Lary went to the pool and swam and soaked in the warm sunshine, I caught up on emails, and vegged.
Then after noon we went over to check out some more parks, trailers, mobile/manufactured home parks. Found another nice one called Almar Acres on Dillon Road, just around the corner from us here. The positive thing about it is that the monthly costs are low, there is no pad rental, and you are an owner of the wee plot of land and your trailer. There is an owners group.
The roads inside the park are paved but they aren't wide, and neither are the lots, however the people are very friendly, and the place is immaculate. You can't stay there more than 9 months in a year, but of course we can't- and wouldn't anyway. Not a problem for us.
Tomorrow we'll go and view another unit, we saw 2 today, neither one did it for us. They told us that their contingency reserve is in great shape, which is very reassuring, too. The rec facilities are just gorgeous, also immaculate and very well maintained, spotless.
Lots of happy folks in the thermally heated pool. And 2 hot tubs. Three main streets, across the road from it is Quail Valley where we know many folks are very happy. Almar Acres has had 9 units bought this year so far. They seem very popular, the lady who does a lot of rentals in there showed us around, she's very pleasant. She owns 2 units herself, she just got a new park model brought in, so she rents the previous one out.
We also checked out a nice mobile home park on a golf course, called Hidden Springs Country Club, the same one that our Nelson friends had looked into last year.
Though the older mobile homes are very nice and roomy, some of them double wides, their monthly pad rent seems to be about $550, which is a terrific amount of money to shell out every month of the year. Interestingly the cost of the homes is less than the small ones we saw at Almar Acres. Hmmmm. Tempting.
The development is behind Sands RV park down here, and is very pretty as it encloses a lake and wraps around a small 9 hole golf course. But common sense has to prevail in our case, tempting though it may seem. We would have both monthly dues at our townhouse at home and down here to pay, a killer for us.
The bummer to pass up is that most of the units look out onto the golf course, and some of them look at the lake, it's much more spread out, and takes up about a geographical block of land, with some lovely views of the Palm Springs and Coachella Valley area.
It's interesting, this area is very popular for snowbird people from all over the States and western Canada, and of course that keeps the prices quite high considering the economic climate in the US at the moment. But there are always people moving out, on, and leaving the complexes. They leave either 'vertically' or 'horizontally', life moves along.
Most of the units in Almar Acres are older and very small, though if you wish you can replace an older unit with a newer one. Likely we would start out in an older unit, then maybe upgrade at a later date. The views are more glimpses than views actually, but there always seems to be a place to sit outside at least. And we wouldn't have to keep packing up and moving on as we do in these RV parks now, unless we leased a lot for the season somewhere, or rented a small park model home for the season, to try out a park.
Had dinner at the upper clubhouse, hamburgers. Yum. And now watching the Emmys on TV.
High octane energy.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunny today-went to Southwest Arts Festival
Nice sunny day here, not that warm but no complaints. We went to the Arts Festival over in Indio at the Polo Grounds, it was superb, artists from all over the States, jewelry, tons of visual artists, a flute maker, a flute player, potters, glass blowers, weavers of clothing and also carpets this year, different fabric arts, it was such beautiful high class art, and some folks were buying.
Don't ask any more about my flute collection, it might have expanded once again. Better buys down here than at home, most flute makers live in the US, and you have to pay duty to import them into Canada, I believe. This new one isn't in 2 parts, like most of my others, it is bored out, and is very pretty, and quite different, key of F sharp. The maker is called Native Echo, from Apple Valley in Utah.
He explained that he's making some changes in the body shape of the flute, and the fetish or block on the top is aligned perfectly by the shape of the flute. It can't shift out of place like some of the others can.
Anyway, I also got a very nice pair of dochroic glass earrings, we drank lemonade, and walked all around the grassy area, surrounded by the most gorgeous art everywhere. And I bought a CD from a nice flute player fellow, he's part American part German, and was a super musician.
We would surely have loved to buy one of everything. But we couldn't, though we really enjoyed ourselves, and managed to see nearly everything before the sun went down, and it really cooled off quickly as it does down here in winter.
Raced back to the campsite in time to go to the clubhouse for dinner, they served swiss steak and it was yummy.
Did a laundry later, and talked to a nice couple from Parksville. They had just bought a small park model over in Quail Valley, a park near us here. Small world, indeed.
Don't ask any more about my flute collection, it might have expanded once again. Better buys down here than at home, most flute makers live in the US, and you have to pay duty to import them into Canada, I believe. This new one isn't in 2 parts, like most of my others, it is bored out, and is very pretty, and quite different, key of F sharp. The maker is called Native Echo, from Apple Valley in Utah.
He explained that he's making some changes in the body shape of the flute, and the fetish or block on the top is aligned perfectly by the shape of the flute. It can't shift out of place like some of the others can.
Anyway, I also got a very nice pair of dochroic glass earrings, we drank lemonade, and walked all around the grassy area, surrounded by the most gorgeous art everywhere. And I bought a CD from a nice flute player fellow, he's part American part German, and was a super musician.
We would surely have loved to buy one of everything. But we couldn't, though we really enjoyed ourselves, and managed to see nearly everything before the sun went down, and it really cooled off quickly as it does down here in winter.
Raced back to the campsite in time to go to the clubhouse for dinner, they served swiss steak and it was yummy.
Did a laundry later, and talked to a nice couple from Parksville. They had just bought a small park model over in Quail Valley, a park near us here. Small world, indeed.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Cloudy overcast today in Desert Hot Springs
Well we had a good trip to Laughlin, Nevada, a very small version of Las Vegas. It's kind of out in the middle of nowhere, except for the 7000 people who live there. Very deserty, right on the banks of the Colorado River. We took Highway 40 to get there, and went out the back of Desert Hot Springs, through 29 Palms where we stopped both ways for a break.
We stayed at Edgewater Casino, and there was an outlet mall across the street, where we managed to do some damage. It was a 2 night stay, organized by our RV park.
Went along to Avi casino, quite a few miles down the road. There was a shuttle that we took, and there was a jewellry show there, both in a tent right beside Avi, and in the nearby casino. I got some nice things from one of the merchants there, so want to make them up.
The casinos didn't seem to be paying out large wins to anybody, but we managed to entertain ourselves by putting in a few dollars each, and playing the penny slots. One day Di got back her contributions, but the other day, not. Lary wasn't confessing, so I guess he didn't get much either.
Back home here in Desert Hot Springs we are starting to think about buying a mobile home or something, so we don't have to move in and out of the park. We visited Corkill Palms near us here on Corkill Road, but the mobiles there were mostly quite old, though in good shape. None of them "spoke to us" which was disappointing. We need to check out a few more parks, though that one looks very well managed and stable, with bigger lots. We checked out Quail Valley but their lots seem very small to us. Corkill Palms has wide paved lots, and quite a few folks live there all year round, not sure about Quail Valley. Some folks we met on the bus trip live in Vista Grand and say it's very nice. We'll check them out.
We stayed at Edgewater Casino, and there was an outlet mall across the street, where we managed to do some damage. It was a 2 night stay, organized by our RV park.
Went along to Avi casino, quite a few miles down the road. There was a shuttle that we took, and there was a jewellry show there, both in a tent right beside Avi, and in the nearby casino. I got some nice things from one of the merchants there, so want to make them up.
The casinos didn't seem to be paying out large wins to anybody, but we managed to entertain ourselves by putting in a few dollars each, and playing the penny slots. One day Di got back her contributions, but the other day, not. Lary wasn't confessing, so I guess he didn't get much either.
Back home here in Desert Hot Springs we are starting to think about buying a mobile home or something, so we don't have to move in and out of the park. We visited Corkill Palms near us here on Corkill Road, but the mobiles there were mostly quite old, though in good shape. None of them "spoke to us" which was disappointing. We need to check out a few more parks, though that one looks very well managed and stable, with bigger lots. We checked out Quail Valley but their lots seem very small to us. Corkill Palms has wide paved lots, and quite a few folks live there all year round, not sure about Quail Valley. Some folks we met on the bus trip live in Vista Grand and say it's very nice. We'll check them out.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
2 night trip to Laughlin tomorrow
This weekend we went to the circus called Quartzsite, AZ, and it took 2 hours to drive there, and then we joined the huge traffic jam, and drove around for a whole hour looking for parking.
We should have gone straight to a lot we eventually used, it is really amusing to visit Quartzsite at the height of travel season, and find a sea of RVers and others, all visiting to cruise the swap meet booths and this past weekend it was the end of the RV show. As usual there are folks all over everywhere, dry camping out on the desert. It's quite cold at nights though, they must use up a lot of propane heating themselves up.
We attended the trade area under the big tent, and walked around, picking up a few things handy for the RV. And I confess, I bought a new baby flute, it's called a pocket flute, and is in the Key of A. Also bought a nice CD with flute music. The flute is a High Spirit flute, and indeed it can fit in a pocket, or a purse. Certainly a backpack. My flute family is growing.
I bought some all purpose cleaner, that's pretty much all we got besides the flute. But we had fun, and then came home, another 2 hour trip, just to say we have been there once again this year.
Today Sunday Lary visited the pool though he didn't swim, he suntanned. The lower pool is walled, so warmish when the wind blows, at the moment the wind has chilly "teeth" as it's blowing over the snowy peaks of the San Jacinto mountains, behind Palm Springs, they are currently covered with snow, so the air is cool. After sunset the temps drop like a rocket, last night the news program said the overnight temp was to be 38 degrees. Brrrr.
This afternoon we went to the Ice Cream social, and then had the hamburgers up at the clubhouse.
Tomorrow the bus leaves the campground for Laughlin at 8:00 AM sharp, and will arrive there at 12:30 noon or so. We'll be there 2 nights at the Edgewater Hotel. It has 26 storeys so hopefully it's a nice one. We are with the campsite travel club, the same one that will take us to Costa Rica in March.
Bye.
We should have gone straight to a lot we eventually used, it is really amusing to visit Quartzsite at the height of travel season, and find a sea of RVers and others, all visiting to cruise the swap meet booths and this past weekend it was the end of the RV show. As usual there are folks all over everywhere, dry camping out on the desert. It's quite cold at nights though, they must use up a lot of propane heating themselves up.
We attended the trade area under the big tent, and walked around, picking up a few things handy for the RV. And I confess, I bought a new baby flute, it's called a pocket flute, and is in the Key of A. Also bought a nice CD with flute music. The flute is a High Spirit flute, and indeed it can fit in a pocket, or a purse. Certainly a backpack. My flute family is growing.
I bought some all purpose cleaner, that's pretty much all we got besides the flute. But we had fun, and then came home, another 2 hour trip, just to say we have been there once again this year.
Today Sunday Lary visited the pool though he didn't swim, he suntanned. The lower pool is walled, so warmish when the wind blows, at the moment the wind has chilly "teeth" as it's blowing over the snowy peaks of the San Jacinto mountains, behind Palm Springs, they are currently covered with snow, so the air is cool. After sunset the temps drop like a rocket, last night the news program said the overnight temp was to be 38 degrees. Brrrr.
This afternoon we went to the Ice Cream social, and then had the hamburgers up at the clubhouse.
Tomorrow the bus leaves the campground for Laughlin at 8:00 AM sharp, and will arrive there at 12:30 noon or so. We'll be there 2 nights at the Edgewater Hotel. It has 26 storeys so hopefully it's a nice one. We are with the campsite travel club, the same one that will take us to Costa Rica in March.
Bye.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wow, Rain Rain and more Rain
Well, my flight back down here was one from hell kind of, I got up at 4 AM and got to the airport before the Westjet checkin desks were even open. When they arrived I checked in and went through security. No problems, but they were very slow at processing people. I didn't get frisked, and was on my way to the waiting area, for about 2 hours or so.
Flight left more than 1/2 an hour late, and when we got to Palm Springs it was stormy and rough, we circled in the plane for a while, and then they had to divert to San Diego and land there. There were lots of planes landing, so we couldn't get into the airport itself, we were put in a kind of operations building, 2 planes full, with very small washrooms.
Westjet was grand, bringing in water, potato chips and macadamia nuts for all, and laying on 4 buses to transport everyone to Palm Springs, a trip of 2.5 hours. We loaded into the buses and then waited about another hour before leaving, long story short- I got to Palm Springs airport at 6:30 PM, instead of my landing time of 11:15 AM. Luckily for me Lary was there to greet me.
We went out to dinner.
Wednesday was dreadful weather, with tons of rain, and roads affected all over the valley, but I went out and got some groceries, and we got the trailer back from the repair place, with some of the work finished, but not all. Also somebody had tried to break in while they had it, and we had to pay for the replacement locks, but they are better quality, so that's good.
We had some electrical trouble and they didn't fix that, which is strange. But they attached the gasket around the big slide, which we had torn off partially, so that's great.
They have applied to the manufacturer to fix the floor, but haven't got the authorization as yet.
They seem to think that they may be lag bolts coming up through the flooring. Now we have 2 holes in our kitchen lino.
Oh well.
Thursday was also awful weather, we stayed in the trailer, and had dinner in the clubhouse. Tomorrow may be more rain, but it's supposed to be better by the weekend.
Bob Hope golf tournament has had rain delays, naturally. And there is a lot of water damage everywhere, and road closures everywhere throughout the Coachella Valley.
The park isn't water damaged very much that we can see, we are on a slope down to the gate, so that might be helpful in this case.
That's about it for now.
Flight left more than 1/2 an hour late, and when we got to Palm Springs it was stormy and rough, we circled in the plane for a while, and then they had to divert to San Diego and land there. There were lots of planes landing, so we couldn't get into the airport itself, we were put in a kind of operations building, 2 planes full, with very small washrooms.
Westjet was grand, bringing in water, potato chips and macadamia nuts for all, and laying on 4 buses to transport everyone to Palm Springs, a trip of 2.5 hours. We loaded into the buses and then waited about another hour before leaving, long story short- I got to Palm Springs airport at 6:30 PM, instead of my landing time of 11:15 AM. Luckily for me Lary was there to greet me.
We went out to dinner.
Wednesday was dreadful weather, with tons of rain, and roads affected all over the valley, but I went out and got some groceries, and we got the trailer back from the repair place, with some of the work finished, but not all. Also somebody had tried to break in while they had it, and we had to pay for the replacement locks, but they are better quality, so that's good.
We had some electrical trouble and they didn't fix that, which is strange. But they attached the gasket around the big slide, which we had torn off partially, so that's great.
They have applied to the manufacturer to fix the floor, but haven't got the authorization as yet.
They seem to think that they may be lag bolts coming up through the flooring. Now we have 2 holes in our kitchen lino.
Oh well.
Thursday was also awful weather, we stayed in the trailer, and had dinner in the clubhouse. Tomorrow may be more rain, but it's supposed to be better by the weekend.
Bob Hope golf tournament has had rain delays, naturally. And there is a lot of water damage everywhere, and road closures everywhere throughout the Coachella Valley.
The park isn't water damaged very much that we can see, we are on a slope down to the gate, so that might be helpful in this case.
That's about it for now.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
A Hot Suuny Sunday in Indio
I should be outside working, getting the trailer ready to move tomorrow morning but the temp is approaching 80F with not a cloud in site. I'll wait for a bit to pack up.
Friday night I went to the club house to see a young lady singer, Sarah Getto. She has been blind since birth and taught herself to play piano and fiddle. Lovely voice and quite a good entertainer as well. Saturday I went to the Street Fair at College of the Desert. I hadn't planned on going but another errand took me just a block away so decided to go. Got some new bungy cords and spent an hour or so just wandering around. Saturday evening was another entertainer at the club house, The Casual Cowboy. He seems to be getting pretty close to his best before date but it was still an hour and a half out of the trailer.
Got up early thus morning and did a laundry. Another lady came in about 7:15 and took the other two washers and at 7:30 a couple arrived and complained that they wanted to use all four machines at the same time even though the sign cleary states only two machines at a time. They seemed to blame us because we got up early and got the machines before them. Some people!!
For those familiar with this area, the highways dept has just granted contracts to expand the interchanges at I 10 and Gene Autry and I 10 and Ramon/Bob Hope. Work to start in February this year and carry on for two years. We regularly use both those interchanges so we will be dealing with some pretty gross traffic problems for a while.
That's about all for now. TTFN
Friday night I went to the club house to see a young lady singer, Sarah Getto. She has been blind since birth and taught herself to play piano and fiddle. Lovely voice and quite a good entertainer as well. Saturday I went to the Street Fair at College of the Desert. I hadn't planned on going but another errand took me just a block away so decided to go. Got some new bungy cords and spent an hour or so just wandering around. Saturday evening was another entertainer at the club house, The Casual Cowboy. He seems to be getting pretty close to his best before date but it was still an hour and a half out of the trailer.
Got up early thus morning and did a laundry. Another lady came in about 7:15 and took the other two washers and at 7:30 a couple arrived and complained that they wanted to use all four machines at the same time even though the sign cleary states only two machines at a time. They seemed to blame us because we got up early and got the machines before them. Some people!!
For those familiar with this area, the highways dept has just granted contracts to expand the interchanges at I 10 and Gene Autry and I 10 and Ramon/Bob Hope. Work to start in February this year and carry on for two years. We regularly use both those interchanges so we will be dealing with some pretty gross traffic problems for a while.
That's about all for now. TTFN
Friday, January 8, 2010
Lary is Batching it in Indio
Got Di on WestJet yesterday morning and she is now safely back in Nanaimo to help sister Sue celebrate her upcoming 60th birthday. Happy Birthday Sue.
After Di left yesterday I went to see the IMAX format Lewis and Clark film. Very interesting as we had spent some time last summer on the L&C trail in Montana and I had recently read a book about the Indian girl they took with them to act as translator, Sacagewaya. The film was only 45 minutes long but worth it.
Finally found out why we couldn't get WiFi in the park: the office gave me the wrong password. All seems to be fine now.
Moving Monday to a park model at Catalina Spa while the trailer goes in for some warranty work. TTFN
After Di left yesterday I went to see the IMAX format Lewis and Clark film. Very interesting as we had spent some time last summer on the L&C trail in Montana and I had recently read a book about the Indian girl they took with them to act as translator, Sacagewaya. The film was only 45 minutes long but worth it.
Finally found out why we couldn't get WiFi in the park: the office gave me the wrong password. All seems to be fine now.
Moving Monday to a park model at Catalina Spa while the trailer goes in for some warranty work. TTFN
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
No internet at Indian Waters park, Indio
Quite frustrating to pay for internet and not have it, but that's the case at the park where we are staying.
Di is coming home Jan. 7th til Jan 18th and will be staying in our own house together with the housesitter, Tara and her cat Pearl.
Talk to you all then hopefully.
Lary will take the trailer in for some warranty work on the kitchen floor while I am away, and he'll be staying in the park model rental trailers over at Catalina spa Resort in Desert Hot Springs.
Once the trailer is repaired, he'll be back at Catalina Spa Resort once again.
That's about all our news for now. We're both well, though Di is not looking forward to flying through the current aviation fiasco.
The weather has turned very nice here again, into the low 70s during the day and 40s overnight.
TTYS, I hope to be blogging from home on cable. What a relief.
Di is coming home Jan. 7th til Jan 18th and will be staying in our own house together with the housesitter, Tara and her cat Pearl.
Talk to you all then hopefully.
Lary will take the trailer in for some warranty work on the kitchen floor while I am away, and he'll be staying in the park model rental trailers over at Catalina spa Resort in Desert Hot Springs.
Once the trailer is repaired, he'll be back at Catalina Spa Resort once again.
That's about all our news for now. We're both well, though Di is not looking forward to flying through the current aviation fiasco.
The weather has turned very nice here again, into the low 70s during the day and 40s overnight.
TTYS, I hope to be blogging from home on cable. What a relief.
Friday, January 1, 2010
New Year's Eve at Indian Waters
Just a couple of words about that.
Dinner was delicious, chicken cordon bleu, veggies and green salad, ice cream for dessert.
Then we returned for the dance, the music which was supposed to be so great was unbearable, loud, so loud that you couldn't even tell what was being played, it seemed distorted. We sat with 3 other couples, but they gradually faded away so that it was one other couple and us, and some time after 10 PM and toasting New Years in Chicago we too drifted out the door.
Not sure if it was the hall, or the bass volume on the amps, or the people struggling to be heard over the "music" or what, but it was kind of a bust. We didn't dance til well into the first hour, the music just wasn't good to dance to, and then it was nearly impossible to hear what was being played, by the DJ and his assistant, so finally we returned to our trailer, and watched replays of New York city's New year celebrations, after watching the local news.
The locals outside the park seemed to be in fine form with their celebrating, for we could hear them all loud and clear, it was a Blue Moon, the second full moon in a month, and was nearly light outside when we walked home to the trailer from the clubhouse.
Happy New year friends. The very best to you in 2010.
Dinner was delicious, chicken cordon bleu, veggies and green salad, ice cream for dessert.
Then we returned for the dance, the music which was supposed to be so great was unbearable, loud, so loud that you couldn't even tell what was being played, it seemed distorted. We sat with 3 other couples, but they gradually faded away so that it was one other couple and us, and some time after 10 PM and toasting New Years in Chicago we too drifted out the door.
Not sure if it was the hall, or the bass volume on the amps, or the people struggling to be heard over the "music" or what, but it was kind of a bust. We didn't dance til well into the first hour, the music just wasn't good to dance to, and then it was nearly impossible to hear what was being played, by the DJ and his assistant, so finally we returned to our trailer, and watched replays of New York city's New year celebrations, after watching the local news.
The locals outside the park seemed to be in fine form with their celebrating, for we could hear them all loud and clear, it was a Blue Moon, the second full moon in a month, and was nearly light outside when we walked home to the trailer from the clubhouse.
Happy New year friends. The very best to you in 2010.
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