Sunday, February 2, 2020

January 26 to February 1, 2020 ; Palm Springs, California to Yuma, Arizona

Sunday ; Mostly sunny, very warm.

After an early lunch we headed out, to attend the musical play “Beehive” at Desert Theatreworks, the third of our four play mini-season tickets. It was without a story line, just eight women performing the hits of powerful women musicians of the sixties ; Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, etc. Well done ! We enjoyed it.

After the play was finished at 4 PM we headed to Augustine Casino. We have heard great things about the food at Augustine Casino. We wanted to check out their restaurants and have supper there. We checked out their restaurants and menus and … left ! We weren’t impressed. For supper we returned to Souplantation, a restaurant we had been to a week or so ago. Good decision !

As soon as we arrived back home I went to the East Clubhouse Library and worked on Wi-Fi for an hour or so before returning home to watch 90 Day Fiance and Sister Wives, our Palm Springs Sunday night ritual.

Monday ; Sunny and very warm.

Before lunch we went to the swimming pool for a long exercise session and hot tub soak. After lunch we went out to run a few errands. We stopped at Blair Station RV and I bought some repair items ( HMPH … hundred bucks ! ) for some refurbishment work I want to do on the camper. We drove into Desert Hot Springs and went to Stater Bros to get a few grocery items. After a few days of bickering last week we both feel raw. I became so irritated by the inept moron deli clerk at Stater Bros I left Joanne at the deli counter and I went outside to wait in the car.

When we got back home to the camper at Sky Valley Resort I phoned Dell and started the process of returning my laptop computer to Dell for repair … < sigh > … of the “battery not charging / charger not recognized” problem that started on Christmas Day. In the evening I worked on monthly computer file backup procedures.

Tuesday ; HAPPY 66th BIRTHDAY TO JOANNE

Sunny and very warm.

This afternoon I removed and replaced the camper bathroom ceiling exhaust fan’s motor and blades. That was a job I had planned to do tomorrow, but I got to it a day earlier than planned.

Around 4 PM we left Sky Valley, heading across the freeway into Palm Springs. First stop was a panaderia Joanne wanted to try. “Bake’d … Cakes & Pan Dulce”. EXCELLENT panaderia. Very expensive ! I pointed out to the baker / owner as we paid the $20+ bill that the amount of pan dulce we were buying would cost about five bucks in Mexico. He just laughed. Understandable … give the upscale décor in his little bakery, in a very high rent mall.

Next was … a birthday gift stop. I treated Joanne to a visit to Brandini’s factory and retail store. Brandini’s is a producer of upscale toffee products here in Palm Springs. Joanne has sampled their products at Village Fest and CoD Street Fair. She requested to be taken to their factory as a birthday gift. We arrived at Brandini’s shortly after 5 PM. They closed at 5 PM ! ! ! < sigh > Fortunately, a manager inside saw me tugging on their locked door and decided to allow us to enter. Thank you ! Joanne ( again ) sampled their almond toffee product and their toffee coated popcorn product. And bought a package of the almond toffee product. That cost … < blink blink > … how much ? ! ? Happy Birthday, my dear !

Final stop was birthday dinner. At a Peruvian restaurant called Pollo Doky’s. Their specialty is a Peruvian style of rotisserie barbecued chicken. Joanne had a dish called tallerin saltado de pollo, a dish of sauteed spicy chicken breast strips, onions, and tomatoes on a bed of spicy, whole wheat spaghetti. I had pollo a la brasa, a rotisserie barbecued spicy ( tarragon ? ) half chicken with a Peruvian salad and cilantro seasoned rice. Excellent food, funky ambience, reasonable prices.

On the way home we stopped at a Stater Bros supermarket to buy a jug of milk. We were home around 8 PM. I went to the East Clubhouse Library to work on 
Wi-Fi for about an hour before returning home to share a large piece of Tres Leches cake that we bought at the panaderia to serve as Joanne’s birthday cake. Washed down with a glass of Trader Joe’s Cocoa Cream Liqueur.

Wednesday ; Sunny and very warm.

This morning just as we were about to have our showers the park’s water supply was turned off, so that some maintenance could be done. I was pretty miffed that we had not been notified. Since the camper has been connected to the park’s water supply I had allowed the camper’s freshwater tank to become almost empty. Darn ! I should have known better !

Before lunch we went to the swimming pool for a long exercise session and hot tub soak session. After lunch I removed and replaced the range hood fan motor. Then had a long nap. Before supper I got some online work done, then we had the last of our inventory of perogies ( from Canada ) for supper. We spent the evening watching “My 600 Pound Life” and “Married At First Sight”.

Thursday ; Sunny and very warm.

< sigh > This morning I discovered a flat tire on the truck. A flat tire on the rear of a dually is “invisible”, until tire pressures are checked. I used a 12 volt air compressor that I keep in the truck to add some air to the tire. I managed to get forty pounds of air pressure into the tire before the little air compressor “imploded”. That should be enough to get me about fifteen miles tomorrow to Love’s where I can add air to the tire.

After lunch we drove into Palm Springs to do some shopping. Joanne looked 
( again ! ) for a bathing suit at Glossy’s. I bought an item for the camper at the Habitat For Humanity Re-Store. We went to Trader Joe’s and spent way too much money on impulse shopping for exotic grocery items. HA HA HA ! Well, you know, we can’t take it with us ! ! ! HA HA HA ! The money, I mean ! Then we went to Cardenas, the Mexican supermarket, for one item. HA HA HA ! When did 
I ever go into a Mexican supermarket and buy only one item ? ? ? HA HA HA 
< SNORT > HA HA !

Friday ; Palm Springs, California to Yuma, Arizona

Sunny and very warm.

This morning we prepared for departure and pulled out of our site at 11:45 AM. We were finished checking out at Sky Valley’s office by noon. We parked the truck and camper outside the gates, then … went back in with the minivan to use the mineral pools and hot tubs once last time. We did a long exercise session, then soaked in a hot tub, chatting with a woman from Grand Prairie, Alberta. We left the park for the final time at 2 PM.

We drove about 20 miles / 30 km. east and south on Dillon Road to Love’s where I increased the truck’s problem tire’s pressure from 40 PSI to 80 PSI. Then a very short distance to Spotlight 29 Casino where we parked in the RV overnight parking lot and had lunch in the camper.

We left Spotlight 29 Casino at 3 PM and headed south on Hwy. 86. We stopped at Red Earth Casino near Salton Sea Beach to check if the tire pressure was holding at 80 PSI. It was, so … the problem must have been … once again … a dually tire valve extender. < sigh > Story of my life !

We stopped again at Holtville Taco Shop at 5:30 PM just as it got dark and we bought two huge burritos to have for supper when we got home an hour later at 7:30 PM having crossed from California / Pacific time zone to Arizona / Mountain time zone.

Emma seems quite glad to be back “home” in the fifth wheel trailer after 46 days in the camper.

Saturday ; Sunny and warm.

Joanne was busy today with “return home” chores, mostly a lot of moving stuff from the camper to the trailer, and cleaning. I also did “return home” chores this morning. This afternoon I took one of the fifth wheel trailer’s propane tanks to be refilled, then headed to Beamspeed to pick up my desperately needed Wi-Fi modem / router. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH … Beamspeed is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. There is no park wide communal Wi-Fi available, only in the clubhouse. I had to go to the clubhouse three times this afternoon and early evening to get essential online work done.

In addition to my Beamspeed / Wi-Fi drama, I had Shaw Direct satellite TV service drama. I had suspended our satellite TV service while we were in Palm Springs for a month and a half. The TV service was to resume today. AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH … Shaw Direct had “technical difficulties” that prevented that from taking place today ! Of course, it was only after multiple attempts ( and trips to the clubhouse ) to “refresh” our satellite signal receiver online that I eventually phoned Shaw in utter frustration, only to be told of their “technical difficulties” today.

I spent much of the evening getting my old laptop restored to functionality, and getting my new laptop ready to ship back to Dell for repairs.

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH ! ! ! ! !

DSK

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