Year 3 Week 31

January 14 to 21, 2007

Desert Hot Springs, California

Year 3 week 31

 

Sunday ; Today was sunny and cool. North America is still in a continent wide deep freeze. The temperature overnight dipped below freezing. Very rare here.

Today we headed for the El Paseo shopping district of the cities of Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, for the annual Palm Desert Golf Cart Parade. HA HA HA ... paying homage, no doubt, to the backbone of the City Of Palm Desert's economy. And ... HA HA HA HA HA ... I found this hilarious ... even the Police Department of the City Of Palm Desert has a golf cart. It's painted black and white, like a cruiser, and has a flashing light bar on the top. I wonder where and why they actually use a "police cruiser" golf cart ?

As we parked in a shopping mall near the golf cart parade route, we narrowly avoided a bit of an ugly incident. There was a car behind us, waiting for us to pull into our parking spot. Another car backed out of its parking spot, and backed into the car waiting behind us. By the time we finished parking, and got out of the truck, two old women were screaming at one another. The one that got backed into was even screaming at us as we walked away. Apparently she thought that somehow we had some blame in all of this. We walked a block or so over to El Paseo and watched the very interesting Palm Desert Golf Cart Parade. Just like a regular parade, with marching bands, but instead of floats covered in roses, there were, ... well ... decorated golf carts. HA HA HA. And here in what is apparently the golf cart capital of the world, there are golf carts that are replicas of high end automobiles, and classic automobiles. There are Lincoln and Cadillac and Rolls Royce and 57 Chevy golf carts. HA HA HA HA HA !

EUUUUUWWWWW ! ! ! As I'm typing this, I've just had my first sip of Two Buck Chuck. Now I know why it costs two bucks !

After the parade we sat and watched the free stage entertainment for awhile. It was terrible ! A bunch of cheesy, lounge lizard type acts. The worse one was a winner on the TV show "Star Search" 21 years ago. All participants on the current "Idol" shows should be forced to watch her perform, then told "give it up and get a real job or this will be you in 20 years, performing on the Palm Desert Golf Cart Parade free stage !" After 3 or 4 acts, I couldn't stand the agony any longer, and we went shopping on ElPaseo. We went into a dog bakery & boutique. Joanne feels that Bo is not "keeping up with the Jones" here in the Palm Springs area and needs a better wardrobe. Not in my life time ! We went into Jensen's Fine Foods, another upscale gourmet grocer. There's a few of them in this area. A place like Palm Springs needs more than just your regular everyday Safeway or Albertson's. We weren't really planning to buy anything when we went into Jensen's, but a few items were irresistible. I did, however, resist buying the fifty dollar a pound smoked sturgeon ! YIKES !

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and cool. It's supposed to start warming up a bit within the next few days.

This morning I drove over to Tamarisk Mobile Home & RV Park to get online using the Wi-Fi satellite signal of one of the mobile homes. The Wi-Fi signal here at Sam's Family Spa Resort is still unusable. And my attempts to get my money back from Tengo Internet have apparently fallen on deaf ears ! I sent and retrieved e-mail, updated my blog, and retrieved updated investment data. I chatted briefly with a park resident walking around with his pet macaw, Rascal, on his shoulder.

I finished repairing and reinstalling the roof ladder stand off stanchions. I'm proud of myself. I creatively fixed a problem that seemed unfixable. We drove over to Rancho Mirage for some shopping at Lowe's, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart. On the way back to Desert Hot Springs we stopped at Flying J in Thousand Palms to refill with diesel and propane.

 

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and mild.

I didn't do much of anything today. I've been feeling ill the last few days, due to a flare up of colitis. I guess today I felt a little more ill than the previous few days. I made some phone calls trying to get some information on touring through Mexico by RV. That's our goal for next winter. I set up an appointment for 48,000 km. service for Lanoire with a local Chrysler dealer before we leave the Palm Springs area at the beginning of February. Joanne went shopping for groceries and supplies in Desert Hot Springs. We had a very close call as she was leaving to go shopping. I was crouched underneath the rear of the truck doing preventive maintenance when she began to back out of our site. I wondered why she was starting the engine while I was still working on the truck, but I was certain that she had seen me and knew what I was doing. WRONG !

Our neighbour purchased and assembled a lovely yard swing today. It's what I want for our new lot in Keremeos, B.C.. Sometime in the next few days we're going to go to Lowe's to take a look at the same model of yard swing, and the matching patio table and chairs. The price is good, and Lowe's isn't in Canada, so these products may not be available in Canada. I think it's worth considering purchasing these products at a Lowe's near the Canadian border before we return to Canada in the spring.

For supper, we went to the park's "soup sampler". We had been to a soup sampler once before, about a year ago, at the Escapees park in Alabama where we rescued / adopted Bo a little over 2 years ago. It was great. Everybody prepares and brings a pot of their favourite soup, and everybody samples bowls of different soups until full. Based on my recommendation, Joanne prepared a pot of potato and dill soup. She had some difficulty finding fresh dill over the last few days, but finally found some today at Stater Bros. in Desert Hot Springs. Tonight's soup sampler was as good as the one we had attended previously in Alabama. Although I found out a bit too late that one of the soups that I ate had a lot of pork and peppers in it. Both of those will make my colitis worse than it already is < sigh >.

 

Wednesday ; Happy 8th Birthday to Joanne’s niece Madeleine

Today was sunny and mild. BUT ... it snowed today in Malibu, a northern suburb of Los Angeles, on the Pacific coast, about 150 miles west of here. First snowfall in Malibu in 18 years. Interstate 5 heading north out of Los Angeles is closed. There were massive multi-vehicle pile-ups on I-5 today. Obviously people here don't know how to drive on snow.

I have recently resumed the habit of reading aloud my journal entry from the same date a year ago. As a result, we have just realized ( at 6:00 P.M. ) that today is Joanne's niece Madeleine's 8th birthday. We'd better phone her right now, as it's getting close to her bedtime, a few time zones away.

Right after lunch I went to Blair Station RV and bought a few spare parts for future roof ladder repairs, if necessary. Then we went on a "windmill" tour. Actually, it's incorrect to call them windmills. They're wind turbines. The tour was quite educational. There are about 4000 wind turbines, on 80 wind farms, here in the Coachella Valley / Palm Springs area. The tallest ones are 300 feet tall, the maximum height allowed by the FAA, the Federal Aviation Authority. The biggest ones each generate enough electricity to power about 650 homes. This area is the largest of the three wind energy farming areas in California. After the windmill tour we drove into Desert Hot Springs to find Cabot's Pueblo Museum. Joanne was somewhat interested in seeing it, but after driving by, her interest dissolved. We went to shop at Carniceria Rancho Grande ( translates as Big Ranch Butcher, I guess ), a Mexican grocery store across the street from Stater Bros. in Desert Hot Springs. HA HA HA ... gringos on one side of the street, Mexicans on the other. We bought some Mexican pastries / Pan Dulce ( translates as Soft Bread, I guess ), and some fresh guacamole

 

Thursday ; Today was sunny and warm.

This morning I took an empty propane tank over to Blair Station RV to be refilled. We used up this tank very quickly, and it leads me to believe that the last time we filled up this tank, at Flying J in Thousand Palms, it wasn't filled properly. The huge source tank at Flying J was being refilled at the same time as they refilled our little tank. I wonder if filling our tank at the same time as they're filling their huge tank resulted in us getting a tank full of mostly air ?

We spent much of the afternoon at Palm Springs Dog Park, behind Palm Springs City Hall. Bo had a great time, romping on both the little dog side and the big dog side. Good dog, Bo. He's very well behaved at the dog park, with many dogs and people.

Immediately after supper, we went to the clubhouse for the park's "dessert party". Everybody contributes a desert to be shared, and everybody samples different desserts while socializing. It was a neat idea. RV parks are always looking for interesting new excuses to eat and socialize. We had a lengthy chat with an interesting old couple from Rochester, New York, a bit southwest of where we used to live in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

Friday ; Today was cloudy and cool. I was sick.

We had planned to spend the day visiting The Living Desert. Just as we were preparing to leave, we mutually decided that due to the weather being less than perfect, and me feeling quite sick, we were going to postpone our trip to the Living Desert, and go another day. I spent the day in bed, reading and snoozing. I dislike days when I'm sick and accomplish nothing. They leave me feeling poorly emotionally, when I'm already feeling poorly physically. Joanne went shopping in Desert Hot Springs, then she did laundry.

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny and warm.

We spent the entire day at The Living Desert. It's a very large piece of property in the Palm Springs suburb of Indian Wells, showcasing the plants and animals of the North American deserts ( Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan ) and the African desert ( Sahara ). Great zoo ! The highlight of the day was seeing giraffes. We also saw camels, zebras, meerkats, and a variety of North American and African wild cats. We saw the native plants of all the deserts. However ... we've actually seen most of the North American desert plants in their natural habitat, so to speak, as we've traveled. We just didn't know the names of them all. HA HA HA !

On the way home we stopped at Lowe's and browsed for garden swings and table top barbecues. We found the garden swing we want, and will have to figure out when and where to buy it. Probably at a Lowe's in Idaho, near Canada, late in April. And we'll probably return to Lowe's here to buy a new barbecue next week.

 

DSK