November 15 to 21, 2007
Pahrump, Nevada
Thursday ; Today was another sunny, hot day out here in the Mojave Desert. This morning we spent quite awhile chatting with our very friendly next door neighbours, then went into town to run some errands. After lunch back at the trailer, we spent most of the afternoon floating around the pool, in the hot tub, and sauna. AHHHHH ... another hard day at the office. HA HA HA ! Late in the afternoon we went to run more errands. I shopped at a CB radio shop. We are going to have to buy a CB radio for the truck, for our trip down to the tip of Baja California. The caravan company we are going with requires all their participants to be equipped with a CB radio. I will return to the CB radio shop on Saturday morning when they have a used equipment "swap meet" in their parking lot. I also went into a pawn shop to look for a CB radio. I've never been in a pawn shop before. How interesting ! I bought stamps and a sympathy card. We found out, by e-mail from a former employee, that the 9 year old son of the couple who bought PET VALU 234, our store in the Westgate Shopping Centre in Ottawa, has died. How tragic, to lose a young child ! Our deepest sympathies go out to Irena and Sergei.
Friday ; Oh, for crying out loud ! I've just realized that I've been spelling desert wrong for the last 2 weeks. Not only in my blog, which I can correct, but in a bunch of e-mails that I've sent. You'd think that I'd know how to spell a word that I've used so frequently in the last few years ! What an idiot !
Today was a teensy bit cooler, temperature in the low 70's, with a thin overcast sky. A bit too cool for the pool, without the intense desert sun.
This morning I went to the clubhouse for the park's weekly cinnamon bun breakfast. MMMMM ... freshly baked, home made cinnamon buns straight from the oven. I brought a cinnamon bun back to the trailer for Joanne. Aren't I a wonderfulhusband ?
We went to see Seibt RV Resort, an RV park with lots for sale. We're not at all interested in purchasing an RV lot in Pahrump, but we intend to do some browsing for RV lots in theYuma area, and we wanted to get some information on RV lots for sale here, for comparison. WOW ... what an upscale RV resort ! Facilities and landscaping reminiscent of the all inclusive resorts in the Caribbean we've been to. Developed by a man from Las Vegas, with Las Vegas grandeur. And ... to our very great surprise, the lot prices were ... reasonable.
We went for haircuts. This afternoon we worked on modifications to the wedges that we use under the edge of the living room / dinette slide to secure it when it's in the retracted position, for travel.
This evening after supper we went across the street to the Nugget Casino to see a free concert by Hotel California, an Eagles tribute band. We didn't know what to expect of a tribute band, but these guys were great ! Their music was faithful to the original Eagles. Their set opened with Life In The Fast Lane, closed with, of course, Hotel California, and in between they played all the early 70's Eagles' hits, including everything on the Hotel California album. When I closed my eyes, I was certain that I was listening to Glen Frey and Don Henley. Listening to the concert evoked memories of about 1972, in high school, on late night dates with Joanne, parked along the Red River on Lyndale Drive, listening to Hotel California play on the eight track. Sitting in the casino tonight, listening to the music, I didn't know whether to cop a feel or spark a doobee. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !
After the concert we registered to become members of the casino's player's club, just so that we could be eligible for their "2 for 1" buffet dinner special on Wednesday night. The casino issued us "player's cards" with complimentary $3 loaded on them for slot play. So ... like the big spending Canadians that we are, we found some penny slots, and each loaded $1 into a slot machine. We played for about half an hour, until my free $1 became zero, and Joanne's free $1 became $3. HMPH ! She always wins. I'm a loser ! We'll probably return tomorrow night to see another Hotel California concert, and play slots until my $2 and her $5 are gone.
Saturday ; I was quite ill today with a colitis flare-up, impeding my ability to function, and enjoy the day. We got up very early in order to go the electronics swap meet where there was supposed to be a fellow selling used CB radios. He wasn't there when we arrived at 9:00 A.M.. We returned home, I read and slept for awhile, then wereturned to the swap meet at 11:00 A.M.. Mr. Used CB Radio had not shown up at the electronics swap meet today. What a waste of my time ! We went to Petrack Park to attend the 9th annual Pahrump Social Powwow. We had attended the 7th annual Pahrump Social Powwow 2 years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We both enjoy attending Indian Powwows whenever possible. I only lasted about an hour at today's powwow before I felt so ill we had to return home.
We had lunch, and I slept for half the afternoon, hoping that would make me feel better. Late in the afternoon we went back to the powwow for about another hour. We returned to Preferred RV Park to attend the annual Casino Night. First was a light dinner, then a couple of hours of casino games, played with Monopoly money. Joanne lost most of her money playing "high / low" craps, and I lost most of my money playing Blackjack. We did, however, win a door prize of dinner for two at the Nugget Casino buffet. Great ... we were planning to give it a try anyway.
Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot. I was still pretty sick today. I made pancakes for brunch today, partially because we were planning to have a very early supper, so it made sense to have a late breakfast / early lunch. I did some minor maintenance / modification projects this afternoon. I walked around with my camera taking some photos of the RV park grounds, the casino across the street, and the surrounding mountains. We spent some time in the pool. I abandoned Joanne at the pool, to return to the trailer because I was feeling so ill. We went to the park's regular Sunday afternoon dinner and ice cream social. After dinner and ice cream, we sat in the clubhouse lounge and chatted for a couple of hours with our friendly next door neighbours, Glen and Rosi Webb, full time RV'ers for the last 6 years. We returned to the trailer in time to watch Amazing Race.
Monday ; Another hot, sunny day. Might be the last one for awhile. The weather is forecast to be cooler for the next few days. Today we washed the truck. What a lot of road grime it picked up during our first couple of weeks of travel. Somewhat surprising, since all our driving days were dry. I thought it only picked up a lot of grime from driving long distances on rainy days. I think a lot of the road grime was from driving across dusty desert, with hot sun baking the grime on. While washing the truck today I discovered a paint blister on the roof. HUH ? Is that what happens to black trucks sitting in the Death Valley sun ? The roof gets so hot the paint blisters ?
We spent much of the afternoon floating around the pool. As the sun set, we walked across the street to the Nugget Casino parking lot to use our Wi-Fi phone, then walked to Walgreen's Pharmacy. We haven't yet bought a U.S. cell phone. We've been getting by with our Wi-Fi phone. I don't think we're going to buy a U.S. cell phone until we get to Yuma, Arizona.
We went for supper to the Nugget Casino buffet, using the gift certificate we won at the RV park's Casino Night a couple of days ago. WOW ... are we ever bloated ! We haven't yet found a casino buffet that we didn't like. Well ... except for Joanne getting food poisoning at the buffet at Harrah's in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. But, hey ... I enjoyed it ! HA HA HA ! After supper at the Nugget's buffet, we played penny slots for about an hour and a half. My winnings / losses were zero. Joanne's winnings were $4.00 ! Doggone it ! How come she always wins and I don't ? ! < pout pout pout >
Late in the evening we went to Wal-Mart ( open 24 hours, of course, as are most Wal-Marts in the U.S. ) to buy a wiper blade to replace the one I broke while washing the truck.
Tuesday ; Pahrump, Nevada to Tecopa, California and return
Today was sunny and very warm. This morning Joanne went to pick up the 2 freshly baked loaves of bread she ordered from the woman in the park who bakes bread for sale. I installed the new wiper blade on the truck. You'd think replacing a wiper blade would be a relatively easy task for a reasonably intelligent man, wouldn't you ? ! ? < gritting teeth >
We invited our next door neighbours Glen and Rosi to join us on a day trip adventure to China Ranch Date Farm, about an hour southwest of Pahrump. We drove out of Pahrump heading west on Hwy. 372 which became Hwy. 178 when we crossed from Nevada into California. At Shoshone we turned south on Hwy. 127. At Tecopa we turned southeast onto Furnace Creek Road leading to China Ranch Date Farm. The last few miles to China Ranch Date Farm the road was gravel, through high walled, narrow canyons. China Ranch Date farm is built around a desert oasis. We're always surprised when we get to an oasis in the desert. Endless miles of scruffy nothingness, and then all of a sudden ... lush foliage.
We toured around the gift shop, then bought date shakes, date nut bread, and date cookies. Large date shakes for me, Joanne, Glen, and Rosi. A small date shake for Bo. WOO-HOO ... Bo looooooooooves date shakes ! ! ! What a silly dog. As much as Bo loves date shakes, he couldn't quite finish an entire one. And he seemed to have a bit of an upset tummy tonight. Maybe next time we'll just let him share some of ours. After drinking ... or more like eating ... our date shakes, we went for a hike through the date farm, taking photos and munching on dates we picked off trees. China Ranch Date Farm was a little different than other date farms we've been to. Many of the trees were pruned so that the clusters of dates were growing low enough to reach. And all the clusters of dates not yet ripened enough to be harvested were "dressed" in old articles of clothing, to prevent birds from eating the dates.
On the way back to Pahrump we stopped to look at what was at one time a cave dwelling of some sort. Kind of like what you would expect a hermit to live in. We saw an old door on the side of a canyon wall. We stopped and got out to take a look. It was a padlocked door leading into ... well ... the side of a small mountain. And nearby there were some barred window openings in the rocks that we could peek into. Inside was ... a cave dwelling. A large room in a cave. A door, a couple of windows, a hole in the top of the cave functioning as a chimney. Weird ! I also stopped to take a look at an unserviced airstrip out in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Why is there a little air strip out in the middle of nowhere in the Mojave Desert ?
We found out tonight that my sister's mother-in-law has died. Our deepest sympathies go out to my brother-in-law, Bud.
Wednesday ; Today was sunny and a bit cooler than it has been, temperature in the 60's.
How come the cheapest price I could find on a turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving was $1.79 a pound, right at the turkey farm in Keremeos, but here in Pahrump, turkeys are ... wait for it ... 39¢ a pound at Albertson's ? Gee .. that even beats last year's price of $5.00 for turkeys up to 10 pounds that we found in ... wherever we were for American Thanksgiving last year.
We went to Preferred RV Park's monthly luncheon today. Cheap, decent food, good company. This park has a nice, active social calendar. Lots of activities involving food. HA HA HA ! This afternoon I did some more minor maintenance on the trailer. I find that if I jump on minor maintenance problems as soon as I become aware of them it keeps the trailer in excellent condition. We visited with neighbours. One of our neighbours got a 14 month old Standard Poodle a few days ago from a breeder. Rex has lived his whole life so far in a kennel, so needs a lot of socializing. We went shopping ; Wal-Mart, Albertson's, water jug refills, Walgreen's. We've been stocking up this week on chocolate bars on sale at Walgreen's. Sixty-nine cent chocolate bars for twenty-five cents, limit eight. So we go every couple of days and buy 16 chocolate bars. HA HA HA ! We should be able to get enough chocolate bars to last until we can stock up on Nugs and Coconugs in Mexico. HA HA HA !
DSK
No comments:
Post a Comment