Palm Springs

Woke up yesterday and decided to go to Palm Springs for the day. Yes, it's a hard life but we continue to struggle through it every day LOL

Its a beautiful drive through the mountains along Hwy 74, the road is very windy on S.R. 371 and then you hit the switchbacks of Hwy 74 allowing you to descend to Palm Springs, I had heard it recommended that you don't drive your RV along this route and I can tell you there is good reason for that.

If you look closely you can see the switchback roads in the above picture, not for the faint of heart.

Although we did see a guy pulling a small trailer up the hills, I wouldn't recommend it. There was even a spot where someone had smashed into a rare barricade. It's a long way down and most of it has no guard so my personal advise is to listen to the advise and go the long way around with your RV.

Palm Springs area (we went to Palm Desert) including Palm Desert, Cathedral City, La Quinta to name a few is very lush and green. While it was beautiful I couldn't help but remember a comment a while back from someone who said it was all a ruse, not unlike the lips and cheek bones I guess, While I didn't notice these things Brad said he saw a few women with duck lips. The area was really beautiful though and I took a bazillion pictures so I'm only posting a few here.

Brad at Costco looking for a bottle of Port, he chose one and grabbed 2 bottles for the winter, we'll see how long they last...

Stopped at Denny's for lunch, not worth writing about.

The hills we came down through the switchbacks can be seen in the distance

As it was 2pm we decided to start making our way home, it's only an hours drive but our Jeep is a 4 cylinder and we weren't sure it would handle the switchbacks well but it did.

The hills are a jumble of rocks. Not 'mountains of solid rock' as we're used to, these were literally just massive piles of rubble. Very cool.

Enjoyed a relaxing night in our backyard and Brad took Robbie for a very very long walk, I was starting to worry but then there they were, completely worn out.

Today is Propane day, we made it - Yay! No idea what time they will show up so I best get myself beautified. Brad is going for yet another massage today... and he will need to go to Walmart to exchange the water filter I bought the other day as this one doesn't have a gasket in it. I knew something was wrong because I couldn't get the bloody thing to seal and even had Bruce come by and take a look at it - this is how I know it is missing the gasket. Thankfully I still have the box and the receipt.

The SeamRipper

This morning I woke up at 7:30am and fully expected it would be cold outside since I could see the cloud cover, knowing it would only reach 16C today I put my fall coat on to take Robbie outside. Surprisingly it was warm enough that I would not have needed a jacket. Shortly after it began to drizzle and continued for about an hour.

Once beautified and organized we drove in to Temecula for Brad's massage appointment arriving with a few minutes to spare. While he was relaxing I went to Walmart but completely forgot to look at the Christmas trees which I've been watching for for weeks already. It seems strange to be thinking about Christmas when its 30C outside so I keep forgetting.

My 'thing' is to put the tree up on Dec 1st, have done since my kids were small. I also mark Xmas with changing the smoke alarm batteries. Given that tomorrow is Nov 28th and I don't have a tree this is quickly becoming a dire situation. I brought a small container of ceramic ornaments which I think I mentioned before so all I need is a small tree, preferably pre-lit but at this point beggars can't be choosers...

Vicky & Bruce invited us over for supper tonight, seafood lasagna. While I've never had a notion to eat a seafood lasagna I have heard of it. I must say it was not anything like I expected. They have dietary restrictions and I wasn't sure I'd be able to eat it. Brad will tell anyone who'll listen that I'm a picky eater, to me I just like what I like. Now I'm never going to give up meat - ever, but Vicky's lasagna was pretty good I must say. She even made a cake for dessert, not sure what it was but something nutty. Very nice, Thank you both for putting up with him - I mean us, again.

During this evening's conversation 'someone' mentioned áctivities' in Pahrump to which we were not privy when we were there - so naive. The conversation progressed as those of you in the know and now everyone else will imagine and ended with Vicky offering to let me borrow her seamripper... work your mind around that one.

Vicky is going in to Temecula tomorrow, at least that's the plan so far, so I will go with her and find a tree. I can't put it up for a few days yet, but at least I won't be stressed about having one.

Finally found us a spot

Its been a busy couple of days around here so sorry I haven't written anything.

We've been trying to find a spot to stay on for the winter. I drove the entire park and wrote down all the private sites for rent since the office has run out of spots, at least within our price range. I called all of them and everything is booked.

A friend of ours (Vicky & Bruce's really) had a site reserved but to cut a long story short he has cancelled so we will get his spot which happens to be directly across the road from V&B. It is an empty site so we will have no warm fuzzies in the yard which sucks but with friends across the street who have said we could use theirs (we're there a lot anyway) hopefully it will work out okay.

We have been out of the park a couple of times but I don't have many pictures. I went to Temecula with V&B the other day to do some shopping and get their Jeep washed after our adventure on the mountain, it is now shiny and new - tires and all.

While we were doing that Brad also went in to Temecula on an errand and returned with a bunch of groceries and we have managed to actually eat at home the last couple of days. Guess we'll see how long that lasts. I'd like to try to keep our restaurant visit to once a week but not sure we can do it honestly, it helps that we are about half an hour from the main community here so maybe we can keep it up.

Our propane in the rig is very very low and they come around on Thursdays so we have been showering in one of the many facilities here in the park and Vicky let us borrow a kettle so we've been managing well. Cooking supper has been somewhat of an issue and as I don't really have any appropriate containers for either the microwave or the convection, I've had the Instant Pot out a few times and it definitely works great.

Only a high of 16C today so this morning I put a coat on to take Robbie out only to discover I didn't need one, it's still very warm (it was 12C at the time). Full cloud cover and its supposed to rain, looks like it is now as I write this actually. A solid drizzle.

Well that's that, today I'm hoping to go see a man about a Golf Cart.

Laundry day

Today was laundry day, we needed a day to recover and may still need yet another so I was going to do laundry.

The Vickster

Bruce & Brad

Vicky suggested I use the machines on their site so we could visit at the same time (our site is not so posh as to have its own laundry). Sounds like a good idea so I did. Brad went off to Temecula to pick up some groceries and I went to Vicky's. For some unknown reason the dryer kept flipping the breaker so Bruce suggested trying it without the element ie. no heat and that worked really well so after several hours my 2 loads of laundry were finished, Brad had returned and when everyone was caught up Brad and I came home to make dinner.

We had some organic ribs we picked up in Saskatchewan still and looked forward to them all day but when we BBQ'd them they were more like dog bones, almost no meat. Very surprising and very disappointing, we've been buying organic meat from this place for years whenever we are in Saskatchewan and never had a problem, their meat is always fantastic so I think there must have been a mix up when it was packaged. I had made a nice salad to go with them thankfully so Brad managed to fill up on something and after dinner was cleaned up we settled down on the loveseat with the site canopy open so we could look at the stars.

Our spoiled little doggie has his own chair

Bruce & Vicky came over and we had a nice visit for a couple of hours before they retired for the night. We sat a little while longer and then I came inside to write the blog. I can now hear Brad coming in as I type this.

Nice relaxing day.

Leave it to Vicky

So we had a plan. The Vickster (Vicky) tells us that their is a trail just outside the park that is éasy'... never listen to Vicky!!!

Now remember that I have an inner ear issue that makes being lopsided freaky to me and I sure as hell don't like dead drops off the side of cliffs - or mountains!

They took Gus (Dog) along with them today while we left Robbie back at the rig in the AC as it was a scorcher again today and just didn't think it was fair to subject our black dog to several hours in the direct sun.

We met at the gate...

Bruce, Vickie and Gus (in doggie shades)

Ready to Rumble...

Trailhead

Beautiful scenery

You can barely make out Vicky & Bruce in their Jeep

Ours is in the rear

Stopped to make sure I wasn't gonna chicken out I think

The guys putting Oh Shoot handles on for me

Vicky leading the way and kicking up dust

Sharp corner, I couldn't even look

Getting higher

Can just see them on the road ahead

Gus

Stopped for lunch after 2 hours

Nice view from up here

Vicky kept leaving her door open and the dinger going... ding ding ding....

Who takes Hummus on a trail ride? Vicky!

Heading toward this Ranger tower

Closer

Made it to the Ranger tower

Lots of Observatories in the hills

Two rockin' Jeeps

The best Jeep ;)

6410 feet above sea level

She's a wild one alright.

Making our way back down

Palomar Divide something or other Trail

After 5 hours, this is our route. It was a complete circle but I didn't start the record thingy until lunch (2 hours into the trip)

I was sure every time we rounded a hill that the top was just around the corner only to be met with another hill around that one.. I eventually stopped looking for the top... Incidentally, apparently we started at 700 ft... 

Here are some pictures that Bruce took. If you look real hard you can see our Jeep in them somewhere..

Oh, and that éasy' trail.... was a Moderate!!! The Vickster is definitely on my list for that little fib! It was a great day in the hills and after we returned to the resort and showered we all headed out for a bite to eat (gotta stop doing that) and then spent a couple of hours at their site relaxing over coffee...

What an amazing fun-filled day! Hope I don't have to do that again for a few days.... whew!