February 14 to 20, 2008

February 14 to 20, 2008

Quartzsite, Arizona to Hemet, California

 

Thursday ; Quartzsite, Arizona to Palm Springs / Desert Hot Springs, California

Happy Valentine's Day

Today was cloudy and chilly. Rather odd ! This morning Joanne presented me with the most touching Valentine's Day card I've ever received. Thank you, my love. We departed Quartzsite heading west on Interstate 10. Just before crossing into California we stopped at Flying J to refill with diesel. The closer we got to Palm Springs the more menacing the clouds looked. We went to 3 RV parks in Desert Hot Springs before we found one with 2 vacancies. And even then, we're in an overflow area with only partial services. After getting set up and having a late lunch we all went to soak in the park's hot tubs fed by underground hot springs. Afterwards I needed a nap.

Joanne and I had a light, early supper, then we went into downtown Palm Springs in the Dickinson's van, to Village Fest, held every Thursday evening during winter. We attended Village Fest a few times last winter. About a 6 block stretch of Palm Canyon Drive is closed to traffic and becomes a pedestrian mall filled with craft vendors, food vendors, produce vendors, artists, musicians, street performers, etc.. We had to take the Dickinson's van downtown because I didn't want to try to unhitch our truck from the trailer while we're here for a few days. The trailer's "house" battery is dead. I don't think there's enough power left in it to raise and lower the front of the trailer for unhitching and hitching. I'll buy a new battery next week in Hemet.

We wandered slowly up and down Palm Canyon Drive. Erbon's leg problem is not improving. An evening of walking was pretty difficult for him. Joanne and I didn't purchase anything but Erbon and Lorraine did. Upscale pastries, upscale coffee, upscale bread ( everything about Palm Springs is upscale ! ) some oranges. Erbon and Lorraine had not had supper. Never take a man to a street festival on an empty stomach ! Since Erbon and Lorraine had not had supper, we went to a New York Jewish deli for a late, light supper / snack. Joanne and I had been to Sherman's Deli last year for lunch. Tonight we had a great, late night snack / light supper. I had a bowl of sweet and sour cabbage soup, and a chopped liver sandwich. Joanne had a bowl of chicken noodle soup, and a beef brisket sandwich. MMMMM ! Very New York ! Very Jewish !

 

Friday ; Joshua Tree National Park

Today was sunny and mild in Desert Hot Springs, sunny, cool, and windy in Joshua Tree National Park. This morning we drove into Desert Hot Springs so that Joanne could shop at her favourite thrift store. As much as I protested and resisted, I have to appreciate that once again she bought me 2 pairs of expensive casual pants, one never worn, for $5 a pair. I still wonder why never worn pants end up in thrift shops out here in the playground of the rich and famous. From Desert Hot Springs we headed over to Hwy. 62 for the drive north, then northeast to Joshua Tree National Park.

At the town of Joshua Tree we stopped at the Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center, then entered the park at the West Entrance Station. We drove to Keys View, a 5185 ft. elevation viewpoint looking over the Coachella Valley from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea. The wind was so strong we couldn't stand near the edge of the viewpoint for fear of being blown over the edge. We explored the park by road, stopping for a picnic lunch at Jumbo Rocks. It was too cold and windy to enjoy the picnic. We continued exploring by road, heading east through the park, stopping late in the afternoon for a short hike around the Teddy Bear Cholla Garden. We continued east through the park, stopping at Cottonwood Spring to see the palm oasis, just before leaving the park through the South Entrance Station. I napped in the back of the Dickinson's van all the way back to Desert Hot Springs.

 

Saturday ; Today was sunny and very warm again. I guess yesterday's weather was an aberration.

This morning we went to the Thousand Palms Oasis / Coachella Valley Nature Preserve just a short distance from our crappy RV park. Erbon and Lorraine did some birding. Lorraine, Joanne and I went for a short hike through the fan palm oasis and through the desert to another fan palm oasis nearby, viewing birds, lizards, and studying the fan palms closely. They are very interesting trees. We returned to the first fan palm oasis, Thousand Palms Oasis, where Erbon was waiting for us. His sore leg prevents him from going on hikes, even short ones. We had a lovely picnic lunch, sitting at a partially sunny, partially shaded picnic table under a fan palm. We ate, listened to birds, and viewed birds. Erbon and Lorraine are avid birders.

After lunch we drove over to Flying J, Erbon refilled the RoadTrek's fuel tank, then we drove east on I-10 to Casino 29 in Indio for a free performance of a Chinese Acrobat Circus. Today was Chinese New Year. Casino 29 had the grand opening of their new noodle restaurant, and presented a free performance of a Chinese Acrobat Circus in their large show theatre. It was a great performance. Thank you, Joanne. She has become very good at finding free or low cost activities in the areas where we are. After the show we returned to our RV park and went for a long soak in the mineral water hot tub before having a late supper.

 

Sunday ; Palm Springs to Hemet, California

Today was a sunny and warm, beautiful day. Gee ... last night we were awakened by some jerk in a 40 foot diesel pusher motorhome pulling into the site beside us after midnight. His engine was so loud and vibrated so hard it made our trailer shake. And a park assistant manager was standing beside the door of our trailer screaming instructions at the driver. It's bad enough that some people are so incredibly self centred that they pull into RV parks with extremely loud units after midnight, but it's even worse, in my opinion, that the RV park allows arrivals that late. Most RV parks that we've been to, and we've been to literally hundreds, won't accommodate arrivals after 9:00 P.M.. What a bunch of self centred, Southern Californian jerks ! Joanne has always maintained that the only problem with Southern California is that it’s inhabited by Southern Californians !

This morning we left that dump of an RV park and headed west on Interstate 10, then south on Hwy. 79 to Hemet. We arrived, registered, and got set up in our sites at Golden Village Palms RV Park, an extremely nice luxury RV resort. We stayed here last year for a week. The only way we can afford to stay here is to use coupons for half price for the first week. Well ... our first week is our only week. We can't afford this place at regular price. Erbon and Lorraine are in a site about 3 streets over from us. This is a huge resort with over 1000 RV sites. After dumping the waste holding tanks, disinfecting and refilling the fresh water tank, and having lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the pools and hot tubs. There are 3 heated pools and 3 hot tubs in the resort's pool area. It's reminiscent of luxury all inclusive resorts in the Caribbean that we've been to. After the sun set and it began to cool off, Joanne walked to the shopping mall across the street to do grocery shopping.

Erbon and I spent much of the late evening driving around in Lanoire searching for a working, open access Wi-Fi signal. We found a poor one in the mall across the street in front of Staples. We found another poor one at Motel 6 just down the road. Finally I just drove around our RV park until I found a working, open access, slow but reliable signal, and we got our online work done.

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and very warm again. A few sites over from us there is a grapefruit tree in an RV site. There is a ladder under the tree. I took that to be an implied invitation, so this morning I walked over and picked some fresh grapefruits. In our site there is a kumquat tree, laden with hundreds of kumquats. Too bad ! Kumquats are as useless as ... well ... kumquats !

This morning I installed the Xtreme Vent I purchased recently in Yuma, on the bathroom grey tank's vent pipe roof cap. Unlike most projects, this one went extremely well. The Xtreme Vent came with an exceptionally well done installation instruction sheet. We spent the afternoon in the swimming pool and hot tub, chatting with Erbon and Lorraine, and others. Late in the afternoon we went to this park's weekly social hour, followed by "soup supper". We sat at a table of eight. Besides us and the Dickinson's there were a couple from B.C. and a couple from Michigan. Small world ! The B.C. man was one of 4 siblings who owned the flooring supply business where we purchased the vinyl sheet flooring when we had the carpet removed from the trailer and replaced with vinyl sheet flooring in Vancouver a couple of years ago. We bought our flooring from his older brother. The Michigan couple arrived one day later than us, and left one day later than us, from the dumpy RV park in Desert Hot Springs. They were parked just a few spots over from us.

After supper, everybody except me wanted to go shopping to the 99¢ Store in the mall across the street. While Joanne, Erbon and Lorraine shopped, I sat in the truck with Bo and worked on my computer.

 

Tuesday ; Today was cloudy and mild. A bit of rain fell overnight. Yesterday I awoke with a sore, stiff hip. I thought it would resolve itself during the day. It didn't. Last night it became quite severe. And today I continued to be in severe pain. Erbon and Lorraine suggested it might be a pinched sciatic nerve. I'll do some Internet research on that tonight.

This morning we all went shopping. First stop was an RV parts dealer. Erbon needed something. They didn't have it. Next stop was Wal-Mart for a "stocking up" of supplies before heading down the Baja. I couldn't walk. I had to use one Wal-Mart's electric carts. I suppose I'll have to eliminate my prejudice that suggests that those things are for the exclusive use of FUS women. No ... that's not feline urologic syndrome ... that's fat, ugly, stupid. HA HA HA ! I bought a new "house" battery for the trailer. It wasn't really pool and hot tub weather today, so this afternoon I napped, hoping that resting my hip would improve it. It didn't. Yesterday I used some of Erbon's pain relief / muscle relaxant medication, but it didn't seem to help much, and if I use medication like that for more than about a day, my colitis flares up. After napping Joanne helped me install the new battery in the trailer. She did all the fetching. Our neighbour back home, Stu, phoned to discuss my lost batch of January mail. It wasn't in Yuma. It hasn't been returned. Perhaps it's lost forever. It won't be the first time that's happened to a batch of my forwarded mail !

Early in the evening I got online, downloaded my investment updates, and did some research on pinched sciatic nerve. Well, the description of pinched sciatic nerve symptoms matches my symptoms to a "tee". I had intended to spend the evening updating my investment analysis files, but the pain in my hip and thigh became excruciating. I went to bed right after supper, reading and snoozing, hoping that rest would alleviate the pain.

 

Wednesday ; Today was cloudy and mild with intermittent drizzle. This morning my hip and thigh pain had diminished. I am convinced that it's sciatica, a pinched sciatic nerve. Obviously rest helps it and activity hurts it. I decided to spend at least one day, probably more, doing as little as possible, hoping that rest will resolve the problem. I had planned a full day of errands. Most of them had to be postponed. Joanne took care of some of them.

I spent most of the day in bed, resting my leg. That resulted in a lot of improvement. Joanne ran errands. She returned the trailer's old battery to Wal-Mart for a refund of the core fee. She took a propane tank for refilling. She did grocery shopping. She took Erbon and Lorraine to Lowe's. In the evening I sat at my computer desk, with no discomfort in my hip and thigh, and updated my investment files.

I had to send a one page fax to our Baja caravan company. Gee whiz ... this RV resort charged $3.50 to send a one page fax to a toll free number ! I stepped outside after supper and our next door neighbour was taking photos of the total eclipse of the moon. I didn't even know there was going to be a total eclipse of the moon tonight. Ignorance is bliss, I guess !

 

DSK