Year 3 Week 28

December 24 to 30, 2006

Aguanga back to Palm Springs / Desert Hot Springs, California

Year 3 week 28

 

Sunday ; Another gorgeous day in the high desert of Southern California.

Christmas Eve is always a difficult day for me, since my father died on Christmas Eve. And I look at my very special airplane Christmas ornament, given to me by my mother-in-law the year I got my pilot’s license, and I miss her.

As a result of our full time traveling lifestyle, we have discarded some old family traditions ( waffles for breakfast on Christmas morning ... my family's tradition ), retained some old family traditions ( French Canadian tourtière for dinner on Christmas Eve ... Joanne's family's tradition ) and developed some new traditions of our own ( lounging around the pool and hot tub on Christmas Eve and / or Christmas Day ).

This morning we searched out the 4 new members of our Christmas dinner table, and advised them of our meeting at 7:00 P.M. to finalize who’s contributing what. Unwillingly, and by default, Joanne and I have become the “host and hostess” of our Christmas dinner table, a role we believe rightfully belongs to a permanent resident of the park. But since all the self centered park residents filled up all the Christmas dinner tables with their little cliques, us “outsiders” are going to have to fend for ourselves. It’s going to be just fine. We now have a total of 9 people at our Christmas dinner table, all “late arrivals” to the park. Us, our friend Julie who is arriving from Phoenix tomorrow, a couple from Washington, a couple from New York, and a mother / daughter duo from .... I don’t know. Their license plate says Texas, but Texas is a “residence of convenience” for many traveling Escapees.

We spent much of the afternoon in the hot tub. AHHHHH ! It sure is nice to float around a 105 degree hot tub on a warm, sunny Christmas Eve, and let somebody else worry about balancing the chemicals, cleaning it, etc.. I enjoyed having a swimming pool and hot tub in our last home, but they were a lot of work to maintain.

As I took Bo for an obedience session as the sun set, Joanne prepared tourtière for supper. With the exception of my K & N turbo-diesel high performance air intake system, our very few gifts are wrapped and under the tree. Our traveling lifestyle is conducive to a very minimalist Christmas. And we enjoy the loss of chaos that came with Christmas in our previous “brick and stick” lifestyle. Shopping, decorating, the strain of running multiple retail businesses, which included, as I recall, unloading a truck in the freezing rain on Christmas Eve one year. Bah, humbug to that !

As we were leaving Winnipeg in September, Joanne's sister Lorraine gave us a 2 CD set called A Prairie Home Christmas. Thank you, Lorri. We listened to disc 1 yesterday, and disc 2 today while having dinner. It's an old fashioned radio program, somewhat reminiscent of Stuart Maclean's Vinyl Café on CBC Radio.

After dinner, and listening to the CD, we went down to the clubhouse for our Christmas dinner planning meeting. Afterwards, I gave Bo a bath.

Peace on earth, and goodwill towards men !

 

Monday ; MERRY CHRISTMAS

Today was sunny and hot. Perfect Christmas weather ! HA HA HA ! Dreaming of a white Christmas ? I don't think so !

First thing this morning Joanne put the turkey in the oven. I prepared a pancake brunch. We were going to open gifts right after brunch, then head for the pool and hot tub. But first we had to phone my sister. Then we had to phone Joanne's sister and her family. We were going to open gifts, then head for the pool and hot tub right after our phone calls. But then our friend Julie showed up from Phoenix. And before you knew it, the turkey was cooked and ready to be carved, then it was time to head to Friendship Hall, this Southern California RV park's name for its clubhouse < rolling eyes > for Christmas dinner at 2:00 P.M.. Darn ... we hadn't yet opened gifts, or gone to the pool and hot tub.

Our Christmas dinner table included 12 people. The last 2 were a park resident couple who waited until sometime this morning to sign up for Christmas dinner < gritting teeth >. All in all, it was a good dinner, but the layout of the table made it impossible to converse with the people on the opposite side of the table. And ... somewhat in accordance with what we've seen to be an American habit, people ate and ran, some leaving by 2:45 P.M.. We returned to our trailer with Julie, and visited with her until early evening.

After she left to go park her rig in the boondock area, we finally got around to opening gifts. Well, actually, the only one who had any gifts to open was Bo. My gift to myself wastoo big to wrap. Joanne's gift to herself was wrapped, but < shrugging > there's not much thrill in unwrapping a gift that you've bought for yourself and wrapped for yourself. And Teddy had no wrapped gifts. Just a couple of packets of semi-soft food. And Teddy's not very good at unwrapping. Unlike Bo, who really gets into it !

So ... we didn't unwrap gifts until pretty late in the day, and we never did make it to the pool and hot tub. But it sure was great seeing Julie again, and sharing Christmas Day with her.

 

Tuesday ; Aguanga to Julian, California & return

Today was another sunny, warm day.

It was our intention to leave this morning at 10:00 A.M. for a day trip to the tourist town of Julian, about 42 miles away. But we had 2 delays that resulted in us not leaving until about 11:30 A.M.. First, our friend Julie wanted to be assigned a serviced campsite, and move from boondock to a serviced site. She went to the office when it opened at 8:30 A.M., but the office wasn't able to assign a site to her immediately. She finally got a site, moved to it, and was at our site by 10:20 A.M., ready to depart for our day trip outing. But about 10:00 A.M. two members of the park's maintenance committee showed up at our site to replace the water standpipe that I knocked over when we arrived. Joanne suggested that it would be appropriate for me to assist them with the work, so I changed into work clothes, and joined them. We dug down to where the pipe had broken off, then dug a trench to relocate the standpipe about 10 feet further back, removing it from risk of being hit again by somebody backing a trailer into the site. We cut pipe, glued and assembled it, reinstalled the pole and the plumbing, and backfilled. Good job, but hard work, and we weren't finished until about 11:30 A.M..

I washed up and changed clothes, and we departed for Julian. We stopped at the Post Office in Aguanga so Julie could pick up her mail, then headed southeast on Hwy. 79 for 35 miles to the town of Santa Ysabel. We stopped in Santa Ysabel to look a bakery / pie store. Santa Ysabel and Julian are noted for their pies. Seven more miles east on Hwy. 78 and we were in Julian, 4200 feet up the base of Volcan Mountain, a small tourist town with restored heritage buildings filled with touristy clothing shops, antique stores, restaurants, and bakeries / pie stores.

We walked around town briefly, then had a nice lunch in a bakery / pie store / café. Afterwards it was a long ( too long for me ) afternoon of wandering around this quaint little village, browsing in gift and clothing stores. Joanne bought some apple cider, and a hooded sweater. She saw the same style of hooded sweater at VillageFest in Palm Springs, and considered buying it for herself for Christmas, but was undecided. When she saw it in Julian, cheaper than in Palm Springs, she bought it. And just before we left town, I bought a pie, having compared flavours and prices during the day. When I finally returned to the restaurant where we had lunch, to buy a pie, it was near closing, and they had just marked the price down to half price, as "day old" pies. Bonus !

It turned dark as we drove back to Aguanga, about an hour trip. The mountain road was narrow, winding, and descending for most of the trip. And no matter how fast I drove, it wasn't fast enough for the locals. I had a lineup of cars behind me most of the time, and no good opportunities to let them pass. Occasionally a car would pass me, finding a variety of Southern California ways to express their displeasure with me. It's one of the things I find most distasteful about Southern California. Rude, impatient, obnoxious, and often dangerous drivers ... everywhere !

 

Wednesday ; Today was cool, windy, and partially cloudy. It rained overnight.

We had a lazy morning, listening to the first CD of A Prairie Home Companion, a taped live radio show. It was a Christmas gift from Joanne's sister Lorraine, along with its companion album which we already listened to, A Prairie Home Christmas. Just before noon Joanne headed off with Bo to invite Julie and her dog Tansy to go to the park's dog run area. I napped.

After taking Bo and Tansy to the dog run area, Joanne and Julie returned to our trailer. Julie had lunch and dinner with us. We had an enjoyable long day of visiting with her. Joanne prepared a wild rice casserole for supper, to introduce Julie to a dish that was truly "Canadian cuisine", although it didn't turn out quite as well as past efforts. Joanne attributed it to the "cheap" cracked kernel wild rice that we bought last summer, instead of the more expensive whole kernel wild rice that we usually buy. Dessert was yesterday's "day old" apple pie. Very nice !

It was great having an opportunity to visit with Julie over the last few days.

 

Thursday ; Aguanga to Palm Springs / Desert Hot Springs

Today was sunny, mild, and extremely windy.

It was our plan to return to the Palm Springs area today the same way we had come, over the mountains. But 2 things caused us to change our plans. First, the weather forecast was issuing wind warnings for the roads in the mountain passes. Secondly, we didn't have enough fuel to make it back to Palm Springs without buying some diesel, and there's nowhere to buy diesel on the route over the mountains. So we had to head in the wrong direction, back to Temecula, and since we were at the Interstate there, we took the much longer route on the Interstates around the mountains.

From Jojoba Hills at Aguanga we drove west on Hwy. 79 to Temecula. We weren't desperate for diesel yet, and I didn't like the price of diesel in Temecula, so we headed north on Interstate 15 without buying diesel. We branched off onto Interstate 215 to Riverside. I really needed fuel at Riverside, but again I didn't like the price. I put in just enough diesel to get us to Flying J just past Palm Springs in Thousand Palms. From Riverside we followed Hwy. 60 until it reached Interstate 10, then we followed I-10 east to Palm Springs and beyond to Thousand Palms. We filled up with diesel, and refilled an empty propane tank at Flying J. We back tracked a few miles to Desert Hot Springs, on the north side of Interstate 10, opposite Palm Springs on the south side. We found our way to the RV park Joanne had selected from the Passport America directory, Tamarisk Mobile Home & RV Park. It's a real "trailer trash" dumpy park. But we'll survive the next 5 days here as trailer park white trash. HA HA HA !

Things are in a bit of chaos around Palm Springs, due to the death of former President Gerald Ford in Rancho Mirage, a suburb of Palm Springs. Some roads are going to be closed tomorrow to allow for his funeral procession.

Before having a late supper, we went and sat in the indoor hot tub for an hour. As dumpy as this park is, it has an indoor pool and hot tub.

 

Friday ; Today was sunny, warm, and a bit windy.

This morning we drove into Desert Hot Springs to do some grocery shopping. Tamarisk Mobile Home & RV Park is about 4 miles east of Desert Hot Springs. Guide Dogs Of The Desert was about 6 miles west of Desert Hot Springs, so our distance into town is almost the same from this RV park as it was at GDD. While Joanne went into Vons to buy groceries, I refilled 5 water jugs at a water dispensing machine outside the grocery store, then went into the Dollar Store to buy a few items. We bought lunch at our "Mystery Shop" McDonald's and took it back to the trailer. "Our" McDonald's is still overstaffed but inefficient.

After lunch I napped briefly then began to work on the installation of my K&N Fuel Injection Performance Kit air intake system. The manager at Pep Boys said it would take about an hour to remove the factory air intake system and install the new one. I worked on it for 2½ hours and got about 90% completed. And while reviewing the installation manual afterwards, I discovered that I made a couple of minor errors. So tomorrow morning I have to undo until I can correct my minor errors, then complete the installation. Probably another hour and a half until I'm done. HMPH ... an hour to install ! Yeah, right ... maybe the second and subsequent times installing one of these, but certainly not the first. And only if all the correct tools are right at your fingertips.

After supper we went and sat in the hot tub and pool for an hour or so. I found it very distasteful that 2 women there were filled with glee over the execution today of Saddam Hussein. There are quite a few things we were planning to see and do while we were in this area "working" at Guide Dogs Of The Desert. Tonight we discussed and planned how many of them do we really want to see and do, and how long should we stay in the Palm Springs area. I guess the conclusion was that we should probably stay for the whole month of January.

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny and very warm.

First thing this morning I resumed working on my fuel injection performance kit installation. While I was working on it, all my neighbours came out of their rigs and watched Air Force One taking off from Palm Springs International Airport carrying the casket of former President Gerald Ford. The death of a former president who was a local resident has dominated the news here this week. While I worked on the truck, Joanne phoned about a dozen RV parks, shopping for a place for us to stay for the month of January.

After lunch we drove to her top three choices and looked them over. We chose Sam's Family Spa Hot Water Resort. We're eager to move there on Tuesday. It's really nice. Reminds us of the all inclusive resorts we've stayed at in the Caribbean. It has a large outdoor pool and lounge area, a hot tub, and 4 spa pools fed by underground hot springs. Many hotels and RV parks in this area have spas / pools fed by the many underground hot springs this area of the desert is famous for. Hence the names ; Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs. The landscaping all around the resort is beautiful, and they have a very interesting and active social calendar for the month of January. It’s not cheap, but hey ... after that Guide Dogs Of The Desert fiasco, and the stellar performance of the stock market in 2006, I think we deserve it !

We drove from our current RV park to where the bus picks us up for our day trip to the Rose Parade on Monday, so we would know how long it takes to get there from our RV park. Afterwards we drove to a couple of pool supply stores. While we were at Kofa Ko-op SKP Park in Yuma, Arizona, I was admiring a pool noodle chair that a woman had. She said she bought it at a pool supply store in Palm Springs. I wanted to find one. The first pool supply store that we drove to wasn’t there any more. The second store had exactly what I was looking for. It’s a mesh “chair” that slides onto a regular pool noodle bent into a half circle. We bought 2 of them.

When we returned to our park, we visited briefly with our neighbours, a couple from Tacoma, Washington who have a 10 month old female Bichon Frisé . She’s a real sweety, and reminds us of our previous dog Nikki. The man was interested in what I was installing on my truck yesterday and today. I showed him Lanoire’s new fuel injection performance kit. He drives a < snicker > GMC. Since Dee-Dee, Joanne and I can’t help referring to all GMC trucks as GMC POS ( piece of shit ). HA HA HA ! Oh, yeah ... we can laugh now !

HA HA HA HA HA ... welcome to Palm Springs, California, home of the retired rich and famous. In the same shopping mall as Pool Emporium we found "The Dogie Bag Bistro & Nutrition Center" ( www.dogiebag.com ), a business that prepares "take out" meals for dogs using "people food". Mutty Meat Loaf ( turkey and vegetable loaf ), Chick-n-Paw Pie ( roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots and peas ), Pooched Salmon Supper ( bite sized cuts of Atlantic salmon served over pesto pasta ), Tuna Mutt Casserole ( chunks of "dolphin safe" tuna with egg noodles in a fish broth ). What the hell is dolphin safe tuna ? ! ? Prices range from$5 to $7 per meal. PHHHHHT ... not for my dog !

DSK

Year 3 Week 27

December 17 to 23, 2006

Palm Springs to Aguanga, California

Year 3 week 27

 

Sunday ;

Computer in repair shop.

 

Monday ; Today was sunny, cool, and windy.

I am livid as I type this at 5:30 P.M., and I am ready to tell these people to take their “job” and shove it ! ! ! We have done 3 previous WorkCamper jobs, and never has an “employer” been less accommodating to us, and less concerned with upholding their end of the “bargain”. This organization is sorely mismanaged, by a bunch of apparently incompetent “desperate housewives”. I am the only male here, and apparently the only male in a long time. And, I am very reluctant to say, it shows ! Not a woman here could make a decision to wipe her ass, without discussing it with 3 of her colleagues, then seeking approval from 3 levels of superiors !

The dormitory was filthy upon our arrival ! The state of disrepair rendered it in violation of every fire code ever written, at best, and a fire trap for blind people at worst ! We have finally finished cleaning and fixing in the dormitory. I estimate that we have done about 90 man hours of work in the 2 weeks we have been here. And all I have to show for it, is to have been told that what we were doing wasn’t our responsibility, and we shouldn’t have concerned ourselves. And that my communication style sounds bullying. Yeah ? ! ? Bully this, baby ! And despite knowing since April that we are arriving at the beginning of December, they have not yet figured out how or where we are supposed to empty the holding tanks of the trailer. And despite telling us in April that we would be required to undergo drug testing, they did not arrange for drug testing until a few days ago. We are scheduled for drug tests on January 4. Students will be arriving January 7. Wouldn’t they be in a pickle if we failed our drug tests, and they needed to find new dormitory parents … 2 or 3 days before the beginning of their next class ? ! ? Nincompoops ! But what really has me steamed right now, is I asked at 8:30 A.M. for the network key to allow me access to their Wi-Fi system, and that I was desperate for it. They just told me a few minutes ago that they will get it for me sometime tomorrow !

Last Tuesday morning my computer hard drive crashed. I took it in for repairs, to a place called PC Club, all the way out in Rancho Mirage. Two sectors on my hard drive failed, and as a result, they had to reformat my hard drive and reload my operating system, which wiped out everything. I got the computer back late yesterday, and spent all evening reloading and reconfiguring software, and trying to restore data. By this morning, all that I had left was to get onto AOL, and deal with all my AOL configurations and data. When we arrived 2 weeks ago, Guide Dogs Of The Desert’s computer service technician was here installing 2 new computers in the dormitory for student use. The Wi-Fi system here is not “open”, and requires a network key. He entered the network key into my computer. When my hard drive crashed, the network key was lost. I phoned the computer service technician this morning and requested the network key. He said he could not tell me what it is without authorization. I requested “authorization” this morning, and was told it required the approval of the executive director ! ! ! I have been waiting, and stewing for 8 hours ! ! !

I am supremely pissed off ! ! ! I can’t trust them ! I will probably drive 12 miles after supper to Flying J in Thousand Palms, and spend the evening using their Wi-Fi system to get onto AOL, and reconfigure and restore. I can’t afford to wait another 24 hours and then get told that it couldn’t get done because somebody had cramps !

Well … here I am at Flying J, at 9:30 P.M., waiting for my AOL Safety and Security Center software to download. With a bit of difficulty, I got onto AOL and retrieved my e-mail. My e-mail waiting to be sent was lost ! My “Favorite Places” were lost. DAMN ! That included my own blog. I had a hell of a time finding it ! I don’t know the address of my blog … I just click a link ! At least my e-mail address book was saved.

 

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and cool. Well … cool by Palm Springs standards.

We were going to take a day trip today to Joshua Tree National Park, but Joanne decided that it was a bit too cool a day to be spent high in the mountains.

This morning I had a telephone conference with my investment broker in Ottawa that lasted almost 2 hours. We discussed and resolved year end investment issues, and did quite a bit of future planning for next year.

At some time during the night, a “consultant” from Silicon Valley who is going to be helping Guide Dogs Of The Desert for a week with their year end bookkeeping moved into a room in the dormitory with his “friend”. At noon as I was on thephone with my investment broker, I was interrupted by the consultant Jason. He was bringing me the Wi-Fi network key that I have been waiting for since 8:30 A.M. yesterday. He and his “friend” asked for it so that they could use their laptops, and seemed to be given it immediately. While I have calmed down considerably from my rage of yesterday, I do feel rather insulted that some consultant’s tag along boyfriend received the network key immediately upon request, but when I asked for it, and stated that I needed it quite urgently, it wasn’t made available to me for a day and a half. Maybe I should behave more like a gay boy, and the lesbians and man hating divorcees here would treat me better ? ! ? Yeah, right … bully this, baby !

We spent the afternoon finally finishing up the cleaning and maintenance in the dormitory and kitchen. I spent quite a bit of time again today restoring my computer’s software and files. I downloaded and printed my investment account updates, then entered and analyzed the data in my own spreadsheets and financial programs on my computer. WOW !

I peeked into the whelping room in the building next door to see how Ruby’s puppies are progressing. The only other time I’ve seen them was when they were 9 days old. Now they’re 23 days old. They’ve doubled in size !

 

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and cool.

This morning I got caught up on e-mail, then prepared and sent an e-mail Christmas card I created using a photo of Bo with Santa at the Guide Dogs Of The Desert puppy raiser Christmas party. After lunch we drove over to Pep Boys in Rancho Mirage to pick up Joanne’s Christmas gift to me. Well … you know … my Christmas gift to myself ! On the way back we found our way to the shopping mall where we are supposed to be at 5:30 A.M. on January 1 to catch our bus excursion to the Rose Parade in Pasadena, so we would know where it is, and how long it takes to drive there from GDD. Our tickets arrived today.

Late in the afternoon we hitched the truck to the trailer, in preparation for our departure tomorrow, and to move it a few feet to allow us to finish waxing the rear. We finally finished our difficult twice a year chore of waxing the trailer.

This afternoon was the Guide Dogs Of The Desert staff Christmas luncheon. We weren’t invited. I guess we’re not considered staff. Fine ! Bully this, baby ! We were advised that the executive director wants tosee us at 9:00 A.M. tomorrow morning. I’m somewhat expecting, and hoping, actually, that she wants to fire us. Joanne thinks she wants to wish us Merry Christmas before we leave tomorrow. Either way would be fine with me. Two days ago I was determined to quit. Joanne convinced me that we made a commitment, and should honour it.

 

Thursday ; Palm Springs to Aguanga, California

Today was sunny and cool.

Well, I was right. The Queen Bee wanted to see us this morning to fire us. Gee … it’s been more than 25 years since I was last fired. But … it’s just like riding a bicycle. HA HA HA ! I’m quite satisfied with the situation. Joanne was livid. Mad at me. Fair enough. And mad at Queen Bee. Not surprisingly, Queen Bee and our “boss”, the Volunteer Co-ordinator, both took a cowardly approach to “firing” us. And not surprisingly, they were unappreciative of our efforts over the last 2 weeks. They were right. The fit was bad. I cannot tolerate ineptitude and indecisiveness. I cannot tolerate all talk and no action. I cannot tolerate management that can’t decide whether to wind their watch, take a shit, or steal third base ! They couldn’t tolerate being challenged. Fair enough. Bully this, baby !

The last 2 weeks made me very unenthusiastic about this WorkCamping job. Joanne did not want to “quit”, because we had made a commitment. I’m quite happy to not be returning to Guide Dogs Of The Desert. So is Joanne, actually, now that she’s stopped being angry. And I don’t think we’re going to be doing any more WorkCamping “jobs”. I don’t need the aggravation !

We left Guide Dogs Of The Desert, driving through Palm Springs to Hwy. 74 heading south, then west over the Santa Rosa Mountains and the San Jacinto Mountains. Hwy. 74 is called the Palms to Pines Highway. It leaves Palm Springs and all its palm trees, winding and climbing high up into the mountains, through the San Bernardino National Forest and all its pine trees. There was a bit of snow up high. We turned southwest on Hwy. 371 and descended out of the mountains, into “high desert”. At Aguanga, we turned west on Hwy. 79, to the Escapees park called Jojoba Hills, where we are going to spend Christmas.

Like many Escapee parks, new arrivals must be “parked” in their site by a staff member acting as spotter. I prefer using Joanne, with a 2 way radio. So … 2 spotters … count ‘em, two … and they manage to guide me back me into a standing water pipe ! ! ! A plastic water pipe attached to a thin wood pole, so, of course, it broke !

After getting over the broken water pipe fiasco, I struck a pact with Joanne. She instantly and unconditionally forgives me for getting us fired ( from a job which she never wanted anyway ), and I instantly and unconditionally forgive her for the broken water pipe.

 

Friday ; Today was sunny and warm during the day, cool in the evening. Pretty typical for high desert winter.

This morning we headed for the nearest city, Temecula, for a day of shopping. About 20 miles west on Hwy. 79. First stop was, of course, Wal-Mart. I think we spend too much of our lives in Wal-Marts. Then we found a great greengrocer, called Henry’s. Very much like Farm Boy’s in Ottawa. I flipped into impulse purchase mode, buying myself some stuffed salmon, and a turkey, eggnog, and a bunch of other goodies for Christmas. I’m pissed off about this Christmas dinner table fiasco in this park, and figured if we didn’t buy and provide a turkey for our dinner table, nobody else was going to, and I’d be even more pissed off. And I’m pissed off about Guide Dogs. And I’m pissed off about the broken water pipe. So … and my sister will certainly understand and appreciate this … I decided to make myself feel better with food ! And I certainly can afford it ! Sometimes I forget that we’re … well, you know … uhhhhh … affluent ! Our friend Julie calls us “stinkin’ rich”. HA HA HA !

Last stop in Temecula was a supermarket, Ralph’s, to get the few remaining groceries that we didn’t find at Wal-Mart or Henry’s, then back to Jojoba Hills, up in the Vallecito Mountains. The high rent district of the Vallecito Mountains. I guess everything in Southwest California is high rent ! We went to the afternoon ice cream social, where we sat and chatted with a couple from Florida. They have been full timing, and WorkCamping, since 2001. They’re 5 years into their 2 year plan of full timing. HA HA HA ! Same direction we’re headed. It was consoling to speak to another WorkCamping couple who have experienced an untenable assignment. They drove all the way from Florida to Alaska for a “job” that they gave up on partway through. So it’s not just me.

 

Saturday ; Today was a beautiful, sunny, warm day.

This morning we found a note on our door step from the only other couple signed up at our Christmas dinner table. It’s them, us, and our friend Julie. They wanted to meet to discuss who’s contributing what. We met with them and worked out some details. I had a hard time hiding the chip on my shoulder. I should explain.

At every other Escapee park that we’ve been to, for either Thanksgiving or Christmas, the park contributes a turkey and / or ham per table. Not this park ! And they set up sign up sheets for 14 seats per table. Ten seats for park residents, and 4 seats for park visitors. Transients like us and Julie, so that travelers can come in late ( like Julie arriving on Christmas Day ) and be assured of being seated a table where they are going to be able to have Christmas dinner with surrogate family, other Escapees. The typically Southern Californian self-centeredness that prevails in this park has resulted in all tables being filled with 14 local park residents. Screw the outsiders ! And an ***hole that I was having a debate with in the hot tub this afternoon quite candidly acknowledged that that was, indeed, the attitude of this park’s residents.

Anyways, us, Julie, and this other couple form the last table. Julie can’t really make a contribution since she’s driving here all the way from Phoenix, Arizona on Christmas morning. Us and this other couple will have to provide all the components of Christmas dinner.

We decorated today. Our Christmas decorating doesn’t take very long. We have a teensy little tree with teensy little lights, and 5 ornaments for it, and a large bow that I hang on the living room / dinette slide out fascia. After our quick decorating session, we spent the afternoon lounging around the hot tub. I got into a debate with the ***hole about the unfriendliness of this park, and Canada’s universal health care system. What an ignoramus ! You know, the only problem with Southern California is it’s populated with Southern Californians.

Late this afternoon another couple signed up on our table sign up sheet, so tomorrow we’ll meet with them and refigure who’s bringing what.

HA HA HA ! As I’m typing this, we’re listening to our Zydeco Christmas CD.

“Stannin’ in lie, waitin’ to see Sanna Claw …

Stannin’ in lie, waitin’ to see Sanna Claw …

Stannin’ in lie, waitin’ to see Sanna Claw …

I’m nex’ in lie … gonna axe Sanna … ”

HA HA HA ! Joanne says she really likes this “swamp pop” / Zydeco

Merry Christmas to our families and friends who read my blog.

DSK

Year 3 Week 26

December 10 to 16, 2006

Palm Springs, California

Year 3 week 26

 

Sunday ; Today was sunny, mild, and very windy. It rained for a couple of hours overnight, which is pretty rare out here in the Mojave Desert. A storm blew in off the Pacific, hitting Los Angeles hard, and blowing right over the mountains out here into the desert. But by morning there was really no evidence that it had rained. The desert just soaked it up like a sponge.

Yesterday I forgot to mention that during the Puppies In Training Christmas Party, we ( the student residence ) received a donation of 7 frozen turkeys, from Fed Ex, for Christmas. Thank you very much, Fed Ex. But ... < whispering > we only have 3 students at a time in the dormitory ... and ... none in December !

This morning while I was looking at a local area map, I saw that the infamous San Andreas Fault runs along the north side of Interstate 10, and is just a few miles wide. Guide Dogs Of The Desert is sitting right on it ! If "The Big One" hits California in the next 4 months, we're toast ! HA HA HA !

Today we went to the 10th Annual Winter Pow Wow of the 29 Palms Band Of Mission Indians in Coachella, about half an hour east of here on Interstate 10 where it meets Hwy. 86. It was held on the grounds of Spotlight 29 Casino, owned and operated by the Indian Band. The 29 Palms Band Of Mission Indians are part of the Chemehuevi Tribe. Spectacular dancing ! And as always at a Pow Wow, native food and craft vendors. We bought some gifts. Midway through the afternoon, the wind picked up and created a sandstorm, blowing fine sand dust off the desert. I felt sorry for the jewellery vendors. Their jewellery, all on velvet displays, was covered in sand dust. Late in the afternoon, as it began to get cool, we went inside Spotlight 29 Casino to take a look around. Joanne wanted to spend a dollar playing penny slots. I left here at a penny slot machine, thinking that a dollar would probably last her an hour at a penny slot machine, as it has previously at Chuckchansi Gold Casino near Coarsegold, California. I wandered around the casino for about 10 minutes, looking it over. When I returned to where I had left Joanne, she asked me what took so long. Her dollar lasted about 5 minutes. What a loser ! HA HA HA !

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and hot.

We are alternating between days "worked" at the dormitory, cleaning and fixing things, and days "out", shopping or seeing local sights and attractions. Today was an "in" day. Joanne worked on continuing to clean in the dormitory, and waxing the trailer late in the afternoon after the sun was low enough that at least part of the trailer wasn't in direct sunlight. It's impossible to work out here in the Mojave Desert in direct sunlight, even in December. I worked on more minor maintenance, and reviewed the incoming batches of mail which were waiting here for us when we arrived a week ago.

Bo escaped again today, while we were walking from the fenced courtyard through the parking lot to the trailer to have lunch. My fault again ! He ran at full speed across the desert chasing rabbits for about 15 minutes, refusing to respond to my commands. I finally trapped him when he came back to visit with a volunteer puppy walker walking by with one of the guide dogs in training from the kennel across the street. I confined him to our dormitory bedroom for about 6 hours, repeatedly telling him what a bad, bad dog he was every time I went into the bedroom. He got the message ! ****ing little ****head terrier !

I went to the Guide Dogs Of The Desert website ( www.guidedogsofthedesert.org ) and viewed the photos from Saturday's puppy raiser Christmas party. HA HA HA ... it included photos of Bo and "Cat" with Santa, and pictures of Bo with his Nylabone Christmas present.

 

Tuesday to Saturday ;

Computer in repair shop.

 

DSK

Year 3 Week 25

December 3 to 9, 2006

Yuma, Arizona to Palms Spring, California

Year 3 week 25

 

Sunday ; Today was a sunny, warm, windy, day. The sky to the northwest was hazy with smoke from the wildfire that started today just north of Los Angeles.

We were very tired today. Bo kept us up for most of the night, suffering from extreme itching discomfort, and resultant anxiety. In the middle of the night, and again first thing in the morning, we treated him with a flea spray. In the morning we discovered evidence of flea bites on him, and allergic reactions to the flea bites, known as flea bite dermatitis. In the morning and again in the afternoon we gave him ¼ of an antihistamine pill. This seemed to reduce the itching and anxiety, and made him drowsy, allowing him to finally get some sleep. In mid-afternoon he started vomiting bile, most likely from licking itchy spots and ingesting flea spray. Poor Bo. And the odd irony is ... the most probable source of him getting fleas in the last few days ? Wait for it ! Santa Claus ! HA HA HA ! Poor baby Bo probably got fleas from the Humane Society's Santa Claus.

I removed the damaged brushed aluminum gas cap door and replaced it with the factory gas cap door. I used my new "California Duster" brush on the truck, to remove all the desert dust. We recently bought this California Duster brush, because we're tired of how often we need to wash the truck, when it's not really dirty, just very dusty. The California Duster brush works well. We each spent much of the day trying to keep Bo calm and resting. I prepared quite a few e-mails, some to update personal friends, and others to get some information regarding tax issues. We gave Bo a flea bath.

I wanted to go to the weekly ice cream social at 6:00 P.M., but Joanne didn't. So ... we didn't go. We had supper, then watched Amazing Race.

 

Monday ; Yuma, Arizona to Palm Springs, California

Today was sunny and warm.

We departed Kofa Ko-op, and Yuma, heading west on Interstate 8 into California. At El Centro we turned north on Hwy. 86. For lunch, we just pulled off the road, and off the shoulder, onto the desert, beside the Salton Sea. Joanne wants to take a day trip while we're at Guide Dogs Of The Desert to visit the Salton Sea. At Indio, turned west again on Interstate 8. We stopped at Flying J in Thousand Palms to refill with diesel and refill a propane tank. We arrived at Guide Dogs Of The Desert late in the afternoon.

Our "boss", Kathie Flamm is on vacation this week. We checked in with the front office staff in the administrative offices across the road, then began to move ourselves into the dormitory parents' suite in the dormitory. We realized this is the first time in the 2 years that we've had Bo that he's actually going to live in a building. He was excited to be in the dorm, and enjoyed romping up and down the hallways. The dormitory is empty except for us. Teddy just took it all in stride, settling in comfortably on our new bed. He's pretty laid back.

There is lots of cleaning and minor maintenance chores to keep us busy for the next little while. The previous dormitory "mom" seemed to focus most, if not all, of her attention to the kitchen, and meal preparation. Apparently cleaning wasn't her forté.

 

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and hot.

The vistas here are magnificent ! The Guide Dogs Of The Desert property is on a mountain side, looking across the Coachella Valley to the Santa Rosa Mountains. The cities of Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs are visible. I just went for an exercise walk ( at 6:00 P.M. ) up a steep hill and around the back of the property. The views of the cities at night are spectacular. As I walked out of the dormitory, there was a small owl sitting on a brick wind fence staring at me. If he's hunting for rabbits to eat, the pickings are easy. This property is crawling with small rabbits at night. They have destroyed the small patch of grass that was laid in the courtyard 2 weeks ago. I think they're going to have to give up the idea of having a small patch of grass in the courtyard.

We spent the late evening last night trying to figure out how to watch TV. You wouldn't think that figuring out how to watch TV would be that difficult for 2 reasonably bright people. This place has satellite TV. About 200 channels, of which about 4 are worth watching. I'm not kidding ! And the major networks aren't available. No CBS, NBC, ABC, etc.. In our dormitory suite there are 2 TV's. One is connected to the satellite dish. One has rabbit ears, and is used to watch the major networks, but with relatively poor reception. Tomorrow I'll see what kind of reception I can get in the trailer using the roof top antenna. We watch 2 network shows a week ; Amazing Race and Survivor. We can't seem to find CBS on the rabbit ears TV, and at least one, maybe both of those shows are on CBS.

We spent most of today prioritizing, tidying, and cleaning. I hauled a lot of garbage to the dumpster behind the kennels across the road. There seems to be a lot of cleaning and minor maintenance chores that have been neglected here. I guess that's not surprising. This is a non-profit agency, which relies on volunteers for most of their labour requirements. And they don't seem to have a shortage of volunteers to do the work, they seem to lack a cohesive view of what exactly needs to be done. Obviously, most of the efforts are aimed at the dogs. The student dormitory seems neglected. We're making the assumption that as dormitory parents, it will be our responsibility to do anything and everything that must be done to keep the dormitory functioning well. The previous dormitory "mom" may have taken a less broad view of her responsibilities. The next class begins in a month, so we have lots of time to do chores before starting the real job of feeding students.

This afternoon I got myself invited to the puppy room to see Ruby the Golden Retriever and her ten puppies, now 9 days old. She had eleven, but one died on the second day. WOW ... I've never seen puppies that young. Hard to believe that something that small is going to grow up to be a Golden Retriever.

Teddy and Bo love this place. The inner courtyard is completely fenced, so both Teddy and Bo are allowed outdoors unrestrained. And we allow them the run of the dormitory, so they can explore up and down halls and in common area rooms. Until there are students here, with their guide dogs, Teddy and Bo can go wherever they want.

 

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and hot again.

I spent most of the day doing minor maintenance around the dormitory. And the more minor maintenance I do, the longer my list of minor maintenance chores to do becomes. This dormitory has been neglected, from a maintenance perspective. I repaired the screen door on our dormitory room. It was installed for our benefit, to allow us to leave the solid door open, and still have the screen door to keep Teddy and Bo in our room when necessary. But it's a really cheap screen door, it was installed very poorly, and it was damaged by the previous dorm "Mom's" big dog. I repaired an emergency exit door's panic bar. Gee whiz ... an institutional dormitory, with non-functioning emergency exit doors, and burned out emergency exit lights. I wonder when's the last time a fire marshal inspected this place ? ! I installed a couple of wall switch plates that were missing from electrical outlets. Somebody purchased the hardware, but didn't install them. Probably couldn’t find a screwdriver !

We spent the latter part of the afternoon washing the trailer. We had to wait until fairly late in the day to do this job. The desert sun is simply too intense to work outdoors in the mid-day sun. The trailer was filthy. The last time we washed it was 3 months ago in Revelstoke, B.C.. Driving through foul weather in Washington and Oregon a month left heavy road grime on it.

We’re preparing and eating our meals in the trailer, and will continue to do so until we finish cleaning and fixing things in the dormitory and begin to do the same in the kitchen. The dormitory complex is 3 buildings. Building A is the kitchen, dining room, and auditorium. Building B is the bedrooms and common area living room ... the dormitory. Building C was designed to be another dormitory, but is used as offices, storage, and for new born puppies.

After supper, I did some research on local mystery shopping opportunities, using Wi-Fi. Just before we started travelling 2½ years we signed up to become mystery shoppers for an international mystery shopping organization. We did 2 mystery shops in Ottawa before we started travelling, but haven’t done any since. While we’re in the Palm Springs area, I think we’ll do some. It pays hardly anything, but the mystery shops are often fast food outlets, and the cost of the meals are reimbursed, as well as a small payment for services. A free lunch, so to speak. And while there were few opportunities available in Canada, there are many in the Southern California area. Ironically, we received a telephone call from the mystery shopping company 2 weeks ago, as we were driving from Palm Springs, California to Yuma, Arizona. They phoned, based on our Lorette, Manitoba address in their files, because they were desperate to find somebody to do a mystery shop for a client in Steinbach, Manitoba. Joanne laughed uproariously and told them we couldn’t do it because we were about 5000 miles from Steinbach. HA HA HA !

 

Thursday ;Today was sunny and hot again.

Today we explored the city of Palm Springs for the first time. It's about 6 miles or so from Guide Dogs Of the Desert, about the same distance as going to Desert Hot Springs. Desert Hot Springs is east, beside the Santa Rosa Mountains. Palm Springs is northeast, beside the San Jacinto ( pronounced Hasinto ) Mountains. First stop was the Visitor Information Centre on Palm Canyon Drive where we picked up a lot of information on the area. Then we went off searching for Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, Pep Boys, and the downtown area where VillageFest takes place every Thursday evening. WOW ... what an upscale city ! Big box stores and fast food restaurants do not look like they do everywhere else. They must have to conform to some upscale city design regulations or something.

We drove north on the very ritzy Palm Canyon Drive shopping area to find the VillageFest area, then headed east out into the suburbs / adjoining cities of Cathedral City, Thousand Palms, Palm Desert, and Rancho Mirage. Interesting street names ; Gene Autry Trail, Dinah Shore Drive, Bob Hope Drive, Gerald Ford Drive, Kirk Douglas Way, Frank Sinatra Drive. I think they all lived in Palm Springs at one time or another. Bob Hope certainly did. His home is a local landmark.

We found all the stores we were looking for, then headed back towards Desert Hot Springs. In Desert Hot Springs we found the McDonald's that we will "mystery shop" tomorrow, then went to Von's for some groceries.

We returned to Guide Dogs Of The Desert. While Joanne put away groceries and prepared supper, I took a quick look at our investments on Wi-Fi. < GULP > Wow ... sure hope the market keeps performing like it has in the last week !

After supper we drove back to downtown Palm Springs for VillageFest. Very interesting ! Every Thursday evening, they close about a mile or so of the trendiest section of Palm Canyon Drive, and turn it into a pedestrian mall / street festival & market. A very eclectic collection of craft vendors, food vendors, artists, entertainers and street performers, etc.. Sort of a very upscale flea market / craft market / produce market for the rich and famous. And my goodness, are we ever out of the fashion loop of the rich and famous ! If we're going to hang around downtown Palm Springs I'm going to have to do better than a pair of jeans with an Escapee RV Club patch covering the tear on the hip. Next week Bo will come along to VillageFest. There were lots of dogs. Palm Springs is very dog indulgent. But Bo's fashion sense is even worse than mine. Most of the Palm Springs dogs had a wardrobe of some sort. Bo's got ... well ... a harness !

 

Friday ; Today was sunny and hot.

I have just finished ( at 10:30 P.M. ) electronically submitting my mystery shopper questionnaire. It took about an hour online. The mystery shop itself took about 45 minutes, plus about 15 minutes of driving time. Two hours, times both of us, plus fuel to drive to Desert Hot Springs and back, for a free lunch at McDonald's and U.S.$7.50 ! What a moron ! I made about 100 times that amount in the stock market today, sitting on my thumb !

This morning Joanne made phone calls, and purchased us 2 tickets on a bus excursion to the Rose Parade in Pasadena on January 1. NOT CHEAP ! But we have heard good things about the Rose Parade, and decided we should attend, since we're so close by. The bus leaves Palm Springs in the middle of the night for Pasadena, which I think is about 2½ hours away. We have reserved bleacher seating for the Rose Parade, then the bus returns in the afternoon.

At noon we drove to Desert Hot Springs and did our McDonald's mystery shop. Afterwards, we went to K-Mart for shoes for Joanne, then to Vons for a few groceries. By the time we got back to Guide Dogs Of The Desert it was after 3:00 P.M.. Joanne worked on waxing the trailer until it got dark shortly after 5:00, then she assisted me in the dormitory. I spent about 4 hours doing maintenance in the dormitory. I'm a bit miffed at how much minor maintenance there is to do here. Especially with how much of the neglected maintenance is safety related ; broken panic bars on emergency exit doors, burned out emergency exit lighting, fire extinguishers falling off the walls, lots of hallway lights burned out, etc..

Just before it got dark, Bo escaped. I'm not sure how, but I probably left him roaming loose inside the dormitory, and then I worked on the emergency exit doors, one of which does not open into the fenced courtyard, but into the parking lot. I must have been looking up at the broken closer mechanism mounting hardware, and he just walked out. Normally I would hear his tags jingle as he approached, but we removed his harness because he has an itchy scab under the harness from a Santa Claus flea bite. Joanne was on a ladder waxing the trailer when he went zooming by in pursuit of bunnies. He disappeared into the desert for about half an hour. We wandered all around, calling him, but he didn't return until he felt like it. BAD BAD BAD DOG, BO ! ! ! That just reinforced the bad mood I've been in for 2 days already !

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny and hot again. It got very windy late in the evening.

WOO-HOO ! Today was the big Guide Dog Puppies In Training Christmas Party. Forty large dogs, ranging in age from a few months to a little over a year old. And Bo ! And Teddy ! And a Santa without fleas. Ha Ha Ha ! Oh ... and about a hundred people.

Bo didn't know there were parties for dogs. WOO-HOO !

We did a lot more work for this party than we had anticipated, and are very tired. I was asked to light the ovens so that a couple of hams could be roasted. Joanne volunteered to roast the hams. The woman in charge of the "puppy raisers", and the one in charge of today's party, completely abdicated all food and kitchen responsibilities. We are more than a little miffed. But the party went exceptionally well. And partway through the party, I brought Teddy in, in his sling carrier. It was great. Many of the "puppies in training" had not yet been exposed to cats. And Teddy was a wonderful introduction. I would kneel down, with Teddy in his sling carrier. The dogs sniffed him and licked him. He took it all in stride, objecting slightly only twice. Once when a dog licked inside his ear. HEY ... DON'T LICK IN MY EAR ! And once when a puppy reached up and nibbled his foot dangling below the sling carrier. HEY ... DON'T CHEW ON MY FOOT ... !)@(#*$&%^ DOG !

We had photos taken of Bo with Santa, and Teddy and Bo with Santa. We participated in the gift exchange, so Bo got to select a wrapped gift from underneath the Christmas tree. He got a "big dog" Nylabone. Great ! He's been playing all week with "big dog" Kongs, which are lying around all over the place here. Bo now thinks he's a big dog, and should play with big dog toys. Although the big dog Kongs are the size of his head !

I had an impromptu meeting with the Director Of Operations, and let her know that I had a chip on my shoulder about the abdication of responsibilities today, the amount of cleaning and maintenance that was necessary in the dormitory, and that we weren't here to become their 24 hour a day, 7 day a week "Joe Boys". She accepted my comments well, and hopefully will take them to heart.

Unfortunately, another one of Ruby's puppies died overnight. Now there are nine left of the original eleven.

DSK

Year 3 Week 24

November 26 to December 2, 2006

Yuma, Arizona, Los Algodones, B.C., México, and Bard, California

Year 3 week 24

 

Sunday ; Today was sunny and very warm again.

We got a very late start to the day, blowing off the morning, lounging around. I had an opportunity to try out some new < ahem > medication I bought in México the other day. Ohhhhh ... works great ! Just like Sunday mornings in our 20's ! HA HA HA !

I removed and replaced the brushed aluminum gas cap door I bought and installed on the truck recently. I had to make an adjustment to some weird screws with star shaped heads behind the gas cap door. Yesterday at the flea market I bought a set of weird star shaped drivers that enabled me to tighten the weird star shaped screws. Apparently the weird star shaped screws are known in the automotive industry as "tamper proof" screws. Guess they never counted on Mexicans ! HA HA HA !

This afternoon I washed the trailer roof, an annual chore. Tough job ! Joanne worked on wiping down the truck with a damp chamois, to get rid of the spots left by yesterday's washing. We recently bought a car wash liquid detergent that is supposed to dry without leaving spots. Well ... it left spots just as much as any other car wash detergent we've used. I wonder if spotting is worse on a black vehicle ?

At 6:30 P.M. we went to the park's regular Sunday evening ice cream social, a weekly event in all Escapee parks. The ice cream social had a disturbing interruption, by a medical emergency. One of the park's elderly residents had a stroke out at the pool / hot tub area while the ice cream social was going on in the clubhouse. We usually linger, chatting with new friends, but tonight we ate and ran, to get back to the trailer to watch Amazing Race.

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and warm. As I type this I'm listening to the weather man on the evening news whine and complain about how cold it was here in Yuma today, with a high temperature of only 69 degrees ! HA HA HA !

Saturday at the flea market I bought a power buffer attachment for my power drill. Today I used it to polish off the scuff mark I made on the rear corner of the truck at Arleigh's Restaurant in Keremeos. It worked very well.

We went to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch. It was okay, but not as good as Cici's. Unfortunately, there is no Cici's in the Yuma area. After lunch at Peter Piper's Joanne did a bit of Wal-Martin', while I wandered around browsing at nearby automotive shops. When we got back to the trailer, I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and napping. As the sun set, we took Bo for an obedience session, then a "free range" session in the huge fenced dog run. It's very encouraging that the more freedom we give Bo in this fenced dog run area, the better behaved he becomes about returning to us when we call him. Good dog, Bo. And he really enjoys romping around here at Kofa Ko-op, where the desert ground is soft sand, like on a beach. Everywhere else the desert ground is like gravel. I guess the ground is soft sand here because Yuma is adjacent to the Imperial Sand Dunes.

Joanne was a little ill tonight, with a touch of food poisoning from our Peter Piper Pizza outing, I suppose.

 

Tuesday ; Los Algodones, México

In memory of Toby, who died 2 years ago today. We miss you, little friend.

Today was a perfect "June 18" day. Sunny, temperatures in the low 70's, soft breeze.

Right after an early lunch, we left for Los Algodones, México. We parked, walked across the border, and went to the Tourist Information Centre to get directions to the one veterinary pharmacy in town. We walked about a mile, and got lost, a little uncertain of the poor directions we received. We went into half a dozen businesses asking for directions, but because we were beyond the main tourist area, we couldn't find anybody who spoke English. Finally, an English speaking Mexican offered to show us where it was. We had missed it by a couple of blocks. He walked us right to Farmacia Veterinaria, then came inside and translated for us. I gave him a small gratuity for his assistance. We bought a year's worth of Bo's heartworm medication.

We walked back to the tourist area, about a five square block area surrounding the border crossing. We stopped at Farmacia Tury's and stocked up on more < ahem > medication. The prices of pharmaceuticals / medications are usually not negotiable, but I bought a large enough quantity that I succeeded in negotiating a bit of a discount, despite the fact that this pharmacy already had the lowest price in town. HA ... I still got it ! Next stop was Tienda De Autoservicio Liquis, a variety store where we bought a box of Nugs, and a box of Coconugs, our favourite Mexican chocolate bars. Well, we're now well stocked up on Creminos, Nugs, Coconugs, and ... <ahem > other pleasurable indulgences.

We headed for Dr. Comacho's office for Joanne's 2:45 appointment. She waited for an hour and a half before getting in to see the dentist. We were both a little frustrated and annoyed. But ... the services were so good, and so well priced, that it made up for the wait. Dr. Comacho repaired Joanne's two chipped front teeth excellently ... for $60 ! While I waited for her, I walked over to Super Pan, our favourite bakery in Los Algodones, and I stocked up on Mexican pastries. Joanne was finished at the dentist's at 5:00 P.M.. We walked back across the border, with no delays today, and drove back to Yuma, about a 15 minute drive.

When we got back to Kofa Ko-op, we took Bo for an obedience session, and long "free range" play session, just as it turned dark. Good dog, Bo. Excellent off leash behaviour !

 

Wednesday ; Bard, California

Today was sunny, cool, and very windy. When it's windy here in the Yuma area, it results in sand storms, because the desert ground here is soft sand. The horizon looks hazy. The Kofa Mountains in the distance are barely visible. Walking facing into the wind is like standing in front of a sand blaster.

Right after lunch we set out for Bard, California to buy dates. We stopped at Watch Hospital and picked up my Rolex. Very nicely done. And good value, despite how expensive Rolex repairs are. They refinished the band, changed the crystal, and water proof tested and certified it, at no additional charge. We drove out of Yuma, onto Hwy. S-24 into California, headed for Bard, about 15 minutes from Yuma. The area we drove through was mostly lettuce farms. Endless fields of lettuce, some being harvested, some freshly planted, and others at various stages of growth. It looks like there are always fields ready to be picked, a brutally labour intensive manual operation. The lettuce is picked, cleaned, bagged, and boxed right in the fields. Transport trucks are parked on the side of the road being loaded right beside the fields.

We were going to go to Imperial Date Gardens, where we had been last year, but as we passed another date farm, we decided to give it a try, for comparison. We stopped at Sun Gardens, where they grow figs, coconuts and 4 different types of dates. We sampled each of the 4 different types of dates ; Medjool, Zahidi, Dayri, and Halawi. Medjools are the largest, softest, and most expensive. Medjools and Dayris are dark, while Zahidis and Halawis are light. Last year we bought Medjools at Imperial Date Gardens. I've been fantasizing about having peanut butter stuffed Medjools ever since we arrived in Yuma. But after sampling all 4 types that Sun Gardens grow, I decided to buy a couple of pounds of Dayris. They're a little smaller, the skin is a tiny bit tougher, but they're about half the price of Medjools. I also bought a pound of all 4 types, assorted, rolled in coconut. MMMMM ! ! ! Joanne bought a pound of fresh figs to try, since we've never had fresh figs. And she bought a pound of fresh, flaked coconut. I have no idea what she's going to do with that much flaked coconut. It looks like a lifetime supply. We bought 2 date shakes, and sat outside at a picnic table savouring them. We really love fresh date shakes. As does Bo ! As does the little Chihuahua that was running around the front yard of Sun Gardens. Bo and the little Chihuahua romped around, in between little samples of my date shake.

On the way back to Yuma, I decided I wanted to go explore the off road area of the Imperial Sand Dunes. I drove Lanoire off the highway, shifted into 4 wheel high mode, and off we went four wheelin' off roadin'. It was fun. Well, I thought so. Joanne and Bo found it a bit too bumpy. And Joanne was worried that we would get stuck in the soft sand. HMPH ... that girl has no sense of adventure. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

 

Thursday ; Today was a sunny, cool day, temperature only in the high 50's during the day, dipping to near freezing at night. To Yumans, this is considered very cold weather.

After lunch we went to fill Lanoire up with diesel, then over to the second of Yuma's 2 flea markets, called Arizona Market. This flea market is larger than Yuma Park 'N Swap, with better quality merchandise. Joanne bought herself a Christmas gift, and I bought myself a Christmas gift. Since we began travelling, we have developed a tradition of buying ourselves what we want, then pretending that they are Christmas gifts from each other. Hey ... it works ! I also bought a Santa hat wearing happy face antenna ball for Lanoire. My version of decorating for Christmas. HA HA HA !

After supper we watched Survivor. It's getting down to the nitty-gritty !

 

Friday ; Today was sunny and mild. There never seems to be any clouds around here. Works for me. I'm a sun junkie. Yuma has had only 0.55 of an inch of rain so far this year. Geeeeez ... I'm certain that we have experienced more rain than that in less than a day in some places!

This morning I subscribed to a new Emergency Roadside Service, Coach-Net, for 3 years. Our Camping World Emergency Roadside Service expired yesterday. I renewed our Escapees RV Club membership, buying a lifetime membership, which the Escapees RV Club only offers occasionally, for a limited time. Then I wasted an hour, on the phone, and online, trying to pay my 2 MasterCard bills. Repeated dropped cell phone calls, and repeated online "bumps" ! Very frustrating ! I got one of the two bills paid.

After lunch we headed to Historic Downtown ( old ) Yuma, for the Humane Society Of Yuma's Festival Of The Trees. We wanted to have Bo's photo taken with Santa. As we drove along 32nd Street, perpendicular to the main runway of MCAS, the Marine Corps Air Station, 2 fighter jets took off, screaming over the fence, 100 feet in front of us, about 20 feet off the ground, afterburners roaring. WHOA < blink blink > ... good thing my bladder was empty !

Rather than have the Humane Society’s photographer take a picture, I asked and was allowed to use my camera to take photos of Bo with Santa. After I took photos, Santa gave Bo a little red stocking with a rawhide Christmas cane in it. Too bad Bo can't digest rawhide. There were a few vendor booths selling pet products. We bought a pet water bottle with attached dish for Bo as a Christmas gift. We went to the Humane Society's storefront and bought a few more Christmas gifts for Bo. A stretchy, squeaky, red and green, bone shaped "tuggy", and a Christmas collar with jingle bells.

We drove over to the Yuma Palms shopping area to look for a restaurant that I’m interested in trying. It’s a Texas barbecue and blues music place called Famous Dave’s. Wow ... the Yuma Palms shopping area is quite impressive ! From there we drove east on Interstate 8 a few miles to the suburban community of Foothills. I knew that the Foothills community has many RV parks and businesses, and I wanted to check it out. We drove around Foothills for awhile. It’s an interesting large suburb of RV and park model / mobile home lots.

When we got back to Kofa Ko-op I made another couple of attempts to pay the second MasterCard bill. Fifteen minutes on hold on our cell phone, then another 20 minutes on hold on the pay phone. I gave up ! I downloaded and processed the photos of Santa and Bo. One of the four pictures turned out very nice. I will use it to make a Christmas card.

Late in the evening I made another attempt to pay the U.S.$ MasterCard. Twenty-five minutes on hold, and I finally got the bill paid. Apparently these lengthy delays are a common occurrence on the first of each month. HMPH ... remind me never to attempt to pay bills on the first of the month ever again !

This afternoon I was doing something under the front of the trailer, when I stood up quickly in the wrong spot. I smashed the corner of the trailer's front overhang into the top of my shoulder and the side of my neck. My collarbone really hurts !

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny, warm, and windy.

This morning I tried to polish out a teensy little scratch on my relatively new brushed aluminum gas cap door on the truck, using the little drill attachment buffer. I ruined the gas cap door. I made a little heat blemish on the brushed aluminum, then the more I tried to rectify it, the worse it got. Awwwww, doggone it ! ! ! Another fifty bucks down the tube. Will I never learn ? Yeah ... I learn ! Always the expensive way. I guess tomorrow I'll remove it and reinstall the original factory gas cap door, and swallow hard ! I could spend another 50 bucks and buy another one, but ... ( 1 ) I’m too angry at myself, and ( 2 ) Joanne doesn’t like the brushed aluminum gas cap door anyway.

This afternoon Joanne went Wal-Martin’ by herself. I took Bo for an obedience session, then we did a power walk for exercise around the perimeter of the large fenced dog run area. I printed the investment updates and bank statements I had retrieved online yesterday. I printed a copy of one of the photos of Santa and Bo. Cute ! I reconciled the bank statements then spent the rest of the afternoon updating my investment spreadsheets. Well ... we're doing very well this year, aren't we ? ! ?

After Joanne returned from Wal-Mart, we left for Yuma Palms Shopping Centre. At Yuma Palms, I went to PetsMart to buy some cat food, while Joanne went shopping for shoes < rolling eyes >. We walked in the direction of some loud music, and found the Battle Of The Bands taking place at Yuma Palms today. The band members weren't old enough to shave yet, and none of the audience were either. Not our kind of music event, I guess. We walked over to Famous Dave's for supper. Blues music, and great barbecue ! We hadn't expected that such great barbecue would exist this far west of Texas.

DSK

Year 3 Week 23

November 19 to 25, 2006

Palm Springs, California to Yuma, Arizona & Los Algodones, B.C., México

Year 3 week 23

 

Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot again, although there was a tiny bit of a wind this afternoon, which made the intense desert sun less brutal. Temperature was in the high 80's.

Today was Graduation Day at Guide Dogs Of The Desert. This morning at 11:00 A.M. was a luncheon for today's graduates, their families, their trainers, and their dogs' sponsors. By early afternoon many more people began to arrive for the graduation ceremony at 2:00 P.M.. At 1:00 P.M. we joined a group being taken on a tour of the training kennels.

The graduation ceremony was attended by quite a large crowd. Many puppy raiser families attend these graduations with their "guide dog in training" puppies. I was a little surprised by how many people there were. And dogs ! And face lifts ! ! !

Our offers of assistance before the luncheon, and before the graduation ceremony, were declined. The outgoing "Dorm Mom" is a little possessive of her responsibilities, and while she apparently welcomes her "retirement", and us as her successors, she refused most of our offers of help over the last few days. We have, not surprisingly, formulated some ideas about changes we are likely to be making to the day to day operation of the dormitory residence and kitchen operations, and the graduation luncheon and ceremony.

After the graduation ceremony crowd had thinned out, we helped clean up. We accepted an invitation to join the graduates and staff at a Thai restaurant in nearby Desert Hot Springs, the nearest town, about 6 miles away. Palm Springs is about the same distance away, but is a larger city. One of the graduates, Kathleeya, is Thai, and lives in Desert Hot Springs, so she was the unofficial "hostess" of the dinner outing. Over dinner we chatted with the gentleman from Alaska who was the puppy raiser of Mikey, the guide dog received by today's other graduate Jordan, the 16 year old from Wisconsin. Having been raised in Alaska, Mikey is likely going to be happy to get to Wisconsin tomorrow. It's way too hot here in Palm Springs for Mikey.

After we returned to Guide Dogs Of The Desert, I tried to get online using the dormitory's Wi-Fi, but I was unsuccessful. I used a phone line to get online just to send and retrieve e-mail. We watched Amazing Race.

As I type this, we’re watching tonight’s news and weather on a local Palm Springs TV station. The weather man just said “it’s going to be a little chilly overnight, temperature in the 50’s”. HA HA HA HA HA < SNORT SNORT > HA HA HA ! ! !

 

Monday ; Palm Springs, California to Yuma, Arizona

Another very sunny, hot day.

This morning we prepared for departure from Guide Dogs Of The Desert, then said goodbye to Kathie Flamm, the Volunteer Co-ordinator, and Marilyn, the outgoing "Dormitory Mom". We headed east on Interstate 10, stopping at Flying J in Thousand Palms to empty the trailer's holding tanks and refill with diesel. We turned south on Hwy. 86S, driving along the Salton Sea, stopping for groceries and lunch in El Centro, just north of the Mexican border. After lunch we turned east on I-8, the Interstate that runs across Southern California and into Arizona just north of the Mexican border.

We drove through the Imperial Sand Dunes area just before reaching Arizona. It's the desert sand dune area where Star Wars was filmed. The desert around the dunes is filled with boondocking RV's, with many ATV's and exotic dune buggies tearing around and over the dunes. Looks like fun.

We crossed into Arizona at Yuma. We found our way to Kofa Ko-op, the Escapees Co-op Park. We have been on Kofa Ko-op's lot waiting list for about a year. The waiting list for a lot here is about 9 years long, so I guess we've got about 8 more years to wait to become a lot leaseholder here. We got set up in our site and visited with our "next door neighbour" briefly, until it turned dark.

Oh, darn ! Joanne just realized that we crossed a time zone today. I have to reset all the clocks and watches.

 

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and hot again. Works for me !

This morning I set up appointments for dental examinations and cleanings for both of us, and an eye exam for me, tomorrow in Los Algodones, B.C. ( Baja California ), Mexico. Los Algodones is about a 20 minute drive from Yuma. First west back into California, then south into the Baja California province / peninsula of Mexico.

After my phone calls to Mexico, which aren't all that easy to make ( Thank you very much, Manitoba Telephone System ), I headed off to the Watch Hospital, "my" Rolex repair shop here in Yuma. I dropped off my Rolex for a minor ( but certainly not cheap ) cosmetic repair. Recently I discovered what I thought was a very tiny crack in the watch case. It turns out not to be a crack, but a small "weld" mark caused by an electrical arc. Guess I won't be wearing my Rolex watch any more when working around the truck or trailer batteries, or when connecting or disconnecting the trailer power supply cord. I guess I must have recently come close to electrocuting myself. That shock couldn't have been any worse than the shock I got when the Watch Hospital told me how much the repair was going to cost !

We had lunch, I napped, then we spent the rest of the afternoon floating around the heated swimming pool, chatting with other Escapees. Late in the afternoon as the sun was setting, and the temperature was cooling, I returned from the pool and worked on polishing out another scratch on the truck. Four down, one to go. I have been using a new scratch polishing compound. It's slow and tedious work, but the product is effective. We’ve had the truck for over 6 months now. I guess I should soon stop being so anal retentive about tiny scratches. As it turned dark, we headed off for some Wal-Martin'. After supper, I took inventory of our medications, and did some planning of medication purchases tomorrow in Mexico.

Ow ow ow ow ! I just finished doing first aid on about a half dozen long, deep scratches on my ankles. They seem to be infected. I have been having problems the last few years with wounds on my lower legs. They are very slow to heal, and often become infected. I acquired these half dozen long, deep scratches on my legs in the desert at Guide Dogs Of The Desert, while searching for "lost" Teddy a few days ago. How can you tell a Canadian has been walking in the desert ( wearing shorts and no socks, scanning the distance looking for his damn cat ) ? Look at his ankles !

 

Wednesday ; Los Algodones, B.C., México

Today was sunny and hot again.

This morning we headed to Los Algodones in México. Through Yuma to I-8, 5 miles west into California, then a few miles south to the Mexican border. We parked and walked across into México.

First stop was Super Pan Bakery, Joanne's favourite Mexican bakery. Last time we were in Los Algodones, we went to this bakery to buy Mexican pastries just before returning to the U.S., late in the afternoon. The inventory at that time was low. Joanne wanted to be sure that this time we went to the bakery early, when they still had lots of inventory. We bought 8 large Mexican pastries. Unfortunatelythey did not survive well being hauled around in my backpack all day.

Next stop was Algodones Optical for an eye examination and new glasses for me. What a bargain ! They had a sale on a new brand of photosensitive lenses made by Corning called SunSensors. The computerized eye examination, including glaucoma and cataract testing, was U.S.$10 ( Canadian price for an eye exam is $80 ). The regular price for the new SunSensor lenses was $109 for prescription bifocals, including frames. The sale price was get another pair free, regular or sunglasses, including frames. I got a pair of SunSensor prescription bifocals, with new frames, and a pair of prescription bifocal sunglasses, with new frames, for U.S.$109. And both pair were ready in 3½ hours ! When I last made a similar purchase in Ottawa, it cost me $1000 !

Next stop was the cheap dentist I made appointments with. Doctora ( the "a" denotes female ) Herminia Marin. Last year we went to Dr. Juan Manuel Camacho, practicing in a large clinic with 2 dentists and 8 hygienists. His price was U.S.$20 for an examination and U.S.$20 for a cleaning. We were very satisfied, but this year I wanted to try one of the cheap, storefront, single dentist practices. Dra. Marin’s price was U.S.$15 for a cleaning with a free examination. Fifteen bucks for what costs $150 in Canada ! We felt Dra. Marin’s services had too much “would you like fries with that ?” upselling. In the future we will stick with Dr. Camacho.

After our dental cleanings we went to our favourite restaurant in Los Algodones called Paraiso. We lingered over a great Mexican lunch, with huge strawberry margaritas, in their lovely outdoor courtyard. After lunch we went to another dentist to get a ( free ) second opinion on Dra. Marin’s recommendation for how to fix a chipped tooth Joanne has. After getting a second opinion from Dr. Erick Escobedo, we walked over to Dr. Comacho’s office and made an appointment for Joanne to have her chipped tooth repaired next Tuesday.

We went to a few different pharmacies and did some price comparisons on some medications I wanted to buy. While I was getting medication prices at one pharmacy, Joanne bought herself 2 huge plastic tubs of her favourite Mexican chocolates, hazelnut and cocoa pralines called Creminos < rolling eyes >. While I bought medications at Farmacias Tury's, Joanne went looking for a place to get haircuts. She selected Silvia’s, where my haircut and beard trim cost U.S.$3 ... yes, you read that correctly ... regular U.S. or Canadian price is usually about $15 to $20. Joanne’s haircut cost U.S.$4 ... regular American or Canadian price usually about the same as mine, around $15 to $20. And both our haircuts, and my beard trim, are as good as any we’ve had, anywhere, and better than many.

Because tomorrow is an American holiday, there were a lot of Americans in Los Algodones today, buying cheap liquor. That resulted in a 40 minute long line up to walk back across the border into the Unites States while the border guards checked closely for liquor purchases, and charged duties < sigh >. While in line we chatted with the couple in line behind us. They are from Washington state. They are snowbird “rookies”, and are still afraid of trying Mexican dentists and optometrists / opticians. After hearing about my eyeglass purchases, and our dental costs, I think that’s about to change for them.

 

Thursday ; Happy American Thanksgiving

We have learned that American Thanksgiving is as large a holiday celebration in the United States as Christmas. That's seems unusual to us Canadians. Thanksgiving in Canada isn't really that big a deal. Apparently the day after Thanksgiving is the second largest shopping day of the year here in the United States. Here, the after Thanksgiving shopping frenzy is tomorrow, from 5:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.. Most stores are advertising either a 5:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. sale or a 6:00 A.M. to noon sale. I guess that's similar to our Canadian silliness of Boxing Day sales the day after Christmas.

Today was sunny and very warm again. Today I sorted, adjusted, and cleaned all of our glasses. I now have SunSensor prescription bifocals for use most of the time, prescription bifocal sunglasses for driving, and my old prescription bifocals as a spare. Joanne has prescription glasses for driving, regular sunglasses for use most of the time, bifocal sunglasses for map reading in the truck during the day, and reading glasses for map reading in the truck at night. I’ll have to find somewhere to discard / donate my old, old spare pair of glasses. I downloaded and processed the photos I took yesterday in Los Algodones.

At 3:00 P.M. we headed for the clubhouse for the communal Thanksgiving dinner. The park cooked turkeys and mashed potatoes, and everything else was pot luck. It was a great meal indeed ! Joanne's contribution was a new recipe she learned recently in Keremeos, "The Fruit Stand Capital Of Canada", and our new home as of next spring. It's a coleslaw made with apples. We enjoyed meeting new people over dinner. After dinner we returned to the trailer, and gave Bo a haircut. This is the fourth haircut we've given him in the 2 years we've had him, and each one has been an improvement over the previous one.

We watched Survivor, then I printed and reconciled the MasterCard statements.

 

Friday ; Today was sunny and warm, less hot than it has been the last 10 days or so.

Today is "Black Friday" here in the United States, the day after Thanksgiving when all stores have a massive early morning sale, signalling the start of the Christmas shopping season. I think the "Black Friday" term is a retailer term. The success, or lack of same, of today's sales, will be a barometer of how good this Christmas shopping season will be for retailers.

The soft rock radio station we have been listening to here in Yuma changed their format this morning to "all Christmas carols, all the time". Oh, for crying out loud !

I realized this morning that I forgot to pay our phone bill when it came due about 2 weeks ago. I usually have a reminder in my computer calendar, but not this time. I paid the bill by phone this morning. I did a couple of minor maintenance chores. I took a propane tank for refilling.

After lunch we spent the afternoon lounging around the pool and hot tub. Late in the afternoon I trimmed Teddy's and Bo's nails. Bo suffers anxiety and panics when his nails are being clipped. It's common in dogs. I tried some new control and relaxation tactics on Bo that I learned recently watching The Dog Whisperer. They didn't work ! I have 2 bites to prove it.

After supper we gave Bo a bath.

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny and very warm, with some fog in the morning.

This morning we headed for one of Yuma's two flea markets, Yuma Park & Swap. From my perspective, we stayed much too long, until mid-afternoon. I bought a couple of tool items, Joanne bought some cosmetics, and we bought some produce. I'm pleased to be back here where lemons are 15 or 20 for a dollar. After buying them here last year for that price, I could not convince myself to pay 55 cents per lemon back in Canada. Joanne bought fresh avocadoes and a jicama ( pronounced "heekama" ), a local vegetable somewhat akin to a turnip. After supper we collaborated on making a fine guacamole with fresh avocadoes.

Late in the afternoon we washed the truck. We wanted to have it completely clean before we try using a new product we purchased recently. We bought a vehicle dusting brush, to be used to remove the thin layer of fine desert dust that settles on vehicles. Hopefully, dusting the truck occasionally will reduce how often we need to wet wash it. The brush has soft cotton bristles coated lightly with paraffin wax, to lift dust without scratching the vehicle finish. Hope it works.

We took Bo for an obedience session, and play session, in the huge fenced dog run area in this park. Every day we've been allowing him to run free in the fenced area, which is huge, perhaps 2 acres or so. The more freedom we give him off leash, the better behaved he becomes about returning to us when we want him to. We met Bear, a dog that's almost identical to Bo. We cleaned Teddy's and Bo's ears, and administered flea treatments and heartworm medication.

DSK

Year 3 Week 22

November 12 to 18, 2006

Hemet & Palm Springs, California

Year 3 week 22

 

Sunday ; Today was sunny and warm.

This morning I did some minor maintenance work outside. After lunch I was going to continue, but the weather was just too darn nice. The temperature was in the upper 70's, and the sun was shining brightly. I decided to succumb to temptation, and spend the afternoon in the swimming pool and hot tub. We met and chatted with quite a few other Canadians in the pool and hot tub. As a matter of fact, I think everybody in the pool and hot tub this afternoon was Canadian. I don't know ... maybe high 70's temperatures are too cold for Americans to be in the pool ?

Late in the afternoon I resumed working on some outside maintenance. I was just finishing, and putting away tools, as the sun set. A couple from Medicine Hat, Alberta stopped to chat, and we chatted for quite awhile. We decided to delay making supper, and went grocery shopping at Vons in the mall across the street from this resort. How come turkeys here in the United States are on sale just before Thanksgiving for $5.00 each when they cost about 4 to 5 times that much in Canada just before Thanksgiving ? ! ?

We had a late supper, while watching Amazing Race.

 

Monday ; Today was another sunny, warm, Southern California day.

I puttered around with a bit of outside maintenance. I used a new scratch removal compound I bought, to try to remove a few little scratches on the truck. It diminished them, but didn't eliminate them. I guess it's not really possible to eliminate little scratches, despite the claims of the product. I spent a bit of time in the swimming pool and hot tub. We went Wal-Martin'. We spent the entire day being angry at, and being hurt by one another < sigh >.

 

Tuesday ; Another sunny, warm California day. What can I say ?

This morning while walking Bo, Joanne "found" a lost elderly woman and her dog. This is such a large RV park, with 1019 sites, that the old woman got lost while walking her dog. She became disoriented, didn't know whether she "lived" in this park or elsewhere. Joanne and a park maintenance employee helped her get back "home" to the other side of the park, where her husband was working outside, oblivious to his wife's plight. Sounds like Joanne and me, 20 years from now.

We walked out ofthe park for shopping. I walked over to the nearby Home Depot, and Joanne walked to a nearby Dollar Store. Golden Village Palms RV Resort is right in the city, surrounded by shopping malls and hotels.

After lunch we went to the fitness centre and worked out on a variety of Nautilus type fitness equipment. It was helpful to my sore, arthritic knee and shoulder, long ago injured hamstring, and Joanne's arthritic hip. There will be a fitness centre at Riverside RV Park Resort in Keremeos, B.C.. When we "live" there starting next spring I think I would like to get into the habit of working out a little bit on these types of fitness equipment on a daily basis. After the fitness equipment, I spent a brief time on a treadmill, and Joanne tried out a step machine and cycle machine. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool and hot tub. It was a great way to spend the afternoon, and I hope it will become a daily routine for us "back home" in Keremeos.

Woo-Hoo ! A new record high for the Dow Jones.

 

Wednesday ; Ho-hum ... another very warm sunny Southern California day.

Joanne's wisdom of the day ; "Southern California would be a very nice place if it weren't filled with so many Southern Californians." HA HA HA ! It seems as if this somewhat expensive RV resort is filled with 2 types of people ; Canadian snowbirds, and Southern Californians who are an hour or two from home. The Canadians are interesting, but the Southern Californians are somewhat ... well ... < whispering > boring. They live a sort of L.A.-centric existence.

We found out this morning that the dinner portion of tonight's dinner / dance evening was cancelled. There were so few tickets sold that the resort cancelled the dinner, and it became a no charge evening of music and dancing with a 5 piece "big band" orchestra.

This morning I saw some people picking some fruit out of a tree about a half dozen sites over from us. I wandered over to find out what they were picking. Persimmons ! I had never had a persimmon, so I asked them to explain to me how to eat a persimmon. I picked one, and took it back to the trailer to share with Joanne and Bo. We all liked it, so I picked a few more.

I went shopping to Pep Boys, a chain of large auto parts and accessories stores. I was looking for two items, expecting to spend between $10 and $20. They had neither, but I did find three other items to buy, spending about $100. Hey ... we're in Southern California. Pimp my ride ! We went for lunch to El Pollo Loco ( Spanish for The Crazy Chicken ), a chain of Mexican roast chicken fast food restaurants. Kind of like Swiss Chalet with olé. HA HA HA ! It was quite good.

We spent the afternoon lounging around the pool and hot tub, after a circuit through the exercise equipment in the fitness centre. At 6:00 P.M. we went to the "dance" in the ballroom, sitting at a table with 3 couples, all from Southern California. One of the couples owns a 3 year old Dodge 1 ton diesel dually, that they bought brand new, to tow their fifth wheel. It has about the same amount of mileage as we have put on our truck in the 6 months that we've owned it. The dance evening was pathetically poorly attended, especially given that it was a free event.

See ? ! ? I told you so ! The Curse Of Joanne is alive and well. Remember the photo of Bo and his starfish ? That was in Crescent City, California a year and a half ago. Crescent City, California was hit hard this afternoon by the tsunami caused by the earthquake in Japan today.

 

Thursday ; Today was sunny and hot, temperature in the 80's, thanks to something local called the Santa Ana winds. Somehow the winds that blow over the Santa Ana Mountains always seem to blow warm air down here into the San Bernardino Valley. Wow ... gag me with a spoon. HA HA HA ! I guess that dates me somewhat. I don't think "Valley Girls" still say that here.

This morning I installed the brushed aluminum gas cap door I bought yesterday at Pep Boys. Then I drove to a local Dodge dealer to buy a small tube of touch up paint. I phoned Guide Dogs Of The Desert to confirm that we would be arriving there tomorrow about noon.

After lunch we did a circuit around the fitness equipment, then spent another long afternoon in the pool and hot tub. Nice work if you can get it !

We had a great turkey dinner, with the really cheap turkey we bought a few days ago. We figured there was no point keeping it until American Thanksgiving next Thursday, because we'll be at the Escapee park in Yuma for Thanksgiving. We watched Survivor, then I spent the evening updating my investment files. Well, the stock market certainly has done well lately, hasn't it ? ! ?

 

Friday ; Hemet to Palm Springs, California

Today was another sunny, very warm day, temperature well into the 80's.

This morning we departed Golden Village Palms RV Resort, stopping at Wal-Mart for a few items before leaving Hemet. We drove out of Hemet to the north on Hwy. 79, through San Jacinto ( pronounced “Yasinto” ), to Interstate 10 where we turned east at Beaumont towards Palm Springs. We drove through the area burned by the recent Esperanza wild fire. It burned all over the place, jumping around, crossing the highway, burning some areas and skipping over others. There hardly seems like there's enough vegetation in the desert to burn, but it's so dry, and with some wind, wild fires here race at quite a high speed, burning a lot of area quickly. At Palm Springs we turned north off of I-10 onto Hwy. 62. Guide Dogs Of The Desert is near the intersection of I-10 and Hwy. 62, halfway up the side of a mountain, with a spectacular vista of Palm Springs a few miles off in the distance, far below. The night time vista is particularly pretty. We are surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of windmills. This is a wind farming area.

We met with Kathie Flamm, the Volunteer Co-ordinator, and our "boss", I guess. We met with Marilyn, the current dormitory "Mom", and the woman we will be replacing. Joanne chatted with Marilyn for much of the afternoon. I wandered around, checking things out. Kathie took us around to meet most of the staff. Guide Dogs Of The Desert is on quite a large piece of desert property. The administrative offices and training kennels are on one side of the road, and the student dormitory is on the other side of the road. The breeding kennels are in some other nearby location that we haven't seen yet.

We met the current 2 students, who are graduating in 2 days, on Sunday. Today was their last day of formal training. We chatted with them, one student's mother, Marilyn the Dorm Mom, and Kim, the Director Of Operations, while they all ate dinner. We declined their invitation to join them for dinner, having dinner in the trailer afterwards.

The Guide Dogs Of The Desert property is overrun with little rabbits. Bo thinks it’s great. We don’t !

 

Saturday ; Whew ... brutal desert sun ! Air temperature in the high 80's, but in direct sunlight ... whew ! I just know everybody back in Winnipeg is feeling a lot of pity for me when they read this. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

This morning I got up very early, and went to shower in a dormitory room because we don't have a sewer connection for the trailer in the parking lot, and we don't want to fill up the shower waste holding tank while we're here for the weekend. I chatted with Marilyn for a couple of hours while helping her a very little with breakfast for the 2 students and 1 parent. I napped ! I took some pictures of Guide Dogs Of The Desert property and surrounding view. I polished out a couple more little scratches on the truck.

Why does Bo lie in sunbeams in the trailer, then pant and look at us pathetically, because he's too hot ? ! ? I took him outside and sprayed him with a garden hose to cool him down. A little guide dog trick I learned yesterday. The big dogs seem to really love being sprayed down on hot days. Bo didn't seem to be as thrilled. Hey, Bo ... if you can't run with the big dogs ... ! HA HA HA !

Late this afternoon I misplaced Teddy. I searched all over the trailer. I went into Guide Dogs Of The Desert Gift Shop to get Joanne's help. She was helping out in the gift shop, preparing for tomorrow's graduation ceremony. Joanne and I, and many staff and volunteers who were here helping prepare for tomorrow's graduation began wandering the desert, calling and searching for Teddy. There was a lot of concern by the staff and volunteers that a coyote would eat Teddy. I tried not to panic. After 20 minutes of many people searching the grounds around the Guide Dogs Of The Desert buildings, and out in the desert, Joanne found him ... fast asleep inside the trailer's bedroom closet. Ooooops ! ! !

Tonight we accepted the invitation to have dinner in the dormitory dining room with the 2 students and 1 parent. The students and guide dogs are Kathleeya, a 27 year old woman and her Chocolate Lab guide, Halo, and Jordan, a 16 year old boy and his Black Lab guide, Mikey. Both Kathleeya and Jordan have very limited, impaired vision. Kathleeya was telling the story of how she misplaced Halo recently, because the dog's colour blends in with the colour of the sofa in the dormitory that Halo was sleeping on. Kathleeya asked Jordan if he had seen Halo recently. While she was telling this story, I almost choked on my food, stifling myself from laughing as I contemplated the absurdity of the blind leading the blind. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

 

DSK

Year 3 Week 21

November 5 to 11, 2006

Sutherlin, Oregon to Hemet, California

Year 3 week 21

 

Sunday ; Sutherlin, Oregon to Anderson, California

Today started out cloudy and raining lightly, but, as expected, by the time we were well into California, the rain stopped, and the sun was beginning to peek out a bit. When we left B.C. the temperatures were in the low 30's, in Washington they were in the low 40's, in Oregon they were in the low 50's, and here in Northern California they are in the low 60's. I expect they will be in the low 70's in Southern California. We know from previous experience that each full day of driving south results in about a 10 degree rise in temperature.

I was wondering why Lanoire seemed a bit sluggish accelerating from a stop, especially entering highway ramps going slightly uphill. I thought something was wrong until I realized that the temporary performance upgrade program installed into her computer had expired. HMPH ... I guess it really did make a difference in torque as well as in horsepower. I'll have to reconsider my decision not to buy a power performance "chip".

It was raining lightly as we prepared for departure from Timber Valley SKP Park this morning. We continued south on I-5. I wanted to get as close as I could to California before refilling with diesel. Oregon's fuel prices are much lower than California's. I managed to make it to Medford, Oregon before refuelling. The "distance to empty" readout was 3 miles. HA HA HA ... I've actually driven it lower than that, at least twice before. As soon as we crossed into California we stopped for lunch at a highway rest area. WOW ... California must have more tax dollars than they know what to do with ! Spiffy rest area ! After lunch we stopped for groceries in Yreka, California.

We were planning to stop for the night in Redding, but we continued a little further than that, stopping for the night at a Wal-Mart in Anderson. We did some Wal-Martin’ before preparing supper. After supper I set up our little 12 volt TV to watch Amazing Race.

 

Monday ; Anderson to Coarsegold, California

Today was sunny and warm. When we were leaving the Wal-Mart parking lot this morning, the temperature was 68 degrees. By the time we stopped for lunch, it was 77 degrees. I had to change from a long sleeved shirt to a t-shirt. Welcome to California.

We were awakened at 4:30A.M. by a Wal-Mart employee cleaning the parking lot using a noisy leaf blower / vacuum. Moron ! Teddy decided he was hungry. I fed him. Bo decided he wanted to go to the bathroom. I walked him < sigh >. The entire Wal-Mart parking lot was half filled with cars. Who the hell goes Wal-Martin' at 4:30 in the morning ? ! ? Welcome to California.

When I was walking him again just before we departed, I got a phone call from Kathie Flamm at Guide Dogs of The Desert in Palm Springs. They were forecast to have a temperature in the 90’s today. Welcome to California. HA HA HA ... Woo-Hoo ! I had a discussion with Kathie, and decided we would head to Guide Dogs Of The Desert for the weekend of November 18 / 19 to observe a graduation ceremony. One of our largest responsibilities while we’re WorkCamping there will be to prepare the graduation ceremony luncheons. We’ll leave after the weekend, and return a couple of weeks later to actually begin our WorkCamping job.

We headed south on I-5, into the Sacramento Valley, following the Sacramento River. We stopped at Corning to shop ( and taste ) at a store called The Olive Pit. The area around Corning is filled with olive groves. I tasted a lot of different olives, but didn’t buy any. While in Corning we also stopped at Flying J to refill with diesel, empty the shower holding tank, and refill with fresh water. After the olive groves we passed some cotton farms. Most of the cotton fields were already picked. Long, thin strands of cotton were floating around in the wind, getting caught on the truck’s mirrors and antenna as we drove. It looked like the truck was decorated with Hallowe’en fake cobwebs. HA HA HA !

We could see the pollution of Sacramento long before we got there. The I-5 freeway into Sacramento was 7 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic flowing at 70 MPH. It was intimidating. And ... as soon as we got near Sacramento, driving styles and attitudes changed. Self-centred, rude, aggressive driving. We know from previous experience that California has its own unique style of driving, from Sacramento and San Francisco in Central California, south all the way to Los Angeles and beyond. Kind of a "survival of the fittest" style. Kind of like "if you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch". Driving a rig that's 47½ feet long, weighing 20,000 pounds, on California's freeways, is quite a challenge.

Part way through Sacramento we turned east onto Hwy. 50 for a couple of miles, then south onto Hwy. 99. Through Lodi ... < singing > "Lord, I'm stuck in Lodi again". I can see why getting stuck in Lodi once would be enough. HA HA HA HA HA ! Just before Fresno, and as it turned dark, we turned east onto Hwy. 145 at Madera. At Hwy. 41 we turned north and began climbing up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We drove to Coarsegold, where we stopped for a few nights at SKP Park Of The Sierras. The park office was closed, so we parked in the boondock area overnight.

We really wanted to reach here today, but that was a bit too much driving for 1 day.

 

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and warm. AHHHHH !

This morning we moved from the park's boondock area to site 118. This is an SKP co-op park, where sites not currently occupied by their residents are made available for short term renters / travellers like us. SKP Park Of The Sierras is in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and they have done an excellent job of developing an exceptionally lovely RV park with minimal impact on the surrounding natural area. We took Bo up into the hills surrounding our site, for an obedience and play session. YIKES ! Then we spent the next couple of hours pulling burrs out of his coat. Poor Bo ! I found another huge ( Bull or Digger ? ) pine cone, like the one I found here last year and brought back for my sister. The odd thing is ... there were no giant pine trees visible near where I found the cone, so I don't know how it got there. Was it moved by an animal ?

We got a visit from a woman who visits and welcomes new arrivals in the park. Nice touch ! I filed Misty Venture's quarterly GST return, and made reservations at an upscale luxury RV resort in Hemet, near Palm Springs. I walked down to the clubhouse, exchanged some books, and dropped off some unwanted items at the park's bargain table.

Oh, my goodness ! The Curse Of Joanne has struck again. The Curse Of Joanne is sort of an inside / family joke. The premise of The Curse Of Joanne is that, sooner or later, everywhere that we have travelled to will be devastated by a weather event of some sort. Tonight the lead story on the national news was the flooding in Washington and Oregon caused by the extremely heavy rains of the last week or so. The news featured the destruction of the Wilson River Campground in Tillamook, Oregon. We spent a week at the Wilson River Campground a year and a half ago, waiting for Dee-Dee's transmission to be rebuilt ... for the first time ! The news showed the collapsed campground office, surrounded by the raging waters of the swollen Wilson River. Trailers were tipped over, floating away, and getting trapped in trees. The campground owner who was so helpful to us while we were stranded there was being interviewed. Not only did we stay in the Wilson River Campground a year and a half ago, we drove through the area a few days ago. The heavy rains had already begun. I'm glad we drove through and out of it just before the flooding began.

 

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and warm.

This morning I discovered the answer to the mystery of how do the giant Bull / Digger Pine cones end up on the forest floor far from trees. They roll ! They fall off the trees, then roll down the hillsides, bouncing in all directions, coming to rest in gullies, where they are sometimes washed even further downhill when it rains and the rain water flows through the gullies. While walking Bo this morning I discovered a couple of bunches of these huge cones piled together at the bottom of hillsides, and at the bottom of little dry gullies.

For lunch we drove a couple of miles to the Chuckchansi Gold Resort & Casino, where they have a stupendous buffet dining room, with an incredibly cheap price for seniors at lunch time on weekdays. They don't question our "senior" status. Who else other than retired "seniors" show up for lunch on weekdays ? HA HA HA ! We're old !

First stop was the soup and salad bar. Then the Italian bar. Then the Mexican bar. Then the American bar ( southern fried chicken, barbecued beef ribs, etc. ), then the Chinese bar, then the dessert bar. Joanne skipped the Chinese bar. Wimp ! HA HA HA ! But ... she did redeem herself by having 5 desserts ! HA HA HA HA HA !

She wanted to play a dollar's worth in the penny slots. Okay. I wanted to quit after about half an hour, when we were up to $4. She wanted to continue. At 45 minutes we were at about $3. At an hour we were at $2. Again I wanted to quit. She wanted to continue. At an hour and a half we were at $3. Enough ! I've got to go wash the truck. Hmmmm ... in an hour and half, we tripled our money. Maybe next time we'll play the $1000 slots instead of the penny slots. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

 

Thursday ; Coarsegold to Mojave, California

Today was sunny and warm.

This morning we departed SKP Park Of The Sierras, heading south on Hwy. 41 to Fresno. Driving through Fresno, we got onto Hwy. 99 heading southeast into the San Joaquin ( pronounced "Whakeen" ) Valley. We stopped in Fowler to refill with diesel. We stopped in Tulare to replenish groceries, and have lunch. We stopped in Bakersfield to buy some RV supplies at Camping World.

From Bakersfield, we got onto Hwy. 58 heading southeast through and over the Tehachapi Mountains into ... finally ... the Mojave Desert. AHHHHH ... I like the Mojave ! At the town of Mojave, we turned north onto Hwy. 14 for 6 miles to Sierra Trails RV Park, where we stopped for the night. Another long, hard day of driving, searching for an RV park in the dark, and having to back into a difficult site in the dark. Stressful for both of us !

 

Friday ; Mojave to Hemet, California

Today was sunny and very warm.

We weren't aware that today was the beginning of a long weekend in the United States. It was a hell of a bad time to be driving the freeways on the east side of Los Angeles. It took us about 3½ hours to travel about 30 miles. Sheesh !

This morning we travelled 6 miles south on Hwy. 14 back to the town of Mojave where we turned east on Hwy. 58. At an intersection named Four Corners, in the Mojave Desert, in the middle of nowhere, we turned south on Hwy. 395. It was a long stretch of mile after mile of nothing. Hwy. 395 ended when it reached Interstate 15 at Hesperia. We stopped at a Pilot Travel Centre, refilled with diesel, and had lunch. After lunch we continued south on I-15. Soon we were at Cajon Summit ( elev. 4259 ft. ) in the San Gabriel Mountains. The descent down into the San Bernardino Valley was 12 miles long, and it took us about an hour and a half to travel the 12 mile hill. It was the beginning of a long afternoon of 4 lane wide freeway, bumper to bumper, crawling speed. We branched off I-15 onto I-215, a bypass around the east side of Los Angeles, through San Bernardino and Riverside. Finally, after 3½ hours of creeping, we reached Hwy. 74 where we turned east towards Hemet. We arrived at Golden Palms Village at 5:00 P.M., just as it turned dark.

WOW ... 1019 RV sites. The lobby and check in desk were like a major hotel. It was difficult to get backed into our site in the dark. Two nights in a row of getting backed in and set up in the dark < sigh >. We're going to stay here for a week, rest, and get caught up on some chores. And ... hopefully ... enjoy some nice Southern California weather.

We're in between the San Bernardino Mountains to our northeast, and the Santa Ana Mountains to our southwest. We're just a few miles south of where that large wild fire was a couple of weeks ago. In today's local newspaper there was a belated obituary for one of the fire fighters killed. He was from this town.

 

Saturday ; Remembrance Day in Canada / Veterans Day In United States

Lest We Forget !

This morning we observed a minute of silence, to remember, at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, under the shade of the orange and lemon trees in the vacant site next to us. It saddens me to once again witness the difference between how Canadians observe Remembrance Day, and how Americans pretty much ignore Veterans Day. Despite the fact that it is a national holiday in the U.S., it just seems like another opportunity to go shopping. Our minute of silence was marred by a loud conversation, and a loud engine starting, in nearby sites.

Today was sunny and warm.

We walked around the resort, checking out the 3 swimming pools, 3 hot tubs, poolside snack bar, huge fitness centre, library, many meeting rooms, banquet room, laundry room, etc.. This place is similar to a luxury hotel resort, without the rooms. Quite a nice place, although a tad expensive. I think we'll consider spending an entire winter here at some time in the future. I looked in their guest book, sorted by state and province. There are quite a few B.C. people spending the winter here. A couple from Alberta, a couple from Saskatchewan, nobody from Manitoba or further east in Canada. We purchased 2 tickets to Jazz In The Palms next Wednesday, an evening of dining and dancing in the resort's banquet room, with a 5 piece jazz band. We weighed ourselves, for the first time in 2½ years, on the scale in the fitness room. YIKES ! ! ! < shudder >

It was kind of nice to have a Diet Cola with a wedge of a lemon that had been growing on a tree up until 30 seconds before it was in my drink. HA HA HA !

DSK