Fun Time Before Heading Home!

First of all, let me apologize for the formatting of this blog entry. Although it is composed to look the way I want it to, it seems to take on a mind of its own once I hit the "Publish" button and doesn't look anything like how I want it. Once again, my technological skills are tried and found wanting.

In a great ending to our winter trip, Andy, Jenelle and their three kids came down to Disneyland to spend a few days. Since the Golden Village Palms is only about an hour and a half away from Disneyland, we decided to join them. To put the icing on the cake, we flew Kristen down to spend a few days with us at "Retirement Camp" and brought her to Disneyland for her birthday (since she got in free in a Disneyland promotion). Anna, Maddie, and Brandon had a great time with Auntie Kristen there to go on the scary rides with them. We think that Andy also had a good time having his little sis to ride with him on the really scary stuff. Everyone had a really fun time at Mickey's home. The only thing missing that would have completed the picture would have been to have Ryan, Kandi, and their family with us.

Kristen stayed with us in the motor home which definitely brought the family closer together -- if you catch the drift. Three adults in an 8' by 30' box definitely tested the capacity limits. We got her to participate in a number of our usual events - volleyball, pool volleyball, etc. She even started to get the hang of happy hours -- almost as though she knew what to do instinctively. We think she enjoyed her brief stay with us, in spite of the sunburn she got in the first two days.

No sooner was the Disneyland trip over, then it was time to take Kristen to the airport and get everything packed away for the journey back home. We managed to squeeze in one last happy hour with new friends John and Lynda Brooks (on the left), and Gerald and Bev Fernquist (on the right) from Calgary, Alberta. They are both delightful couples and we had a great time

sharing RV stories with them. After leaving Hemet, they were heading toward the Oregon coast so we were pleased to be able to tell them about several of our favorite local spots.

It was with a great deal of reluctance that we, together with Joyce and Jim, left the Golden Village Palms. Once we hit the road, we were truly blessed with nothing but good weather all the way home. There were some winds to contend with along the way but, all in all, it was great traveling. We tried a few new stops on the return trip including a stay at a new park in Bakersfield. No, we haven't given up on the Orange Grove park, but the oranges were all gone at this time of year. We stayed for a night at A Country RV Park and were impressed. It was as nice as Orange Grove and a bit cheaper.

On our way to the next stop at Flag City in Stockton, we encountered a bit of difficulty. After stopping for lunch at a roadside rest area, someone apparently pulled out the cotter pin that holds our tow hitch bar to the motorhome. We have since learned that some people get their kicks this way, although someone could easily get killed from such an incident. We feel pretty confident that someone pulled the pin intentionally as Tim usually has to hammer it into place when we attach car to motorhome.

In any event, shortly after leaving the rest area, we felt a lurch and Tim could see in our TV screen that the car was no longer in its normal towing position five feet behind the motorhome, but was now pressing against the motorhome bumper. We were extremely fortunate that the tow bar stayed attached by our safety cables. The tow bar went under the motorhome and Tim was able to get everything slowed down and off to the side of the road. After surveying the damage, we were able to continue by having Diane drive the car to the next destination. After examining the tow bar, we decided that we must have left quite a gouge in I-5 before we got stopped. Do you think anyone will notice?

In Stockton we were able to get the car connected again so Diane didn't have to continue to drive it. We just couldn't disconnect it until we got home. We headed back up the highway and stayed at a very nice place in Red Bluff that Joyce and Jim had seen on the way down. It was called the Durango RV Resort and was a wonderful spot. It had only been open since August of 2008 and had a ton of amenities including an automated dog wash. What fun! Samson decided he didn't want to try it since he wasn't due for another bath yet.

We stayed at Red Bluff for two nights then headed up to our Seven Feathers stop in Canyonville. We enjoyed a nice dinner and a good night's rest. Joyce and Jim headed all the way home from here, but we elected to stop at the Premier RV Park in Salem to see the other grandkids on the way home. Ryan and Kandi took us to pick up the Micah and Amelia at their pre-school and hadn't told them we were coming. It was a grandmother's dream moment to see how excited they were to see us.

Well, that is about it for this year's adventure. Thanks for coming along on the trip with us. We've enjoyed your visits, telephone calls, emails, etc. We appreciate your interest and, although it is always fun to travel, we really do miss family, friends and home.

Time With Friends is Time Well Spent!

Roseville, CA RV friends, Dave and Barb Schwartz arrived with their Sun City Roseville RV Club. They have been traveling around to various RV parks in the Southern California area. One of their stops was here at the Golden Village Palms. We were fortunate that Dave and Barb extended their stay here when the rest of the club left and so we got to enjoy their company for an additional week. Dave is extremely competitive at the game of Pegs and Jokers and loves to teach new players. We think it is just so he can beat them soundly. It is a game for two to eight players and can be played as teams. Dave didn't know that Diane and Tim had been secretly practicing with Mike and Judy before they left. We spent several days playing P&J either outdoors in the warm sunshine, or in the clubhouse on a recent wet afternoon. We had the closest games ever in an afternoon session with Joyce & Jim, Barb & Dave, and us. It took three heavily contested matches before the guys could claim solid victory. Now we just HAVE to get one of the game boards.

Our Salem RV friends, Ron and Sandy Mountain with their dog Toby, arrived after a rather rough trip over the Siskiyous. They were on their way to Las Vegas for a basketball tournament and had to forge ahead in spite of the weather. They still don't know how much fun travel can be when there is no deadline to meet to be somewhere. They have a beautiful Winnebago Voyage and are still doing shakedown cruises. Every time they go out they seem to learn something new about their rig. Ron had to fly home to work (what's that?) for a few days then returned in time for the good weather.

Gresham friends, Gary and Sunny Stautz, in a shameless attempt to be included in our blog scheduled a trip to stay at the Worldmark Resort in Indio, CA for a week. While there, they rented a car to come over to Hemet to have their picture taken. Just kidding, just kidding. We were delighted to see them and have them visit our winter home. After a tour of the facilities here, we enjoyed a wonderful day at the Echo Hills Golf Course. Gary and Sunny stayed through our Happy Hour festivities before heading back to Indio.

It's March Already!

Okay, no more waiting for a rainy day to update the blog. Sorry that we are so far behind.

Here is a shot of Tim (in the white hat) enjoying his favorite activity here at Golden Village Palms. The game is played for two hours every day, rain or shine, although cold winds can deter a few people. On many days there are enough players to fill both volleyball pools (48 players), but on questionable weather days there may be as few as six to a side. It is a fun game here as there is no score kept and the whole object of the game is to keep the ball in the air while laughing the whole time.

We greeted the arrival of another member of the Wersch clan. Cousin Bill and wife Mary Ann arrived in their Dutch Star motorhome. True to form, Bill managed to squeeze his 38 foot rig into one of the smallest spaces in the whole park. He is well known for getting into tight spots.

Mary Ann is newly retired and still feels like she is just on vacation. Bill has been retired for over two years and has been chomping at the bit to be able to get out on the road.

Leaving their rig parked here, Bill and Mary Ann left recently for a two day trip to visit Death Valley. They were very impressed with the scenery although their overnight accommodations were nowhere near as nice as their motorhome.

Joyce and Jim and Diane and Tim took a Sunday afternoon to load up our bikes and head to Diamond Valley Lake. There is a 21 mile loop trail that goes around the manmade lake. Being the avid bike riding types that we are, we managed to make it for three miles before turning around for the return trip. The consensus was that we would love to be able to make the full ride around, but our bottoms need a lot more training time in the seat. Maybe next year. The scenery was gorgeous and the temperature was just right. The warning signs were a little on the frightening side advising us to be on the lookout for rattlesnakes or mountain lions. We had a great time anyway.

We celebrated Jim's birthday with a traditional happy hour followed by a nice dinner out at the Mimi's Cafe here in Hemet. Here he is reading some of his cards.

Joyce, Diane, and Bill got a chance to meet up with another cousin, Virginia (Piltz) Smith who has a park model home in nearby San Jacinto. Virginia is a real hoot and certainly travels a lot for someone of her age, 78. She had several stories and all of the cousins gained more knowledge about their heritage as stories from days of old were exchanged. Virginia and her sister were planning to audition for the Wheel of Fortune game show which was intriguing to Tim.

The auditions were being held at the nearby Morongo Casino. Diane was willing to go along for the ride but didn't want any part of trying to become a contestant. When we arrived, Diane risked a night in jail (long story) to snap a few pictures of Tim in front of the Wheelmobile. After trying to find the start of an apparently neverending line, Tim gave up his quest to be the perfect contestant and simply switched over to playing a slot machine with Diane on the machine beside him. We both played for over 45 minutes on our first $20 bills. When we ultimately cashed out, we came back with $240 more than we started with. Guess that makes us big winners on Wheel of Fortune after all.

Regrettably we said good-bye to our neighbors Mike and Judy as they started their trek home to Federal Way, WA a week earlier than expected. We can't thank them enough for their help in keeping our coach repaired and for the great hair coloring job that Judy did for Diane. We are just hopeful that we can make it back home without something major happening that Mike won't be here to fix.

Well, today is turning out to be a great day for pool sitting so we will close for now. See you soon!

Friends and Fun!

We are catching a lot of flak for not posting a blog entry since February 3 because we have been keeping busy. Since we are now in the middle of a driving rainstorm that puts Oregon rainstorms to shame, we now have time to get you caught up on what has been happening here. Up until now we have had excellent weather. You may have heard that southern California has been in the throes of a powerful winter storm. Enormous amounts of snow have been piling up in the mountains. The Grapevine section of I-5 south of Bakersfield was closed last night and is still closed to the best of our knowledge. Here in Hemet we have been affected by wind and heavy rain, but no snow.

Our very good friends from Gresham, Greg & Rita Painter, passed through Hemet on their way home after spending 10 days in Mexico. We had a good time catching up with them and hearing about their travels. We got in a quick round of golf that ended with the beginning of a rain storm just as we all teed off on the 9th hole. We gave them a tour of the Golden Village Palms facility, and are trying to talk them into coming to Hemet for a week or so next year They left on Friday to head up to Berkeley, CA to spend the weekend with their son, Geoff and his wife, Julia.

Tim took a day to drive to Escondido, CA to again meet up with his Navy buddy, Don Spees. Don lives in Santee (close to San Diego) and Escondido seemed like a good halfway spot to meet. Tim brought down his box of Vietnam memorabilia to show Don, and Don brought many photos of his own. Don was Tim's boss when they served together at Nha Be in South Vietnam. Don let Tim borrow a book called "Diary of a Navy Seal" that was written by a Seal that was stationed at Nha Be. The book detailed a lot of the things around the base and town that really brought back a lot of memories. Mostly the good ones, but there were some stories about the shipmates that didn't make it back to their families. Don and Tim commented several times about how fortunate they were to come back home safely.

Diane played in the Golden Village Palms Sand Volleyball tournament and did quite well. Her team won several games. Diane is pleased with the improvement she has made since we first arrived. As you can see from the attached photo, she and her teammate, Anita, seem to be doing all the work while the guys on the team are just standing and watching. Notice the guy standing with his hands on his hips. We assume he was just thinking about the next play and whether the girls would give him a good set. Volleyball starts to wrap up here within the next couple of weeks but Diane is getting in as many games as she can until then.

Since the Canadians in the park are very selfish about allowing the Americans to attend their Canada Day celebration - they even check ID to be certain you have a Canadian driver's license, the Americans celebrated USA Day on Lincoln's birthday. We had a great pot luck dinner followed by an entertainer from inside the park.

Red, white and blue were definitely the prevalent colors for the evening festivities.

We spent Valentine's Day at the Hemet Elks Lodge with a whole group of folks from GVP. The dinner was Cornish Game Hen that was well prepared. We had a great time dancing and visiting with friends from around the park.

Well, that's it for now. We are hoping that the rains will cease fairly soon and we can resume all of our activities in the sun. Take care and let us hear from you.

More Trip Highlights!

Did you catch the pun in the title? Here Diane and Joyce are celebrating the successful highlighting of Joyce's hair. Although there was quite a temptation on Diane's part to get even with Joyce for all those younger years when Joyce resentfully had to help Diane with her hair before going to school, she resisted the devil sitting on her shoulder. Maybe it is because she remembered that Joyce would be helping her with her hair sometime in the near future. Tim and Jim got out of Dodge City and headed for the nearest golf course while the girls got to spend some sisterly bonding time.

Another highlight of this trip though, was when Tim and Diane got to go to a Las Vegas style show starring Terry Fator. For those of you who aren't fans of reality shows, Terry Fator was the 2007 winner of the "America's Got Talent" tv show. He is a singing ventriloquist that does amazing impersonations of many singers using his puppets, of which there are many. How he can achieve the song volumes that he does without opening his mouth is beyond us.

He was turned down three times by Las Vegas show clubs that told him his act wasn't good enough. Now he recently signed a 5 year, $100 million contract and has his own showroom at The Mirage. We had planned to go to Las Vegas to see him, but were pleasantly surprised to find out he was doing a show at a local casino before heading to his new gig in LV. The show was phenomenal and we spent the whole 90 minutes laughing uproariously. If you ever get the chance to go and see him, it would be well worth the price of admission.

Tim's brother, John, and his wife, Bear, came for a visit on Super Bowl Sunday. Regrettably, we forgot to get a picture of them on John's Honda Gold Wing motorcycle. It had almost more gadgets than our home on wheels. For comfort it looks like it isn't missing much. I think if you push the right button, it will probably make a sandwich for you.

We enjoyed watching the Super Bowl game with Joyce and Jim and were rooting for the underdog Arizona Cardinals all the way to the bitter end.

The morning after the Super Bowl, we were awakened at 5:00 a.m. by a kind person that was out walking their dog. Once we roused from our sleepiness, Tim answered the door to be told that water was pouring out from under our coach. Dutifully he got clothes on and went out and turned off the water. The morning light finally showed that the plastic plug at the bottom of our water heater had partially disintegrated and let loose. Of course all the water in the heater had run out and the fresh water was simply running through and out on the ground. We have no idea how long it had been running, but there was a lot of water around the coach.

Fortunately, good neighbor Mike came to the rescue once again, and he had the remains of the old plug dug out in minutes. A quick trip to the Home Depot next door to the park for a replacement plug resulted in the entire repair being completed in less than an hour. Tim sure wishes there was some way to miniaturize Mike and keep him in his toolbox.

We're Pro Shufflers Now!

Golden Village Palms here in Hemet, CA is the home for the California Shuffleboard Association Hall of Fame and is the site of many tournaments for the Southern California teams and chapters. On a recent evening, they welcomed all comers to an introductory session and taught us how to play.

This is NOT the shuffleboard that we used to play on the sidewalks or aboard cruise ships where you pushed the disk as hard as you could and hoped it would stop on a pointer. These shuffleboard "boards" are finely tuned. Before you are allowed to begin play, you must sweep the board, then put down a thin coat of wax. There is actually practice wax or tournament wax. We were using practice wax so the boards wouldn't be too slick. There is a great deal of finesse required when it is your turn to "shoot" your disk.

You barely push the disk with your stick and release it when you think it will clear the "dead zone" and stop without being on a line. It goes flying down the board. The professional players were incredible, being able to stop their disk right where they wanted. Some were able to put English on the disk and have it come in from a side angle. The real professionals have their own sticks adjusted for their height and the amount of pressure they want to exert.

The competition was pretty fierce, even among the beginners. Tim was the only one that was able to finish in the money. It turned out that last place paid $4.00. We had a wonderful, fun time learning and, if it starts to rain here, we will probably try it again.

Diane played today in the 2009 GVP Can-Am Volleyball tournament. She was first scheduled to play on the Canadian team, but, was later recruited by the American team when not enough Americans showed up. The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time and played a lot of volleyball. The Canadians won by a score of 16-6. There is now a move afoot to close the border at Vancouver, BC in the future.

This will give you a small idea of the things there are to do here to stay busy. We found we were missing out on some activities so we had to put the calendar of events on the fridge and highlight the ones in which we wanted to participate. As it turns out, there is a dance here every Saturday night in February. That should keep us busy.

You probably can't read the fine print, but, at the top they list all the things that happen every week. Then, down below are events that are out of the ordinary.

Diane has her collage of all the children and grandchildren on the freezer in the kitchen area, so that we can see them often. The only bad part of being down here for three months, is not seeing the family.

Diane is getting all excited about playing in the CanAm volleyball tournament here at the park. This is the Canadian players versus the American players. This situation does create a dilemna for Diane, since she was born in Manitoba, Canada, but is a US citizen. So she told the organizers that she would play on whatever team needed another player. So, tomorrow (Friday, 1/30) she will be a Canadian volleyball player. There is a total of six teams and only five women on those six teams.

College of the Desert

In previous trips to this area, we have been told that we missed something by not attending the College of the Desert. As it turns out, we weren't supposed to attend for the academics, but for the weekly street fair that takes place on the college campus each weekend. It is best described as a market venue that stretches for three to four square blocks. Tim was amazed to find that he could (if he wanted to) buy a brand-new tuxedo for next to nothing, purchase virtually every golf gadget known to mankind, rent vacation hideaways, or enjoy a different type of hot dog every day for a month and never have the same one twice.





We travelled about an hour to Palm Springs to attend the fair with Joyce and Jim and friend, Judy Dougherty. Mike opted to stay at the park and take care of the animals. His decision may also have had something to do with the fact that the NFL playoffs were on television.




The girls enjoyed doing all of the looking and very little buying although we did come home with a few things. We also found the tile holders we have been looking for to go with our Mexican Train domino set.

We have still been playing golf and volleyball and the weather has been great. However, we did hear the first sounds of raindrops on our roof just before bedtime. It sprinkled on and off throughout this a.m., but nothing serious. Our forecast shows several days of showers over the next few days so we may get several inside projects completed.

Happy Birthday Twinkie Cake!

As Tim officially reached social security age on the day we arrived at Golden Village Palms, Joyce and Jim surprised him with a birthday cake. Instead of a cake, Joyce whipped up a concoction made entirely of 100 calorie packages of Twinkies with a single candle sticking up in the middle. Do you think she is trying to tell him something? We all had a good laugh as the birthday singers (Diane, Joyce, Jim, and Samson)performed their serenade.

Here Joyce and Jim are standing in front of their fifth wheel trailer demonstrating their patriotism and getting ready for next week's inauguration. If you can make it out in the background, Joyce is displaying her Canadian pedigree, eh! We think she is just trying to get on the good side of all the other Canadians here in the park. We are not sure, but we think they outnumber the Americans here. I guess we will find out how many there actually are at the Canada Day celebration here in February.

Welcome Visitors!

We always tell everyone that we love to have visitors. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to hear from friends Steve and Jackie Zapp from Portland. They had been scheduled to go to Palm Springs but we apparently talked them into coming to Hemet instead. They came over to view the park and we got together on Tuesday for 18 holes of golf on a beautiful day. It is always fun to catch up with old friends.

We related earlier about the problem with what were our less than automatic stairs. As you can see from the photo, we were less than attractive from a cosmetic standpoint.

While we were out enjoying ourselves on the golf course with Steve and Jackie, our incredible neighbor, Mike Dougherty, came and completely fixed our stairs, including lubing the motor and tightening all the bolts, while his equally incredible wife, Judy, babysat Samson for the afternoon. Mike is one of those people that can probably repair anything and has already planned to fix the display on our microwave which hasn't worked properly for about two years. Mike and Judy live in Federal Way, WA, but have been coming to this park for about eight years. We met them here last year and we have become good friends. Judy is an accomplished seamstress and creates some awesome quilts.

This is Mike and Judy with their constant companion, Sophie. Even though Sophie looks grumpy in this photo, she is a real sweetheart and she and Samson have become good friends.

Tim and Jim went on Wednesday with the men's golf group. It was highly touted to them as being "a great group of guys that just like to get together to play golf". HA! T & J both felt like fish out of water. The fellows that Tim was playing with were pretty much par golfers and expressed great frustration if they got a bogey on a hole. Tim felt like an anchor on the cart as they were always waiting for him to make his next three shots so they could make their second shot. Although Jim is a better golfer than Tim, he also had the worst round of his life. We think we are just going to play golf on our own from now on.

Today we were visited by some of our Clackamas neighbors, Don and Bev Munro. They live down the street from us at home. When we were preparing to leave town to come to Hemet, Don walked by and asked where we were going. When we told him, he said he and Bev were going to Palm Springs, so we invited them to make the drive to Hemet. They have never been in this part of the country before. We showed them around the park and went to lunch. It seemed funny to think that we never seem to see much of each other at home, but get together to visit all the way down here.

Daytime temps are still in the 80's while nighttime brings incredibly clear skies for viewing the stars with temps going down to the 40's. Great for cool weather sleeping.

California - Here We Come!

A scene like this one from our garage door made the decision to head south a very easy one. After close to fifteen inches of snow and ice, we were glad to see the thaw. Christmas was delayed at our house due to the storm which left us with a reduced amount of time to get ready to go south.

The other picture shows what makes the decision to leave town for three months a difficult one, particularly in grandma's view. The grandkids seem to grow up so quickly.

After an unexpected two inch snowfall on Sunday

night before we left, we were wondering if we
would get started out of town on time. However, by morning all the snow had melted and we departed in our motorhome with Diane's sister, Joyce, and her husband, Jim with their fifth wheel trailer.

We were eager to escape the snow and rain and drove to the Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville for our first night. If you ever get there, don't forget to ask for the "billboard special" in the restaurant. It is an excellent value and a great ribeye steak dinner. It would only cost $7.95 if you could stay out of the casino. It cost us a little more than that.

We suffered our first equipment breakdown when we stopped for gas in Canyonville. As Tim went to exit the coach, the stairs gave a noisy snap when he stepped down and the stairs hit the ground. Needless to say, the automatic steps are no longer automatic. It took several bungee cords to get them into place for travel. Our RV is beginning to look like "cousin Eddie's". Sam is pretty upset as the jump into and out of the coach is too much for him to handle and he has to be lifted in and out.

The trip over Siskiyou Summit was a walk in the park this year. There was snow beside the road from the base of Mt. Ashland to the town of Yreka, but the pavement was dry and the drive was uneventful. We enjoyed a pleasant stay at the Mountain Gate RV Park in Redding, CA, but headed out early the next day.

We continue to follow our policy of just going 200 miles per day, and drove on to the Kit Fox RV Resort in Patterson, CA. This was a nice park (close to a Starbucks for Tim), but it lost a lot of its appeal when we discovered they didn't have cable TV or wi-fi. Bummer! We certainly won't be back there until they fix those situations.

Our next stop was at one of our favorite places - the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, CA. The oranges were ripe and Diane picked our normal dozen to take with us. This is always a fun place to stop, as they encourage you to pick the oranges and even provide the fruit picking pole with basket.

It seems strange this time to head straight down the highway at a 200 miles per day clip with no side trips or things to see. We already said that, on the way home, we are going to take a little more time.

We did arrive at Golden Village Palms at mid-afternoon on Friday to temperatures in the high 70's with more warm weather expected. It feels as though we never left here. Diane went for two hours of sand volleyball first thing Saturday morning while Tim opted for pool volleyball. When tomorrow comes we'll determine who was in the worst physical shape as we try to get out of bed. Samson opted for a good old-fashioned nap in the warm sun. It's good to be back.