New Years Eve

Here we are at the end of another wonderful year. Do you have plans to ring in the new year? We do, they are having a DJ in the park playing 50's and 60's music, but I doubt we'll go, just like always we'll likely spend the evening watching the new year happen on the TV. Much safer and a whole lot cheaper. There are lots of people in town for the holidays and everything is pretty much booked up anyway, parking downtown is even a challenge. The wait to go up the mountain was 3 hours long according to the local news. So this last week we have been pretty lazy and other than Gorgie leading the exercise class in the mornings, and going for some walks we have been reading and surfing the net a lot.

There was a great sunset the other day, the scenery around here is just beautiful.

More Later,

Rich

 

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Merry Christmas

 

Gorgie and I want to wish you all a

Very Merry Christmas.

Follow this link for some Christmas spirit

http://youtu.be/SXh7JR9oKVE

 

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Ruben and Ozzy's

We were early for dinner at Ruben and Ozzy's on Friday so we decided to take a walk on Palm Drive in downtown Palm Springs. We found Las Casuelas and decided to stop for a margarita or two. We have never been anywhere with a larger selection of tequila.

There were actually more than I could get in one picture, but we had to walk back to the car so we couldn't try

Them all but they had killer "Top Shelf" Cadillac Margarita's. We plan to return and sample their food soon.

Dinner at R&O's was all we had hoped it would be. These two brothers were a favorite of ours in the area. Their menu is similar to Shanghai Reds and the quality is just as good if not better. We started out with the Mexican Poke, and that set the bar pretty high for the rest of our meal.

Our dinner were the taco's, Gorgie had a grilled shrimp and I had one shrimp and one fish both fried. I don't think we have ever had any that were as good and certainly not any better.

We were wondering if the atmosphere would compare with Shanghai Reds, well it's different a bit more modern and a larger space.. They remembered us from past visits and were very friendly as usual, they even said "welcome home". It seems like every time we left S.R. we hugged someone that we had just met. Well R&O'S was no different. We talked with some folks who we had seen and said hello to before and had a great visit, oh and a hug too.

More Later,
Rich

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Hanging out in Palm Springs

We could easily spend the entire winter in this area, there is lots to do, good places to eat and nice weather. That said we are looking forward to traveling to some other areas that we like as we'll. We were watching the local news the other day and we noticed that the advertising was sure directed at people more our age, there are no happy meal ads at all. When is the last time you saw an ad for a Rolex watch? Or watched Tony the dancing barber pitch hearing aids?

We have had lots of visits from this little guy but he is a bit camera shy..

He comes to the window next to where I sit and he will look in every once in a while, but as soon as I pick up the camera off he goes, maybe he is a Mexican hummer and if I give him a dollar he will pose for me.

This is the other view I have every morning as the sun comes up.

We have couple of favorite places that we like to eat at one that I have written about before is Shanghai Reds where they have killer lobster bisque and shrimp or fish tacos. We have always loved the interaction of the chefs watching them prepare the food. Well they have moved on and opened their own place, Ruben and Ozzy's. we plan to visit them this evening and a report will have to come in the next post. By the way the food was just as delicious as ever at Shanghai Reds so we will continue to there too.

More Later,

Rich

 

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Desert Pools RV in Desert Hot Springs

We made the move from Indian Waters to Desert Pools last Saturday with no problems ( it was after all a 26 mile treck). We are in one of our favorite sites it may even be the same one we had last year. It is winter in the desert and the temperatures have cooled off a bit to the 60's with some clouds but no rain, there is a wind warning for this afternoon we'll see. Looking at the weather at home we are not missing the winter storm at all.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree is up and we are in the holiday mode around here, listening to carols on the satellite radio. There will be a potluck here for Christmas dinner that we may attend or maybe not.

Since we got here we have not done much of anything except go to the store, and it is sure relaxing, Gorgie continues to devour books I've told her to slow down or she'll run out of reading material. I'm not as fast as she is.

More Later,

Rich

 

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Rain in the Desert

 

 

Yesterday morning this is what the sunrise looked like. You know that old sailors saying, "Red sky in the morning sailors take warning". Well it worked here, shortly after taking this shot it started to rain not a hard rain but just a drizzle that lasted most of the day. The TV weather watchers were out on the streets and people were saying how the rain made it feel more like Christmas, go figure. There were events canceled because of it, by the way it measured .12 inches. We drove through a storm that dropped 6 inches in a 12 hour window, now that's some rain. By the way they have had a grand total of 1.94 inches for the whole calendar year. There is a line of snow on the tops of the mountains.

Anyway we spent the day in, reading and playing games, kind of a Jammie day. We ended up ordering in a pizza so it was a really lazy day. Today we need to go to the store to buy some supplies because we move tomorrow to Desert Hot Springs for three weeks that's a drive of about 27 miles, so we won't even hook up the car. Tonight we are going to Shanghai Reds for lobster bisque, and some awesome seafood.

It has come to our attention that some folks think of us as being on "vacation", we are not. You take a vacation to get away from your everyday lives and WORK, this time of year we travel south to the more shorts and tee shirts type weather. We pretty much keep the same routines we have at the house except we have a much smaller space. So this is as comfortable and as much home to us as we are in Brush Prairie. Oh yeah I can go read my book outside in the sun ;-).

More Later,

Rich

 

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How we spent our winter in Palm Springs

The last couple of days we have spent our time relaxing and reading our books. Gorgie read a book in less than two days, I'm not so fast. We have a wonderful site with more patio area than most so it is comfortable sitting around.

Hot air balloons pass over us almost every morning and evening.

This tree is just across from us, nice in the evening light.

For a change of pace we hired some guys so we could watch them wash and wax our motor home.

 

Gorgie has her parade chair set up.

 

They did a great job too.

 

The sunsets are sure nice around here.

That's what we have been up to the last few days, oh by the way Gorgie went to an exercise class and was persuaded to take a pickleball lesson. On her first serve she pulled a muscle in her butt and is now sore, she needs to stop playing with these senior citizens they are too hard on her.

More Later,

Rich

 

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We have Arrived

After five days of driving through rain we are in the land of sunshine. Indian Waters has always been a favorite of ours, and the new owners have made a lot of needed repairs and improvements.

When we arrived yesterday it was 84.4 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. This morning I watched the sun come up in another cloudless sky, there were even a couple of hot air balloons in the neighborhood.

This morning we had our fresh juice on the patio.

I can't remember the last time I could do that. We are going to be here in Indio for a week then move to Desert Hot Springs a trip of only 26 miles. We will be there for three weeks, through the holidays.

This is the view out our front window.

Do you see any clouds?

 

Hard at relaxing.

Today it a much more reasonable 78 ;~).

More Later,

Rich

 

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Orange Grove RV in Bakersfield, CA

After two days of driving through rain, downpours at times we have arrived at Orange Grove RV Park. Other than the rain it was pretty much uneventful. This is a regular stop for us and we are staying for two nights so we can go to the store and relax a little.

This park is called Orange Grove because it is actually in an orange grove and we are welcome to pick the fruit.

So pick we did.

They smell soooo good even before picking.

 

Freshly picked

 

And oh-so sweet.

We plan on being at Indian Waters RV in Indio, CA on Friday we'll there until the 15th then we more a whole 26 miles to Desert Pools inDesert Hot Spring for three weeks.

More Later,

Rich

 

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Corning, CA

We made it over the pass with no problems. It was probably a good idea to wait that extra day. There were plenty of road lane closures and crews were cleaning up some of the messes. The only place we ran into any wind was in the Mt. Shasta area and that wasn't too bad. Our plan was to stop in Redding for the night, but the drive was going well so we pressed on to Corning and are at the Rolling Hills Casino (do you see a pattern here?). Anyway we went over for the buffet and called it an early night.

A very wet morning in Corning, CA

The plan for today is to drive to Kit Fox RV in Patterson for the night. It's raining pretty hard right now and the forecast calls for rain all day, that could make traffic in Sacramento challenging. Good thing it's only about a three hour drive.

We are excited to be headed to warmer, drier, sunnier weather the forecast for Palm Springs calls for 80 degrees and lots of sun.

More Later,

Rich

 

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Waiting in Canyonville

We had a pleasant drive yesterday south to the Seven Feathers RV Resort. But boy did it ever storm last night. All the streets were flooded with the downpour. So we decided to wait until Monday to go over the pass. Today's weather calls for more rain on the south side of the pass with winds in the 25-35 mph range, not a good combination for us, although we have watched several rigs pull out this morning. Don't know if they are all going south or not. We have until next Sunday to get to our first planned stay in Indio, CA.

Some habits return quickly though, Gorgie seems to have settled into her normal routine very nicely thank you. I think there is a Sunday Brunch in our immediate future, so I'll need to hit the shower soon.

More Later,

Rich

 

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