Year 3 Week 33

January 28 to February 3, 2007

Desert Hot Springs to San Diego, California

Year 3 week 33

 

Sunday ; Happy 53rd Birthday to Joanne

Today was sunny and very warm.

This morning I phoned my brother-in-law Bud to find out how my sister Sharon is doing. She had hip replacement surgery 2 days ago. Bud said the surgery went as well as could be expected, with no complications.

We drove to Flying J in Thousand Palms to fill up with diesel and refill a propane tank. I wanted to treat Joanne to a birthday lunch at the In & Out Burger across the street from Flying J, as she's been wanting to try an In & Out Burger. The line-up inside In & Out Burger was so long, we decided not to stay because we had to be in downtown Palm Springs in an hour. We got back on the I-10 freeway, drove back to Palm Springs, and found our way downtown. My "Plan B" was to take her to a locally famous burger restaurant called "Tyler's", owned and operated by a late 1960's Playboy Playmate. We found a parking spot and walked to Tyler's. It was closed on Sundays. Darn ! And we only had 20 minutes left until the beginning of The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies performance. No lunch today !

We walked to the beautiful, old Plaza Theatre on Palm Canyon Drive, picked up our tickets, and found our seats. The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies is a 3 hour presentation of Vaudeville style song and dance. What is unique about "The Follies" is that the youngest performer is 58 years old. And the oldest is 83 ! The guest "headliner" was Gloria Loring, an actress whose heyday was in the 80's. There were a couple of specialty acts designed, no doubt, to give the senior citizen singers and dancers a rest. The best was a husband and wife team, performing "quick change" / magic transformation. They were neat !

After the show, we walked around downtown looking for somewhere to have an early supper. Joanne selected Ruby Diner. A few weeks ago we had lunch at Ruby Diner in Rancho Mirage, and Joanne liked it so much she chose the downtown location for her birthday dinner today. Wow ... from dinner in the Eiffel Tower with a show at the Moulin Rouge afterwards, in Paris 3 years ago, to The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies and Ruby Diner today. What a fall from grace. HA HA HA !

As we drove back to Desert Hot Springs, Joanne's sister phoned to wish her Happy Birthday. Joanne chatted with her sister Lorraine, and nieces Madeleine and Amelia.

Happy Birthday, mi Amor !

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and very warm.

This morning my sister Sharon phoned from the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg, to let us know how her recovery is progressing after hip replacement surgery a few days ago. I applied a second and final coat of rubber roof compound around the new vent cap I installed on Harvey's roof Saturday. After lunch we drove to the Post Office in Desert Hot Springs and picked up some mail at General Delivery. Then we drove to Cathedral City to shop at Yes I Can, a store that sells mobility aids, all kinds of health related products for the elderly, and post surgical specialty products. Joanne shopped in their mastectomy room for a new bra and swimsuit. She bought a new bra, but not a swim suit. Too bad. We don't often come across specialty stores offering mastectomy products. Back at Sam's Family Spa Resort we washed the truck.

After supper we went to Desert Hot Springs to buy some groceries, then spent the rest of the evening sitting in the mineral water hot spas visiting with people from Edmonton, Seattle, and Colorado.

 

Tuesday ; Today was mostly cloudy and mild. While I was driving to Crystal Chrysler in Cathedral City it rained for about 10 seconds ... literally.

This morning we finished buffing the truck. Looks very nice. I removed all the valve extenders, hub caps, and wheel liners. I'm too fussy to trust the dealership's technicians to remove and replace them to my satisfaction. I phoned the Canadian federal government, and the Ontario provincial government, and ordered corporate tax return forms. I made a mistake in my order with the Ontario government, and will either have to phone again, or order the form online, now that I've obtained the Ontario government's online forms order web site. I did a couple of minor maintenance chores, then drove to Crystal Chrysler in Cathedral City for Lanoire's 48,000 km. service. Gee ... the bill is going to be about U.S.$750 ! Change oil and filter, change rear differential fluid, change front differential fluid, change transmission fluid and filter, replace fuel filter, rotate 6 tires, inspect brakes and everything else. And ... HA HA HA ... as a courtesy, they're going to wash the truck. Too bad I didn't know that yesterday !

For supper we went to the park's pot luck dinner, the last communal social activity in this park before we leave on Friday. Good dinner ! Pleasant company. Chatted with an interesting 80 year old woman. Her daughter, our age, died last month !

 

Wednesday ; Today was partially cloudy and mild.

This morning I prepared some postcards to send, did obedience training with Bo, read, and snoozed. This afternoon Crystal Chrysler's shuttle picked me up to drive me over to Cathedral City to pick up Lanoire. Recently I had noticed what I thought might be evidence of a leak at the power steering pump. Crystal Chrysler checked it out and found that the steering gear box was leaking. They replaced it under warranty. No muss, no fuss. I'm impressed.

This evening I got online, using the Wi-Fi signal I can "steal" from the motorhome around the corner from us. I retrieved updated investment data, bank account statements, and the Ontario corporate tax return forms I need. Our investment portfolios' value is at a new all time high. WOO-HOO !

 

Thursday ; Today was sunny and mild.

This morning I tightened all the lug nuts on the truck, then reinstalled the valve extenders, wheel liners, and hub caps. In the process I smashed my thumb with a mallet. Ouch ! ! ! Then we left for a day of errands and shopping, to prepare for our departure tomorrow. First stop was the Post Office in Desert Hot Springs, to post some mail and check for the last piece of mail I was expecting at General Delivery. It wasn't there. Oh, well, it was just an RV caravan tour company's catalogue. When it finally does arrive here in Desert Hot Springs, it will sit here for 30 days in General Delivery, then get sent back to sender. We refilled water jugs at Stater Bros., then went to a women's fashion shop called Glossy. A woman we were chatting with in the mineral water hot spas the other night told Joanne that Glossy had a good selection of mastectomy swim suits. She was right. Joanne bought a new swim suit. I tried to convince her to buy two, but she wouldn't. That means more shopping for swim suits in the future < big sigh >.

We drove from Desert Hot Springs to Interstate 10, then east on I-10 to Thousand Palms to finally have lunch at an In-N-Out Burger outlet. Great burgers ! But In-N-Out Burgers seem to be so popular here in California there was a line-up even on a Friday at 1:30 P.M.. I think In-N-Out Burger's burgers were better than the Texas chain Whattaburger's burgers. Joanne disagrees, and thinks weshould drive to Texas to have lunch at a Whattaburger for comparison. Okay ! HA HA HA !

We drove a bit further east to Rancho Mirage. First stop was Home Depot where they finally had in stock the 12 foot piece of moulding I need. But obviously I don't have time to install it before we head to San Diego, so we'll be struggling with temporary storage of a cumbersome 12 foot piece of moulding for awhile until I get around to installing it. Next was < another big sigh > Wal-Mart for a major replenishment of supplies and groceries before leaving tomorrow for San Diego. I think we spend way too much of our lives in Wal-Marts. Finally, on our way back to Desert Hot Springs we stopped at Flying J in Thousand Palms to refill Lanoire with diesel.

Back at the trailer I reconciled last month's bank statements, then worked on updating my investment files and spreadsheets. Late in the evening we went to sit in the mineral water hot spas for about an hour, our last chance to "take the healing waters" as they used to say.

 

Friday ; Desert Hot Springs to San Diego, California

Today was sunny and warm.

This morning as we prepared for departure I discovered that the automatic transmission fluid and power steering fluid in Lanoire were a bit low, as a result of work done by Crystal Chrysler the other day. That caused a bit of a delay in our departure. Topping up fluids in Lanoire is not as easy as it sounds, due to how high the truck is, and how large the Cummins diesel engine is. I have to stand on a step ladder to be able to reach into the engine compartment.

We departed Desert Hot Springs heading west on Interstate 10. We turned southwest on Hwy. 60, then south on Interstate 215, then south on Interstate 15. We stopped for lunch just south of Temecula. As we got to the northern edge of San Diego, we turned east on Hwy. 52, then south on Hwy. 125 to stay on the outskirts of the city and avoid the worse of the afternoon rush hour.

Joanne had read about a casino on the east side of San Diego on Interstate 8 that welcomed RV’ers and allowed overnight parking. She wanted to visit the casino and stay overnight. We turned east on Interstate 8, drove through the San Diego suburb of El Cajon ( Ka hone ), and found the Viejas Casino operated by the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians. After we parked I discovered that I had overfilled the power steering fluid, and it was oozing out through the top fill plug on the power steering pump, making a greasy mess all over the power steering pump, the steering gear box, and the underside of the front of the truck. DARN ! We jumped into the shuttle that drives through the parking lot every 10 or 15 minutes or so, and rode to the casino.

What an odd building. Large, multi level, built in 3 “wings”, east, south, and west. We entered through the east door, then wandered around trying to find our way to the south door. Once we found the south door, we walked out to the adjacent “outlet” shopping mall. WOW ... another Indian Band with too much money ! The outdoor “mall” was a series of pave stone walkways, winding around through manufactured high desert “canyons”, remarkably life like. Periodically, there were “caves” in the canyon walls. These were the store entrances. All through and around the “canyons” was lush oasis landscaping. There was a dancing water fountain, laid out in a Dream Catcher design.

At the far end of the mall was a San Diego Information Centre. We went in and collected some maps and information. As we came out of the Information centre, I began to feel weak, and my muscles began to ache. We walked around a bit more, then headed back to the casino. By the time we got back into the casino, I was feeling horribly ill and needed to rest. We sat down at some slot machines so that I could rest a bit while Joanne played a dollar in a penny slot machine. It didn’t take her long to lose the dollar, so we decided to head back to the trailer. We got slightly lost a few times trying to find the east door. By the time we got back to the trailer, I felt so chilled that my body was shivering and my teeth were chattering, and I ached everywhere. My head hurt, my face hurt, my eyes hurt, my arms ached from shoulders to fingertips, my legs ached from hips to toes, and I was nauseous.

I was wearing a long sleeved denim shirt and cardigan sweater. I added a hooded sweater, and a knit wool, long jacket, wrapped myself like a cocoon in 2 down filled duvets, and crawled into bed for 18 hours.

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny and warm.

Holy Mackerel ! I don’t think I’ve ever had a flu grab me that hard, that suddenly. I couldn’t get out of bed until noon today. It was our plan to move to an RV park this morning, after seeing the casino last night, but I was too ill to even get out of bed, let alone drive the rig. And Joanne is not capable of driving the rig in congested urban traffic.

I got up at noon and had a small lunch. Joanne and I did some planning of what we wanted to see and do in San Diego, then she made a reservation at an RV park for arrival tomorrow. Right after lunch I went back to bed, where I stayed for another 18 hours, getting up only to deal with my ongoing episodes of exploding colon, made much worse by the flu.

Joanne went to the casino to renew our free overnight parking permit, then she went to browse in the outlet mall. She returned disgusted. Fifty-seven stores, and nothing of any interest to anyone over the age of twenty-five !

 

DSK