap.  A bunch of Liberals patting themselves on the back is not my cup of tea.  Nor is their political commentary.  We watched Alaskan Bush People instead.

Sharons been suffering with a cold for the last few days and today was no different.  Even though she tried to kill it with beer it didn’t work.  So she took her disease infested body to bed early again tonight.  I stayed up for a couple more hours since I didn’t want to catch what she was carrying around.  I finally gave it all up about 10:30 and ambled into bed with the “cold carrier.”

Thursday, January 19, 2017

We got a text early today from Tom and Barb Gauthier from home asking us how things were going.  I guess they wanted to know how things were going in the states because they’re in Mexico at the present time.  We were both having a good time.

We were up and off this morning to have Breakfast with friends from Lethbridge, Alberta.  Driving into Desert Hot Springs this morning was a trip.  It was raining and  water was flowing down the street affecting the 2 outside lanes of traffic, all the way through town.

Terry and JoAnne Bertamini were back in town after having gone home for the Christmas Season.  We met them at the Cottage Too Restaurant in Desert Hot Springs at 9 and had Breakfast with them.  We knew it was going to be a long affair because Terry loves to stay and drink coffee for awhile after eating.  It was actually okay this morning as we left the restaurant at about 10:30 and headed for Walgreen’s.  It was nice to see them again, and catch up over the last year.

Sharon has been sick with a cold over the last few days which means I’ll probably get it in time.  We had to stop and pick up about $20 worth of OTC medicine to get her healthy again.  Usually when we get these colds they turn out to be allergies and they stick with us for weeks.  Sharon is convinced however, that this is a regular cold so maybe she can get rid of it.

On the way home it started raining a little harder and the cars that were traveling in the outside lanes of the road were causing “rooster tails” that were traveling all the way across the opposite lanes of traffic.  It was a mess but there’s nowhere for the water to go.  In any event, we made it back home safely and with the underside of our car clean as a whistle.

Sharon took her medicine and then planted herself into bed for the rest of the morning.  She got up just after lunch feeling a little better but looking pretty good.  She went back to bed a little later, but was up in time for Supper tonight, even though we would be fending for ourselves for something to eat.

I called Phil and Joyce earlier to let them know we’d pick them up for Card Bingo    tonight at Catalina Spa.  We were lucky again tonight as Joyce won a big pot ($10) and I won one too, along with splitting a small pot. ($2.50) There were a few more people there tonight than last week.  It usually gets bigger as the weeks go on.

We finished up early tonight and we were back home again by 8:30.  We watched a little TV before we headed for the feathers to end the day.  It was about 10:30 when the lights finally went out.

Friday, January 20, 2017

We were off this morning on our trip to Yuma for this next week.  We got a late start because we started late and had to stop for gas Flying J in Thousand Palms before we got on the road.  Gas was $2.46 there but it was the cheapest in the valley.  We’re only getting enough to get us to Yuma cause gas there is $2.01.  We’ll fill up there which will get us back to DHS and then back to Quartzsite, without filling up again.

We decided to take the route that goes East of the Salton Sea since its more scenic.  We’ll probably take the other side on the way back.  We’ll see.

The rest of our trip was uneventful except for missing the highway sign and having to drive through Brawley.  Which was not much of a problem and we got to see the town again since we haven’t been here in a few years.  It didn’t hold us up any and we still arrived in Yuma about 2:30.  4 Hours from Desert Hot Springs is about normal for the trip.

We were supposed to out for Dinner tonight with Clay Nye so we called him when we got into town.  Sharon wasn’t feeling well and we decided that we’d make it another day.  Clay had knee replacement surgery this week and his rehab didn’t go as planned, so he wasn’t feeling up to going either.

We got set up in the campground without much hassle and settled in front of the TV.  The wind had been blowing here all day but it didn’t seem to be bothering the dish at all.  If it decides to keep blowing, I hope it stays in the same direction.

We watched what was left of Inauguration Day today and then got to watching a couple of our favorites.  Sharon went to bed early, but was back up again before I went to bed.  So she followed me at 10:30 and managed to stay there all night.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

The wind was blowing this morning again much to our dismay.  We planned to go to the Flea Market today and we knew it was going to be cold over there if the wind was blowing.  We got a late start but it really didn’t matter.  It was going to be open until late this afternoon.

We managed to find a great parking place as soon as we arrived.  The place was very crowded and we were only looking for a few things anyway.  One of the things was an 8 X 20 vinyl mat for our daughter Jennifer’s deck. We manage to find quite a few but they were mostly the wrong size or the wrong color.  We sent her pictures of the ones we found and she finally settled on one.  Of course, by that time, we forgot where we had found it so we had to go back and look for it.

We stopped at the Food Court for a Burger but the wind was blowing so hard it made it miserable to sit there and eat.  There was a troupe of Mexican teens that were dancing at the Food Court all the time we were there.  The music and the dancing were great but it was much too cold to enjoy for any amount of time.

We did find the perfect double-recliner for the motorhome while we were at the Flea Market.  We found out that the manufacturer is located in Indiana with outlets in Michigan.  If we decide to keep this coach we’ll have to make some decisions next Summer.

We came back home and we were pooped out for sure.  I think Sharon was exhausted because of her cold and I was just tired of being in the cold wind.

We stopped at Fry’s on the way home to pick up a few grocery items but mainly to check and see how easy it was to get into their gas station.  The fuel price there is 15 cents a gallon cheaper than anywhere else.  I’m sure it won’t last but if its cheaper on our travel day we’ll make every effort to stop over there and get our fuel.  It should be our last fill-up until we get back into Arizona.

We picked up Fried Chicken at Fry’s while we were there, so that’s what we had for Supper tonight.  We also picked up a couple of salads that we ate along with the   chicken.  The chicken was very tasty.  I could take or leave the salads.

After Supper we checked into the theater and camped out in front of the TV for the night.  It was, by far, the lousiest night for TV since we’ve been on the road. We had some stuff recorded on the DVR and we watched that for most of the night.  It did take us to the time we caved for the night at 10:30.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

I was watching my Sunday morning political shows this morning when Sharon made her appearance.  We were planning on going to Golden Corral this morning to partake in the Breakfast Buffet.

We were off to Golden Corral this morning for their Breakfast Buffet but we didn’t count on being late.  We were there by 10:30 but they were already putting out the food for the Lunch Buffet.  Damn, I love this Buffet, but I don’t do lunch.  We stayed anyway and we did find enough to eat.  But none-the-less we were disappointed that we didn’t make it in time for the Breakfast.  They only have it here on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we won’t be here for next week’s buffet.

We came back home after our “Breakfast” fiasco this morning.  We were back in time to catch the Packer game against the Falcons.  Sportscasters called the game a torching of the Packers.  I think personally that was a kind assessment of what actually happened.  The Packers defense didn’t show up all afternoon.  Although the offense played pretty well, it’s hard to win when the other team scores almost every time they touch the ball.  Unfortunately for the Steelers they played against the Patriots and the results were just as dismal.  Steeler and Packer fans did not have a good day today.

Sharon made up a batch of Country Ribs in the Crock Pot, tonight.  He had them cooking ever since we left for town this morning to have Breakfast.  She also fried up some potatoes and we had those along with the leftover salads that we had picked up with our Fried Chicken the other day.

I think I picked up Sharon’s cold cause I was feeling miserable today.  We usually get colds at the same time which is not fun for either of us.  She’s had hers for a few days so it’s not a surprise that I will get it now.

We sat up and watched TV for awhile tonight before I decided that I was headed for bed early.  I could hardly keep my eyes open so I resigned my chair in the ideal TV watching spot and went for the feathers.