Glad to be Home???

Sunday we got to go to Christ the King....a church we go to when we're at Beachwood. It's such a neat church and we really enjoy going there. Met some people there that we know from Beachwood, told them about Mom and they said they'd pray for her.

Today we had fun trying to dump or tanks and hook up the trailer in between the rain storms and hail storms. We'd do a bit, get rained out, wait a while, do a little more, get hailed on...you get the picture. Finally got going and it was thundering, lightening, windy...wouldn't we rather be heading back to Las Vegas and sunshine????

Mom was sounding "troubled" the last couple of times I phoned her so after we got home, as soon as I got a chance I went over to see her. She looks fine, has lost a bit of weight, but doesn't have any pain. Kinda anxious to get to the Doctor on Wednesday and get the results of the last tests.

Boondocking

Hi everyone. We've had several long driving days and been boondocking, (on our own power, not connected with the world) so haven't been able to blog. Now we're at another Thousand Trails park and I have access to the internet at the clubhouse. My sister is at Mom's and she went for a bronchostomy today, unfortunately I don't have access to a phone here (which is unusual) so can't phone and find out how she is, but will try and contact her another day.

You know, even on the most desolate roads there is always something interesting...we were heading north on Hwy 95, between Las Vegas and Reno. Saw all kinds of neat things, such as a US army amunitions plant...it was HUGE, neat to look at but not much info about it...top secret, you know! Saw some deer and coyotes not to mention the tumble weeds and sage brush. One thing, if I ever get the chance I really want to explore Death Valley, Scotty's Castle and the 20 mule team borax area...I remember seeing 20 mule team borax on TV when I was a kid...so it would be neat to see it in person. We almost changed our route to drive on part of the old Route 66, but for several reasons didn't...so that's another thing on my "to do one day" list.

We did get to spend some time with some friends in Medford. It was really neat to connect with them again. Last night we were boondocking in a Wal Mart and our friend came and picked us up to go to their place for dinner with them and a couple me met when we camped with our friends last year. Friends are such a blessing!

Take care and love to you all. Thanks for the e-mails and the comments...much appreciated!

Good/Bad Day

Yesterday we finally got a chance to go into the pool here. It's been in the mid to upper 20's so the swim was really refreshing. Got talking to a lady..she's from B.C. and grew up abolut 8 blocks from us, her nephew goes to our church and we know a lot of the same people...small world!!!

Went to Sam's Town because when we were there for breakfast this morning we entered a contest to win $300, but you had to be there for the drawing...we didn't win though! Went to Albertson's to get some milk. When we went in it was beautiful, but when we came out there was a big black cloud overhead...thought it was going to start pouring rain...instead it started to blow. Sand, plastic bags and all sorts of garbage was blowing all over the road and up over the cars. We'd forgotten to put our awning up before we left so were in a panic to get back to the trailer. Of course traffic was heavy, the stop light took forever to turn green and there was a motorhome going into the park ahead of us! We did get back before our awning was ripped to shreds and got it up safely! Too windy to go for a walk or anything so decided to check my e-mails. Bad news...Mom had gone for a CAT scan and she got the results yesterday. She has some spots on her left lung and a mass about the size of a small orange in the right lung.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone

If my father-in-law was still alive he would have been 108 today.
We went for a walk in the park this morning and when we went into the clubhouse a lady we met at Soledad Canyon T.T. was starting a puzzle, so we talked. Ended up going to their motorhome for a beer. We told them we were going to Freemont Street this evening so asked if they'd like to come with us. They'd never been to Freemont Street so they really enjoyed it. Sure lots and lots of people there, many were drinking green beer...everyone was in a party mood. We wandered into Main Street Station and marvelled at the stained glass windows, the antiques, and the beautiful ceilings then we watched 2 of the shows on the overhead screen. We decided to take the shuttle back to Sam's Town. Went into the forest bar and bought a drink and watched the show from there...got a really good view...well worth the price of a drink! It was such a perfect day!

Avatar

Today we went to visit some friends of ours from Richmond. They have a vacation home not far from where we're camped. Had a lovely visit with them then went to Sam's Town.

On Tuesdays they have a special promotion for the "young at heart"...aka seniors...movies are $3. We wanted to see Avatar but they had the 3D version as well; so for an extra $3 we got to see it in 3D...imagine, $12 for both of us to see a 3D movie!!! I'm not usually into those kinds of movies but B really likes them so I thought I'd "be nice to him"...what do you know I really enjoyed it, especially the little jelly-fish like things floating around and the hammer-head rhinos taking on the "bad" guys!

Sunny and hot here...about 24 this afternoon.

Hover Dam

Last night we went to the Longhorn Casino for a $4.99 steak dinner. We had salad (or soup), carrots, steak (done to perfection), a bun and either baked, mashed or french fried potatoes. Met a couple there who are parked at Thousand Trails, so ate with them, and had a good visit.

Today was bright and sunny. It was about 7 or 8 last night. Today it went up to 24...hotter if you were in the direct sun. We drove down to Hover Dam. The dam was built in 1931-1935. The highway goes over the top of the dam and it gets pretty congested so now they're building a new highway/bridge system. We got to drive over the dam, went to the Arizona side, stopped and took some pictures then drove back over the dam into Nevada. A few miles from the dam, out in the middle of nowhere there was Hacienda Casino so we stopped. They had a free movie playing of how the dam was built and they also had $.99 shrimp cocktails at the snack bar so we got one. When we got back to the trailer we had to put the air conditioner on to cool off the trailer....sure a switch from having to turn on the heat!!!

Wind, Wind and more Wind

We've kept ourselves busy since getting to Vegas. Our T.T. park is quite close to Sam's Town so we drive down there and take a shuttle bus to the strip or Freemont Street. Saw 2 of the shows on the overhead canopy on Freemont Street the other night, it's so fasinating to watch! Yesterday afternoon we took the shuttle to the strip and visited 3 or 4 of the casinos there, but it was so windy they cancelled the volcano show and the Sirens show at Treasure Island. Did get to ride the tram between the two casinos and when we got back to Sam's Town we saw the water/light show there. It continued to blow all night and half of today. Now it's 3:30 and the wind has died down and it's nice and sunny and warm.


The strip was really crowded and noisy and I can't get over how huge the casinos are. I can see why my cousin and her husband like to stay on Freemont Street and just visit the strip. It's been about 20 years since we were on the strip and man, has it changed...everything is bigger and glitzier, lots more traffic and lots more noise!

Las Vegas

Or "Lost Wages", as my uncle calls it. Left Wilderness yesterday and ovenighted in a casino parking lot at Primm on the border of California and Nevada. Long steady climb along I-15N but at least we didn't ker-thunk, ker-thunk all the way!!!! California roads for the most part are horrible!! It went down to -5*C but the furnace in the trailer kept us cozy and warm even if it did run a lot during the night!!! We had the slide-out in so there was less space to heat. This morning was bright and sunny.

We were in the casino last night and the machine gobbled up my $5 in no time flat so I tried another maching, put $1 into it (it was a penny machine) and ended up getting $13.09 out of it. This morning we went back into the casino, found the same machine. No one had played it since last night so I put $2 in and it gobbled it up...time to get out of here!!! You can tell these casinos were very profitable at one time but with so many Indian casinos popping up all over the place and with the recession, the casinos in Nevada are really hurting. Got to the park with no problems, although B did have to make a u-turn....a very common practice in California and it seems in Nevada as well.

The sites in this park are sure a lot smaller than where we've been, but everything about the park is smaller! Lovely park though, nice and clean and well kept. Good thing is I can access the internet from the trailer...no more toting my lap top up to the club house with my luggage tote. Went for a walk this afternoon and ended up at Bolder Station a beautifulifully designed and built casino, played for awhile. There were several resturants in there as well as a Burger King and Dairy Queen. Didn't feel like having a meal so decided to have an ice cream sundae instead...it was yummy!!!!!

Bargain hunting

It was sunny and up to 20*C this afternoon. When you're in the sun it's really warm but the air is cool. About 4:30 or so, after the sun went down the temp. dropped to 7*C. We went into Hemet again today. Diesel was $3.019 at one station, it's $3.069 to $3.159 at other stations around here. We've been getting really good mileage with the truck...saw a bumber sticker once that said, "I may get pour mileage for a car, but I get terriffic mileage for a house!!"

Across from where we fuelled up there was a 99cent store. We first went into one of these at Palmdale so went into this one. It's like a "super" dollar store...they not only have all the ordinary $1 items but they have groceries as well...prepackaged for $0.9999 (all their items are $.9999 or less) 3 heads of Romaine..$.9999, a bag of 3 red or green peppers, a bunch of 10 small bananas, 7 apples....you get the idea. Came out of there with a buggy full of stuff for $19. There was also a store in that mall that had tank tops for 3/$9.99, but I didn't like them and they wouldn't have fit anyway. There's some bargains around but the prices at WalMart, Target, Costco etc seem higher than in Bellingham...also the tax down here is about 9% and all pop, water, beer etc have a $.05 deposit on the bottles. Took a different route back to the trailer and found a fruit stand with some interesting stuff...and we didn't even get lost!!!

Hope everyone is well. I've heard some people can't leave a comment, so if you can't leave a comment...e-mail me. Have a great day!

Busy Sunday

Saturday morning we went to the craft/yard sale. It was so cold and windy the few people who were selling were bundled up because it was cold and windy. We went into the clubhouse and went to the manager's meeting to find out what's happening in and around the park.



Sundays they have a church service in the family center. Great service, probably 75 or so people there. Because this was our first time here we each got a pin in the shape of a cross made with spikes. Service was excellent and we had communion.



After lunch we drove up to Diamond Valley Lake. They made 3 dams to create a huge reservior to help when there's a drought or in case of an earthquake it'll supply drinking water for Southern California. B had to show his driver's license to get past the gate then we drove up the mountainside via a road of swithchbacks. What a view from the top!! Came down and headed over to the east side of the lake to see the visitors center, which was very interesting. From there we took some back roads down to the old town of Temecula. The old buildings have been restored and are now being used for antique shops, boutiques, and other little stores and cafes. We didn't even get lost today, so that was good!!!

Police Incident

We've never gotten lost or twisted around so many times as we have on this trip. Today we decided to drive into Palm Springs and check out the Thousand Trails park there. I was very well prepared with at least 4 maps and anything else you could think of....no way were we going to get messed up today...famous last words!! We were going along nicely when the road had been blocked off, went around the block and ended up in the same place...talked to the lady manning the road block and she told us the road was closed due to a police incident. OKAY! I didn't realize she was a police officer. She told us how to go around the block and get back on the highway we needed, but we had to go past WalMart so stopped in. A couple of the clerks were in the washroom talking about the bomb threat at Lowes...yikes...what kind of town are we in???

Got to Palm Springs T.T. park and looked around. On the way we passed thousands upon thousands of wind generators...looked kinda neat spread out over the mountain tops. Drove on Sonny Bono Memorial Hwy and saw Gene Autry Road. There were a lot of cainos along the highway but we restrained ourselves and never stopped at any. Anyway, had a great day.

Wilderness Lakes

Got here yesterday. Beautiful park, nice wide sites and there's canals running throughout the park with lots of ducks swimming in them. There's mallards, coots (black ducks with white bills and they dive to the bottom of the canal to get their food) Canada geese, egrets (a white small heron-type of bird) and today I saw some turkeys...not sure if they're wild or from a farm nearby. Nice big adult and family lodges, pool room, puzzle room, one of the two pools are open as well as the hot tubs. Think we're going to enjoy it here!